It's funny because it's true!

(Source)

On hatred and tolerance. And KrAzY KrIsTiAnZ!

Leonard Pitts wrote a moving Op-ed after the election that was carried by our local paper about how many of the supporters of Proposition 8 in California were black. He opined about the election that

You will recall one of the major storylines of that day was the fact that, in helping make Barack Obama the nation's first black president, African Americans struck a blow against a history that has taught us all too well how it feels to be demeaned and denied. Unfortunately, while they were striking that blow, some black folks chose to demean and deny someone else.

Last week, you see, California voters passed an initiative denying recognition to same-sex marriages. This overturned an earlier ruling from the state Supreme Court legalizing those unions. The vote was hardly a surprise; surely there is nothing in politics easier than to rouse a majority of voters against the ''threat'' of gay people being treated like people.

I thought it was a great editorial, and was somewhat surprised to see a counter-editorial pop up the next week. Thomas Martin, who apparently holds the prized O.K. Bouwsma Chair of Philosophy at the prestigious University of Nebraska at Kearney (too much sarcasm?), got it all wrong. He says "Jesus is intolerant: he does not tolerate anything wrong that a person does....When Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he does not ask us to tolerate our neighbors' actions." He continues, linking the biblical parable of the prostitute and the Pharisees ("let him who is without sin, cast the first stone...) and ending with the tired old "slippery slope" argument-

"So, yesterday it was fashionable for to marry and raise children. Tomorrow it may be fashionalbe to father children like a bull in a field of heifers; the next day, for men to marry men; the next day, for fathers to marry daughters and brothers to marry sisters".

I wish I could hyperlink you to the whole editorial, it really is quite something to behold, but our local paper sadly does not make that available. In any case, I had to write a letter to the editor explaining the way thinking people feel on the issue:

The editorial from Thomas Martin (Midlands Voices, 12/1/08) in response to Leonard Pitts' opinion essay was an unfortunate example of bigotry. If Mr. Martin wishes to belong to a religion that does not recognize gay marriage, that is perfectly within his rights as an American under the first amendment to the Constitution. The first amendment also creates a separation between church and state, which means that unless there are compelling secular reasons to justify denying a group of Americans their civil rights, then we should not do so. Resorting to a two-thousand year old parable to keep a group of people from being able to have full equality under the law falls far short of the ideal of justice and equality that our government was founded upon and ought to strive for.

Mr. Martin also points out that tolerance was not a biblical requirement. It is utterly incredible that he would argue that "Jesus is intolerant"- the very parable of the prostitute and the Pharisees that Mr. Martin cites has at its core a message of inclusion and compassion for those that are scapegoated by society, not a message of intolerance and inequality as Mr. Martin has twisted it to mean.

Finally, the slippery slope argument that he raises makes no sense. Several other countries in the world afford equal rights to committed gay couples, and there has not been a single case of fathers wishing "to marry daughters and brothers to marry sisters". However, these were the same tired arguments raised to protest against allowing blacks and whites to intermarry in the last century. I thought we had moved beyond this kind of bigotry, but it appears that is sadly not the case. You may not like that gay people exist, but using religion as a tool to oppress them hardly seems Christian.

Yesterday, in my snail mail, I received a letter. I didn't recognize the return address, especially so because it was a label prominently featuring a cross. It must be a miracle that it got to me, given that there was no street address, just my name, city, state, and zip code. Anyway, without further ado, here's the letter. (click to embiggen)

So, I guess he showed me! I think he's assuming that I must be gay (I'm not), but maybe he wants all people in favor of equal rights to move out of the state as well? I think, however, that if you are not willing to abide by the Constitution's requirements, and are unable to muster the votes to change it, then you ought to be the one to move. All the KrAzY KrIsTiAnZ can move elsewhere to start their own little bigoted, hateful theocracy where they can impose their religious will on each other and leave the rest of us in peace.

Educator ripped for her book calling for Christianity in school and politics

Educator ripped for her book calling for Christianity in school and politics

A member of the State Board of Education is drawing fire from a watchdog group because of her critical views on public education in a new book she has written that advocates more Christianity in the public square.

Sometimes, it's hard to avoid that feeling where you want to bang your head into the wall because of how stupid people are. Or bang their head into a wall. Depends on how stupid they are, I guess. In this case, despite being an educator, she's pretty stupid.

She calls public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion." The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even "tyrannical," she writes in the book, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.

It's fine if you want to have a debate over whether public school are constitutional, I think that's really a valid question. It's NOT valid to argue that the reason they are unconstitutional is because of magic and superstition. Ooops, I meant "god" and "scripture".

Dunbar endorses a belief system requiring "any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern."

Now, this is where the constitution really does come in, and it's very clear. Article VI, Section 3 states that

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

It's not even one of those ambiguous things. It's pretty clear, the constitution is right, and she's wrong.

"I don't think most people in the churches are aware of the venom against Christian America," she said. "So, it's more of a wake-up call to be informed, to be involved. They are fine with the body of Christ as long as we stay hidden in our four walls of the church, sitting quietly in our pews.

"But if we become civically involved or active in public policy issues, then we're going to be shot down," Dunbar said.

That's right, it's a little hang-up we have called the First Amendment. Separation of church and state: it works for everyone if you let it be. You're absolutely right, Ms. Dunbar, we are fine with you as long as you keep your religion within the walls of your church. No problems at all, we won't try to come and take it from you. But when you try to bring it to politics, we will fight you with everything we have.

Bush: I'm going to miss systematically destroying this place

I'm Really Gonna Miss Systematically Destroying This Place

By George W. Bush
December 1, 2008 | Issue 44•49

Oh, America. Eight years went by so fast, didn't they? I feel like I hardly got to know you and methodically undermine everything you once stood for. But I guess all good things must come to an end, and even though you know I would love to stick around for another year or four—maybe privatize Social Security or get us into Iran—I'm afraid it's time to go. But before I leave, let me say, from the bottom of my heart: I can't think of another country I would've rather led to the brink of collapse.

Boy, oh boy, if these Oval Office walls could talk. Seems like it was only yesterday that I started my first term despite having actually lost to Al Gore by more than a half million votes. Hmm. We were all so young and peaceful then. Gosh, gas was still under $2 a gallon! On my watch it peaked at more than twice that. Never getting it up to $6 or ideally $7.50 will be one of my few regrets when I leave office.

It's just gonna be so hard packing up my things and heading off into the sunset come January. I wish I could go on forever giving massive and disastrous tax cuts to the wealthy, taking the country from a surplus to a deficit—nearly $500 billion this year, likely to pass $1 trillion next year, fingers crossed—and just generally doing irreparable damage to the very underpinnings of our economy, but, well, I'm afraid the Constitution says I can't. And not even I can overrule the Constitution. Though Lord knows I tried! Initiating blanket wiretaps without warrants, suspending habeas corpus for prisoners in Guantanamo, infiltrating an unknown number of nonviolent civilian antiwar groups without permission… such wonderful memories. I'm going to cherish them forever.

