Militarization of Haiti not helping build infrastructure

From an Inter Press Service article March 31 written by Ansel Herz ...

commondreams.org

{In Potay, a neighbourhood near downtown Port-Au-Prince, a dozen U.S. soldiers toting automatic weapons walked past men drinking beer on a stoop.

Wearing jeans and a black vest, Brital, one of Haiti's most well-known rappers with the Barikad Crew, watched them go past his collapsed home.

"I don't think we need soldiers with guns. We need engineers the most," he said. "I'd prefer to see soldiers who could educate instead of those with guns. Soldiers that can come and build roads, bridges, universities and hospitals."

U.S. Senator Chris Dodd proposed Monday placing Haiti under a trusteeship system and broadening the U.N. mission in the country. He wrote in the Miami Herald that Haiti should not be occupied by foreign powers, but that the country is incapable of leading its own reconstruction.}

Israel, Lebanon and potential eruption of the Middle East

A report from the pages of Counterpunch, ominous in light of John Pilger's observations about a U.S. military build-up in response to Iran. What happens if the Middle East turns into one giant war front for the United States?

Israel Threatens Lebanon ... Again A New Middle East War? By CONN HALLINAN

[EXCERPT] "The Sunday Times (London) reports, 'According to well-placed sources, Israel is speeding up preparations for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.' The Israeli daily Haaretz says that the Netanyahu government is asking the Obama administration to supply Israel with GBU-28 'bunker buster' bombs and refueling tanker aircraft, both which would be essential for a strike at Iran ...

Maybe this is all saber rattling aimed at getting the U.S. to step up the pressure on Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Maybe, as Eilam charges, it is all about the [Israeli Defense Forces] getting 'a bigger budget.' Maybe it is a diversion from the charges that Israel committed war crimes in its invasion of Gaza, its settlement building on the West Bank, and the diplomatic storm it has reaped from its assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai.

But ramping up the rhetoric of war in a volatile region can lead to a misstep—by accident or design—and once the dogs of war are off their leash, it will be hard to bring them to heel."

British journalist John Pilger contextualizes U.S. military presence in the Middle East

This March 28 story is derived from the investigation that contributed to Pilger's last two books. His work on the colonial outpost on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean is ominous. This is not only a major launching site for U.S. military campaigns and broader initiatives in the Middle East, but also a known notorious "black site" used for extraordinary rendition (will post the reference to a New York Review of Books article published in 2009 soon).

If Pilger is right, Somalia and Yemen may more urgently require attention of the reading public than Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Have a Nice World War, Folks
by John Pilger

Wired Magazine: Drone Attacks Are Legit Self-Defense, Says State Dept. Lawyer

An attorney in Obama's State Department, a legal adviser by the name of Harold Koh, has stated attacks on suspected militants in Pakistani territory including lethal attacks, “comply with all applicable law, including the laws of war.”

Wired magazine's Danger Room

Complaints of recent aimed at Washington include those that claim the Bush administration has managed to call the tune to which Obama and his staff are dancing in many areas of government so far. A State department legal adviser providing law professor-style analysis as official policy smacks of John Yoo, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales and other slippery Bush henchmen clearly stating where they were doing the least worst (or most wrong) permitted by the most closely held interpretation of the law.

It would seem from recent dismay over the wars and health care reform that Obama's supporters expected something different.

Analysis: U.S.-Pakistan plan announced just as 61 unconfirmed militants are killed by Pakistani forces

What was shown here Thursday was simultaneous appearance of an Associated Press story that tells us of an attack in Pakistan, by Pakistan that took out a significantly high 61 militants without one confirmation of identity by local authorities, AND the announcement, within the same hour, of an aid deal the State Department has been working on with Pakistan's foreign minister.



[Blogger's note: I have started to use the "comments" section in order to add commentary to stories without taking them down from the top of the front page. On second assessment, this seems a little unorthodox or unprofessional or some combination of those to the effect I'm not going to do it again. Thanks for being patient through the process with the inchoate online project.]

From the previously referenced article appearing in the Washington Post Thursday, "Pakistan says it is 'satisfied' with U.S. pledges on aid delivery" by Karen De Young ...

"It really has been extraordinary, in my view, seeing what Pakistan has done over the last, really, more than a year," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said of Pakistan's counterinsurgency efforts targeting Taliban havens in the mountainous region along the Afghanistan border. Gates spoke Wednesday at a separate congressional budget hearing, along with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

--So what we've got here is Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi visiting D.C. while back home in Pakistan a new offensive is launched by the tormented Pakistani military to the tune of an extraordinary number of dead militants in one strike: 61.

