Political Junkies's topics - tribe.net

McCain Capsizes in Slow Motion

2008-10-12T00:43:55Z

Democrat Barack Obama opened a double-digit lead over rival John McCain in a key opinion poll on Saturday while investigators found Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin had abused her powers as Alaska governor.

Just over three weeks from the November 4 vote, Obama leads McCain 52 percent to 41 percent among registered voters, according to the latest survey conducted by Newsweek magazine.

A similar poll a month ago showed the two candidates tied at 46 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081011/pl_afp/usvote_081011124001

It got to 30-40 degrees and we realised the ship wasn’t coming back. “There was no panic – it’s uncanny, but everything seemed to be in slow motion. ...

www.navynews.co.uk/articles/2002/0207/1002072501.asp

posted in Political Junkies - 1 reply

Alaska panel finds Palin abused power in firing

2008-10-11T00:53:21Z

Legislative panel finds Palin abused her power

Alaska panel finds Palin abused power in firing

"ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state's public safety commissioner. The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn't the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.

The Republican vice presidential nominee has been accused of firing a commissioner to settle a family dispute. Palin supporters have called the investigation politically motivated.

Monegan says he was dismissed as retribution for resisting pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_el_pr/palin_troopergate

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Galbraith's "The Great Crash, 1929"

2008-10-10T19:39:05Z

This is one of my all-time favorite books. In brief, this is what Galbraith wrote:

Contrary to what had been Wall Streets perceived tendency in playing down its influence Galbraith asserted the important contribution of the 1929 crash on the Great Depression which followed:[16] causing a contraction of demand for goods, destroying for a time the normal means of investment and lending, arresting economic growth and causing financial hardship which alienated many from the economic system. Galbraith further argues that the Great Depression was caused by a mixture of five main weaknesses: First, an imbalance in the income distribution. Galbraith asserts "that the 5 per cent of the population with the highest incomes in that year [1929] received approximately one third of all personal income". Personal income in the form of rents, dividends and interest of the well-to-do was approximately twice as much as the period following the Second World War, leaving the economy dependent on a high level of investment and,or, luxury consumer spending with its potential exposure to the Crash of 1929.

Second, problems in the structure of corporations. Most specifically, he cites newly formed investment entities of the era (such as holding companies and investment trusts) as contributing to a deflationary spiral due in no small part to their high reliance on leverage. Dividends paid the interest on the bonds in the holding companies and when these were interrupted the structure collapsed. “It would be hard to imagine a corporate system better designed to continue and accentuate a deflationary cycle." Also “The fact was that American enterprise in the twenties had opened its hospitable arms to an exceptional number of promoters, grafters, swindlers, impostors, and frauds. This, in the long history of such activities, was a kind of flood tide of corporate larceny.”

Third, the bad banking structure. The weakness was manifest in the large number of units working independently. As one failed pressure was applied to another leading to a domino effect accelerated by increasing unemployment and lower incomes.

Fourth, foreign trade imbalances. During World War I, the US became a creditor nation, exporting more than it imported. High tariffs on imports contributed to this imbalance. Subsequent defaults by foreign governments led to a decline in exports, which was especially hard on farmers.

And finally, "the poor state of economic intelligence." Galbraith says that the "economists and those who offered economic counsel in the late twenties and early thirties were almost uniquely perverse" and that reputable economic advice was invariably on the sides steps that made things worse"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Crash,_1929

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Crash-1929-Kenneth-Galbraith/dp/0395859999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223667250&sr=1-1

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Terrorist! Kill Him!!

2008-10-10T14:55:46Z

That one! He's a terrorist!! Kill him!!!

Can you belive how ugly this is getting?

posted in Political Junkies - 1 reply

Palin on Oil Policy

2008-10-10T09:10:11Z

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, touted by GOP presidential candidate John McCain as his expert on energy, seemed to have problems Thursday explaining whether the government bans oil exports — especially from her state's North Slope fields.

A questioner at a town hall-style meeting in Wisconsin said he had heard that at least 75 percent of the oil drilled in Alaska was being sold to China and said, if true, he would like to know why.

"No. It's not 75 percent of our oil being exported," Palin said, suggesting some of Alaska's oil, in fact, may be going abroad but not that much.

"In fact," she added, "Congress is pretty strict on, um, export bans of oil and gas especially."

No Alaska oil has been exported since 2004, and little if any since 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration and the Congressional Research Service.

And Congress has never imposed outright bans on oil exports. Congress prohibited exports of Alaska oil in 1973 when the Alaska oil pipeline was built. But that ban was lifted in 1996 when there were large volumes of Alaska oil coming down from the North Slope and U.S. demand was soft.

The Alaska ban has never been reinstated.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDHjImXhY5yb3BNTWUbOmN5J5ZZwD93NALCG0

This is the governor of Alaska?

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Like Being Savaged By A Dead Sheep

2008-10-10T08:29:39Z

Obama in a romp in November? Don't be surprised
By GEORGE F. WILL
Oct. 8, 2008, 10:43PM

. . . In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, McCain finds it galling that Barack Obama is winning the first serious campaign he has ever run against a Republican. Before Tuesday night's uneventful event, gall was fueling what might be the McCain-Palin campaign's closing argument. It is less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.

This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts — telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seem surreal — or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6047692.html

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Disenfranchising Voters

2008-10-10T08:24:54Z

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?bl&ex=1223697600&en=ce240ad3162ac5ac&ei=5087%0A

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North American Union

2008-10-09T16:35:09Z

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/randallprovostii/gGBrRx

I am a Florida Obama supporter and I have followed Obama since 2004.

Hi my name is Randall Provost II and I made this post after I had been doing extensive research on Obama. I have read things that I do not agree with such as the North American Union which has already been signed by president bush in 2005. The NAFTA superhighway is also in the works. Please I am an avid Obama supporter, but his involvment in the Council of Foreign Relations is also disturbing. Look up the members of this council and you will see why. Members include Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, John Edwards, John McCain, Rupert Murdoch, just to name a few. Ask questions. think for yourself. Spread the word.

This is a link to wikipedia Read this!!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union

This is a link to a story on CNN it is very informative.!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T74VA3xU0EA

Council of Forign Relations

http://www.cfr.org/

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McCain Changes Course

2008-10-09T16:09:02Z

10/06/2008 09:31 PM

Republican Strategist: 'If We Keep Talking About the Economic Crisis, We're Going to Lose'

After Sarah Palin accused Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists," the Democratic campaign struck back, depicting John McCain as "erratic in a crisis, out of touch on the economy" in an advertisement. Obama echoed similar themes in speeches.

The Obama campaign has also accused the McCain camp of trying to link him to '60s radical William Ayers (SN reported) as a ploy to distract voters from the economic crisis, which the McCain campaign confirmed last week.

A McCain advisor said the GOP will attempt to "turn the page" from the economy and ramp up attacks on Obama. "It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice," the advisor said. "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=73838

McCain turns back to economy after failing to win debate

Ewen MacAskill and Suzanne Goldenberg in Nashville
The Guardian, Thursday October 9 2008

John McCain narrowed the focus of his campaign yesterday after failing to deliver the game-changing performance he needed in his presidential debate against Barack Obama. With instant polls awarding the debate to Obama, McCain's advisers refocused the campaign on a narrow field of battleground states. That suggests a best-case scenario for the Republican of a very slim victory over Obama.

The McCain camp also signalled an attempt to return to a more issues-based campaign, focused on the economy, only days after announcing a "gloves off" attack on Obama's character and his former associations in Chicago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/09/uselections2008.johnmccain

This is supposed to be a steady leader?

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Rejecting the Church Pew, for the Altar of Power by Mumia Abu-Jamal

2008-06-17T22:09:13Z

Rejecting the Church Pew, for the Altar of Power
[col. writ. 6/1/08] (c) '08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

The recent resignation of Sen. Barack Obama (D.-ILL.) (and all of his family) from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ is the latest scene of a tragicomic play that is as much religious as it is political.

Tragic because it is the very real parting of lifelong friends and families, as well as the severing of what seemed to be quite deep friendships between remarkable men; Sen. Obama and Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, longtime pastor at Trinity.

Comic because of how the illusory act of politics compels people to play roles to appeal to broad segments of the populace for votes, or just to assuage their fears.

The heat and light of politics does not reflect well on the inner sanctums of the Black Church, which, since its inception during the hellish depths of American slavery, had to speak in voices of pain, bitterness, truth and hope, in order to have any relevance to a people drowning in a sea of hopelessness.

The Rev. Dr. Wright spoke to this central truth when he observed at the National Press Club recently that enchained Africans in the holds of the slave ship didn't pray to the same god as those of the crew on the top decks, manning the masts. Nor, obviously, did they pray for the same thing - for one prayed for peace and a good breeze; and the other prayed for the storms and a chance to break their bonds, to make a break for freedom.