My fellow Americans, I only hope that every time you have your civil liberties encroached upon by the Patriot Act, you'll think of me.

Everywhere I look brings back memories. The Blue Room is where Laura and I put up our first White House Christmas tree. Down the hall, in the East Room, is where I concocted my favorite signing statement to circumvent the anti-torture guidelines of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, and—ooh!—right across the way is where Cheney and I decided to use the death of 3,000 Americans on 9/11 and the nation's subsequent fear of another attack as an excuse to carry out our long-standing plan to invade Iraq. I should really get a picture before I leave.

Speaking of pictures, whenever I look at the dusty old newspaper photos of those tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib or the crumpled ruins of that bridge in Minnesota, I can hold my head up high knowing that I truly fucked this nation—physically and symbolically—beyond repair. I only wish I had the time to destroy a couple more major American cities.

And Cheney, I almost forgot about Cheney. What a guy, huh? I can't believe that in a few short weeks he's never going to talk to me again. The stories I could tell you about what went on in some of those back rooms—well, you wouldn't believe me if I declassified the memos. I don't know, maybe in 20 years, when the economy has rebounded and the people displaced by Katrina have rebuilt their lives from scratch with almost no federal assistance, Cheney and I can meet up again in the Rose Garden and reminisce over the good old days, when it seemed like there was no part of this great country we couldn't ruin forever.

What am I going to do once I'm no longer president? I've gotten so used to waking up every day, playing fetch with the dogs on the White House lawn, and then spending a lazy afternoon shredding every last bit of our good will abroad in a mind-boggling display of diplomatic incompetence.

The worst part about leaving is knowing I can never screw up anything this big again. Don't get me wrong, I'm only 62. I could still bankrupt an oil company, or become the next MLB commissioner and ruin baseball. But I'll never get the opportunity to fuck up on this massive of a scale again. Even if you put me back in charge for another term, I could only take the U.S. from a rapidly declining world power to not a world power at all. I don't mean to gloat, but I think it's safe to say that no one can ever unseat the American empire like I unseated the American empire.

Still, I have to admit, sometimes I think I could've dismantled so much more. The very fact that the environment still exists, that a mere 4,000 troops have died in Iraq, that there is still the slightest glimmer of hope for the future left in this nation—it's easy to feel like maybe I didn't do my job. But no, no, there's no use having any regret. I fucked everything up the best I could and that's good enough for me.

You know, I've got a few weeks left. I could still illegally fire some U.S. attorneys for political reasons, or finally get rid of that pesky separation between church and state. Or maybe I could just bomb a place. Like Russia. But this time, I would really savor it.

As long as I live, America, I'll never forget irreparably ruining you. Unless we all die in a nuclear war or calamitous environmental disaster brought on by my neglect. Either way, I'll see you all in heaven!

On worker solidarity

By the way, nothing in my last post should be taken to mean that I do not fully support these workers. In fact, I see it as a tremendously hopeful sign. Perhaps our society is not so passive, not so inured to corruption and hypocrisy, not so apathetic as to take this latest slap in the face lying down. In fact, I support the Governor's extortionate demands in this case, as do I support those that would pursue other punitive actions towards the Bank of America. A few of the proposals include picketing, boycotts, or perhaps a good old-fashioned run on the bank. The recent economic turmoil has exposed the vulnerability of these massive conglomerates, with the collapse of Indy-mac bank almost solely blamed on a letter from Chuck Schumer. An economic vote of no-confidence is enough to push any one of these massive banks into failure, and therefore ought to be another weapon in our toolkit as we push for economic justice for all classes, not just the ultra-wealthy.

This is indeed a decisive moment of reckoning for the independent labor movement, at home and abroad. If we want to create a world in which the conditions of economic life are organized fairly and democratically, according to basic human needs – and not according to the logic of speculative markets, or the interests of a wealthy ruling class – the Republic occupation offers a hopeful starting point for action. We are the only ones who can create this future – and our collective will is more powerful than we know.

The hypocrisy of banksters

The governor of the state of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich recently issued a statement in solidarity with the hundreds of workers occupying the factory that was their workplace, until economic problems forced it to shut down.

Governor Blagojevich says, "We, the state of Illinois will suspend any business with Bank of America and we hope this kind of leverage and pressure will encourage Bank of America to do the right thing for this business and take some of that federal money that they received and provide the necessary credit to this company so these workers can keep their jobs."

If it sounds like blackmail, that's because it is, and apparently it's not the first time the governor has attempted to coerce others into doing his will. At least, if the FBI affidavit is accurate:

A 76-page FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade Illinois’ U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife. At various times, in exchange for the Senate appointment, Blagojevich discussed obtaining:

– a substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions;

– placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year;

– promises of campaign funds – including cash up front; and

– a cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

However, the Bank of America is making some of the most ironic statements, given that they were a big recipient of bailout funds.

Bank of America isn’t empowered to tell a company’s management how to manage its business, spokeswoman Julie Westermann said today. Republic is unable to operate profitably in the current economy, she said.

“Bank of America has worked with the company and shared our concerns about the company’s situation and its operations for the past several months,” she said. “It is unfortunate that the company has been unable to reverse its declining circumstances.”

Hmmm, who else do you know that is "unable to operate profitably in the current economy", and has unfortunately "been unable to reverse" declining circumstances?????? Could it be automakers, banks, investment firms, etc...?

By the way, Republic Windows & Doors issued this timeline of events which certainly sounds like Bank of America has injected themselves to a substantial degree in the management of the company. The bank apparently rejected the company's request to make vacation payments to its employees, a central issue in the worker's occupation. The timeline reveals that Republic Windows had a buyer for the note, willing to pay about $3 million to Bank of America, which would have been a discount of $1.5 million on the note's value. Bank of America rejected that offer, indicated that they believed the note was "'over' collateralized". In other words, the bank says "fuck off, we don't need the buyer, we can get the full $4.5 million by selling off the business assets". Of course, the bank will need every penny they can get-- as a result of their merger with Merrill Lynch, they're facing writedowns of $5.1 billion in the 4th quarter , and they had $56 billion of "high-risk" assets as of the end of September. Unable to operate profitably indeed.

Bipartisan coalition of 75+ groups demands bailout transparency

Bipartisan coalition of 75+ groups demands bailout transparency

I await with bated breath the response from either Congress or the administration. I'm sure they'll move rapidly to comply, now they're aware that there's no transparency in the program. Surely, it's just an oversight that nobody is watching where this money goes, not part of the original plan. HA!

Under public disclosure laws, citizens can only gain access to information actually collected by the government. Therefore, public accountability necessitates that you enact changes in law to require the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and any other government entities involved in the bailout, to begin collecting information on certain aspects of how bailout aid is spent by recipients, including:
• all lobbying/business contracts for firms benefitting from bailout aid;

•all lobbying/business contract details for firms servicing bailout transactions; and

•any securities or other instruments used as collateral for loans through the Federal Reserve.

