Who got AIG’s bailout billions?

2009-03-09 Richard Moore The newspaper reported that some of the banks paid by AIG since the insurer started getting taxpayer funds were: Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale, Calyon, Barclays Plc, Rabobank, Danske, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Bank of America, and Lloyds Banking Group. … Read more

Fwd: physicist Steven Jones on “Fair and Balanced” Tuesday 3/10/09

2009-03-09 Richard Moore Begin forwarded message: From: Kevin Barrett <•••@••.•••> Date: March 9, 2009 3:17:42 PM GMT To: Kevin Barrett <•••@••.•••> Subject: physicist Steven Jones on “Fair and Balanced” Tuesday 3/10/09 Greetings, I’m pleased to report that Dr. Steven Jones will be my guest on “Fair and Balanced” tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10th, 9-10 a.m. Pacific … Read more

Daniel P. Wirt: the case for single-payer health care

2009-03-09 Richard Moore Here we have a very good article, making a strong case for why a single-payer system is far superior to Obama’s approach, which is to maintain a private-insurance based system. The article goes too far however, when it says:      The data and evidence are clear: to a scientific certainty, only a single-payer … Read more

FHA housing bubble: here we go again

2009-03-09 Richard Moore With the surge in new loans, however, comes a new threat. Many borrowers are defaulting as quickly as they take out the loans. In the past year alone, the number of borrowers who failed to make more than a single payment before defaulting on FHA-backed mortgages has nearly tripled, far outpacing the … Read more

High-Speed Rail Drives Obama’s Transportation Agenda

2009-03-09 Richard Moore Interestingly, this article does not talk about who is to build the high-speed system, who will own it, or who will operate it. We hear only about limited Federal funding, and about possible routes. We do get this clue:      “High-speed and intercity passenger rail beyond Amtrak haven’t gotten a lot of attention … Read more

Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare

2009-03-09 Richard Moore Though more than 60 lawmakers have co-sponsored H.R. 676, the single-payer bill in Congress, Obama has not expressed support for single-payer; both the idea and its advocates were marginalized in yesterday’s healthcare forum.  Actually, Obama did express support for single-payer healthcare. The way he backed down, and the ease with which he … Read more

Robert Weissman: Financial Meltdown, a 12-step program

2009-03-09 Richard Moore http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/07-3 Published on Saturday, March 7, 2009 by CommonDreams.org 12 Deregulatory Steps to Financial Meltdown Wall Street’s Best Investment – Part II by Robert Weissman What can $5 billion buy in Washington? Quite a lot. Over the 1998-2008 period, the financial sector spent more than $5 billion on U.S. federal campaign contributions and … Read more

Karl Denninger: It’s all over, Baby Blue

2009-03-09 Richard Moore http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/852-Whats-Dead-Short-Answer-All-Of-It.html Thursday, March 5. 2009 Posted by Karl Denninger in Editorial at 10:57  What’s Dead (Short Answer: All Of It) Just so you have a short list of what’s at stake if Washington DC doesn’t change policy here and now (which meansbefore the collapse in equities comes, which could start as soon as today, if the indicators I watch … Read more

Darrel Dochow: Treasury scapegoat

2009-03-09 Richard Moore Propaganda is so predictable. Here we see some minor functionary being ‘exposed’, while his bosses, the culpable ones, are now running the nation’s economic policy.  rkm ___ http://www.truthout.org/030809A http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Economy/story?id=7009596&page=1 Scandal at Treasury: Official Quits Amidst Fraud Scandal Darrel Dochow Allowed IndyMac Bank to Cook Its Books, Investigators Say By BRIAN ROSS, JUSTIN … Read more

Wendell Berry: 17 Rules For A Sustainable Economy

2009-03-09 Richard Moore http://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/contact/wendell-berrys-17-rules-for-a-sustainable-economy/ Wendell Berry’s 17 Rules For A Sustainable Economy From Wendell Berry A community economy is not an economy in which well-placed persons can make a ‘killing’. It is an economy whose aim is generosity and a well-distributed and safeguarded abundance. Wendell Berry is a strong defender of family, rural communities, and traditional family … Read more

‘Real IRA was behind army attack’

2009-03-09 Richard Moore Based on what I’ve learned about the Omagh bombing, I suspect that the ‘Real IRA’ is a front for British Intelligence. My suspicions were raised right away, because the bombing made no sense in terms of Republican strategy re/ the peace process. Then I learned that an FBI informant had infiltrated the ‘Real IRA’ … Read more

How Wall Street buys politicians

2009-03-08 Richard Moore http://www.counterpunch.org/weissman03052009.html Paying for Policy in Washington Wall Street’s Best Investment By ROBERT WEISSMAN Financial deregulatory mania over the last three decades led directly to the current financial meltdown. Were the deregulators acting out of principle? Perhaps. But it couldn’t have hurt that the financial sector invested a staggering $5.1 billion in political … Read more

US and Russia seek 2009 arms deal

2009-03-08 Richard Moore It will be interesting to follow these negotiations. Both sides will say they’re seeking to reduce nuclear tensions, to avoid the possibility of war. In fact, the US has another agenda: to facilitate its ability to launch a first-strike attack. Such an attack wouldn’t require the whole arsenal to be engaged. By … Read more

US nuclear umbrella in MidEast?

