http://www.atlargely.com/

By GARY LEUPP

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/wef/article3220961.ece

It does not look good.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/01/27/the_black_box_economy/?page=full

The black box economy
Behind the recent bad news lurks a much deeper concern: The world economy is now being driven by a vast, secretive web of investments that might be out of anyone’s control.

THE PAST YEAR has been a harrowing one for the world’s financial markets, shaken by subprime crises, credit crunches, and other ills. Things have only gotten stranger in the past week, with stock prices swinging wildly in every major market - drastically down, then back up.

Last week the Federal Reserve announced the biggest cut in overnight lending rates in more than two decades. Congress, not to be outdone, is slapping together a massive deficit spending package aimed at giving the economy an emergency booster shot.

Despite the anxiety, nobody is stockpiling canned goods just yet. The prevailing assumption in today’s economy is that recessions and bear markets come and go, and that things will work out in the end, much as they have since the Great Depression. That’s because there’s a collective confidence that the market is strong enough to correct itself, and that experts in charge of the financial system will understand how to mount a vigorous defense.

Should we be so confident this time? A handful of financial theorists and thinkers are now saying we shouldn’t. The drumbeat of bad news over the past year, they say, is only a symptom of something new and unsettling - a deeper change in the financial system that may leave regulators, and even Congress, powerless when they try to wield their usual tools.
…

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/bill-we-just-ha.html

and deals like this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/us/politics/31donor.html?ei=5065&en=6a843530898e147a&ex=1202446800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

White House Filing in CREW Lawsuit Admits to Destroying Back-Up Copies of Emails

Yesterday’s midnight filing by the White House in CREW v. Executive Office of the President, a lawsuit challenging the failure of the White House to preserve and restore millions of missing emails, raises some very troubling questions that the White House clearly does not want to answer.

The White House has now admitted that it does not have an effective system for storing and preserving emails. This is no mere technicality; it is this failure that led to the likely destruction of over 10 million email. What the White House has not explained is why it abandoned the electronic record-keeping system used by the prior administration — a system that properly preserved White House email — but did not replace it with another effective and appropriate system.

…

CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS CALL ON MUKASEY TO RESCIND BUSH MEMO AUTHORIZING POLITICIZATION OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION

Washington, DC – This morning, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) hosted a press conference call with the NAACP and MALDEF to demand that U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey rescind a Bush legal memo that authorized deceptive appointments of exclusively partisan Republicans to the bipartisan Civil Rights Commission.

The letter, signed by LCCR, CREW, NAACP, MALDEF, National Women’s Law Center, National Partnership for Women & Families, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Congress of American Indians and the ACLU is online:

http://www.civilrights.org/library/advocacy-letters/usccr-letter.html

In order to circumvent the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Bush Justice Department wrote a memo allowing Republican members of the Commission to switch their party affiliation to “independent.” That allowed the president to appoint more Republicans to the bipartisan eight person commission under the guise that they were somehow “independent,” allowing the Bush administration to circumvent the law requiring that no more than four members of any party serve on the commission.

…

I saw an add last eve that said a candidate was indorsed by 3 papers…It neglected to mention they were all own by the same parent company.

“All day long, in response to Mukasey’s insistence that patent illegalities were legal, that Congress was basically powerless, and that the administration has no obligation to disclose anything to Congress (and will not), Senators would respond with impotent comments such as: “Well, I’d like to note my disagreement and ask you to re-consider” or “I’m disappointed with your answer and was hoping you would say something different” or “If that’s your position, we’ll be discussing this again at another point.” They were supplicants pleading for some consideration, almost out of a sense of mercy, and both they and Mukasey knew it.

Mukasey can go and casually tell them to their faces that the President has the right to violate their laws and that Congress has no power to do anything about it. And nothing is going to happen. And everyone — the Senators, Bush officials, the country — knows that nothing is going to happen. There is nothing too extreme that Mukasey could say to those Senators that would prompt any consequences greater than some sighing and sorrowful expressions of disapproval. We now live in a country where the President — and those acting at his behest (see Lewis Libby, AT&T, and Verizon)– have the power to break the law and ignore Congress and every other aspect of government, and can do so with impunity.”

A must read
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/31/mukasey/index.html

For those under 35, Casey was Ronnie Dimwit’s CIA chief, a real Cold Warrior who styled himself cut from Allen Dulles flannel.

His stupidity resulted in a lot of dead Marines in Beirut.

The difference between ABC and Fox is…well… there must be SOME difference…

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

BY GLENN THRUSH | glenn.thrush@newsday.com
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usedwa0131,0,3879544.story

What Hillary Or Obama Have to Do To Win My Support/Vote

I am terribly sad that Edwards has dropped out. But what I want to share is what Senator’s Clinton or Obama have to do to get this 55 year old soccer moms vote.

Hillary voted for the Kyl Lieberman amendment in Oct of 2007, Obama just happened to be our of town the day of this critical vote. (yeah right Obama is an anti war candidate) Why did he choose to miss this opportunity to demonstrate that he is indeed against any more unnecessary warmongering against Iran or any other nation in the middle east that has not threatened the U.S. They both lost me over this warmongering amendment.

If either one comes out in strong support of diplomacy with Iran, Syria and are willing to be far more fair and balanced on the Israeli Palestinian conflict…they will have me.

Until then not sure who I will vote for.
you tube clip that explains the Kyl Lieberman amendment or you can go read the amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_6CB-3qj 8Y

Here were my questions

1. Will Whitehouse get that private meeting that he requested of Mukasey to discuss the “concrete facts and circumstances” having to do with the would not be “if’s” in a private setting.

2. Were the individuals who conducted the “enhanced techniques” contractors? (Larry has eluded to this)

3. Are there tapes that have not been destroyed?
During the hearing Senator Leahy indicated that there were.

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs…..8;Code=CS3

This discussion about Afghanistan is about three years late. I have been hearing weekly reports from a young man from Afghanistan studying here in the states on a Fulbright for two and a half years (he communicates with his very large family in Afghanistan weekly) that the situation in Afghanistan has progressively been getting worse.
Almost seems like they want to lose.

Senator Hagel asked how much money has been spent in Afghanistan since our invasion. The answer from the expert 25 billion. That is three months of what is being spent in Iraq. WTF

Why not subsidize all of those poppy farmers for five years and get them off the “narco economy”? Well maybe because the International mafia does not want the Afghani farmers off of this teat?

My friend from Afghanistan has said that most of the orchards that many of these farmers relied on before Russia invaded were destroyed by Russia during the war.

Why not tap into the 52 students from Afghanstan who are studying here in the states on Fulbrights? Why not tap into what they know? My young friend worked in Narco terroism when he lived in Afghanistan he is going back there. Why not tap into what these young Afghani’s know will help with the Afghani infrastructure?

“Everyone needs to read this much more balanced description of Hillary’s tenure on the Walmart board. She was the only one on the board who was pro union, so instead of wasting time fighting windmills, she pushed them on womens issues and the environment. She actually had a lot of success getting Walmart to be greener. Walmart pressured suppliers to reduce packaging, they improved energy efficiency and even opend an model green store in Kansas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/us/politics/20walmart.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
More impressively, Hillary used the credibility she had gained with Walmart Founger Sam Walton to get him to help build support for a CORPORATE TAX to support a major reform of Arkansas then terrible education system. This is nothing short of a miracle in my book, but she gets no credit for what she accomplished, just disparagement for not doing the impossible.
Did ABC not bother to get all the facts or did they just decide not to tell their audience?”