We urge that Treasury and the Federal Reserve, and any other government entities involved in the bailout, be required to make such information available to the public in a usable format.

US Policy linked to dead children in Africa

It's not just the recurring safety issues anymore. It's one thing if you want to gamble on eggs or meat from the giant Mega-mart, but please don't forget about the children dying around the world due to our policy of favoring American corporations with our food aid, rather than trying to actually feed people.

U.S. farm and shipping lobbyists have stifled efforts to simplify aid deliveries, leaving Africans to starve when they might have been saved, said Andrew Natsios, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington who led USAID, the Agency for International Development, from 2001 to 2006.

“No one can take the high moral ground against it, so they hide behind closed doors and kill it,” he said. “It’s all done behind the scenes.”

It's the same story over and over again. People everywhere are finding themselves getting taken advantage of, and nobody wonders if it's something inherent in the system that's causing it. The system is sick, the system shouldn't be saved, even if that is still possible. The system is killing us.

Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Bunge Ltd. accounted for 47 percent of 2007 commodities spending for aid, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The program was created in the 1950s, partly to reduce domestic surpluses. The regulations require that almost all the peas, corn and other crops come from American sources, effectively steering the bulk of the business to the biggest food-trading companies.

The rules also stipulate that 75 percent of the food must be transported on U.S.-flagged vessels, benefiting ship operators, including Liberty Maritime Corp., based in Lake Success, New York, and Sealift Inc., of Oyster Bay, New York. In 2007, the program’s shipping contracts were worth $385 million, according to the USDA.

In all things, ask "Who benefits?" It's never the little guy, the common man; it's always the enormous corporations that feed on the suffering and injustice around the world in the name of profits. And how do they get governments to do their bidding?

ADM, the world’s largest grain processor, spent $1.78 million to lobby Congress and federal agencies though Dec. 3 this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non- partisan research group in Washington that tracks spending on campaigns and lobbying. Over the past two decades, the company’s campaign contributions amounted to $8.2 million, 91st among political donors, the center said. ADM declined to comment for this story.

Cargill, a closely held company that is the world’s largest agricultural business, spent $660,000 on lobbying this year, the center said. ADM, Cargill and Bunge lobby on other issues besides the aid programs. Cargill favors the added flexibility of local purchase, spokesman Bill Brady said in an e-mail.

Bunge, the biggest oilseed processor, devoted $395,000 to lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The company advocates the use of U.S. crops to ensure quality, said Deb Seidel, a company spokeswoman.

Censorship at Open Left?

This was posted on Open Left, earlier today:

I Have Just Unsubscribed To Obama's E-Mail List

from Open Left - Front Page by avenged savant

First of all, I have been VERY VERY VERY incensed by Obama's flippant, dismissive, and almost contempt for liberals so far in his policy "changes" and statements since the campaign was over with.

Secondly, the lack of diversity in his Cabinet and advisors is dreadful. Only ONE token Hispanic, and he's not even a liberal, no openly gay person (no, Janet doesn't count, cus she's not open), and, most of all, no bona fide progressive.

When you press "unsubscribe" at the bottom of one of the deluge of emails Obama's team sends you, it prompts you to state your reasons for taking your email address off his list. So I did. And I listed the things written above.

I also told them (whichever flunky reads it...IF it even gets read), that I no longer support Obama, that I gave him over a grand in the campaign cycle, and that I consider him to be center-right at best. And that's not who or what I gave my money and time and efforts to.

He won't be getting my fucking money of my fucking vote in 2012.

Btw, our backlash MUST start in earnest NOW. Why? BECAUSE IF WE DON'T, THEN WE SURELY WON'T BE GETTING ANY TRUE PROGRESSIVES OF LATINOS OR ANYTHING ELSE BUT DEMOCONS TO HIS ADMINISTRATION!!! ONLY PUSSY "UNCLE TOM" LIBERALS HAVE THIS PUSSY-ASS, "WAIT-AND-SEE APPROACH."

I tried to click on the link from my reader, being certain some interesting stuff would be in the comments following such an incendiary post, but this is what I got. Followed in short order by this:

About the diary that disappered (Chris Bowers) Quick note and apology about the stupid diary that briefly appeared on the front-page:

Back when Open Left was started, posting Quick Hits required editor status. So, I promoted a bunch of people who had expressed interest in writing Quick Hits, under the condition that they not post front page diaries. The user in question was one of those early editor promotions. In this case, s/he broke his or her promise to not post on the front page.

Apologies to all.

And I understand that many of these blogs are trying to maintain "journalistic" standards, so I'm not necessarily mad at them for taking it down. I do think "avenged savant" had a valid point of view, one that is indisputably shared by many on the left. Further, the sense of betrayal in the post is almost palpable, and it's what I've been warning about since before the election. If you pin your hopes for change on a politician, especially one from the two indistinguishable major parties, then prepare to start removing the knife from your back. There is simply no way that your measly donation of "a grand" can compete with these types of donors. The real challenge is to keep this sense of betrayal from turning to apathy; we must learn to channel the frustration and anger at establishment politics into achieving our goals. But make no mistake about it: "our goals" will never be in alignment with Washington's goals.

Irish police probe contaminated pork scare

Irish police probe contaminated pork scare

Police are investigating how pork from ten Irish farms became contaminated with dioxins, forcing Dublin to recall all pork products from pigs slaughtered in Ireland, Irish authorities told CNN Monday.

The ten farms were found to have used pig feed sold to them by a company called Millstream Power Recycling Limited in County Carlow in the south of the country, Agriculture Department spokeswoman Martina Carney said.

The company recycles other foodstuffs to make meal which is then fed to animals.

This is part of the impetus for the growing local foods movement. The very thing that was supposed to occur with government control of the food chain is not happening- that is, the food is not safe. Thanks to billions of dollars in subsidies, it may be cheaper. But the subtitle to a Walmart documentary rings in my head more and more often these days- "the high cost of low-price". You may be able to buy cheap eggs at the grocery store, but is it "worth" it?

CNN compiled a brief list of food-related scares over the last few years, although it's nowhere near comprehensive. For instance, the salmonella outbreak this year didn't make the list, despite lasting 5 months and sickening 1,400 people. Anyway, here's the CNN list for what it's worth:

2008

In China, at least six babies are known to have died after drinking milk contaminated with melamine this year, while nearly 300,000 have been reported ill. Melamine is commonly used to make plastic products but had been added to food products to boost its protein content.

Other countries have reported excessive levels on melamine in products sourced from China. So far the list includes frozen yogurt desserts, biscuits, candies and packaged coffee-flavored drinks.

The World Health Organization says all the products were likely made from contaminated milk, and non-dairy products, for example eggs, were probably contaminated through animal-feed laced with melamine.

This month in Nigeria, more than 30 babies have died after being given a locally-made medicine to relieve teething pain called "My Pikin." The liquid syrup was found to contain diethylene glycol, a chemical found in commercial products such as resins, antifreeze, inks and glues which causes kidney problems.