I've been struck by the role of religion in this presidential campaign, especially in light of Article VI of the Constitution, which states, quite explicitly, that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification, to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

But, if American history teaches us anything, it is that the Constitutions can be conveniently ignored, by millions.

One's church is as much a social decision as it is a religious one, but politics is the art of ego, illusion and imagery.

To gain a political office, is it necessary to reject one's church?

One of America's greatest leaders, Frederick Douglass, once wrote that one of the worst slave masters he ever experienced was the most religious: Thomas Auld of Bayside, Talbot County, Maryland. Writing of his conversion, Douglass noted: "If it made any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sanction him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty." [Douglass, F., Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Mineola, NY:Dover, 1995), p. 32]

Douglass said Auld prayed night and day, but he "starved" his slaves, while he "stuffed" his church friends.

Religion is a poor barometer by which to judge a politician. For, to a politician victory is his god, and a church merely a means to that end.

--(c) '08 maj

****************
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, for more on his case read:

Top Ten “Fry Mumia” Myths Debunked
(Myth #1) “Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner.”
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php

Also See:
Closing Our Eyes Won’t Make Racial and Ethnic Inequalities Disappear
by STEVEN ARGUE
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/21/18473855.php

Distributed by Liberation News, Subscribe free:
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

Join the Cool Earth Party
http://tribes.tribe.net/coolearth

posted in Political Junkies - 6 replies

Why We Are Fat?

2008-06-17T22:01:09Z

Another bullshit article blaming the victims of our rotten american diet loaded with food additives, such as high fructose corn syrup, chemical flavor agents, and genetically modified carbohydrates. .

Americans should demand pure and safe food. .

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1813700,00.html

Americans disagree about a lot of things, but we rarely quarrel when it comes to our food. For a nation built on grand democratic virtues, there is still nothing that defines us quite like our love of chow time.

We have plenty of reasons to fetishize our food—not the least being that we've always had so much of it. Settlers fleeing the privations of the Old World landed in the new one and found themselves on a fat, juicy center cut of continent, big enough to baste its coasts in two different oceans. The prairies ran so dark with buffalo, you could practically net them like cod; the waters swam so thick with cod, you could bag them like slow-moving buffalo. The soil was the kind of rich stuff in which you could bury a brick and grow a house, and the pioneers grew plenty—fruits and vegetables and grains and gourds and legumes and tubers, in a variety and abundance they'd never seen before.

With all that, was it any wonder that when we had a chance to establish our first national holiday, it was Thanksgiving—a feast that doesn't merely accompany a celebration but in effect is the celebration? Is it any wonder that what might be our most evocative patriotic song is America the Beautiful, in which an ideal like brotherhood doesn't even get mentioned until the second-to-last line, well after rhapsodic references to waves of grain and fruited plains? "We've defined an American version of what it means to succeed," says neuroscientist Randy Seeley, associate director of the Obesity Research Center at the University of Cincinnati Medical School. "And a big part of that is access to an environment in which there is a lot of food to be consumed."

The problem is, all those calories come at a price. Humans, like most animals, are hardwired not just to eat but to gorge, since living in the wild means never knowing when the next famine is going to strike. Best to load up on calories when you can—even if that famine never comes. "We're not only programmed to eat a lot," says Sharman Apt Russell, author of Hunger: An Unnatural History, "but to prefer foods that are high in calories." What's more, the better we got at producing food, the easier it became. If you're a settler, you eat a lot of buffalo in part because you need a lot of buffalo—at least after burning so many calories hunting and killing it. But what happens when eating requires no sweat equity at all, when the grocery store is always nearby and always full?

What happens is, you get fat, and that's precisely what we've done. In 1900 the average weight of a college-age male in the U.S. was 133 lb. (60 kg); the average woman was 122 lb. (55 kg). By 2000, men had plumped up to 166 lb. (75 kg) and women to 144 lb. (65 kg). And while the small increase in average height for men (women have remained the same) accounts for a bit of that, our eating habits are clearly responsible for most. Over the past 20 years in particular, we've stuffed ourselves like pâté geese. In 1985 there were only eight states in which more than 10% of the adult population was obese—though the data collection then was admittedly spottier than it is now. By 2006, there were no states left in which the obesity rates were that low, and in 23 states, the number exceeded 25%. Even those figures don't tell the whole story, since they include only full-blown obesity. Overall, about two-thirds of all Americans weigh more than they should.

"Sit down on a bench in a park with a person on either side of you," says Penelope Slade-Royall, director of the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "If you're not overweight, statistically speaking, both of the other people sitting with you are."

If there was any fire wall against the fattening of American adults, it was American kids. The quick metabolism and prodigious growth spurts of childhood make it a challenge just to keep up with all the calories you need, never mind exceed them. But even the most active kids could not hold out forever against the storm of food coming at them every day. In 1971 only 4% of 6-to-11-year-old kids were obese; by 2004, the figure had leaped to 18.8%. In the same period, the number rose from 6.1% to 17.4% in the 12-to-19-year-old group, and from 5% to 13.9% among kids ages just 2 to 5. And as with adults, that's just obesity. Include all overweight kids, and a whopping 32% of all American children now carry more pounds than they should. "There's no way to overestimate how scary numbers like this are," says Seeley.

Obese boys and girls are already starting to develop the illnesses of excess associated with people in their 40s and beyond: heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, gallstones, joint breakdown and even brain damage as fluid accumulation inside the skull leads to headaches, vision problems and possibly lower IQs. A staggering 90% of overweight kids already have at least one avoidable risk factor for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or hypertension. Type 2 diabetes is now being diagnosed in teens as young as 15. Health experts warn that the current generation of children may be the first in American history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents'. "The more overweight you are, the worse all of these things will be for you," says acting U.S. Surgeon General Steven Galson. And, warns Seeley, the worse they are likely to stay: "When you're talking about morbidly obese kids, zero percent will grow up to be normal-weight adults."

It's hardly a secret how American children have come to this sickly pass. In the era of the 64-oz. soda, the 1,200-calorie burger and the 700-calorie Frappuccino, food companies now produce enough each day for every American to consume a belt-popping 3,800 calories per day, never mind that even an adult needs only 2,350 to survive. Not only are adults and kids alike consuming far more calories than they can possibly use, but they're also doing less and less with them. The transformation of American homes into high-def, Web-enabled, TiVo-equipped entertainment centers means that children who come home after a largely sedentary day at a school desk spend an average of three more sedentary hours in front of some kind of screen. Schools have contributed, with shrinking budgets causing more and more of them to slash physical-education programs. In 1991, only 42% of high school students participated in daily phys ed—already a troublingly low figure. Today that number is 25% or less.

Washington, too, is dropping the ball. Seven years ago, Congress allocated $125 million for a smart new health campaign dubbed Verb, aimed at getting preteen kids to become more active. Boldface names such as teen star Miley Cyrus and quarterback Donovan McNabb headlined public-service ads, and volunteers set up booths at public events. In the program's first year, up to 80% of kids polled were aware of the Verb message, and communities began sponsoring their own Verb-based activities. But that success could not survive congressional budget cuts, and the program's funding was steadily slashed. By 2007, funds were shut off altogether, and Verb was past tense.

The government insists that the decision was a fiscally prudent one and that local and state programs, like the widely publicized fitness initiatives launched by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger or the less publicized INShape program begun in 2005 by Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, are a more efficient way to get the message out. "Obesity is not the kind of problem that is going to respond to just the flow of federal funds," says Galson. The fact is, however, that in the case of Verb, responding was precisely what it was doing—even if only a little.

In all of this, there are flickers of hope. In May, epidemiologists were thrilled when the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study of 8,165 children, which showed that for the first time in decades, the increase in U.S. childhood obesity had leveled off. It's not certain if the plateau is a sign that public-awareness programs and improved menus in many school cafeterias are producing results or merely that some kind of saturation point has been reached, with most kids genetically susceptible to gaining too much weight having done so. "Whether this is meaningful data, we don't know yet," says Seeley. "But anyone who wants to stick a flag in this and declare victory is just crazy."

Clearly, nobody is going that far. Victory may indeed come, but it will be only after a long, multifront war, one that, as the following stories in this Time special section show, is at last being joined. Parents are fighting it in the home as they learn how to make healthier meals available to their families, set better examples with their own food choices and manage the critical issues of self-esteem that can be so disabling for overweight kids. Policymakers are fighting it as they study the growing body of research showing how everything from income to race to education plays a role in how much kids weigh and as they craft local solutions to solve these local problems. Doctors are fighting it as they deal daily with the ills associated with childhood obesity and work to repair the damage that's been done. And perhaps most important, teachers, mentors and public role models are fighting it as they help kids navigate a culture that fosters fat but idealizes thin and as they teach them that what truly counts is getting themselves as fit as their body type and genes allow—and then loving that body no matter what.