Okay, what's the problem? Pakistan's own military is starting not only to arrest its problem of being shredded by insurgency groups, but also doing the work the U.S. military can't seem to do without crossing the border into Pakistan.

Let's take a look at this AP story about the Pakistani military's air strike: "Alongside the religious seminary, a mosque and a school were targeted, local official Samiullah Orakzai said.

Two intelligence officials said the seminary was a main center for Tableeghi Jamaat, a non-violent Islamic missionary group. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The center was targeted because a group of Taliban leaders were believed to be meeting there in the afternoon. Some four dozen people died in the air strikes in and around the seminary, while 13 others were killed in morning strikes at the two other sites.

The officials said all 61 were suspected militants. Independent confirmation of the death toll or the victims' identities was nearly impossible because access to the tribal region is restricted."

--Officials said all 61 were suspected militants? First, that's a huge number compared even with U.S. strikes in recent months. Second, confirmation of the death toll or victims' identities was nearly impossible? And news of this attack broke nearly simultaneously to the announcement of $71 million in U.S. aid ...

Let's not rule out the possibility all of these think tanks' advice has finally reached the Joint Chiefs of Staff: the murder of Pakistani civilians should be left to the Pakistanis.

Pakistani Forces and Militants Clash at Border

nytimes.com

By ISMAIL KHAN
Published: March 26, 2010
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Taliban militants battled Pakistani security forces for control of a security outpost in a tribal region near the Afghan border, leaving five Pakistani security officials and dozens of Taliban fighters dead, Pakistani authorities said Friday.

Is Pakistan at risk of entering a two-front war? India will surely exploit the compromise of Pakistan's official decision to fight the Taliban within its borders, unless Hillary Clinton's State Department intervenes with some sort of dialogue with India. India is a close ally of the United States, as demonstrated by George W. Bush's favoritism in nuclear policy when he rewarded India to punish Ahmedinejad's Iran. But a sloppy handling of the emerging situation negates nuclear accords between the United States and Russia: the working nuclear relationship on the ground is between India and Pakistan. The peace between those countries has continually been the centerpiece of stability in Asia. The powderkeg, thought to be in Iraq, could turn out to be on the border of India and Pakistan, which continues to be China's geopolitical back yard.

Pakistan: Airstrikes kill 61 suspected militants; US closes aid deal with Pakistan

The Associated Press By HUSSAIN AFZAL (AP) just before 10:30 EDT Thursday, March 25

PARACHINAR, Pakistan — Pakistani military airstrikes killed 61 suspected militants in an area near the Afghan border Thursday, including dozens at a seminary where Taliban commanders were believed to be meeting, officials said.

And minutes before the AP story posted ...

Pakistan says it is satisfied with U.S. pledges on aid delivery

NY Times Op Ed Takes a Close Look at Pakistan

I take only one issue here, and it is the same as before ... what says the United States military and its spy agencies can do what they like, where they like, when they like and to whom without intervention of other institutions including but not limited to the U.S. Constitution (Congress' role in matters of foreign operations military and civilian), international treaties and organizations (intergovernmental, human rights focused and otherwise), the will of other nations and their peoples and last of all international public opinion?

That said, ... check THIS out!

[Link to open content on nytimes.com/oped/]

Pakistan’s War of Choice

By MICHAEL E. O'HANLON
Op-Ed Contributor
Published: March 23, 2010
Peshawar, Pakistan

WHAT are Americans to make of all the good news coming out of Pakistan in recent weeks?

First, the Afghan Taliban’s military chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was arrested in a raid in February. Around the same time, several of the Taliban’s “shadow governors” who operate out of Pakistan were captured by Pakistani forces. Last week, the C.I.A. director, Leon Panetta, announced that thanks in large part to increased cooperation from Pakistan, drone strikes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border are “seriously disrupting Al Qaeda,” and one killed the terrorist suspected of planning an attack on an American base in December that caused the deaths of seven Americans. Meanwhile, Pakistan has mounted major operations against its own extremists in places ranging from the Swat Valley in the north of the country to Bajaur on the Afghan border to South Waziristan further south. Yes, extremists continue to do great damage, as at Lahore on March 14 when about 40 civilians were killed in bombings. But after traveling across the country in recent days as a guest of the Pakistani military, I was convinced that Pakistan has become much more committed to battling extremists over the last couple of years, as the country felt its own security directly threatened.