Earlier this year a potentially lethal pesticide called methamidophos was found in "gyoza" meat dumplings produced in China. Ten people fell ill in Japan provoking a crisis in confidence in Chinese food exports and threatening trade relations between Japan and China.

2007

Last year, British poultry manufacturer Bernard Matthews was forced to cull almost 160,000 birds after the country's first mass outbreak of the H5N1, the human strain of avian influenza or bird flu. The H5N1 strain surfaced in South East Asia in early 2004 and later spread through Europe and Africa leading to the destruction of some 28 million birds.

Duck eggs sparked a scare in Hong Kong and several Chinese cities in 2007 when a carcinogenic dye, Sudan IV, was found to have been used to make the yolks of "red yolk" eggs even redder. The same dye was detected in chili powder the same year at a factory in China.

Cancer-causing chemicals were also found in fish from several farms in China's eastern Shandon province. They included malachite green, a topical fungicide used to treat parasites and fungal infections in fish.

2006

The Salmonella bacteria was held to blame in 2006 when 40 people fell ill after eating Cadbury chocolates. The company recalled more than one million chocolate bars in the United Kingdom, but was later fined $1.5 million for knowingly selling contaminated products.

Earlier still

The most serious food scare ever seen in the United Kingdom came during the 1980s and 1990s when a disease found in cows made the leap to humans.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, was first detected during a post-mortem of a cow in West Sussex, England in 1986.

The human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), killed its first victim in 1995, prompting the European Commission to impose a worldwide export ban on British beef which was eventually lifted in 1999.

In the following years, BSE was discovered in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Falkland Islands, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the U.S.

The government is lying to you... this time about unemployment.

You may have heard the dismal unemployment figures released last week. 533,000 jobs were lost. Over 1/2 a million new families last month now need to figure out how to put food on the table, pay their mortgages, car loans, credit card bills, etc... But what you may not realize, it that it's really much worse than that.

Last year, there was a great deal of criticism for the way the government calculates inflation. At a time when gas was nearing $150 per barrel and food prices were up by double-digit percentages, the official gauge of inflation was still saying 3% inflation. That's because they don't count food and energy when they calculate inflation, supposedly because those are too "volatile". The real reason is because a great deal of government payments are tied to the inflation rate, so higher inflation means more money flowing out to retirees, disabled, etc... rather than to banksters and the wealthy elite, where we apparently want the government money to go.

Unemployment reporting works much the same way. When you hear "unemployment" reported in the news, what you are hearing is the "U3" number. "U" for unemployment, "3" for the third of six ways to measure unemployment. Here are the ones that come next:

• U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
• U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
• U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but can not due to economic reasons.

So, to include the true depth of unemployment, we should really look at the U6 number, which includes everyone looking for work, those that have given up looking for work, and those that want to work full time but cannot find a full-time job. The U6 number looks like this:

An alternative gauge of unemployment -- which includes discouraged workers and those whose hours have been cut back to part-time -- rose to 12.5% from 11.8%. The number of workers forced to work part-time rose by 621,000 to 7.3 million.

See why the government prefers the U3? It's much easier to report that the unemployment rate is 6.7% than it is to admit that the real number is about 12.5%. Just for fun, let's hear from some economists on last week's unemployment report:

This is almost indescribably terrible. In the past six months the U.S. has lost 1.55 million jobs, almost as many as were lost in the whole 2001 recession, which included 9/11 and the two months after. The pace of job losses is accelerating alarmingly, as this report attests, with steep drops in most sectors but the biggest deterioration in services — down 370,000 in November after 153,000 in October. Note education/health and governmentt added 59,000, so core private payrolls even worse than headline. Desperate. –Ian Shepherdson, High Frequency Economics

Quite simply, there was nothing good in this report. Even though some might take comfort in the relatively modest uptick in the jobless rate (from 6.5% to 6.7%), this is actually quite misleading. In fact, the household survey’s measure of employment came in at -673,000, an even sharper plunge than seen in the payroll figures. The jobless rate was actually restrained by a large decline in the labor force — as we had suspected… It is worth noting that the November payroll figures would have been even worse were it not for a special factor. We estimate that the direct and indirect effects of the resolution of the Boeing strike probably added about 35,000 employees to manufacturing payrolls in November. –David Greenlaw, Morgan Stanley

• The September-though-November period saw an average 419,000 average monthly job losses, as the recession deepened. More timely unemployment insurance claims data suggest no let up in the current pace of job losses. While the unemployment rate rose only 0.2 percentage point to 6.7% in today’s report, the labor force shrank by 422,000 in November and 237,000 over the September-November period. While this suggests a discouraged worker effect, the severe worsening in labor markets has been relatively recent, with employment declines in January-August deviating little from the -82,000 per month average. There is little doubt that labor slack is rising rapidly, and the unemployment rate will jump in the months ahead. –Steven Wieting, Citigroup
• The November decline stands as the largest single month drop since December 1974, when employment plummeted by 602,000. With the latest revisions averaging nearly 100,000 per month, the November job loss could easily end up being the new post-World War II benchmark for severe job declines. The current job losses however are a much smaller share of total employment. For instance, the 535,000 decline represents a 0.39% drop in employment from October while the December 1974 drop was 0.77%. Nonetheless, the scale and speed of job losses over the last three months remains the worst since the 1973-75 recession. –David Resler, Nomura Securities
• The bottom drops out of the labor market… History tells that once the labor market weakens as much as it has in the past several months, job-shedding takes on a life of its own and tends to persist for a long while. We expect labor market conditions to be dreadful for many months to come and consequently for consumer spending to continue to decline. The U.S. consumer, which for so many years was the global engine of growth, will remain a significant drag on economic activity in coming quarters. –Joshua Shapiro, MFR Inc.
• These are god-awful numbers. The economy is headed downhill and the brakes are not working. There are so many layoff announcements that it is hard to keep track of. Some businesses are cutting jobs in anticipation of tougher times. This is especially true for retail, manufacturing and finance, which accounts for the bulk of jobs in the country. They want to trim fats and stay lean and mean for the tough times ahead. Also, business spending will be a drag on the economy in the foreseeable future. –Sung Won Sohn, Smith School of Business and Economics
  
• A shockingly weak report that suggests the fourth quarter could see a drop in real GDP of 5% or more at an annual rate. The large downward revisions to employment in September and October suggest that the economy was even weaker than we thought when the credit crunch intensified (indeed the employment report for September, which now shows a larger than 400,000 decline in jobs, was surveyed in the week before Lehman Brothers failed).,, These data will spur the calls for a massive stimulus plan, increase the chances of a rescue package for the domestic auto industry. –RDQ Economics
• Jobs plummeted again in November with deep and widespread job losses. Much of this collapse in jobs was due to the collateral effects of the credit crunch which is only slowly being repaired. So far this year, 1.91k jobs have been lost with half of those jobs being lost in the past 3 months as the downward spiral has accelerated. The recession is intensifying and the economy is rapidly shrinking. –Stephen A. Wood, Insight Economics
• This was much worse than was expected and represents wholesale capitulation. The threat of a widespread depression is now real and present. –Peter Morici, University of Maryland

Too big = made to fail. And take democracy with it...