Do all these things—and do them right—and the national obesity epidemic just might be brought under control before some kids struggling with their weight today even reach middle age. "If we got this way over the last 30 years," says Galson, "it's not going to take us centuries to get back. We could reverse things at the same speed or even faster." Americans will continue to love good food; the trick will be to learn to love good health even more.

posted in Political Junkies - 11 replies

The Universally Nothing (UN)

2008-06-17T21:58:16Z

is blaming the USA for the aftermath of the Burma cyclone.

According to the worthless motherfuckers at the UN the Burma despotic government should have been kept in check by the USA and had the USA done so then the aftermath woud have been easier to mitigate. (they are saying it was the USA's responsibility to manage Burma? Yup.)

So when you don't intervene militarily they curse you and when you do they curse you.

It would appear that where the Universally nugatory is concerned there is absolutely nothing that the US can do right.

posted in Political Junkies - 12 replies

McCain vs. Habeas Corpus

2008-06-17T21:34:58Z

The day after the Supreme Court ruled that detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo are entitled to seek habeas corpus hearings, John McCain called it "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." Well.

Does it rank with Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), which concocted a constitutional right, unmentioned in the document, to own slaves and held that black people have no rights that white people are bound to respect? With Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which affirmed the constitutionality of legally enforced racial segregation? With Korematsu v. United States (1944), which affirmed the wartime right to sweep American citizens of Japanese ancestry into concentration camps?

Did McCain's extravagant condemnation of the court's habeas ruling result from his reading the 126 pages of opinions and dissents? More likely, some clever ignoramus convinced him that this decision could make the Supreme Court -- meaning, which candidate would select the best judicial nominees -- a campaign issue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/16/AR2008061602041.html

posted in Political Junkies - 0 replies

publicly funded elections

2008-06-17T10:29:34Z

http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2008/06/12/City/Town-Approves.Pilot.Election.Fund.Program-3380815.shtml
The Chapel Hill Town Council approved a pilot public campaign-financing program, in the works for five years, at its meeting June 9. The program will begin with the fall 2009 municipal elections.

Chapel Hill is the first N.C. municipality to enact this type of program. The General Assembly authorized the town to do so in 2007.

Using the fund is voluntary for candidates, but for taxpayers, contributing to the fund is not.

"This involves taxpayers' money," council member Matt Czajkowski said. "It comes at a time when taxes have increased 11 percent."

Council member Ed Harrison said the program would cost each Chapel Hill resident about $1.88 during its four-year span.

Many citizens raised concerns that the system masks an incumbent protection act. To use the fund, a candidate for Town Council must demonstrate public support by raising $750 from 75 different contributors, and a mayoral candidate must raise $1,500 from 150 different contributors.

"A candidate who is a moderate, a genuine independent, a Republican or a newcomer will have a much more difficult time getting the 75 financial contributions needed to qualify for matching public funds," Terri Tyson, a Chapel Hill resident, said in a letter to the council.

Mayor Kevin Foy said that in 1995, the council made a then-controversial decision to limit individual contributions to $250 and to require full disclosure of contribution sources. Now, he said, the council is taking similar action.

"This is to ensure that in the long term, our politics in Chapel Hill are not polluted by money," he said.

The council recognized other benefits of the program, including the restrictions on campaign spending, the lowering of campaign barriers for the non-wealthy and the increased visibility of the source of campaign funds.

"The only thing it does is make the process more transparent and open the door for many others," council member Mark Kleinschmidt said.

Czajkowski suggested to the council that it resolve the issue by making it a referendum on November's ballot.

"If we believe this is a good thing, then turn it over to the people of Chapel Hill," he said.

But in the end, the council passed the resolution itself.

A related resolution passed at the meeting will provide for twice-a-year information sessions about the program for prospective candidates.

The council also unanimously passed the 2008-09 budget, which included $25,000 to begin the Voter Owned Elections Fund.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.

posted in Political Junkies - 3 replies

Obama has a lot to hide and hide from.

2008-06-17T05:57:17Z

Michelle Obama is a Vive President at a private hospital (Univ of Chicago Hospital) that makes more than 100-Million dollars a year - - - and it charges uninsured minorities more than 3.5 times what it charges insured patients. ( source: American Hospital directory)

In 2005 Obama said that “Hospitals Terrotrize the uninsured.” Yet he says nothing about his wife’s ruthless gouging of poor uninsured minorities at the hospital where she is a VP.

http://tinyurl.com/669ua7

Michelle Obama hospital has spent over 10 million (over two years alone) in collection fees alone just trying to squeeze blood from the poor whom they already overcharged by 3.5 times. ( that is a 350% markup over people with insurance).
The attorney General of Illinois (Lisa Madigan) demanded that Private hospitals like Obama’s provide more charity care (http://tinyurl.com/69gsct) Obama did nothing.

The University of Chicago Hospitals has made over $100,000 in campaign contributions to Obama.

Obama didn’t care when that hospital gave his wife a $200,000 salary increase as soon as he was sworn in to office in the Senate.

He tells Walmart’s union members bitching about CEO salary that there is a “Moral Responsibility to stand up and fight for a better economic future with adequate wages, health care and retirement benefits.”
http://tinyurl.com/556974

In 2005 the CEO of Walmart received $10.5-Million in compensation.
This appalled Obama.

However, Treehouse foods’ CEO was paid $26-Million that same year (source: Crane’s Chicago Business Dec. 11, 2006). Treehouse has revenues that are about 409-times Less than WalMart.

Obama seems not to need to mention that Michelle Obama is on the Board of Directors of Treehouse.

Nor did Obama feel compelled to say anything about Treehouse closing a plant in 2006 making thousands of minorities unemployed – because it was more profitable to shut the plant than to keep it open and fix what was wrong with it.

When Exelon Corporation was failing to report leaks at a Nuclear plant, Senator Obama took charge. Or did he?
http://tinyurl.com/2kpwsw
He drafted legislation that required mandatory and speedy reporting. He loves to tell people that he wrote legislation that more closely regulates the nuvlear industry:

HA HA HE is a liar: That bill he wrote does nothing but make reccomdendations.
The below is from NY Times Feb 03, 2008 issue here http://tinyurl.com/2kpwsw
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story. While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obama eventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans, Exelon and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandating prompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it charged with addressing the issue of unreported leaks.

Those revisions propelled the bill through a crucial committee. But, contrary to Mr. Obama's comments in Iowa, it ultimately died amid parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate.

"Senator Obama's staff was sending us copies of the bill to review, and we could see it weakening with each successive draft," said Joe Cosgrove, a park district director in Will County, Ill., where low-level radioactive runoff had turned up in groundwater. "The teeth were just taken out of it."

The history of the bill shows Mr. Obama navigating a home-state controversy that pitted two important constituencies against each other and tested his skills as a legislative infighter. On one side were neighbors of several nuclear plants upset that low-level radioactive leaks had gone unreported for years; on the other was Exelon, the country's largest nuclear plant operator and one of Mr. Obama's largest sources of campaign money.

Since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama's campaigns for the United States Senate and for president. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fund-raisers.
Another Obama donor, John W. Rowe, chairman of Exelon, is also chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry's lobbying group, based in Washington. Exelon's support for Mr. Obama far exceeds its support for any other presidential candidate.”
http://tinyurl.com/2kpwsw
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What about that goofy middle name. Is that the only reason Islamist monsters like him?

http://tinyurl.com/5fflby

And yet wasn’t he just today saying that he wanted to be tough on terrorist and stand by Israel always keeping the military option on the table as it regards Israel’s security?? Yah it was he was speaking at the AIPAC.

He really wants it both ways or is it that he only tells the convenient lies to suit the crowd to whom he’s speaking~?

posted in Political Junkies - 52 replies

CEO pay climbs higher despite slow economy

2008-06-16T01:42:54Z

As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

The AP review of compensation for the heads of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index finds the median pay package added up to nearly $8.4 million. That’s a comfortable gain of about $280,000 from 2006.

The 3½ percent pay increase for CEOs came even as the landscape for both workers and shareholders darkened considerably and the economy was choked by a housing market in free fall, layoffs and soaring prices for fuel and food.

At the top of the AP list: John Thain, who took the reins of Merrill Lynch on Dec. 1, 2007. His $83 million pay package was supercharged by a signing bonus and other enticements that lured him from the New York Stock Exchange to lead the investment bank as it was suffering its worst-ever losses.

Collectively, the 10 best-paid CEOs made more than half a billion dollars last year. Yet half the members of this stratospheric club were leading companies whose profits shrank dramatically.

