Trillion dollar waterboarding

    Would you sit down and talk with enemies of the U.S.?   President Bush used a speech to the Israeli Parliament to liken those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” to appeasers of the Nazis — a remark widely interpreted as a rebuke to Senator Barack Obama, who has advocated greater engagement with countries like Iran and Syria.

   

     The truth about Barack on forgien policy is that he takes an intelligent and pragmatic approach to foreign relations.  The same tact that most of the non knuckle dragging world takes.  Lets hope going forward that the United States learns that talk truly is cheap and a whole lot less expensive and bloody. 

     The most important lesson to be learned during these last days of darkness is this, Bush's foreign policy has failed because of corporate greed.  He has allowed forces of profit to not only make a fool of him domestically but also destroy the once semi-good name of the United States through-out the world.

    Bush has traveled hemispherically with his daisy cutters in hand to combat only certain parts of  his so called axis of evil.  He has waterboarded not for democracy but for profit in the name of capitalism.  Bush continues to spend trillions of dollars in Iraq to plunder valuable oil fields using American lives.  Lives lost not in the name of democracy, but in the name of corporate profits.  

   Interestingly, according to American media, the Bush administration has also put together one of the most incredible diplomatic accomplishments in history.   The Bush state department has brought that evil film buff and coward Kim Jong Ill down a peg,  through, get this, Obamaesque diplomacy.    Under Bush it seems some evil gets a pass through diplomacy and appeasement while others get the trillion dollar water-boarding treatment.   

    In the mainstream American media Bush's State department officials are being lauded as heros and dynamic chit chatters whom have brought that dictator with the crazy cool haircut Kim Jong Ill to his nuclear knees.   Supposedly just by using the very diplomatic concepts of engaging our enemies that candidate Barrack Obama has suggested and the republican party mocked.

   But not so fast, while acknowledging what a fantastic accomplishment has taken place with the North Koreans and Mr Kim jong ill, we must look closer at this so called success .        Lets not forget China's role in this historic Bush moment.  Knowing now what General Macarthur and Harry Truman learned the hard way, North Korea is part of China.   So, lets give credit where credit is due, China's efforts in North Korea made this diplomatic event happen.    Regardless of what the media and U.S history books may say and read, the U.S. owes The Peoples Republic of China a big thank you on this one.   Thank you's said, if China didn't offer so much economic opportunity for corporate America gangsters and present an overwhelming military presence we probably wouldn't have wasted time talking to Kim Jong iLL and would have been mixing North Koreans and Muslims together as an even more surreal cocktail known as Guantanimo.

   Bush may be a fool but with all do respect to Harry Truman, I will quote give em hell Harry in this context ,  "Goddamn it, you don't attack China."   So, don't buy the medias spew on this one.  Bush is still a failure beyond all imaginable thought both globally and domestically. 

John McCain is the Mangimpian Candidate!

We have heard, once again, from the despicable and unconscionable Carl Rove when he spoke before his neo-con ilksters at the Capital Hill Club, in D.C. when he said, "Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by." Rove must have been living out some fantasy that morning as he framed Obama within this image. He had to have woken up with a Viagra erection, and couldn't shake it off! 

Essentially, Rove was calling Obama an elitist hangin' out at the local homeboy country club group. What the heck was he thinking? I guess, very little. He only had his fantasy going on. This fantasy is what whiteboys think of when they hang with Regressive Party neo-cons after checking their pointie white hoods with the cloak room girl. 

Carl Rove reminds me of the school house bully, such as the one in the film "A Christmas Story", who surrounds himself with a couple of creeps, while sporting his one and only treasured possession, a tattered raccoon skin cap given to him by his toothless uncle Jeb from down Rosemary Beach, Florida way. 

This loser and pathetic film character, in this terrific movie, had taunted poor Ralphie too many times before this gentle and lovable kid finally unleashed his pent up rage on the bully beating him to a point of bloody embarrassment.