We're using the bailouts to rebuild giant financial institutions. But what we really need are small ones. - By Eliot Spitzer - Slate Magazine

Say what you will about Eliot Spitzer's personal life, I think he makes some pretty good points here. Although he doesn't take it so far as to connect the current economic behemoths and their natural instability as the inevitable result of capitalism itself, he's only a couple of steps away from that.

[The risk is] that current bailouts—a remarkable $7.8 trillion in equity, loans, and guarantees so far—may merely perpetuate a fundamentally flawed status quo. So far, at least, we are simply rebuilding the same edifice that just collapsed. None of the investments has even begun to address the underlying structural problems that are causing economic power to shift away from the United States, sector by sector:

• Our trade deficit has ballooned from about $100 billion to more than $700 billion annually in the past decade, and our federal deficit now approaches $1 trillion. These twin deficits leave us at the mercy of foreign-capital inflows that may diminish as Asian nations, in particular, invest increasingly at home.
• Our household savings rate has been close to zero—and even negative in some years—not permitting the long-term capital accumulation required for the investments we need; China's savings rate, by comparison, is an astonishing 30 percent of household income.
• U.S. middle class income has stagnated over the past decade, while the middle class in China—granted, starting from a lower base—has seen its income growing at about 10 percent annually.
• Our intellectual advantage could soon turn into a new "third deficit," as hundreds of thousands of engineers are being created annually in China.
• We are realizing that the service sector—all the lawyers, investment bankers, advertising agencies, and accountants—follows its clients and wealth creation. This, not over-regulation, is the reason investment-banking activity has begun to migrate overseas.

The great irony is that our new place in the global economy is a direct consequence of our grand victory over the past 60 years. We have, indeed, converted virtually the entire world into one integrated capitalist economy, and we must now bear the brunt of serious and vigorous competition. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the United States was essentially the only nation with financial capital, intellectual capital, skilled labor, a growing middle class generating consumer demand, and a rule of law permitting safe investment. Now we are one of many nations with these critical advantages.

While he's mostly right, there are a few other things I would like to point out. Assuming the American capitalism can weather the current financial tsunami (which is not at all guaranteed), this trend is unlikely to reverse itself. The Washington Post reported this week that access to college education in the United States gets an "F" in every single state except for California, "which received a C because of the relatively low cost of its community colleges." If you think community colleges are churning out the next world leaders, at least under the current aristocratic system, you're sorely mistaken. College tuitions and fees have risen by an astonishing 439% since the early 1980's, which is almost twice as much as medical care (251%) and three times faster than the median family income for the same time period (147%). So what are the implications of this? Only the wealthiest will be able to send their children to any institution of higher learning, thus furthering the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

Secondly, the consolidation of companies in the financial sector is mirrored by consolidation in virtually every other industry. The Center for Corporate Policy points out that

The accelerated concentration of corporate power is reflected in the relatively small number of major media conglomerates, defense contractors, etc. Another symptom is the precipitous rise in the value of corporate mergers and acquisitions over the past 25 years – amounting to a total $1.4 trillion during the 1980s, exploding to $11 trillion during the 1990s, and continuing at an even greater frenetic pace of $7.6 trillion during 2000-2003 (including $3.4 trillion in 2000 alone) — adding up to a combined total of $20 trillion.(2)

This trend has not abated in the years since- if anything, it has accelerated. And, it's affecting all sectors of the economy. The big 3 automakes got bigger by acquiring other brands, which they are now frantically trying to spin off again (see Saab, Volvo, Saturn, Hummer, etc...). Six conglomerates control virtually all of the television, radio, publishing and newspapers in America. Saturday's Opinion page in the Wall Street Journal had this nugget to look forward to:

- Financial concentration will gain even greater momentum and influence. This is the most profound long-term consequence of the current credit crisis. Leading independent investment banks already have been taken over by large financial conglomerates that are controlled by commercial banking entities, as have giant deposit institutions. Within the next year, many smaller and medium-sized financial institutions also will lose their independent identities.

Today, more than half of all nonfinancial debt (debt held by households, nonfinancial companies and government) is held by the top 15 institutions. These were the very firms that played a central role in creating an unprecedented amount of debt by securitization and complex new credit instruments. They also pushed for legal structures that made many aspects of the financial markets opaque.

In the years ahead, the influence of these financial conglomerates will be overwhelming -- and they will limit any moves toward greater economic democracy. These conglomerates are and will continue to be infused with conflicts of interest because of their multiple roles in securities underwriting, in lending and investing, in the making of secondary markets, and in the management of other people's money. And because there will be fewer market participants of importance, the price volatility of financial assets likely will remain high.

Through their global reach, these firms will transmit financial contagion even more quickly than it spread in the current credit crisis. When the current crisis abates, the pricing power of these huge financial conglomerates will grow significantly, at the expense of borrowers and investors.

So if you're happy with the way the last year has gone in the financial industry, you'll love what's ahead. Far more troubling to me, is the consolidation within the food industry. Mega-corporations have been trying for years to patent or control basic necessities of life, including water, something that ought to horrify anyone in today's business climate. If it doesn't, imagine Lehman Brothers or Citigroup in sole control of your water supply. In Stuffed and Starved Raj Patel discusses consolidation thusly:

It's a consolidation that spans the entire food system. The ten largest companies control half the world's seed supply... Ten firms control 84 per cent of the nearlyUS$30 billion pesticide markets, with analysts pointing to a trend in concentration that will see, by 2015, only three major players in that sector. The top ten in food and beverage processing amount for 24 per cent of hte US$1.25 trillion market in packaged foods. And the market with the sharpest trends in concentration, retail, sees the top ten players accounting for 24 per cent of the US$3.5 trillion market. (p.102)

Still, the government thinks it's good policy to hand out billions in subsidies and incentives to the megafarms as part of the travesty known as the Farm Bill. The end result? Virtually all fast food is made from corn- your burger included. High fructose corn syrup makes up the soda, cows are raised on a diet of corn, fries are cooked in corn. "Of 160 food products we purchased at Wendy's throughout the United States, not 1 item could be traced back to a noncorn [sic] source. Our work also identified corn feed as the overwhelming source of food for tissue growth, hence for beef and chicken meat, at fast food restaurants," says a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Thirdly, Spitzer points out that our "grand victory" was conversion of "virtually the entire world into one integrated capitalist economy", but he neglects the extent to which that conversion was an unwilling one. We have created a world full of enemies, ready to mete out justice to their imperialist overlords that have been exploiting their natural resources, their environments, their labor, and their very cultures in the name of "economic growth". Of course, these giant mega-corporations have exploited those of us in the U.S. as well, but our travails are of little comfort to those in the massively impoverished global south.