Things are complicated, as always in this fractious land. Pakistan’s resolve is clearest against its own internal enemies. And while its will to pursue the Afghan Taliban has grown, its policies are changing incrementally, not fundamentally. It is rebuilding trust with America only slowly. And its obsession with India will continue to constrain its ability and willingness to act against the groups that threaten the NATO mission across the Afghan border.

First, though, give credit where credit is due. Pakistan has become deadly serious about its own insurgency, loosely referred to as the Tehrik-i-Taliban. Total Pakistani troops in the North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan and the tribal areas now number about 150,000, up from 50,000 in 2001. In addition, there are 90,000 paramilitary troops of the Frontier Corps in the area, and they are far better equipped, paid and led than in years past.

As I toured the nerve center of the Pakistani military in Rawalpindi, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army’s spokesman, recited an impressive list of statistics. The army now has 821 posts on the Afghan-Pakistan border, as opposed to just 112 manned by NATO and Afghan forces on the other side. Pakistan carried out 209 operations in 2009 of brigade size or larger (that is, involving at least 3,000 troops), twice as many as in the previous two years combined. Convoys bringing supplies for the NATO mission in Afghanistan used to be preyed on frequently by terrorists and thieves; but as a result of the improved security, NATO is now losing only about 0.1 percent of the goods it ships across Pakistan.

Carrying out all these operations has been very costly, though. The Pakistani military says it had some 800 soldiers killed in operations last year, in contrast with NATO’s total losses in Afghanistan of 520. Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in terrorist attacks, and several hundred village elders, critical figures in any efforts to pacify the tribal areas, have been killed as well.

Most Pakistanis feel, with some justification, they have suffered all this as the result of American decisions and interests. Pakistan didn’t experience suicide bombings until the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistanis do not begrudge us that act of self-defense, but do expect us to appreciate the sacrifices they have made. And, while Pakistanis acknowledge American economic help, they consider the $17 billion or so that we have provided since 9/11 to equal only about half their total costs, direct and indirect, from the war on terrorism.

Still, Pakistan is hitting the terrorists hard. As a top commander of the Frontier Corps told me from his centuries-old fort here in Peshawar, since 2007 or 2008 he has known that there has been “no turning back.” This means ensuring that militants — or “miscreants,” as Pakistanis like to say — do not return to those areas that have been cleared in recent months.

This won’t be easy. Often, Pakistani military tactics amount to notifying the local population of a pending mission and asking people to leave before the assault. Afterward, the population is allowed to return — but any extremists who had snuck out with the people can then try to sneak back in with them.

Published: March 23, 2010

(Page 2 of 2)

Pakistan also doesn’t want to fight over too much of its territory at any one time. The other day I visited a camp for the displaced near here, with about 100,000 residents. Most fled from recent military operations in Bajaur and Khyber, near the Afghanistan border. Fortunately, the camp’s previous residents, from Swat, were able to go home before the new influx. Conditions at the camp are tough but tolerable, partly because Pakistan has not launched additional operations recently. Islamabad’s deliberateness makes Washington impatient at times, but there is a strategic logic to it.

In the near term, any progress will be fitful. Pakistan seems unwilling to move much more of its army away from the Indian border, meaning a further delay before operations commence in North Waziristan — home to the Haqqani network, a radical group headed by the Taliban commander Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, which is believed to be behind some of the largest attacks in recent years.

I did not meet any Pakistanis who actually seemed to wish to see the Afghan Taliban back in power. But the country simply does not have the military capacity to make major moves against the Afghan fundamentalists. And, less understandably, Pakistanis tend to see Indian conspiracies behind what is happening in Afghanistan, and fear being trapped between their longtime nemesis on one side and an Indian puppet on the other.

At the headquarters of the Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, I was told that India was suspected of providing explosives to Tehrik-i-Taliban extremists through Afghanistan. Many Pakistanis claim that the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai is essentially a reincarnation of the old Northern Alliance from the Afghan civil war — a union largely made up of ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks and partly financed by India. (This despite the fact that Afghanistan’s ministers of defense and interior are Pashtun, as is President Karzai.)Pakistanis wonder why India is building so many consulates in Afghanistan, and even Indian-subsidized health clinics are considered suspicious.