Rove is still trying to bully Democrats by attempting to convince Independents, Reagan-Democrats, and reasonable Republicans that Obama is an elitist. They have nothing to run on but this stale message.

The Regressive Elitist Club members, also known as the Republican "Have-Mores" Party, are the ones populating the country clubs, drinking martinis, as they lean up against the wall making snide remarks about the "have-nots" across the political aisle. I guess, Joe Lieberman wants so much to join these jerks. You go ahead Joe. We don't want ya anymore!

If Barack Obama is an elitist, then what does that make Bush and McCant? 

Bush, who got special treatment in the military and was able to destroy his public desertion/AWOL records with only one phone call from his daddy; and was bailed out of every business venture he so incompetently attempted to make a go of;  and was hoisted up into the Texas governor's mansion with absolutely no skills,  and then, into the White House; and never earned his Harvard or Yale degrees, but bought them is NOT considered an elitist of the highest order?

And then there is McCain. His father and grandfather had the USS John S. McCain naval battle ship named after them. John-Boy was given preferential treatment by the North Vietnamese army  after being taken prisoner during the Vietnam War because he was the son of a 4 star admiral. He then found his way into the senate because his drippingly wealthy second-wife, Cindy, an heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, was able to support John-Boy's lavish life style. He found himself a real sugar-mama! Do most Americans own a $700,000 primary Arizona residence, along with 7 other homes, during a time when as many as 6 million Americans will end up in foreclosure over the coming years? I guess, these qualifications don't make a Republican an elitist. It must take more! He hasn't arrived there just yet. Poor guy. He is just an average Regressive Party shmuck trying to make ends meet, when compared to other Republican elitists. What's a guy to do?

So, Carl Rove, where do you rank? I guess, living in a million dollar home in D.C., owning a million dollar Rosemary Beach, Florida home, and two small rental cottages, in Ingram, Texas just doesn't make you  an elitist either. You've got a long way to go, dude, before you get close to the half-way up point on the Regressive Party's elitist ladder. Keep on strugglin'.

So, what about Obama? There is obviously a different standard for Democrats. The expectations are considerably lower, since they are just dumb, neanderthal-types barely able to scrape two nickels together. Just wearing Orvis Poplin Expandable Comfort-Waist pants will make a Democrat an elitist! If you wear a silk tie instead of a polyester one, then you will be labeled an elitist. If you drive a Volvo instead of a deluxe full-dressed Hummer or a Gran Turismo Maserati, you will he called an elitist.

I don't see Barack Obama rubbing too many elbows with such a privileged, wealthy and connected class when compared with John McCain and the elitists he rolls with.

The Left needs to capture this and bottle it up to the majority of Americans to sample. Let them see the difference and decide who of the two candidates is an elitist. 

The Regressive's perpetual con-job never ceases to amaze most of us. As far as anyone can tell, Obama has risen to where he is today because of his own hard work, intellect, and competence. That is more than I can say about Bush or McCain. Neither would have gotten where they are today without the wealth, and family position they both benefitted from. Without such status, neither would have a legitimate claim to anything of national prominence. 

Now, I want to further the list of reasons why McCain is no Maverick (James Garner is the real Maverick.), but a surrogate nursing off the breast of Bush.

McCain's energy policy has been solely in the hip-pocket of the fossil fuel industry as the U.S. falls further and further behind the front of the alternative energy manufacturing pack. Back during Reagan's destructive presidency, he pulled the plug on alternative energy's governmental support. Yet, subsidies to the oil companies flowed freely.

Once Clinton arrived in the White House, the Gingrich/McCain movement, back in 1995, continued to kill alternative energy's governmental support. They ran scared from the Hippie-Dippie solar and wind supporters and back into the breast of Exxon and Enron.

Today, Europe, Germany, Spain, and especially, Denmark have embraced alternatives and are becoming the world leaders in research, development, manufacturing, and implementation of renewable energy. Denmark produces 20% of their electric power from wind. They have a long range alternative energy policy.