I will close with a quotation from Robert Reich in his book Supercapitalism that encapsulates a good portion of my argument.

Supercapitalism has triumphed as power has shifted to consumers and investors. They now have more choice than ever before, and can switch ever more easily to better deals. And competition among companies to lure and keep them continues to intensify. This means better and cheaper products, and higher returns. Yet as supercapitalism has triumphed, its negative social consequences have also loomed larger. These include widening inequality as most gains from economic growth go to the very top, reduced job security, instability of or loss of community, environmental degradation, violations of human rights abroad, and a plethora of products and services pandering to our basest desires. These consequences are larger in the United States than in other advanced economies because America has moved deeper into supercapitalism. Other econoimes, following closely behind, have begun to experience many of the same things.

Democracy is the appropriate vehicle for responding to such social consequences. That's where citizen values are supposed to be expressed, where choices are supposed to be made between what we want for ourselves as consumers and investors, and what we want to achieve together. But the same competition that has fueled supercapitalism has spilled over into the political process. Large companies have hired platoons of lobbyists, lawyers, experts, and public relations specialists, and devoted more and more money to electoral campaigns. The result has been to drown out voices and values of citizens. As all of this has transpired, the old institutions through which citizen values had been expressed in the Not Quite Golden Age-- industry-wide labor unions, local citizen-based groups, "corporate statesmen" responding to all stakeholders, and regulator agencies-- have been largely blown away by the gusts of supercapitalism.

Nepotism and the new American political aristocracy

Most Americans seem to believe that America is so special, we would never have a permanent overclass. This is the country where anyone can be president, right? It's saddening to realize that in politics, the best person does not always win- in fact, they rarely do. The biggest hurdle for a new candidate is name recognition, it would seem these relatives-of-other-politicians already have that. The second biggest hurdle is money, and that's obviously not a problem for any of these candidates. So how can this be democracy? How does someone with fresh ideas get elected? No name, no money, and no party support is a recipe for a losing candidacy, and an impoverished democracy.

Of course, this is also a side-effect of our celebrity obsessed "culture"- instead of film stars, these are the people that are on the other TV channels. If you like your celebrities a little vapid, you can watch Entertainment Tonight. If you like your celebrities a little more political, you can watch Bill O'Reilly, or Hannity and Colmes, or any of the other talking heads that are helping to reduce politics and life-and-death issues to little more than sound-bites.

This year more than most, elections were little more than a soap opera with political overtones. "What's the lecherous old McCain doing with that young, attractive governor from Alaska? Is Obama secretly a socialist? Was he even born in America? Tune in next time and find out the answers to these questions, and more on the shocking teen pregnancy of Bristol Palin!! Who's the real father???" The governor of California is Arnold Schwarzenegger-(click here for his IMBD profile). Even though I like a lot of what he has to say, Jesse "The Body" Ventura was governor of Minnesota. Don't harbor any illusions that if he were simply "Jesse Ventura", or "Joe the plumber" (with a small "p") for that matter, that he would have been able to win an election against well financed and organized major party candidates, regardless of how much sense they may make.

Nepotistic succession in the political class

(updated below)

Bill Clinton yesterday was forced to deny speculation that he would be appointed to replace his wife in the U.S. Senate. Leading candidates for that seat still include John F. Kennedy's daughter (Caroline), Robert Kennedy's son (RFK, Jr.), and Mario Cuomo's son (Andrew). In Illinois, a leading contender to replace Barack Obama in the Senate is Jesse Jackson's son (Jesse, Jr.). In Delaware, it was widely speculated that Joe Biden would be replaced by his son, Beau, and after Beau took his name out of the running because he's now serving in Iraq, the naming of the actual replacement -- lone-time (Joe) Biden aide Ted Kaufmann -- "upset local Democrats who believe the move was a ham-handed attempt to engineer the election of Biden’s son, Beau, to the Senate in 2010."

Meanwhile, in Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, who was appointed by her father to take his seat in the U.S. Senate when he became Governor, yesterday warned Sarah Palin not to challenge her in a 2010 primary, a by-product of tension between those two as a result of Palin's defeat of Lisa's dad for Governor. In Florida, Mel Martinez's announcement that he won't seek re-election in 2010 immediately led to reports that the current President's brother, Jeb, might run for that seat. And all of that's just from the last couple of weeks.

The Senate alone -- to say nothing of the House -- is literally filled with people whose fathers or other close relatives previously held their seat or similar high office (those links identify at least 15 current U.S. Senators -- 15 -- with immediate family members who previously occupied high elected office). And, of course, the current President on his way out was the son of a former President and grandson of a former U.S. Senator.

Isn't this all a bit much? It's true that our political/media class in general is intensely incestuous and nepotistic. Virtually the entire neoconservative "intelligentsia" (using that term as loosely as it can possibly be used) is one big paean to nepotistic succession -- the Kristols, the Kagans, the Podhoretzes, Lucinanne Goldberg and her boy. Upon Tim Russert's death, NBC News excitedly hired his son, Luke. Mike Wallace's son hosts Fox's Sunday show. The most influential political opinion space in the country, The New York Times Op-Ed page, is, like the Times itself, teeming with family successions and connections. Inter-marriages between and among media stars and political figures -- and lobbyists, operatives and powerful political officials -- are now more common than arranged royal marriages were among 16th Century European monarchs.

But this fixation on parent-child, sibling and spousal succession for elected office is particularly problematic. It's certainly true that one can find, in individual cases, instances of self-sufficiency and merit even among those benefiting from nepotism and family names. But the fact that it is now so commonplace -- almost presumptively expected -- for political power to be passed along to close family members is quite anti-democratic. The number of families possessing some sort of aristocratic-like claim to elected office is clearly increasing. By definition, that diminishes the role of merit and the need for democratic persuasion in how elected leaders are chosen. And this dynamic, in turn, fuels how insular, incestuous, unaccountable and bloated with entitlement the Beltway culture is.

There are numerous factors that account for this artistocratization of our politics. Viewing political officials through the combined prism of royalty and celebrity naturally generates interest in, and affection for, their family members. The same deeply sad mentality that makes it worthwhile for celebrity magazines to pay many millions of dollars for celebrities' baby photos is part of what makes so many people eager to vote for the sons, wives, and brothers of their favorite political star. Independently, a rapid worsening of America's rich-poor gap stratifies the society in terms of opportunities and access and breeds a merit-deprived aristocratic culture.

Beyond that, the massive structural advantages of incumbency easily allow resources and other favors to be heaped on chosen family members for succession, and for loyalties and affections to be transferred for no reason other than family connection. Then there is the large number of uninformed voters -- working in tandem with our vapid, gossip-obsessed political media -- that place a huge premium on family name recognition and even generates some voter confusion that further aids family succession (how many voters who cast a ballot for Bob Casey and John Sununu in their Senate races -- or elected Harold Ford, Dan Boren, Connie Mack and Bill Schuster to the House -- mistakenly thought they were voting for their elected-official dads who had the same or very similar names?).