As he departed for a “strategic dialogue” this week in Washington, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, announced that “it’s time for the United States to do more.” This isn’t what America wants to hear from an oft-unreliable ally. But we must bear in mind that the Pakistani government rules one of the most anti-American populations in the world, and even its elites see us as oft-unreliable ourselves. Washington must stay realistic, and patient, about what can be expected of Pakistan.

Michael E. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Erratum: CNN Story on Pakistan, Spying and Drone Attacks

In my last post at 6:41 pm Monday, I made a mistake in claiming CNN doesn't cover CIA drone attacks in Pakistani territory.

Reza Sayah writes, "There have been at least 21 U.S. drone strikes this year in Pakistan's tribal region, according to a CNN tally. The most recent, on Sunday night, killed five militants, according to officials. All of the strikes have hit locations in North Waziristan, where the bodies were found, or near the border with South Waziristan. The Taliban have killed dozens of people in the tribal region for allegedly providing information to the United States about militant leaders' whereabouts."

The piece is dated March 21, 2010 3:41 p.m. EDT, 3 hours to the minute ahead of the post containing my claim CNN doesn't write about this topic.

The story focuses on six murder victims in Pakistan.

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- The bullet-riddled bodies of six people were found Sunday in Pakistan's tribal region, four of them near a letter that accused them of spying for the United States, two local government officials told CNN.

Four of the bodies were found in front of a bus stop near the village of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, the officials said. The other two were found just outside the town of Miranshah, also in North Waziristan.

The letter was found near the four bodies. The officials said they did not know the exact wording of the letter, but said it was written in Pashto and warned that this would be the fate of those who spy for the United States.

http://www.cnn.com


My only complaint is that these stories should appear more frequently in mainstream U.S. media outlets. I say this because, as I have stated in these pages, I don't think Pakistan is any place for U.S. military action without the involvement of Congress or some official announcement that the United States is at war in Pakistan, and Pakistan's citizens are made aware their country is a target of U.S. military aggression. Not retaliation, aggression.

Drone Attack in Pakistan Blamed on Anonymous Dead Victims

The following low-quality report possesses as its only merit that it is reporting on the incident, whereas I didn't see this one on CNN. Notice how there is no issue regarding operations in Pakistan, the Cambodia of current U.S. military ambitions because there is no grounds for the U.S. to be performing military operations there.

Also note the sources are official and unidentified, the targets are referred to as militants without verification of identity.

The stories I have seen on these CIA drone attacks continually refer to the suicide attacks on the CIA forward operating base as though it were sound and cleared for the CIA to seek retribution rather than trying to determine how the Taliban is organized in southern Afghanistan.

This report comes from a media venture formed by non-media companies, DNA--Daily News and Analysis. At least they're reporting the drone attack instead of ignoring it.

Three militants killed in US drone attack
http://www.dnaindia.com

Sunday, March 21, 2010 22:38 IST

Peshawar: At least three suspected militants were killed in a US drone attack in the restive North Waziristan tribal region in northwest Pakistan today, official sources said.

The drone fired two missiles that struck a house in the Datta Khel area, about 50 km west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan Agency, the sources said.

The exact identity of the three persons killed could not immediately be ascertained.

The US has stepped up drone attacks in North Waziristan since a suicide bomber linked to the Pakistani Taliban killed seven CIA operatives at a forward base in neighbouring Khost province in Afghanistan in December last year.

Follow-up: March 17 Drone Attack in Pakistan

Pakistani officials: Suspected US missile kills 9

This Associated Press story written by Rasool Dawar clearly outlines the problem with this CIA drone program ...

"Pakistan publicly criticizes the U.S. missile attacks, saying they violate its sovereignty and fuel more anti-Americanism among the population, but Islamabad is widely believed to be sharing intelligence with the Americans on at least some of the strikes.

Washington refuses to publicly discuss the program, which uses unmanned drones, but Pakistani intelligence and government officials say privately the attacks have killed several senior al-Qaida and Taliban commanders in recent years."


By RASOOL DAWAR (AP) – 5 days ago

MIR ALI, Pakistan — An apparent U.S. missile attack destroyed a suspected militant compound in a tribal region of northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, intelligence officials said.

It was not immediately clear who was targeted in the strike, in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan, the two officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. An unknown number of people were injured.