The AP examination of CEO pay in 2007 mined data from the 410 companies in the S&P 500 that filed compensation disclosures with federal regulators in the first six months of this year.

The AP’s formula, based on data from the past two years, adds up salary, perks, bonuses, above-market interest on pay set aside for later, and company estimates for the value of stock options and stock awards on the day they were granted last year.

That provides a clearer picture than pay totals required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, compensation experts say, because the SEC totals include expenses companies book during the year for previously granted stock compensation and retirement benefits.

The value of stock and options given to CEOs may turn out to be significantly higher or lower if they are ultimately cashed out, but the numbers in the AP formula do reflect the board of directors’ estimate of the likely eventual payout.

The median salary figure of about $8.4 million means half the CEOs in the AP analysis made more than that and half made less.

There were some signs companies were pulling back on pay at the top: Out of the 316 companies in the AP survey that had the same CEO two years running, about two-fifths lowered the total pay package for their CEOs. However, the primary culprit for some was falling stock prices that cut into the value of the shares included in pay packages.

In many more cases, overall pay ballooned.

Rick Wagoner, chief executive of General Motors Corp., announced earlier this month the company had to close four plants that make trucks and SUVs because of lagging demand as fuel prices soar. That followed the posting a $39 billion loss in 2007, a year when its stock price fell by about 19 percent, without adjusting for dividends.

And Wagoner? His pay rose 64 percent, to $15.7 million.

Last year was rocky for the economy and the stock market, making it a useful test of a concept called pay for performance — a term companies use to sell shareholders on the idea CEOs are being paid based on how well the company does.

According to this concept, trotted out frequently by the compensation committees of corporate boards in their proxy statements, a big chunk of CEO pay is considered “at risk,” meaning it could disappear if CEOs don’t meet established metrics.

But the AP analysis found that CEO pay rose and fell regardless of the direction of a company’s stock price or profits.

Take KB Home, battered by the subprime lending crisis and the weak housing market. According to the Los Angeles-based homebuilder’s proxy statement, CEO Jeffrey Mezger is entitled to a cash bonus based on a percentage of KB’s profit.

The problem was there was no profit. KB Home lost almost $930 million in 2007 and its stock lost 60 percent of its value. But Mezger still made $24.4 million, as valued by the AP, including a $6 million cash bonus.

He pocketed that bonus because he exceeded certain objectives the board had set out for him. Among them were improving performance on a customer satisfaction survey and developing senior leadership in his first year as CEO.

“Compensation has become a shell game,” said Richard Ferlauto, director of pension and benefits policy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a Washington labor group representing government workers.

“So they take away the bonus,” he said, “but then they still come up with ways to make sure the executive gets a big payout.”

Pay packages were somewhat smaller in the financial industry last year — banks, investment firms, mortgage companies, insurers and other institutions, all were roiled by the subprime lending disaster.

For companies in the financial sector that had the same CEO two years in a row, median pay dropped 4¼ percent to $8.7 million in 2007. But that was still a smaller decline than the 6 percent drop in earnings and 15 percent slump in stock prices before dividend adjustments, according to Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ data service.

In some cases, companies appeared at first glance to have kept their promise to base pay on performance — only to have a different picture emerge on closer inspection.

[more...]

Standard & Poor’s 500 companies based on calculations by The Associated Press. The total pay figures are rounded, and are based on the AP’s compensation formula, which adds up salary, perks, bonuses, above-market interest on pay set aside for later, and company estimates for the value of stock options and stock awards on the day they were granted last year.

1. John Thain, Merrill Lynch, $83.1 million

2. Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp., $67.6 million

3. Richard Adkerson, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., $65.3 million

4. Bob Simpson, XTO Energy Inc., $56.6 million

5. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., $53.9 million

6. Kenneth Chenault, American Express Co., $51.7 million

7. Eugene Isenberg, Nabors Industries Ltd., $44.6 million

8. John Mack, Morgan Stanley, $41.7 million

9. Glenn Murphy, Gap Inc., $39.1 million

10. Ray Irani, Occidental Petroleum Corp., $34.2 million

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25106423/

posted in Political Junkies - 0 replies

Pork, Pork, Pork

2008-06-16T00:46:27Z

While McCain swears he will cut earmarks, his Republican colleagues are making very different election promises:

Faced with one of the worst national political environments in modern political history, Republican incumbents are turning to a tried-and-true approach to win reelection: pork.

In recent ads for Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.), the incumbents highlight their ability to work across party lines to deliver dollars for their respective states.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061401542.html

"Smaller government!" . . . the Republicans promise that every election . . . the truth is, the last time they actually cut government spending was 1955, see for yourself:

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy05/hist.html

Why do people listen to these liars anymore?

posted in Political Junkies - 3 replies

Jindal supports intelligent design as science

2008-06-16T00:44:48Z

The problem is that intelligent design is not a scientific theory, according to scientific method, because it cannot be proved false. But this concept has no meaning for the religious fanatics who have taken over the GOP.

http://rawstory.com/news08/2008/06/15/jindal-supports-intelligent-design-as-a-viable-science/

posted in Political Junkies - 1 reply

Cuba approves free sex-change operations

2008-06-16T00:29:09Z

Cuba approves free sex-change operations

By WILL WEISSERT,
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA - Cuba has authorized sex-change operations and will offer them free for qualifying citizens, an official said Friday. The move is the latest in a series of changes implemented by President Raul Castro since he succeeded his elder brother, Fidel, in February. Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, heads Cuba's National Center for Sex Education, which strongly backs the new policy.

Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer signed a resolution approving sex-change surgery, said an official at the center who spoke on condition of anonymity because the measure has not been formally published. The resolution will be posted on the Internet on Saturday, the official said.

The procedure would be available to Cubans for free as part of their country's health-care system.

The sex education center has said previously that 28 transsexual Cubans have asked to undergo the surgery and that Cuban doctors have trained with physicians from Belgium to prepare for the procedures.

According to the center, a clinic for transsexual health will be created to perform the procedures, but it was not clear when it will start operating.

posted in Political Junkies - 36 replies

Facts About Slavery in the Modern World. . .

2008-06-15T16:19:37Z

http://matador.org/10-shocking-facts-about-global-slavery-in-2008/

2008 witnesses the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in America. Amidst the celebrations, what many people fail to realize is that slavery persists today in the modern world on an enormous scale.

In spite of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948 stating that “slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms,” the figures accompanying the modern slave trade seem inconceivable in a global society that prides itself upon its modern-day values and emphasis on human rights.

1. There are more people in slavery now than at any other time in human history.

According to research carried out by the organization Free the Slaves, more people are enslaved worldwide than ever before.

In its 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade is estimated to have shipped up to 12 million Africans to various colonies in the West. Free the Slaves estimates that the number of people in slavery today is at least 27 million.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center suggests that three out of four slavery victims are women and that half of all modern-day slaves are children. ‘Countless other’ people are in other forms of servitude which are not legally classified as slavery, according to the Anti-Slavery Society, described ambiguously by some as ‘unfree labour’.

2. The value of slaves has decreased.

A slave in 1850 in American South cost the equivalent of approximately $40,000. According to figures published by FST, the cost of a slave today averages around $90, depending on the work they are forced to carry out.

A young adult male laborer in Mali might only fetch $40, whereas an HIV-free female might attract a price of up to $1000.

Expert Kevin Bales says that because modern slavery is so cheap, it is worse than that of the Atlantic slave trade.

People have become disposable and their living conditions are worse than ever before as a result of their value.

3. Slavery still exists in the US.

Estimates by the US State Department suggest up to 17,500 slaves are brought into the US every year, with 50,000 of those working as prostitutes, farm workers or domestic servants.

According to the CIA, more than 1,000,000 people are enslaved in the US today. Thousands of cases go undetected each year and many are difficult to take to court as it can be difficult to prove force or legal coercion.

4.Slavery is hidden behind many other names, thus disguising it from society.

These names are chattel slavery (the traditional meaning of slavery), bonded labor, trafficking, forced labor, and forced marriage, amongst others.

5. The least known method of slavery is the most widely used.

Bonded Labor occurs when labor is demanded in order to repay a debt or loan and the cyclical nature of debt and work can enslave the person for the rest of their life. Some conditions are so controlled that slaves are surrounded by armed guards while they work, many of whom are slaves themselves. This has been found in Brazil. It is estimated that there are 20 million bonded labourers in the world.

6. Human trafficking has recently been described as “the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.”

This shocking claim was made by former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. The UN estimates trafficked human cargo generates around $7 billion dollars a year.

7. To buy all bonded laborers out of slavery could cost as little as $40 per family.

The $40 figure was provided by the Center for Global Education, New York. Kevin Bales compares the total cost of ending all slavery with one’s week’s cost of the war on Iraq.