McCain's long term energy policy is short term: drill, drill and drill some more, as well as build more nuclear plants. The cost to produce nuclear energy is more than 15 cents/KWh. The cost to produce electricity through wind is 4-8 cents/KWh. The cost to produce electricity from coal is 10 cents/KWh.

How can anyone believe McStale is a Maverick? The reality is that John McCain is a gimp! It is like he fell asleep during the Reagan years and woke up to run as the Neo-Con candidate for president losing 30 years of knowledge and reality in the process of coming back to life. He is the Mangimpian Candidate.

In order to resurrect off-shore drilling, it would take 10 years to ultimately extract only 0.2% of the world's total production. That translates into only 200,000 barrels per day. That cost would be better spent developing an alternative energy technology industry that could be exported world wide and bring new and highly skilled jobs to America. Oh, these cons don't like that idea. They prefer out-sourcing.

McCain, Rove and the rest of the Regressives have no idea how to move this nation into the future other than through greed and wars.

McCain is more like a stale sausage bun cavorting around as a freshly made cream puff! If it wasn't so pitiful, it would be funny.

Thanks for slugging through this posting,  

Tidbit:

Why is it that the South Koreans will flood the streets by the millions to protest American beef, while we sit on our butts watching American Idol instead of protesting a president who has brought most of us grief? The stock market is heading toward a significant nose dive. It is not a correction, folks! This is a stock market crash! If we experience further rising gas prices, then we will see the market fall. We are back where it was in the late 1990's,  before our brief tech bubble growth spurt, which left most of us an empty stock portfolio basket after that giddy ride broke down right before our eyes.

This is a oil bubble driven by speculators, and a disappearing dollar value. The oil producers have reduced production because their is a decline in demand; therefore, we need to tell Gimpie-boy McCain that we don't need to drill just now. John-Rip-Van-Winkle-McCain needs to wake up from his deep and inept sleep. He is the mechanized McCain being manipulated by his Manchurian Candidate handlers. He says whatever he is told to say. Right Joe Lieberman?

Jack and Jill America sit at home while the White House terrorists milk our country dry. We have an endless war going on draining our yearly budget of a $1 trillion, if we include the yearly Pentagon budget of $500B. The dollar is collapsing; home prices are falling; foreclosures are rising; unemployment is rising; Americans are over-extended on credit card debt; real wages are falling and cannot keep with inflationary consumer costs; and, consumer spending is falling. (The stimulus spike is temporary. $600 only goes so far!) Jack and Jill sit in front of the Boob Tube watching the broadcast cheerleaders spew the neo-con party line, while their 401K's disappear, and corporations are not actually earning profits, but handing it out to the CEO's, who make 400 times more than the lowest paid worker. 

When will Jack and Jill go up to the Hill and toss their pail of water into the faces of their elected political capitulators who allow BushCo to continue to give the country away to their monopolistic greedy capitalist political donors. PA's Congressman Jason Altmire needs his face washed first!

                                                                           

Jerry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktBDj8VogPo

A video about the falling dollar, rising oil prices, speculation and why. 6 minutes long. Worth watching. 

Four 10 hour work days vs. 5 eight hour work days.

    Did it ever occur to anyone that if you can't afford to make it to your job then you are basically working for nothing!  Regardless of weather its high oil prices or grocery prices holding us back, the economy in the United States must serve everyone not the few.   If you do an honest days work you're entitled to profit from this effort just as your employer does.  Regardless of your task, occupation or profession you deserve a standard of living that includes a profit for your efforts. 

    If you can't afford to get to work, then one must assume you have no extra cash left over based  on economic cultural norms of food, clothing, shelter,  or as we are told, what it takes to get by.   The population readily accepts the information of how gracious employers are to allow them to work 40 hours in 4 days.   The people never ever question the corporatocracy, media or their government as to why and where the peoples profit motive fits in the big picture.  This is thanks to the framing of this new serfdom by the media. ABC news corporation says, "Isn't it nice that employers are allowing employees to save gas and pay other bills by working the same amount of hours and one less day" they spew.   Whoo hoo lets hear it for the corporations and their generosity.  