The area is the home of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a powerful warlord whose fighters are battling U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The CIA has stepped up missile strikes on militant positions in Pakistan's tribal regions since December, when a suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan publicly criticizes the U.S. missile attacks, saying they violate its sovereignty and fuel more anti-Americanism among the population, but Islamabad is widely believed to be sharing intelligence with the Americans on at least some of the strikes.

Washington refuses to publicly discuss the program, which uses unmanned drones, but Pakistani intelligence and government officials say privately the attacks have killed several senior al-Qaida and Taliban commanders in recent years.

The complete article appears at the following link ...
The Associated Press


A similar story dated March 16 from India claims the count at 11 instead of 9.

http://sify.com/news/

US drone attack kills 11 in Pakistan
2010-03-16 17:40:00

A suspected US drone strike killed at least 11 militants Tuesday in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, an intelligence official said.

Several more people were injured in the aerial strike in the Datta Khel area of the North Waziristan tribal district, a known hub of Islamic militancy.

An intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said four missiles were fired from a drone at two insurgent camps in the mountains.

According to the official, some of those killed were 'foreigners', a term that generally refers to Al-Qaeda-linked militants of Arab or Central Asian origin.

The toll and identities of the victims could not be independently verified as the area is out of reach of the media.

US authorities have intensified drone strikes in the North Waziristan district, which is used by insurgents to launch attacks across the border on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Understanding Palestinian-Israeli Relations at the Root

Writing for Salon.com, Juan Cole had an excellent article about the history of Israeli and Palestinian territories, containing a broader context in the Middle East. His explanation shows how the League of Nations, today the United Nations, instituted in San Francisco in 1943 to deal with issues facing a post-WWII world, was approaching Palestine and the problem of refugees from concentration camps (and other Jewish survivors of WWII) from a 19th Century historical perspective. British colonialism, French colonialism and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire all played a role.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/16-6

Published on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Salon.com
The Unmaking of the Palestinian Nation

by Juan Cole

That is, the purpose of the later British Mandate of Palestine, of the French Mandate of Syria, of the British Mandate of Iraq, was to 'render administrative advice and assistance" to these peoples in preparation for their becoming independent states, an achievement that they were recognized as not far from attaining. The Covenant was written before the actual Mandates were established, but Palestine was a Class A Mandate and so the language of the Covenant was applicable to it. The territory that formed the British Mandate of Iraq was the same territory that became independent Iraq, and the same could have been expected of the British Mandate of Palestine. (Even class B Mandates like Togo have become nation-states, but the poor Palestini

9 Killed in U.S. Drone Attack; ACLU Files Drone Attack Law Suit

From Democracy Now headlines Wednesday, March 17

democracynow.org


9 Killed in U.S. Drone Attacks in Pakistan

In Pakistan, at least nine people have been killed in two apparent U.S. drone strikes. The attacks struck a suspected militant compound and two vehicles in North Waziristan.
ACLU Sues U.S. for Disclosures on Drone Attacks

This comes as the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit demanding the U.S. government disclose the legal basis for its drone attacks overseas. The lawsuit seeks details under the Freedom of Information Act on the circumstances under which drone attacks are authorized as well as the number and rate of civilian casualties. The ACLU first filed its request in January but says the government simply refused to respond. Jonathan Manes of the ACLU’s National Security Project said: “The public has a right to know whether the targeted killings being carried out in its name are consistent with international law and with the country’s interests and values.”

Noam Chomsky as Relevant as Ever

Longtime public speaker on subjects of international relations, world history, political science and linguistics--particularly the specific use of language intended to achieve political ends, that is to say propaganda, Noam Chomsky is still as on point today as when he first took on power relations in the political realm in the early 1960s.

Among other news sources, Democracy Now captured Chomsky's public address in Cambridge, Mass. in mid-March.

"In a wide-ranging public conversation at the Harvard Memorial Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Chomsky talks about President Obama’s foreign and national security policies, the lessons of Vietnam, and his own activism. 'You just can’t become involved part-time in these things,' Chomsky says. 'It’s either serious and you’re seriously involved, or you go to a demonstration and go home and forget about it and go back to work, and nothing happens. Things only happen by really dedicated, diligent work.'"