8. Free the Slaves believe it is possible to end all slavery within 25 years.

Ending slavery won’t be easy, but humanity is up to the challenge.

9. Many slave-produced goods might reach your home without you realizing their origin.

Industries where slave labor is often highly suspected include cocoa, cotton, steel, oriental rugs, diamonds and silk. Currently the only way to ensure the products you buy are slave-free is to buy Fair Trade certified goods.

10. Your actions affect global slavery.

By buying fair trade, learning more about modern slavery, spreading the word, and joining a movement such as Free the Slaves, Anti-Slavery International, or the American Anti-slavery group, you as an individual can help abolish slavery completely.

With the number of slaves rising due to increasing economic returns, a universal lack of awareness and anti-slavery laws not being enforced, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center believes “efforts to combat slavery will have only limited effectiveness” unless something is done on a larger scale.

The bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade would be better commemorated by every individual taking meaningful action to help end the exploitation of human labor once and for all.

posted in Political Junkies - 0 replies

McCain Dodging Previous Comments on SS. . .

2008-06-15T15:46:18Z

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/13/john-mccain-denies-social_n_106935.html

ohn McCain tried to deny past comments on Social Security reform yesterday, a move which has exposed him to criticism from his rival as well as obscuring the record on what entitlement changes McCain would seek to correct.

During last night's pre-screened town hall, John McCain took a hard line against George Bush's plan to privatize social security saying, "But I'm not for quote privatizing Social Security, I never have been, I never will be."

But that doesn't quite fit with past comments made by McCain on social security. In fact, he was a big supporter of privatizing social security in 2004:

"Without privatization, I don't see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits."

The DNC has footage of both statements:

He also told the Wall Street Journal this March that "as part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it - along the lines of what President Bush proposed."

Sen. Obama has already responded, sensing a potential soft spot of support among McCain followers on an issue that he has previously injected into the election cycle. From his prepared remarks:

Now, John McCain's ideas on Social Security amount to four more years of what was attempted and failed under George Bush. He said he supports private accounts for Social Security - in his words, "along the lines that President Bush proposed." Yesterday he tried to deny that he ever took that position, leaving us wondering if he had a change of heart or a change of politics.

Well let me be clear: privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it. It's a bad idea today. It would eventually cut guaranteed benefits by up to 50%. It would cost a trillion dollars that we don't have to implement on the front end, permanently elevating our debt. And most of all, it would gamble the retirement plans of millions of Americans on the stock market. That's why I stood up against this plan in the Senate, and that's why I won't stand for it as President.

Howard Dean has also released a statement:

"John McCain should realize that the American people know a bad idea when they see one. Despite the rhetoric, the facts don't lie. Senator McCain not only supports privatizing Social Security, he was part of the Bush propaganda machine that tried to sell it to the American people. The American people cannot afford another Republican president who will put the retirement security of millions of hard working families at risk. Telling the voters he opposes privatizing Social Security when he clearly supports it is not the 'straight talk' Senator McCain promised the American people. Senator McCain is ill-suited to be President if he thinks the American people won't notice when he says something in 2008 that is the exact opposite of what he said in 2004 and 2005."

. . .a big ooops! for McCain. .

posted in Political Junkies - 14 replies

Housing bubble

2008-06-15T14:31:35Z

[snip]

Seen in the best possible light, the housing bubble that began inflating in the mid-1990s was "a great national experiment," as one prominent economist put it -- a way to harness the inventiveness of the capitalist system to give low-income families, minorities and immigrants a chance to own their homes. But it also is a classic story of boom, excess and bust, of homeowners, speculators and Wall Street dealmakers happy to ride the wave of easy money even though many knew a crash was inevitable.

[snip]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25169510/

Or seen in another light, it is a fine example of capitalist greed making bundles of money for Wall Street brokers while putting people out in the street or burdening families with unconscionable levels of interest. That experiment has been going on since the first money lender charged interest.

posted in Political Junkies - 0 replies

Bush-Harper Money Laundering operation

2008-06-14T23:43:15Z

Softwood lumber deals benefits Republican interests while mills close laying off thousands in Canada.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/06/05/SlushFund/

posted in Political Junkies - 11 replies

McCain more Amreican than Obama

2008-06-14T15:38:26Z

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama released their Senate financial disclosure statements on Friday, revealing that Mr. McCain and his wife had at least $225,000 in credit card debt and that Mr. Obama and his wife had put more than $200,000 into college funds for their daughters.

The bulk of the McCains’ obligations stemmed from a pair of American Express credit cards that are held in Cindy McCain’s name. According to the disclosure reports, which present information on debts in a range rather than providing a precise figure, Mrs. McCain owed $100,000 to $250,000 on each card.

Another charge card, held by what was described as a “dependent child,” had also accumulated debts of $15,000 to $50,000. In addition, a credit card held jointly by the couple was carrying $10,000 to $15,000 in debt, the filing indicated, at a stiff 25.99 percent interest rate.

Under Congressional reporting rules, spouses of senators need not specify the exact amount of income they earn from employment, only whether that money exceeded $1,000. Neither Mrs. McCain, an heiress of the Hensley beer distribution company, nor Michelle Obama, a lawyer turned hospital administrator, provided additional information on their salaries in the disclosure form.

Land sold at $1 million profit
Mrs. McCain’s filing, however, indicated that she had substantial holdings in property and stocks — including shares in Anheuser-Busch, which this week became the target of a takeover bid that is expected to send its value climbing. Her land holdings included parcels in Arizona and California, one of which was sold last year for a profit of more than $1 million.

In other filings, the McCains have reported total household assets of $24.6 million to $39.5 million. In recently releasing a summary version of her 2006 tax return, Mrs. McCain reported income that year of more than $6 million, some $300,000 of which was derived from her salary as the chairwoman of Hensley, which was founded by her father.

Information provided in the name of Mrs. Obama, whose 2006 tax return indicated income of $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, showed that she also earned at least $1,000 for work done for Treehouse Foods, where she was a salaried board member. She relinquished her position at that company, a major supplier to Wal-Mart, in May 2007, after her husband criticized Wal-Mart’s labor practices.

Obama's $4 million in book royalties
In addition to his Senate salary, $165,200 last year, Mr. Obama reported book royalties of more than $4 million in 2007. Those figures reflect the vigorous sales of his two books, “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope,” in the months leading up to and after his entry into the presidential race early last year.

Mr. Obama and his wife have invested those earnings in a variety of ways. In May, for example, they put at least $1 million into a money market fund, and in July invested $100,000 to $250,000 into college savings accounts for each of their two daughters, who are in elementary school. The Obamas have often noted on the campaign trail that they had only recently paid off their own college loans.

Mr. McCain also reported income from book royalties and signings, though significantly smaller than Mr. Obama’s: $176,488. That money is reported to have been donated to charity. In addition, as a retired Navy officer, Mr. McCain receives an annual pension of $58,358.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25154267/

So we see McCain can be every bit as good as Bush when it comes time to say charge it for war expenses.

posted in Political Junkies - 2 replies

Cuba: a lesson in the failure that is comminusm

2008-06-14T15:33:17Z

CUBA HAS NO HEALTHCARE - FOR THE PEOPLE.

Cuba’s people are starving and the nation is destitute not because of the American trade embargo because Cuba can trade with anyone else with whom it chooses. It doesn’t need the US. There is a whole planet of trading partners out there besides the USA. In 46 years if they haven’t found another then, their blood is on Castro’s head not the USA’s Cuba is destitute because communism is a total failure and has disserved the poor Cubanos with horrifying results.

Below I have my case that Cuba is a nation of destitute people who (1) have to sell their children into sexual slavery just to eat; (2) willingly consume picked over garbage from the plates of well fed tourists; (3) have only the merest empty props for healthcare where the medical dispensaries are empty, the so called hospitals are filthy unkempt ramshackle sewers and life as a Cubano who is not a member of the ruling class is a living hell.

It appalls me that the America Hating leftists who insist on using Cuba as a hallmark of good things are so willing to ignore the hell that is Cuba preferring instead to claim that birth survival rates are better and people live longer when the reality is just the opposite.

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CUBANOS EAT PICKED OVER GARBAGE OFF TOURIST PLATES

During my trip there a few years ago, while participating in a Friday night chicken dinner at El Patronato, a frail man asked us for the leftovers on our plate, which he immediately wolfed down, while another woman wrapped up leftover chicken bones and carefully placed them in a bag to take home to make soup.
tinyurl.com/3rqs2u

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CUBANOS FORCED BY STARVATION TO SELL THEIR CHILDREN AS SEX SLAVES JUST TO BE ABLE TO EAT.