   We the people should hold ourselves and our employers to a higher stander and not allow this criminal exploitation of the people.  Now, thanks to Nancy Pelosi and the recent passing of the  FISA bill, we can't ever expect justice in the work place, the old fashioned way thru the courts won't be allow, it's national security you know, you do want to be safe?   This act makes  Taft Hartley look pro worker.   All we are allowed to do is be happy and keep allowing the system to pulverize our work efforts at the behest of a handful really greedy people at the top.  We are living in blind times.  

      In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.

The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.

At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production, or — what is but a legal expression for the same thing — with the property relations within which they have been at work hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters."    -KARL MARX

McCain's Hidden Truths

So, where is George W. Bush as the Heartland drowns from floods? Haven't we heard all of this before? Bush is MIA once again. Oh, he is on his MIA tour.

McCain is another missing mind. It is my belief that McCain is finished. He can barely get 200 gawkers at a campaign rally. He is more mechanized than a worn out GI Joe doll with barely functioning batteries. Not only that, McCain is stupid.  

http://therealmccain.com/oil/?utm_source=rgemail   

Here is another one of McCain's finer moments: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iWYAOMYmp0

Remember, McCain will veto every "beer" that crosses his desk, if he becomes president, in spite of the fact that his wife is a beer heiress! Only her brand will be allowed in the Oval Office.

Most Americans have had enough of the nation's worst presidents. McCain has so much in common with our---"They speak Latin in Latin America" Bush--- that it is not funny anymore!

McCain has made sure his Vietnam War records are hidden away from Americans because they would reveal very damaging information. Much has already been uncovered through McCain's own biographies, news releases, freedom of information act discoveries and public statements by others in the know.

McCain has wanted to remake himself into 'I was almost an admiral, but declined the offer to receive my first admiral star', even without the help of Carl Rove. He has done it almost all by himself.

In 1981, and reported in the New York Times on 5/29/08, all he did, at the time, was have the Secretary of the Navy John Lehman say it was almost so. Yet, no one else in the Navy ever recalled such a promotion in the making. But what is so interesting about this retired naval Kreskin is that he is now part of McCain's campaign. Lehman is now McCain's campaign national security advisor. 

In the article by Jeffery Klein, "McCain's Secret Questionable Record Stumble", HuffingtonPost, 6/16/08, a few admirals, who would have known if McCain was to follow in his daddy's and granddaddy's footsteps and become a Navy admiral, have said this comic book dream is not true.

McCain did not appear to have accomplished anything noteworthy while in the Navy. He graduated from the Academy at the bottom 1% of his class with an abysmal academic record, and was a mediocre pilot. His flight record was poor. His Top Gun status was actually ranked as Pea Shooter.

Are we not finished with stupid presidents and presidential candidates yet? Does the nation need to fall into total bankruptcy first? Do we need more sons of the privileged class, who are dumb and mediocre, with little to offer the nation, and who come from the elite class of citizens to make Gameboys the National Playtoy? I can see it now. A McCain poster dressed as Uncle Sam playing with his Gameboy and saying, "A Gameboy in every pocket!"

As a POW for 5-1/2 years, he willfully gave out military information/secrets to the enemy. He was the go-to guy when the Vietnamese wanted to know stuff. According to Retired Colonel Earl Pearson Hopper, McCain gave away life threatening information placing his fellow soldiers in jeopardy. It was reported by Retired Admiral Peter Booth and Retired Admiral John R. Batzler that they agreed with Retired Colonel Hopper. (In "John McCain: War Hero or North Vietnam's Go-To Collaborator?", Douglas Valentine, Counterpunch.org, 6/13-15/08).