Family succession is hardly unheard of in U.S. political history, but what was once quite rare has now become pervasive. As The Washington Post's Dana Milbank put it in 2005:

With at least 18 senators, dozens of House members and several administration officials boosted by family legacies, modern-day Washington sometimes resembles the court of Louis XIV without the powdered wigs.

Illustrating that radical change, here's a revealing 1929 article from Time Magazine expressing some mild disapproval for what was, back then, the rare occurrence of a son who was elected to succeed his father in a Minnesota Congressional seat after the father was killed in a tragic fire (the new son-Congressman, the article noted, was "an engaging young man, thoroughly Nordic in appearance"). About this single familial succession, Time sternly intoned: "Primogeniture and hereditary public office have no place in U. S. tradition."

That is clearly no longer true. One of the most encouraging aspects of Barack Obama's success -- and, for that matter, the ascension of someone like Sarah Palin or Bill Clinton -- is the pure self-sufficiency and lack of family connection behind it. But even pointing that out demonstrates how meritocratic self-sufficiency has almost become the exception rather than the rule. That we now treat Presidents like Kings and expect them to exercise similar powers is consistent with the broader trend whereby we are ruled by a Versailles on the Potomac, with all the bloated, decadent insularity that implies.

UPDATE: In the comment section, Brenton Williams -- a Professor of American Constitutional & Legal History at DePaul University -- details one of the most egregiously undemocratic cases of nepotistic succession: Democratic Blue Dog Rep. Dan Lipinski:

His father, Bill, the long-time incumbent ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004 and won easily. A few weeks before the general election he withdrew and the Illinois Democratic Committee met with him for 15 minutes, late at night, behind closed doors before emerging with their new nominee, his son, then residing in central Tennessee where he was an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee. . . .

Still worse, a family friend [Ryan Chlada] with no funding ran as the Republican in 2004 to help insure that Dan faced no more than token resistance.

As Professor Williams notes, the Lipinski son, ever since, has been vigorously supported by the Democratic establishment, particularly Rahm Emanuel, in order to defeat progressive (and meritocratic) primary challengers. He was simply handed the seat by his dad.

Humans 80,000 Years Older Than Previously Thought?

Humans 80,000 Years Older Than Previously Thought?

Modern humans may have evolved more than 80,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study of sophisticated stone tools found in Ethiopia. The tools were uncovered in the 1970s at the archaeological site of Gademotta, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. But it was not until this year that new dating techniques revealed the tools to be far older than the oldest known Homo sapien bones, which are around 195,000 years old.

Using argon-argon dating—a technique that compares different isotopes of the element argon—researchers determined that the volcanic ash layers entombing the tools at Gademotta date back at least 276,000 years.

So let's see, that's 270,000 years before fundies think the universe was created. I'll put their bible up against my science any day!

'Revolution, food riots in America by 2012'

'Revolution, food riots in America by 2012'
Commodity Online
The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.

Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week.

Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.

"We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas....we're going to see a fundamental shift take place....putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".

"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman
Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 percent.

The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape
transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."

In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America."There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It's not going to come yet, but it's going to come down the line and we're going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."

"The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That's going to be the big one because people can't afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You're going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop."

"It's going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we're going to see many more."

"We're going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It's going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It's going to come as a shock and with it, there's going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people's minds weren't wrecked on all these modern drugs - over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody's comprehension."

The George Washington blog has compiled a list of quotes attesting to Celente's accuracy as a trend forecaster.

"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture." - The Los Angeles Times

"If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."- New York Post

So there you have it - hardly a nutjob conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now.

Top 10 Searches for 2008 | The Best Article Every day

As far as I'm concerned, there is no hope for our society. Only one entry on the top 10 searches for 2008 has anything to do with news, current events, or politics- Barack Obama. And that's as much due to his snazzy marketing campaign and branding than anyone being genuinely interested in his policy positions. Here's the list:

1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Barack Obama
4. Miley Cyrus
5. Runescape
6. Jessica Alba
7. Naruto
8. Lindsey Lohan
9. Angelina Jolie
10. American Idol

Seriously, please take a moment and think about the state of affairs in a country where more people are interested in what's going on with a drugged up, psychotic, redneck single mother that used to have a singing career than anything else. We're not concerned about the thousands of dead Americans in Iraq (4,207 at latest count- for what?), we're not concerned with our war in Afghanistan, we're not concerned with economics, or politics, or art, or justice. We're concerned about celebrities, fake wrestling and what's else is on TV. We're depraved, and a civilization like this is in its last stages. We're fiddling and dancing around while Rome burns. We live in the kind of country where a seasonal Walmart employee would get callously crushed to death beneath the feet of consumer zombies.

But it's not just our common vulnerability to mob psychology that ties the rest of us to last week's tragedy. It is also our common love of stuff. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a starker illustration of our true priorities. Oh, we pay lip service to other things. We say children are a priority, but when did people ever press against the door for Parents' Night at school? We say education is a priority, but when did people ever bang against the windows of the library? We say faith is a priority, but when did people ever surge into a temple of worship as eagerly as they do a temple of commerce?

No, sale prices on iPods, that's our true priority. Jdimytai Damour died because too many of us have bought, heart and soul, into the great lie of American consumerism: acquiring stuff will make you whole. ''You, Happier,'' is how a sign at my local Best Buy puts it. As if owning a Jonas Brothers CD, an Iron Man DVD, a Sony HDTV, will elevate you to a level of joy otherwise impossible to attain. Hey, you may be a total loser, may not have a friend, may not have an education, may not have a job, may not have a clue, but it will all be OK as soon as you get that new Canon digital camera, especially if you get it for 50 percent off.

It would be nice to think -- I will not hold my breath -- that Damour's death would lead at least some of us to finally see that for the obscene lie it is, to realize that seeking wholeness in consumer goods is an act of emptiness, not joy.

You, Happier? No.

Just you, with more stuff.

Christian University official arrested in gay-sex sting

Call it schadenfreude if you want, but I love these kinds of hypocrites when they get exposed. Republicans, clergy, and officials at Christian universities are always getting caught in tawdry bathroom-stall hijinks, and I love it.

52-year-old Robert Williams, Chief Financial Officer of Cincinnati Christian University, was arrested with two others on Saturday, said to have "manually stimulated" an undercover police officer in Mount Airy Forest. He is charged with sexual imposition.

The university has placed Williams on administrative leave while officials "assess the facts of the case."

"We are shocked and dismayed by the news of Robert Williams' arrest," said Cincinnati Christian University President David Faust in a statement. "This is a personal tragedy for him and for his family, and we lift them up in our prayers."

Yes, do that. Lift them all up in your prayers, and then see if that makes one bit of difference here in the real world.