June 5 - The US State Department released its 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report on Wednesday. Here is part of what it says about Cuba: "Cuba is principally a source country for women and children trafficked within the country for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Some families push child victims to prostitute themselves as a means of increasing family income. Cuban children and adults also may be exploited for forced labor. The full scope of trafficking within Cuba is difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse non-governmental or independent reporting. However, by all accounts, the country is a destination for sex tourism, including child sex tourism, which is a problem in many areas of the country. Cuba’s thriving sex trade caters to numerous European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists every year. State-run hotel workers, travel employees, cab drivers, and police steer tourists to prostituted women and children and facilitate their commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes extorting money or pay-offs from victims...... The Government of Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so......No investigations or prosecutions of public officials for complicity with human trafficking were noted, although some police officers reportedly accept and solicit bribes in connection with Cuba’s sex trade."

tinyurl.com/4lkhtp

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HEALTHCARE IN CUBA IS A PROPAGANDIST LIE

Two things about Cuba’s healthcare are true: (1) it has a large investment in Biotech; and (2) Cuba does educate more Doctors per capita than any other nation on the planet. There are plenty of Doctors in Cuba. So many in fact, that you can see one almost any time day or night. Whether they can help you will depend on whether you need anything more than a little fixing up with whatever materials (rags and tape) that is locally available because there are no medical supplies regularly available in Cuba outside one Clinic in Havana. If you need stitches it’s going to hurt and the thread will be from some old lady’s sewing basket. Cuba’s plethora of Doctors is not because Cuba’s government cares about the people but, rather it exists because the Castro regime recognized that physicians would be a goodwill propaganda tool to spread communism and lies around the world. Cuba sends ‘em all over the place. This makes Cuba look like it’s serious about healthcare and underpins the lies about Cuba’s healthcare – which is in reality non existent if you are a poor Cubano who is not in the government.

http://tinyurl.com/66k2pp
(English subtitles)

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CUBAN DOCTOR SPEAKS OUT ABOUT HEALTHCARE LIES

Cuban-born Dr. Jose Carro, says:
“Why would we believe the Cuban government's health statistics?
Cuba claims it has low infant mortality, but doctors tell us that Cuban obstetricians abort a fetus when they think there might be a problem. Dr. Julio Alfonso told us he used to do 70-80 abortions a day. And here's an even more devious way of distorting infant-mortality data: Some doctors tell us that if a baby dies within a few hours of birth, Cuban doctors don't count him or her as ever having lived.”
[…]
“[Michael ] Moore claims Cubans live longer than Americans. It's true that a U.N. report claims that. But the United Nations didn't gather any data. "The United Nations simply reports whatever the government in Cuba reports, so we have no objective way to know what the real statistics are,"”
http://tinyurl.com/5cxkuh (http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y07/sep07/20e2.htm)

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CUBA’S HEALTHCARE BUDGET IS SLASHED TO ALMOST NOTHING

"According to the Pan American Health Organization, the Cuban Government currently devotes a smaller percentage of its budget for health care than such regional countries as Jamaica, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic."

"The Castro government [...] made a deliberate decision to continue to spend money to maintain its military and internal security apparatus at the expense of other priorities--including health care."

tinyurl.com/4ancbo

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Cuba Has Better Health Care Than U.S.?

(http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y07/sep07/20e2.htm)

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CUBANS PREFER FACING DEATH THAN REMAINING WITH CASTRO
http://tinyurl.com/55wu66

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“In his book Cuba: Myth and Reality, sociologist Dr. Juan Clark states that the highest record of political prisoners in Cuba (at a given time) throughout its history amounted to 60 thousand during the 1960's. […]Clark concludes that "in a comparative base, these two amounts would be the equivalent, in a country the size of the United States, in the amount of 1,410,000 and 466,000 during that era".”

http://tinyurl.com/6rqo6r (http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/estoria.presidio.html)

http://tinyurl.com/6hdtc7 (http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/clark12298.html)

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CHRONICLE OF AN UNFORGETTABLE AGONY: CUBA'S POLITICAL PRISONS
Contacto Magazine. Sep't 96.
http://tinyurl.com/6hdtc7 (http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/estoria.presidio.html)

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CUBAN PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE,
JUAN CARLOS HERRERA ACOSTA, FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE

prison authorities have demonstrated a policy of disinterest and indifference until last October 23rd when I sewed my mouth shut as a fair complaint against the violation of my rights and the awful living conditions under which I am kept as if I were a wild animal while the prison officials’ dogs live under exceptional conditions.

http://tinyurl.com/6s6vgt (http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y07/nov07/21e1.htm)

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COUNTING CASTRO'S VICTIMS

"On May 27, [1966,] 166 Cubans -- civilians and members of the
military -- were executed and submitted to medical procedures of
blood extraction of an average of seven pints per person. This blood
is sold to Communist Vietnam at a rate of $50 per pint with the dual
purpose of obtaining hard currency and contributing to the Vietcong
Communist aggression. [.."A pint of blood is equivalent to half a liter. Extracting this amount of blood from a person sentenced to death produces cerebral anemia and a state of unconsciousness and paralysis. Once the blood is extracted, the person is taken by two militiamen on a stretcher to the location where the execution takes place."
-- InterAmerican Human Rights Commission, April 7, 1967

http://www.cubaarchive.org/downloads/CA22.pdf

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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1995

Cuban Prisoners of Conscience

http://tinyurl.com/54t563
(http://www.amnestyusa.org/annualreport.php?id=3FA32F68B4C84C4980256A0F005BB4D0&c=CUB)

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IT IS A CRIME IN CUBA TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT HEALTHCARE

GOOGLE "Darsi Ferrer"

"Darsi Ferrer, a human rights advocate in Cuba, issued an SOS via telephone, wanting the world to know that ordinary Cubans are "crazy with desperation" over the horrendous state of their health care."
tinyurl.com/5de7ve

And the miserable fukers arrested him for telling the truth
tinyurl.com/3g2tld

September 2, 2006. At around 2:30AM on Friday, September 1st, over twelve vehicles with around 50 members of Cuba’s State Security (political police), descended on Dr. Darsi Ferrer’s home in Havana. With guns drawn, they knocked on the door. As soon as he answered, they handcuffed him.

Dr. Ferrer’s wife was away, caring for her ailing mother. The police ignored his pleas to bring his five year old son, Dariel, along until his wife could come for him. Instead, they took Dr. Ferrer away shirtless and barefoot, left the child alone, and opened the gas main before shutting the door. Neighbors went for the wife and helped her break open a window, finding the child still alive.
tinyurl.com/4c6vgf

Darsi stood up to the monsters telling truth to power and suffered for it~!! Darsi is a hero of the people.
But Steven Argue doesn't mind telling Castro's lies does he?

But Darsi kept poking the monster in the eye:
"Ferrer had sinned against the Revolution: He is an Afro-Cuban medical professional who, noting the country's abysmal state of health care, established an independent health and human rights clinic. "We have dedicated ourselves to offering free medical attention to those in need and visiting extremely poor communities where scarcities strike marginalized Cubans daily, to offer health services, give medicine, clothing and toys and to share the suffering of those beings," Dr. Ferrer reported."
tinyurl.com/3g2tld

If Cuba’s healthcare was real then why oh why would Dr Ferrer need to do something apart from Cuba's medical healthcare?

Apparently Darsi ( who happens to live there) doesn't think the Much Vaunted Cuban healthcare. Apparently it is not really health care at all. Rather it's more like political puffery. It's lie told to the leftists who hate America.

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CATCHING A COLD IN CUBA

"It wasn't much of a cold; just the kind that would get better by itself in a week. In the meantime it was a nuisance with a cough and stuffy nose. A little over-the-counter remedy would help.....There were no over-the-counter remedies to be had. I asked the guide what Cubans did if they had a cold. The guide said that a Cuban would go to the doctor — a visit free of charge — who would write a prescription for aspirin. However, there would be no way to fill the prescription. We visited a pharmacy later in the trip. Behind the counter five well-dressed Cuban women waited to serve, but the shelves were empty. The only items in sight were the monthly ration of sanitary napkins, 10 permitted per Cuban woman per month.

It was like being in a dream where two different things can happen at the same time. We were in a two-tier system: one for the privileged (tourists, for example) and the other for those who lived and worked in socialist Cuba. Our luxurious state-owned hotel was closed to Cubans, except for those who worked there. A Cuban could not even come in for a meal.

It was depressing to see attractive and intelligent people restricted and denied opportunity in such an appealing land only 90 miles away from our country. The accident of birth has put me in a free country and I have never been so grateful."

tinyurl.com/e8yu7
tinyurl.com/639wv3

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YOUR ODDS IN CUBA

"Calculating the odds, this implies that the average Cuban at the start of Castro's regime had a roughly 1.5% chance of being executed by the regime and a 5.6% chance of being incarcerated in a labor camp. In reality, the risks were probably higher than that for those who stayed in Cuba, since the 6.3 million population figure includes several hundred thousand Cubans successfully fled the country in the early years of the regime (the US alone admitted some 750,000 Cuban refugees between 1960 and 1976)."