This challenge comes across to each of us individually. For me this scrutiny cuts to the core of my view of the struggle. My largest grievance with the existing system is an old one--I am called upon to spend half of my waking hours working towards and commuting to and from a project the ultimate ends with which I disagree. Those ends include driving profit to the consolidation of wealth, enabling a way of life that is largely exclusive to myself and anyone else whose work contributes to it. Wealth issues the orders in this society, spreading under the rubric of globalization since the early 1970s. Those who labor are contributing to wealth inequality, sacrificing the quality of their own lives to that of the holders of great fortunes. These fortunes would not be possible, would not be able to exist without mass consent specifically from those who produce the goods, those who build the infrastructure, sail the ships and deliver the cargo, providing profit the spoils of which are redirected upward as reward to those making the decisions--democracy window dressing or not. Chomsky continues to keep this impetus for the shape of captialist economics and politics in accurate perspective.

What Chomsky tells us in his speech about Iran fits appropriately into a larger picture of a long evident desire of the world's wealthy for the United States to control the Middle East. He continues, answering questions from Amy Goodman to describe what he sees in the 1960s that has much more of a foothold in global policy today and comes not from the center of power but from below, from the citizenry.

This is classic Chomsky, on point as he has been stridently for half a century.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/15/noam_chomsky_on_obamas_foreign_policy
VIDEO: interview with Chomsky occurs in second half of the day's episode.
ALSO: http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/03/15

The Wealth Gap v. a Victory Against Overdraft Fees

My preoccupation with the following matters is ... as follows. What kind of world are we living in where money gets taken from us in a sort of ordinary day-to-day occurrence (I was charged $30 for each $1.20 use of my debit card over the three days I was out of money before I got paid? It must be my fault, not a product of insane greed), and then on the flip side of that day-to-day world, the number of people who've got it made in the shade increases by double digits amid double-digit unemployment?

One of my classic very long sentences, but let me offer you this. Steven Wright, way back in the mid-'80s quipped, "How come it's a penny for your thoughts, but you've got to get your two cents in? Somebody's makin' a penny." We must think more like Steven in this world of perpetual yet opportune collapse ... and act more like that guy in that old movie who shouts, "I'M MAD AS HELL! AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!!" I think Thomas Paine would've said, "Hey ... sometimes ... we need that Mad-As-Hell guy."

March 10, 2010 Democracy Now

Study: Number of US Millionaires Increased 16% in 2009

A new study says the number of millionaires in the United States grew by 16 percent last year. The jump in wealthy households coincided with a rising unemployment rate and stagnant wages for most American workers. The research firm Spectrem Group says that if income inequality continues apace, the divide between rich and poor in the United States “will resemble that of Mexico by year 2043.”

Spectrem Group study

Okay, just an observation about the status quo and reasoning: merging information must simply be stated as supporting testimony to the ongoing success of the existing system in order to prevent that merging information to be taken as testimony to the ongoing failure of the existing system. This is not John Maynard Keynes here, this is Alec Guiness demonstrating the Jedi mind trick. Actually, it goes further. It's a technique of indoctrination. What's good for the economy is good for you (so long as we don't attempt to define the word economy together, what it means for people with jobs and money and what it means for everyone else). To properly redirect this indoctrination onto the path of critique and inquiry, if you see the documentary The Corporation by Joel Bakan, an economist is quoted as saying, "The rising tide lifts all boats. If you don't have a boat, you're fucked."

Bank of America to End Overdraft Fees on Debit Purchases

The banking giant Bank of America has announced it will end overdraft charges on debit card purchases. Customers with insufficient funds will now have their purchases declined instead of being hit with large fees. The decision comes amidst a federal push to regulate overdraft fees. The Federal Reserve has proposed to bar banks from charging overdraft fees without consumer consent. Banks collected at least $32 billion dollars in overdraft fees last year.

Congress Marks Time Waiting for Part II of the Meltdown

Danny Schechter writes for the Disinformation site (disinfo.com) the gap between convincing evidence a second economic meltdown looms on the horizon and Congress is unwilling to take action to prevent it is rapidly yawning.

http://www.disinfo.com/2010/03/what-are-they-waiting-for-whither-financial-reforms-fears-of-a-second-crash-are-real-but-congress-lacks-%e2%80%9cappetite%e2%80%9d-for-action/

In his March 6 piece Schechter details some of the court cases and awards that have resulted from corporate negligence that helped provide the crash from which we're still currently reeling ...


All too quietly, Wall Street firms are being sued for their many transgressions. A study by Gary Null found that over $430 billion has been paid to victimized parties by Wall Street firms in over 1500 cases.