McCain needs to have his military medical records released in full, and a complete report explaining his disability status.

Once in politics, McCain formed an allegiance with a group of neo-fascists known as the Project For A New American Century (PNAC).  These wackos also brought us George W. Bush, who drank their specially brewed Kool-Aid and after his personal conversation with God, went into Iraq.  And, we all know the rest of the story!

The PNAC did not prepare for over 4000 dead American soldiers, nearly 700,000 dead Iraqis, millions of displaced Iraqis, a vulnerable and less safe America, a devalued dollar, and the list goes on and on. But, this is all OK with them. The Iraq War is winnable and all will be fine. Curveball will be made made Secretary of State.

John McCain not only drank the Kool-Aid, too, but has bathed in it. He wants 100 more years in Iraq, and to further bankrupt: economically, politically, and morally the nation with his destructively inept agenda.

McCain has brought not only an army of lobbyists into his campaign cabal, even though he has expressed disdain for them while a senator, but has decided to dress up these neo-con Brown Shirts to direct his foreign and military policies. Here is the list:

---Robert Kagan, Randy Scheunemann, James Woolsey, John Bolton, Robert B. Zollick, Richard Armitage, Max Boot, and Henry Kissinger to name a few PNAC members. (You can read their bios in Klein's article.)

McCain is trying so hard to recessitate every puff of stale air from a dying Trojan horse built from the workshop of the very liars and con-artists who had so meticulously destroyed the fabric of this nation. 

These rusty tin soldiers from the caves of the Regressive Republican party brewed up a neo-fascist deadly potion which shifted the treasure of America into the arms of the wealthiest corporatists, who infiltrated the government so as to write the checks back to themselves, while changing the rules and the laws in order to make it work for their inner circle.

We see it in their outsourcing of American jobs, their push for free trade benefitting the wealthiest Americans, the NAFTA super highway project, the no-bid war contracts, the War on Terror, the Federal Reserve's bailouts, the destruction of the dollar's value, the takeover of our broadcast media in order to deliver their propagandist message, the subversion of our Constitution and the stripping of working America's wealth in order to enhance their own.

If John McCain is one thing, he is the embodiment of the Bush legacy, since he voted with Bush 95% of the time. He is not only a stupid man with the delusion of being a Maverick, but appears to be more of a psychologically damaged person filled with rage, no doubt, for giving secrets to the enemy a generation ago and wanting to unleash his self-loathing and rage through more wars and killing, as well as creating a new fantasy of transforming himself into the nation's Admiral-in-Chief, of which he could never earn on his own, while hoping to lead his battalion of has-been Neo-cons back into the White House even before the carpets get cleaned.

The Republi-Con Regressive party must feel that candidates like Bush and McCain must be used to break the piggy bank in order to take what is inside even though they have no rightful claim to it.

For the sake of the nation and all that it represents, they must be stopped and shown the door to the sanitarium.

What is With These Oil Prices?

There had been a huge number of comments written about Mike Whitney's article, "The Great Oil Swindle", on informationclearinghouse.info/.The debate raged on over whether peak oil was affecting the price of the gooey black stuff, or if the world has adequate supplies of the new gold. It had drawn in a range of commenter from expert, to those wanting to put their 2 cents into the debate.

Here was a comment about the price of oil. "1 bbl of =19.5 gals of refined gas. Today's price of a gallon of gas-$4.00 (rounded US average). So, 1 bbl. yields-$78.00 USD. That bbl took about 6 months to reach the consumer's gas tank and thus was purchased in Nov/Dec [2007] from the producer/distributor for about $60-70 USD." At the time, this commenter was saying a bbl was $121. This week oil hovered around $130 [on 6-6-08 it went to $139], rising from $121 in only several days. That is the cost of crude. "Add $1.75 per gallon to refine (leaving aside shipping costs. which are a few pennies), and 19.5 bbls of oil will price out at roughly $6 [or more] per gallon in six months. Someone (I don't remember who) said that the American economy will collapse at $10 per bbl, which is due about Dec. [2008], at this rate."