Mumia says this is not a very good thing that hundreds of thousands of people have to become refugees so one dictator can pretend to have a healthcare system.

tinyurl.com/5ns7d8

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AN DEEPER LOOK AT CUBA’S HEALTHCARE

Doctor Katherine Hirschfeld to the rescue~!!
She’s a real researcher – unlike Michael Moore who is - well - he was too stupid to penetrate beyond that model clinic which he was shown

“My increased awareness of Cuba’s criminalization of dissent raised a very provocative
question: to what extent is the favorable international image of the Cuban health care system maintained by the state’s practice of suppressing dissent and covertly intimidating or imprisoning would-be critics?”

[…]

“These experiences led me to conclude that any foreign researcher who did not strive to
take on a membership role could easily draw a number of erroneous conclusions even from ostensibly confidential interviews in Cuba. People simply would not voice negative opinions in the context of researcher-interviewee interactions. Questionnaire data would be similarly unreliable. In fact, most Cubans I spoke with informally seemed to view questionnaires as tools to elicit popular reiteration of the party line. As one friend stated, "We know we're supposed to be moving toward democratic reforms and be able to speak out, to criticize. But people are still scared. Any kind of survey or opinion poll makes them afraid. No one will say what they really think."

[…]

“When issues of state power and social control are factored into the analysis, it becomes possible to see how Cuba’s health indicators are at least in some cases obtained by imposing significant costs on the Cuban population--costs that Cuban citizens are powerless to articulate or protest, and foreign researchers unable to empirically investigate.”

http://ctp.iccas.miami.edu/website_documents/article-hirschfeld-press.pdf

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CUBA PARADISE LOST

Cuba was one of the most well developed countries in the world in 1959. But today it is one of the least:

* Daily food consumption in Cuba, as measured by calorie intake, has fallen 16 percent since Castro took power and is now well below other Latin American countries (see figure).

* Telephones, radios and autos per capita have remained at pre-Castro levels, while rising sharply almost everywhere else.

* Cubans' health and literacy are high, it is true, but they were already high before Castro.

Tourists have it nice - - - - Versus the - - - - Cubanos who live in squalor
tinyurl.com/68ho3q - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tinyurl.com/6ahcjk
tinyurl.com/62p5a4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tinyurl.com/6xt566
tinyurl.com/5hmrev - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tinyurl.com/5qaahg
tinyurl.com/5mbxzs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tinyurl.com/6o4tvm
tinyurl.com/5sku2v - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -tinyurl.com/6zknju

MORE POVERTY THAN EVER BEFORE

Many Castro apologists try to justify the poverty in Cuba saying that you can find the same poverty in many other countries. But what these people do not say is that those other countries didn't have to suffer a revolution that caused tens of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, the loss of all liberties, and that supposedly was needed in order to improve the life of ALL citizens.

After more than 47 years, there is much more poverty in Cuba than ever before. Except for Castro and his gang who are the new millionaires, the 11 million Cubans have to suffer the exploitation of the omnipotent state, rationed food, lack of housing and the indignity of being second class citizens in their own country.

It is the worse form of capitalism, the capitalism of the state.

But incredibly enough, there are some Latin American countries that want to copy this failed and obsolete system and there are even some moronic Americans who claim that we should imitate some of the things that Castro has done!

tinyurl.com/659s8c

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CUBANS KNOW THEIR GOVERNMENT EXPLOITS THEM

May 31 - Loraicys is 27 years old and has never held a job. She is not alone. As Raúl Castro embarks on an ambitious plan to kick-start the communist nation's economy, he faces a daunting challenge: Many Cubans simply do not work.

''I am not going to tell you something different. There are jobs here in Cárdenas where I live. Doing what? Cleaning hospitals for 150 pesos [$7] a month,'' said Loraicys, a single mother. ``For 150 pesos, I would rather stay home with my kid. I am willing to work really hard -- but not for nothing in return.''

''If Raúl Castro wants to crack down on people who do not work, then he should offer real jobs,'' Loraicys said. ``Don't you think people would prefer to have independence, to have something they can be proud of?''

But the real jobs are only for Raul and his cronies. His generals are living like millionaires, running the tourist resorts in the island. The Castro brothers have a fortune that is estimated at a billion dollars, while they continue exploiting 11 million Cubans who cannot survive with the salaries that these slave master are willing to pay them.

And all this is happening 50 years after a so called "revolution" that was supposedly made to help the poor!

And the worse part is that there are ignorant people worldwide who still believe he garbage propaganda that the Castro brothers feed them.
tinyurl.com/5apzk6

tinyurl.com/286y4o
watch the video tinyurl.com/4ed3c6

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CANADIAN NEWSPAPER BLAMES CANADA AND ITS TOURISTS FOR EXPLOITING THE CUBAN PEOPLE

May 28 - From today's editorial in the Sudbury Star: "Last year, for example, more than 600,000 Canadian tourists visited Cuba, not only attracted by the beautiful beaches - which also exist in every other Caribbean country - but by the unmatched bargains, the cost of which are borne by the virtual slave labor provided by the Cuban state on behalf of our dutiful tourists.

Canadian industries and hotel chains also take advantage of property formerly owned by American interests, but confiscated by Castro after the revolution, undaunted by the fact that most of the money they give to the government to pay for the staff in fact stays with the government. As for the staff, they, too,0 are forced to survive on slave wages, while Canadians bask on the beaches and live in hotels that the locals can't even afford to dream about sharing.

You can be sure if the Castros were right-wing dictators, as opposed to Communist dictators, Canada's squishy leftists and serial liberals would be marching in the streets demanding change.

Instead, boosted by widespread anti-Americanism in this country, Canadians have been among the most complicit in propping up one of the world's most vile regimes for several decades. Worse, we continue to celebrate that fact by blathering on about our "links" and our "solidarity" and, of course, by exploiting cheap labor imposed by the Castro regime on its own people.

This is a country that still does not allow its own people to organize, assemble and freely speak their minds; it does not allow anything close to a free press and it strictly enforces what academia can and cannot teach its students.......Apologists for the Castros in this country and elsewhere argue that the ongoing U.S. economic embargo hasn't worked, that only a policy of engagement will change things for the better there.

Nonsense.

The only reason Castro has been able to maintain his iron grip on Cuba is because his regime has been propped up by the appeasers - of which Canada, to its shame, leads the league.

Embargoes certainly ended the horrid apartheid regime in South Africa and Canada, to its credit, was a major player in organizing it. Not so with Cuba. Instead, this country - and those 600,000 tourists who exploit Cuba - are the main reason why that country continues to oppress its own people and deny them the rights and freedoms that Canadians claim to value."

tinyurl.com/69f6a6

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I say that Cuba has no healthcare.
I say that if you are in the US and are on the street that you will find better more competent and more equipped and supplied health care at any of the free clinics that are sprinkles here and there around every large city and less frequently in the rural areas.

I say the leftists who want a hallmark for anything good should look elsewhere because Cuba is making them look patently stupid and ignorant.

posted in Political Junkies - 8 replies

Economists across political spectrum question McCain's portrayal of Obama

2008-06-14T01:46:24Z

[snip]

In a study of the candidates’ plans made public Wednesday, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded that in contrast to Mr. McCain, “Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers.”

The study said, “The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the income distribution,” whereas “Senator McCain’s tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes.”

Other groups that focus on tax and economic policy are preparing similar analyses, but say they regard the Tax Policy Center’s assessment as highly reliable, based on its work in the past.

[snip]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25133125/

posted in Political Junkies - 4 replies

Why Is Bush Helping Saudi Arabia Build Nukes?

2008-06-14T01:41:57Z

Why Is Bush Helping Saudi Arabia Build Nukes?

By EDWARD J. MARKEY
June 10, 2008

Here's a quick geopolitical quiz: What country is three times the size of Texas and has more than 300 days of blazing sun a year? What country has the world's largest oil reserves resting below miles upon miles of sand? And what country is being given nuclear power, not solar, by President George W. Bush, even when the mere assumption of nuclear possession in its region has been known to provoke pre-emptive air strikes, even wars?

If you answered Saudi Arabia to all of these questions, you're right.

Last month, while the American people were becoming the personal ATMs of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Saudi Arabia signing away an even more valuable gift: nuclear technology. In a ceremony little-noticed in this country, Ms. Rice volunteered the U.S. to assist Saudi Arabia in developing nuclear reactors, training nuclear engineers, and constructing nuclear infrastructure. While oil breaks records at $130 per barrel or more, the American consumer is footing the bill for Saudi Arabia's nuclear ambitions.