I think that's the real reason they are opposed to gay marriage-they worry that they might be forced to marry the strange guy they offer a free blowjob to in the "man cave" down at the local park. Don't worry guys, shotgun marriages have been going out of style for years now (unless your last name is Palin). Today's gays get married because they want a long-term, committed relationship and all the sundry benefits that come with that, not because they're out to destroy your marriage. Which, apparently you are destroying rather well on your own by having random affairs, let alone gay ones.

Dr. Doom's bleak assessment

How to avoid the horrors of ‘stag-deflation’ is the title of an article Nouriel Roubini penned for the Financial Times. A careful reading of the article however, yields little such advice. He points out the standard cures for recessions have had little effect, so we're down to the last few options for saving the system. The ability of policymakers to manage the crisis is rapidly decaying, given the Fed is almost out of ammunition and massive deficit spending will imperil the very solvency of governments around the world.

Traditionally, central banks are the lenders of last resort but they are becoming the lenders of first and only resort, as banks are not lending. Central banks are becoming the only lenders in the land. With consumption by households and capital spending by corporations collapsing, governments will soon become the spenders of first and only resort as fiscal deficits surge.

The financial crisis has already become global as financial links transmitted US shocks globally. The overall credit losses are likely to be close to a staggering $2,000bn. Thus, unless financial institutions are rapidly recapitalised by governments the credit crunch will become even more severe as losses mount faster than recapitalisation.

But with governments and central banks bringing private sector losses on to their balance sheets, fiscal deficits will top $1,000bn for the US in the next two years. The Fed and the Treasury are taking a massive amount of credit risk, endangering the long-term solvency of the US government.

In the next few months, the flow of macroeconomic and earnings news will be much worse than expected. The credit crunch will get worse, with de­leveraging continuing as hedge funds and other leveraged players are forced to sell assets into illiquid and distressed markets, leading to further cascading falls in prices, other insolvent financial institutions going bust and a few emerging market economies entering a full-blown financial crisis.

The worst is not behind us: 2009 will be a painful year of a global recession, deflation and bankruptcies. Only very aggressive and co-ordinated policy actions will ensure the global economy recovers in 2010 rather than facing protracted stagnation and deflation.

World stability hangs by a thread

World stability hangs by a thread as economies continue to unravel - Telegraph

The working assumption of the "Great Boom" is – or was – that we live in a benign era where most societies are converging towards some form of market liberalism; where trade and capital flows are unrestricted; where governments have enough legitimacy to keep order by light touch; where a major war is unthinkable.

This illusion is now being tested.

...

"The global financial crisis has not bottomed yet. The impact is spreading globally and deepening," said Zhang Pin, head of the national development commission. "Excessive bankruptcies and business closures will cause massive unemployment and stir social unrest".

...

In the 1930s, it was not obvious to people living through debt deflation that their world was coming apart. The crisis came in pulses, each followed by months of apparent normality – like today.

The global system did not snap until September 1931. The trigger was a mutiny by Royal Navy ratings at Invergordon over pay cuts. Sailors on four battleships refused to put out to sea. They sang the Red Flag.

News that the British Empire could not uphold military discipline set off capital flight. Britain was forced off the gold standard within five days. A chunk of the world followed suit.

Nor was it obvious that Germany would go mad. Bruning persisted with deflation, blind to the danger. The result was the election of July 1932 when two parties committed to the destruction of Weimar – the KPD Communists and the Nazis – won over the half the seats in Reichstag.

We can hope that governments have acted fast enough this time – with rate cuts and a fiscal firewall – to head off such disasters. But then again, the debt excesses are much greater today. If in doubt, cleave to those countries with a deeply-rooted democracy, a strong sense of national solidarity, a tested rule of law – and aircraft carriers. The US and Britain do not look so bad after all.

To me, it's quite frightening to realize that we may be closer to large-scale civil unrest or even outright war than anyone in this country is letting on. The Telegraph is under no such illusions, which is one of the reasons I tend to follow their reporting. Although I hope this author is correct, and share his hope that "governments have acted fast enough this time" I don't have a great deal of confidence that this is the case. Especially when another piece of breaking news today is that "the U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials." That may not be frightening, if that were all you had read about it, but I've been following this story closely. When this story first broke in September, it was only a single brigade. The number was increased to 4,700 troops over 3 years, and now we find ourselves at 20,000 troops. Initially, the Army Times reported that

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

The package is for use only in war-zone operations, not for any domestic purpose.

“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”

Since then, they've issued this terse correction:

Correction:

A non-lethal crowd control package fielded to 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, described in the original version of this story, is intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S., as previously stated.

Well, I certainly feel better. So it appears to me that they've been dramatically ramping up military forces (battle-trained and used to dealing with insurgencies) in the heimat, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and during possibly the worst economic crisis since, or possibly including the Great Depression. Heads of state around the world are saying the things our leaders are not, and they are making their plans for dealing with civil unrest and wars. Although much of the rhetoric has been about the new New Deal that will save us from all of this nastiness, don't forget that it was a World War that finally created enough artificial demand to lift America out of the Great Depression I. The concept of World War III ought to be chilling, especially since we're not the only ones with nuclear weapons this time around.

Obama Knows How to Move to the Market

Political Perceptions : Obama Knows How to Move to the Market

You need look no further than the Wall Street Journal for confirmation of what I've been saying: Obama and Wall Street... like a hand and a glove.

For a liberal Democrat who made no secret of his Robin Hood economic instincts, President-elect Barack Obama has been showing a savvy understanding of how to get the hard-core capitalists on Wall Street to do his bidding.

The way that Mr. Obama has handled his ambiguous role in the last week — before he actually has any real power, but is viewed by the nation as the economic savior — has been telling.

Most notable is the way he gave investors a shove toward the buy side with a press leak that may have prevented another scary stock market sell-off. Instead, his deft maneuvering was followed by a substantial rally that avoided even more financial angst around holiday dinner tables.

The way he teased the markets and the media about what he will do about taxes and spending also showed an aptitude for operating in the Wall Street-Washington arena.

Oh, that joker! People thought he was going to raise taxes on the rich and cause problems for the biggest of the big capitalists. Boy, he sure showed them... he's one of them after all!

It was then that the Obama folks leaked word that New York Federal Reserve Bank President Tim Geithner would be the new secretary of the Treasury – the post most important to the folks who make a living trading stocks and bonds. The Obama team was confident that Mr. Geithner would be viewed favorably by the market because he was a known and approved commodity among the Wall Street crowd.

They were right.

The leak was meant to buttress the market; normally announcements that seem likely to move stock prices one way or another are made before or after trading hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Before the leak, investors had feared the Dow would test the 7,000 range. As the news spread, the market rallied and the Dow finished the day up almost 500 points, above 8000.

That was the point. The Obama folks wanted to move the markets, but they weren’t ready to officially announce Mr. Geithner’s selection, which they did the following Monday along with the rest of his top economic team.

*Phew*... I can sure rest easy, knowing that Obama's watching over the markets, making sure that they don't go down too much!