In July of 2007, gas prices at the pump were near $4.00 per gallon and the price of a barrel of crude was just under $80. But today, the price at the pump is the same, while the price of a barrel has grown by 50%. What is going on?

Another commenter stated that it took around $50 per barrel to break even when drilling and extracting Canadian tar sands or pumping out crude from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. I also read the cost to be $30.00. Whatever the price is to obtain it, it will raise the price at the pump. We all know that the price will not drop, although what was interesting was an article from October 2007, written as a research paper stating that the price per barrel would drop in 2009, and in 2010 to $75.00. Another article I read (http://www.eia.doe.gov/steo) said that WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil price was projected to average $110 per barrel in 2008, and $103 per barrel in 2010! The authors went on to say that the average price of regular grade gas would be $3.52 per gallon in 2008, and the regular grade gasoline's monthly average price would be $3.73 per gallon in June 2008. Well, here we are now and the price we are paying is higher than their projections, but not by much. So why the per barrel cost spread, but the pump price not reflecting the 50% increase? How about speculation? This article said that the world's consumption would be projected to grow by 1.2 million barrels per day in 2008.

In addition to speculation, the value of the dollar has fallen since these studies were written.

A Washington State University study, written in 2007, "2007 Gas Price Study", said that "on July 31, 2007, we hit an all time high of $78 per barrel. In May 2007, a gallon of gas was $3.46 and the refining margin cost was $1.23 or 36% of the total price of gas. By July 2007, that refining margin cost per gallon percentage dropped to 22%. What is going on? Hot weather outages increases refining margin percentages, and doesn't lower them. 

http://www.atg.wa.gov/uploadedFiles/Another/Safeguarding_Consumers/Antitrust/

Unfair_Trade_Practices/Gas_Prices/2007%20Gas%20Price%20Study%20-%20phase%20I.pdf

Remember, the housing bubble had not broken apart yet, so the Wall Street gamblers were still trying to cash in on mortgage securitized derivative profits before the big hit slammed them. These hedge and private equity fundies had not boarded the commodities speculation speed train like they have now. So, this makes me believe that the reason the barrel of crude is so high today is basically due to these gamblers.

Supply and demand is playing a factor, yet always has been and always will, yet, nevertheless, a barrel of crude still jumped by 50% in only 11 months, while the price at the pump stayed close to within 15 cents throughout this time period, at least here in Pittsburgh, and, it appears, in Washington State, too. World consumption for crude per day was 85 million barrels per day in 2006.  83,607,000 in 2005. In 2004, 82 million barrels per day. In 1996, 71 million per day. In June 1995, world consumption of crude was 56 million barrels per day.

One would think, China and India bought more oil as they expanded and developed over the last 11 months. Now over the last 5 years, China's increase in oil had grown by 920 million barrels per year. Mr. Whitney stated that over the same 5 years, Index speculator's demand for crude oil futures had increased by 848 million barrels. And these same speculators have been holding on to 1.1 billion barrels of crude oil futures. This amount is almost equal to the additional amount China needed per year. No doubt, they are holding long waiting for the price to rise. I expect the same for food commodities prices, too.

Other commenters were arguing that speculation was driving the high price of gas at the pump and not so much a scarcity of the stuff, at this point in time. One person said that some time in 2007, we reached $4 at the pump, but the price per barrel was only $75.00. Yet today, we are seeing a barrel costing over $130, while the price at the pump has not changed that much.

What will happen when more and more countries buy oil in other currencies other than dollars? Already, Vietnam, Venezuela, Kuwait and Iran have made to switch out of dollars. The next wave will likely be Saudi Arabia, U.A.E and Qatar. And there is China and Russia. Once the dollar becomes the currency of the past when trading in oil, we will have fond memories of $4/gallon.