Saudi Arabia has poured money into developing its vast reserves of natural gas for domestic electricity production. It continues to invest in a national gas transportation pipeline and stepped-up exploration, building a solid foundation for domestic energy production that could meet its electricity needs for many decades. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, would require enormous investments in new infrastructure by a country with zero expertise in this complex technology.

Have Ms. Rice, Mr. Bush or Saudi leaders looked skyward? The Saudi desert is under almost constant sunshine. If Mr. Bush wanted to help his friends in Riyadh diversify their energy portfolio, he should have offered solar panels, not nuclear plants.

Saudi Arabia's interest in nuclear technology can only be explained by the dangerous politics of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, a champion and kingpin of the Sunni Arab world, is deeply threatened by the rise of Shiite-ruled Iran.

The two countries watch each other warily over the waters of the Persian Gulf, buying arms and waging war by proxy in Lebanon and Iraq. An Iranian nuclear weapon would radically alter the region's balance of power, and could prove to be the match that lights the tinderbox. By signing this agreement with the U.S., Saudi Arabia is warning Iran that two can play the nuclear game.

In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "[Iran is] already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. No one can figure why they need nuclear, as well, to generate energy." Mr. Cheney got it right about Iran. But a potential Saudi nuclear program is just as suspicious. For a country with so much oil, gas and solar potential, importing expensive and dangerous nuclear power makes no economic sense.

The Bush administration argues that Saudi Arabia can not be compared to Iran, because Riyadh said it won't develop uranium enrichment or spent-fuel reprocessing, the two most dangerous nuclear technologies. At a recent hearing before my Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman shrugged off concerns about potential Saudi misuse of nuclear assistance for a weapons program, saying simply: "I presume that the president has a good deal of confidence in the King and in the leadership of Saudi Arabia."

That's not good enough. We would do well to remember that it was the U.S. who provided the original nuclear assistance to Iran under the Atoms for Peace program, before Iran's monarch was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Such an uprising in Saudi Arabia today could be at least as damaging to U.S. security.

We've long known that America's addiction to oil pays for the spread of extremism. If this Bush nuclear deal moves forward, Saudi Arabia's petrodollars could flow to the dangerous expansion of nuclear technologies in the most volatile region of the world.

While the scorching Saudi Arabian sun heats sand dunes instead of powering photovoltaic panels, millions of Americans will fork over $4 a gallon without realizing that their gas tank is fueling a nascent nuclear arms race.

Rep. Markey (D., Mass.) is chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121305642257659301.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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posted in Political Junkies - 5 replies

NRCC Treasurer Stole $725,000

2008-06-13T19:01:09Z

Christopher J. Ward, the former NRCC treasurer, improperly diverted as much as $725,000 from the committee to himself over a six-year period, according to several GOP insiders.

Ward's alleged improper diversion of NRCC funds began earlier than had previously been reported, with the "unauthorized transfers" starting in 2001, when the NRCC was chaired by Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), the sources said. NRCC officials, including Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.), has stated publicly that Ward began diverting money from the committee sometime in 2003. NRCC officials now believe the transfers started much earlier.

Cole is expected to unveil the results of a three-month forensic audit by the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to the NRCC executive committee, GOP leaders and the press on Thursday.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0608/Ward_may_have_taken_as_much_as_725K_from_NRCC.html

posted in Political Junkies - 2 replies

UK bans Television Prodcut Placement

2008-06-13T17:38:23Z

From Variety magazine:

The U.K. media minister has attacked product placement in TV shows and said he will not allow the practice on British broadcasters even though it has been approved by the European Union.
The news is likely to infuriate TV companies, including beleaguered terrestrial giant ITV, which are all trying to find additional revenue streams as new media continues to make inroads into traditional advertising.

Andy Burnham, secretary of state at the Dept. of Culture, Media and Sport since January, dropped his bombshell Wednesday in his first big policy speech on broadcasting.

He said product placement would undermine the status that British TV enjoys internationally and “contaminate” programs.

He added, “There is a risk that, at the very moment when television needs to do all it can to show it can be trusted, that we elide the distinction between programs and adverts,” referring to the phone-in quiz scandals that rocked all British terrestrial webs last year.

“As a viewer, I don’t want to feel the script has been written by the commercial marketing director,” he added. “British programming has an integrity that is revered around the world, and I don’t think we should put that hard-won reputation up for sale.”

Last week, ITV topper Rupert Howell, in a speech about the new economics of TV, eagerly anticipated a time when U.K. television would be allowed to follow the U.S. example and use product placement.

Howell said it was vital to find new revenue streams soon and that product placement would be an important source of coin.

He said: “If we do it badly, people will switch off or switch over. We have to do it well. It will not be big, but it will be valuable.”

posted in Political Junkies - 0 replies

Press Release: Dissatisfied Clinton Supporters Flock to Third Party in Droves

2008-06-13T17:30:48Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dissatisfied Clinton Supporters Flock to Third Party in Droves

Moderate third party enjoys 400% increase in new members, as Hillary Clinton supporters search for other options for their preferred candidate; NAIP leadership “admires” Clinton and her ideals, offers her supporters a “new home.”

PHILADELPHIA, PA. -- JUNE 7, 2008 – In the wake of the divisive 2008 Democratic primaries. A growing number of Hillary Clinton supporters are searching for an alternative to the Democratic Party, which many believe has abandoned them and their ideals.

Over the past week, traffic on the sign-up board at the NAIP web site has been “off the charts,” according to the site administrator. Comments left by new sign-ups paint a picture of Democrats and Clinton supporters enraged at the treatment their candidate has received, and looking for alternatives.
“The Democratic Party Left Me”

Jen Rodgers is a typical example. A lifelong Democrat and mother of two with moderate views on issues, Rodgers reregistered in response to ‘the DNC’s coronation of a sexist, racist, elitist divider,” Senator Barak Obama, who Rogers sees as “unproven, unvetted, and unelectable.”
The Democrats’ decision to halve the votes of Florida and Michigan, and to award to Senator Obama delegates won by Senator Clinton, proved too much for Lynn Baker. “That was the last straw,” Baker says. “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, The Democratic Party left me.”

No Obama

Other comments reveal a resolute refusal to voting for Senator Obama under any circumstances. John Polidoro, another lifelong Democrat, supported Obama at first, “But the more I looked into his past, the more I saw how crooked and dangerous he was,” says the middle class factory worker from Fairfax, Virginia. “I’ll vote for the NAIP ticket, but I’ll never vote for Obama.” The N A I P gives voters like John Polidoro a way to make a difference this November, and is actively courting them to help collect signatures so the NAIP can oppose Barack Obama in as many states as possible.

NAIP “Naturally A Good Fit” for Clinton Supporters

Founded in 2004, the N A I P is a grassroots, independent party that promotes principles of people above party and good government above good politics.

NAIP chairman Michael Thompson sees an affinity between his party and Clinton supporters. “Like us, Clinton supporters are expressing a desire to see strong, ethical candidates who represent the moderate views of most Americans. Like us, they are tired of politicians who hold radical views that are divisive and out-of-touch with America.”

NAIP advocates pragmatic, centrist solutions to issues facing America such as universal healthcare, strong public schools, energy independence and climate change, civil liberties and a strong middle class. NAIP has always appealed to moderate Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. “We’re naturally a good fit” for Clinton supporters, Thompson believes. “We offer Hillary Clinton supporters a new home.”

Ballot Access Efforts to Oppose Obama

As an active and determined political party, NAIP has a Ballot Access Task Force, which includes top authorities on ballot access law, that are actively working on ways to make a NAIP vote count for Clinton.

This November NAIP expects to be on the ballot in 42 to 46 states, according to Thompson, who also notes that Hillary supporters are encouraging the NAIP to field candidates across the country to challenge elected Obama superdelegates.

To support these initiatives, NAIP urgently needs registered voters to help collect petition signatures before the June deadlines expire in many states.

Hillary Is Always Welcome Here

The NAIP leadership admires Senator Clinton, and agrees that preventing Senator Obama’s election is paramount.
“We share Senator Clinton’s ideals, and we respect the tenacity and strength she has displayed during her campaign,” Thompson says, adding that the top spot on the NAIP ticket is Clinton’s whenever she wants it: “Hillary Clinton is always welcome here!”

The New American Independent Party, a grassroots Independent political party is seeking sustainable solutions and a more self-reliant America. For more on the New American Independent Party please visit its website at: http://www. newamericanindependent. com

Press inquiries: Contact Michael Thompson
Email: info@newamericanindependent.com

posted in Political Junkies - 3 replies

sticking up for truth

2008-06-13T16:06:18Z

www.fightthesmears.com

posted in Political Junkies - 4 replies