Some examples:

Bank of America has spent $14.9 billion to settle 15 cases alleging various charges such as securities violations and mismanagement;
Citigroup has spent over $13.9 billion to settle 12 cases alleging various charges including abusive lending practices and involvement in fraudulent activities;
Merrill Lynch has spent $12.2 billion to settle cases involving various allegations including negligence and mismanagement of funds;
Morgan Stanley has spent over $5 billion to settle 11 cases involving various allegations including failure to disclose material information to customers;
Wachovia has spent over $9.5 billion to resolve allegations including misleading investors and conflicts of interest;
UBS has spent $19.5 billion to settle 6 cases with various charges including misleading investors.

Why the National Deficit, Why Now?

Ellen Brown writes for Truthout.org March 3 new austerity measures for working and out-of-work Americans are not as directly related to the outside influence of foreign investment as one might think.

http://www.truthout.org/deficit-fear-mongering57346

"What the president seems to have missed is that all of our money except coins now comes into the world as "red ink," or debt. It is all created on the books of private banks and lent into the economy. If there is no debt, there is no money; and private debt has collapsed. This year to date, US lending has been contracting at the fastest rate in recorded history. A credit freeze has struck globally; and when credit shrinks, the money supply shrinks with it. That means there is insufficient money to buy goods, so workers get laid off and factories get shut down, perpetuating a vicious spiral of economic collapse and depression. To reverse that cycle, credit needs to be restored; and when the banks can't do it, the government needs to step in and start "monetizing" debt itself, or turning debt into dollars."

Back to the War at Home: Stop the Next Collapse Now

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe writes March 3 the Roosevelt Institute has released a report indicating the U.S. economy may be headed in the direction of systemic crisis yet again due to failure to make specific revisions in policy affecting banks and risk.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/03-0

"Risk-taking at banks," the report cautions, "will soon be larger than ever."

Without more stringent reforms, "another crisis -- a bigger crisis that weakens both our financial sector and our larger economy -- is more than predictable, it is inevitable," Johnson says in the report, commissioned by the nonpartisan Roosevelt Institute.>>

When one takes into account how well the argument has fared in the health care debates how attentive regulation of powerful entities by properly funded government staff translates to "big government" invading the lives of ordinary people, some explanation becomes apparent of how challenging it is to convince Republican legislators to cooperate on a regulatory bill that might change their banking friends' freedom to operate the central economy like a car in a Formula One race. When we asked you nicely in an underregulated, free market environment not to overheat the engine and to avoid collision above 140 mph, we said, "Please?"

This aversion of corporations to minimizing risk--in fact the obsession with increasing risk on investments and ultimately place culpability for poor choices into the hands of taxpayers (whose elected representatives then exclaim, "BALANCE THE BUDGET--THE DEBT IS GETTING RIDICULOUS" ... tell that to the gamblers on Wall Street three years ago, please)--is driven by the fundamental concern of corporations in form and function: to create jobs? Well, in a way--to create executive-level compensation packages that are attractive to prospective execs and competitive with other bloated, top-heavy corporations across all industries and around the globe. If you're going to think of corporate investments, you have to think in terms of corporate priorities (don't forget in the end to reconcile those priorities with your own Main Street concerns: jobs, public infrastructure including transportation, social programs for anyone you know who relies on them to live, affordable health care, capital investment for development of industry where there is too little or none [small business loans]).

Take for example in Michael Moore's last film, "Captialism: a Love Story" his interview with a woman whose deceased husband's employer took out "peasant insurance" on his life. When he died, the company received millions. His wife was mistakenly informed by letter of the insurance award. If you search web sites and read a few articles about peasant insurance you find the motivation for what seems to be a regulatory loop hole and some bad logic that hasn't been tended to by regulators, is driven forth by one motivation: the need to offer executive compensation. Executive bonuses is one of the highest expenditures of large corporations.

Meanwhile many are watching television shows devoted to the fantasy of one day being wealthy enough to never work again and make some eccentric purchases in shopping centers while followed by strangers with video cameras, it may just be coming at a cost to working people (not to even begin to mention the formerly employed) to store all this extra wealth at the top of the economy. Executive compensation seems like a distant concern to most of us. But when the president and his allies in Congress are talking about job creation and the press seems to only acknowledge "jobless recovery," the capital that makes executive salaries and bonuses attractive is the same captial that would be used to create those jobs that bring the stability back to the economy that seems to be what all of us are yearning for but few of us know exactly how to attain.