I believe Mike Whitney has his finger on much of the argument by believing that speculation from hedge and private equity funds, and others are driving up the price not only of crude, but of other commodities. There is also a commodities index fund and those investors are gambling on the prices being forced up by these Wall Street gamblers.

What could happen is a new bubble being formed. The Republicans have not shown interest in regulating these gamblers. McCain and Bush like it just the way it is. More for the haves and less for the have nots. No doubt, they feel just fine knowing that hard working Americans have to use up more of their expendable incomes to keep their work and commuter vehicle gas tanks full.

Former Senator Phil Gramm, vice chairman of securities for UBS, and McCain's economic advisor worked hard to deregulate the financial industry and now we have unregulated hedge and private equity "fundies" who have been given unfettered access to gamble Federal Reserve Treasury dollars on commodities. This is affecting the prices worldwide. Not only have these "fundies" been given free reign in the speculation arena, the banks and broker dealer financial institutions have been allowed to join in the fun, too. And they are more than likely doing it with OUR tax dollars through the Federal Reserve's Open Window policy of giving loans at their 2% rock bottom price. As I have said before, these institutions are exchanging garbage debt for usable cash in order to join in on the worldwide speculation gambling game.

Instead of the banks and financial institutions using this cash to refinance underwater home loans, or being told to loan this freshly printed deflating dollar to rebuild America's infrastructure, or industrial sectors, they are using it to make the ultra rich even richer, but instead, creating another economic bubble. This is not benefiting the nation. This is actually a national security risk. This should be Code Red on the Homeland Security danger barometer. But no. The Bush/McCain Republi-con plan is to bring about more wealth to the wealthiest of Americans, as well as foreign investors.

We now have our U.S. Federal Reserve vice chairman Donald L. Kohn wanting to allow Wall Street securities firms permanent access to the Federal Reserve loans. (See  "Bailing Out Wall Street", by Peter Morici, 6-2-08, Counterpunch.org). This hare-brained scheme would allow these banks and financial institutions an ATM card to the Treasury 100% of the time. They would no longer have the Fed as the lender of last resort. It would morph into the lender of first resort. No need to go into the Free Market Place to find investors. The American people would be their lenders. Privatize the profits, but socialize the access and any losses that would incur. Kohn said that in exchange these institutions would be subjected to greater regulation. He expects us to believe this? Give away the store, and then we'll watch the burglars.

The top financial institutions like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, and others would find themselves diving into a deep well of cash even though Lehman Brothers might end up underwater, too. The upcoming writedowns of debt that they and others are about to experience is looking to be damaging to their assets. They have booked nearly $400 billion in writedowns and credit losses to date. They have not seen bottom yet. Some are saying there is much more to come. As with housing mortgage losses, and bankruptcies, auto loan defaults, and credit card defaults, as stated by Willem Sels, a credit analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, there is more to come. (economicrot.blogspot.com, 6-3-08).

Last week, Meredith Whitney, an Oppenheimer analyst, said "The real harrowing days of the credit crisis are still ahead of us and will prove more widespread in effect than anything yet seen." (Written in Mike Whitney's article of 6-3-08, posted on Counterpunch.org, "The Remorseless Algebra...")

Mr. Whitney wrote in the same article that the Federal Reserve loans to the banksta gangsta climbed to the highest level on record even as Wall Street investment companies scaled back their borrowing. They averaged $15.95 billion in daily borrowing for the week ending May 28, compared with $13.5 billion for the previous week, and the total was a record. The previous high of $14.4 billion came in the week ending May 14. The Fed said it will conduct three auctions in June, each offering $75 billion in short term cash loans. How sweet it is to be loved by Benny. Scaling back borrowing means record borrowing?

The Case-Shiller home price index showed a slump of 14.1% in the first quarter of this year. The worst since this index began 20 years ago. Credit Suisse predicted that foreclosures will end up close to 6.5 million homeowners over the next few years. 

I bet this will a long, hot summer!