2009-03-08 Richard Moore Clinton claimed that the Eastern European regimes and Washington were united in confronting a perceived Iranian threat. “Missiles not only with a nuclear warhead, but a conventional warhead, or some other chemical, biological weapon, could very well be in the hands of a regime like Iran’s, which we know will use whatever … Read more

Retirement funds in danger

2009-03-08 Richard Moore While there are many 401(k) plan variations, until recently an employer has commonly matched 50 percent of an employee’s contributions up to 6 percent of the employee’s income. These funds can be set aside tax free, and are most commonly invested in an assortment of mutual funds. 401(k)’s were a rip-off from … Read more

The California Water Wars

2009-03-08 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/030609EA The California Water Wars: Not a Conflict Between Fish and People Friday 06 March 2009 by: Dan Bacher, t r u t h o u t | Perspective     Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Department of Water Resources and corporate agribusiness have continually tried to frame the battle over restoring the California … Read more

Health care: Obama’s true colors

2009-03-08 Richard Moore Among these promises was a plan to create a public health insurance provider that would compete with private insurers. This has provoked the ire of the health care industry.  … Writing to Obama, they warned that a public health provider, even one based on consumer payments, would chase private insurers from the market. … Read more

Bush memos: Wash Post hypocrisy

2009-03-06 Richard Moore What secret dictatorship? What are we learning here that wasn’t implicit in the Patriot Acts? What about the Presidential Directives that have been known about for years? Only the mass media, including the Washington Post, pretended not to see what was going on. rkm ___ http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/2009/03/bushs_secret_dictatorship.html http://tinyurl.com/aupwt4 Posted at 12:52 PM ET, … Read more

In Health Plan, Industry Sees Good Business

2009-03-05 Richard Moore Just four months ago, the pharmaceutical industry was prepared for the worst. Drugmakers feared that Barack Obama would press for price controls on prescription drugs… Instead, Obama chose a more modest approach …, proposing to extract bigger discounts on medications bought through Medicaid.  To start the process, Obama has proposed a $634 billion … Read more

Bush & dictatorship: nine secret memos released

2009-03-05 Richard Moore http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pers-m04.shtml US Justice Department memos: the specter of military dictatorship 4 March 2009 A set of nine secret memos released by the US Justice Department Monday reveal that in the weeks and months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the US government began erecting the legal scaffolding for a full-blown military … Read more

US plans military intervention in Sri Lanka

2009-03-05 Richard Moore http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/slus-m04.shtml US plans for military intervention in Sri Lanka By Wije Dias  4 March 2009 Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times has revealed plans for a US-led military mission into the island’s northern war zone in the guise of evacuating civilians trapped by intense fighting between the army and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam … Read more

Russia, like US, prepares for martial law

2009-03-04 Richard Moore “We expect wide-spread unemployment and disorder,” confirmed the former KGB colonel Gennady Gudkov, chairman of the security committee of the State Duma. “In order to stop popular protests by force, the police are not enough.” On orders from the Kremlin, the Duma has added several new articles to the Criminal Code: one … Read more

Richard C. Cook: The Last Picture Show

2009-03-04 Richard Moore according to University of Massachusetts economist Thomas Ferguson, who spoke at last weekend’s Eastern Economic Association national conference in New York, the Bush/Obama bank bailouts alone will cause a permanent addition of interest payments on the national debt of $100 billion a year forever. That means every American will pay, during the course of his … Read more

Obama: promising FCC Chief

2009-03-04 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/030409E http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10187067-38.html Obama Picks Net Neutrality Backer as FCC Chief Tuesday 03 March 2009 by: Declan McCullagh, CNET     President Obama on Tuesday nominated Julius Genachowski as the nation’s top telecommunications regulator, picking a campaign advisor who has divided his career between Washington, D.C., political jobs and working as an Internet executive.     Genachowski … Read more

Obama & community health centers

2009-03-04 Richard Moore “These health centers will expand access to care by helping people in need – many with no health insurance – obtain access to comprehensive primary and preventive health care services,” Obama told a news conference.  Community health centers, which help people even if they can’t pay for the services. sounds like a … Read more

Secret Bush memos made public by Obama

2009-03-04 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/030309K http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gRGpDB9rJVNmotxpefcc3LQsUCJwD96M5CMO0 Secret anti-terror Bush memos made public by Obama By DEVLIN BARRETT – 20 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday released a long-secret legal document from 2001 in which the Bush administration claimed the military could search and seize terror suspects in the United States without warrants. The … Read more

Chris Hedges: It’s Obama’s War, Now

2009-03-04 Richard Moore http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/02 Published on Monday, March 2, 2009 by TruthDig.com It’s Obama’s War, Now by Chris Hedges This is the text of a talk by Chris Hedges that will be read at anti-war gatherings to be held by The World Can’t Wait in New York’s Union Square, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, … Read more

How Cash Starved States can Create their Own Credit

2009-03-04 Richard Moore “North Dakota is a sparsely populated state of less than 700,000, known for cold weather, isolated farmers and a hit movie – Fargo. Yet, for some reason it defies the real estate cliché of location, location, location. Since 2000, the state’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown … Read more

** Chossudovsky: America’s Fiscal Collapse ** (2 of 3)

2009-03-04 Richard Moore http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12517 America’s Fiscal Collapse By Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, March 2, 2009 [ continued from Part 1 … ] The Bush Administration’s ” Bank Bailout” The government’s bank rescue program under the Bush administration was estimated at a staggering 8.5 trillion dollars, an amount equivalent to 60% of the Total Gross Federal debt of … Read more

** Chossudovsky: America’s Fiscal Collapse ** (1 of 2)

2009-03-03 Richard Moore The mainstream media suggests that the banks are being nationalized as a result of TARP, In fact, it is exactly the opposite: the State is being taken over by the banks, the State is being privatized. The establishment of a Worldwide unipolar financial system is part of the broader project of the … Read more

Stephen Shalom: Q&A on Gaza (2 of 2)

2009-03-03 Richard Moore http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20269 Question and Answer on Gaza January, 16 2009  By Stephen Shalom  Stephen Shalom’s ZSpace Page Join ZSpace   29. Israel calls the homes it is planning to attack and drops leaflets warning civilians to get away from military targets. Doesn’t that meet its obligation to protect the civilian population?   Israel issued no … Read more

Stephen Shalom: Q&A on Gaza (1 of 2)

2009-03-03 Richard Moore http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20269 Question and Answer on Gaza January, 16 2009  By Stephen Shalom  Stephen Shalom’s ZSpace Page Join ZSpace On December 27, 2008, Israel launched its brutal assault on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. The aim here has been to collect in one place the most frequently-asked questions and to offer answers and sources. You can … Read more

Gates: Iran “Not Close” to Nuclear Weapon

2009-03-03 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/030209J http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5201Y920090301 Gates: Iran “Not Close” to Nuclear Weapon Sunday 01 March 2009 by: Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters     Washington – Iran is not close to having a nuclear weapon, which gives the United States and others time to try to persuade Tehran to abandon its suspected atomic arms program, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert … Read more

Hillary’s fraudulent “peace process”

2009-03-03 Richard Moore http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pers-m03.shtml Hillary Clinton reprises “peace process” fraud 3 March 2009 In her first trip to the Middle East as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton insisted that the new US administration is determined to press for a “two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Decades of US and Israeli policies, however, … Read more

5 Great Progressive Moves by Obama

2009-03-02 Richard Moore $10 Billion for High-Speed Rail Broadband Initiative Commission to Review Faith-Based Initiatives A Reform-Minded Drug Czar Swift Action on Arms Control Here we have six crowd pleasers, that cost very little, and do nothing to solve the problems we’re facing. Their function is to maintain the false hope that Obama has been … Read more

California: small farms being destroyed

2009-03-02 Richard Moore The next sound you hear will be the JOADS MOVING BACK TO KANSAS and THE GOVERNATOR WELCOMING CORPORATE AGRIBUSINESS and the TERMINATOR SEEDS THEY RIDE IN ON http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=142276 Small Farmers Being RUN OUT OF CALIFORNIA! AGRIBUSINESS SLAVERING OVER THEIR LAND! Posted By: RumorMail Date: Sunday, 1 March 2009, 2:48 p.m. I received this … Read more

On Economy, Two United Voices Steer Obama Agenda

2009-03-02 Richard Moore “Time is not on our side,” Geithner said in an interview.  . . . But we got dealt this hand, and we are just making a conscious judgment that you have to move all these fronts together and take the initiative.” Summers agreed the workload has been heavy. “I wouldn’t say it’s … Read more

Finally a Progressive Budget?

2009-03-02 Richard Moore After being robbed of trillions by Obama and his banker backers, why should we be thrilled that a few crumbs are being doled out to us? rkm ___ http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/02/finally-progressive-budget.html Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor and is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. His latest book … Read more

Midas Resources: precious metal investments

2009-03-02 Richard Moore http://midasresources.com/   HOME PRODUCTS MARKET NEWS CONTACT   “It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Henry Ford  The International Forecaster: We Watch Now As Funds Get Vaporized  Real … Read more