Best April Fools EVAH!


This video seems okay though... click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

But it's the only freaking one!

Seriously, someone talk me down-


Derivatives:
First, within the 600trillion-1.2 quadrillion OTC derivatives market their is a black hole. Even if it only amount to 10% of the conservative market estimate that is 60 trillion dollars.

Stimulus:
Along with all the bailouts and stimulus we will have shelled-out (one way or another) 5-7 trillion dollars (note a lot of that is Fed. Res. stuff, but it still counts). Most realistic economists are thinking we may need as much as the equivalent of 10-20% of GDP. That would put a total somewhere close to 20trillion. In other words, we have only done 1/4 of what we need to do to get the economy started again.

The team: Obama's team... shit these people are in large part responsible for the problem. Paulson explicitly shielded the banks from scrutiny because in essence the transactions they were involved with were not so different from what Madoff was up to. We should have used the same approach with them. Frozen all their assets and sent in the lawyers and accountants to prepare the prosecutions. Ruben? Summers? Geithner? What part of fox in henhouse do people not understand? Now ... Not blaming Obama here, but time to think out of the box and find economic gurus who can do the same. That should include people who have enough vision to imagine a post-capitalist future.

The big devaluation: one of the only ways to get out of the 'mess' is to print money... a process the Fed has continued in earnest since 2000. The difference is that now it is a world-wide policy. Most countries are basically giving money away to throw at the crisis. What does this mean in the long term? Imagine a world where the dollar (and all other major currencies) are worth half their former value. Oh, and did I fail to mention, your salary level would stay about the same in addition to the rest of the world. Essentially, this would be the death knell for the middle class around the world. Of course the big devaluation will lead to the massive inflation once there is a 'real' recovery causing additional misery and fall-out. We are already seeing some signs of this. Have you noticed how prices don't seem to be keeping pace with economic retreat? Cheap money is keeping inflationary pressures artificially high when prices should be dropping like a rock.

This is what will happen if we continue to follow the current capitalist end-game unless the people are willing reject the bankrupt system itself.

I am not saying that socialism is the answer... far from it. However, we need to think quickly what a post-capitalist, post-consumer society will look like before it is too late.

Definition: actively supporting something stupid that Obama has done without thinking critically on the subject.

Usage: The OP is just saddlebacking, it's time to separate that from real ideas about policies concerning GLBT communities

It works as vocabulary, i.e. carrying someone's saddle works as a metaphor for what is going on.


Hopefully, there won't be a need for too much 'saddlebacking' in the new administration. So, saddlebackers beware.

for the signature Penis platter...

...A visit to the Guolizhuang Restaurant in Beijing is not for the faint-hearted. Here the menu consists almost entirely of penis and testicle dishes -- made from the private parts of deer, snakes, yaks, horses, seals and ducks, among others.

The platters have names like "The Essence of the Golden Buddha," "Phoenix Rising," "Jasmine Flowers with 1,000 Layers" and "Look for the Treasure in the Desert Sand." Are such flowery names meant to prevent guests from prematurely running off? After all, the "jasmine flowers" are made of layers of thinly sliced donkey penis, and the "treasure in the desert" is actually sheep gonads on a bed of curry.

"Chinese eat anything with four legs, except tables. And everything that flies, except airplanes," says Zhaoran, quoting a well-known Chinese saying. This may be true, but even in China a penis restaurant is unusual. The Guolizhuang restaurant opened two years ago on the aptly-named Dongsishitiao Street... http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitge...

But seriously, China's wage disparity from top to bottom boggles the mind and will eventually produce a revolution if not addressed... Maybe it's time!

Source: Bloomberg per Gulf News

Bloomberg
Published: December 20, 2008, 22:40

San Francisco: The US economy has a 50 per cent chance of falling into a depression during the next three years, said Roger Farmer, a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research's economic fluctuations and growth programme."There's a significant probability things will get worse," Farmer, 53, said during a phone interview Friday. "We're certainly not at the end of the recession and things are getting worse."

A drop in the Conference Board's index of leading indicators, released Thursday, underscores econo-mists' expectations that the recession will be the longest in the postwar era as banks restrict credit, home and stock values plunge, and job losses mount. Farmer said he is predicting the US recession will last at least another year. "Everything depends on business confidence, and what I see is declining confidence," said Farmer, who is also graduate vice-chair of the Economics Department of the University of California at Los Angeles.

The loss of confidence is leading households and companies to undervalue assets, which is hurting consumer spending and investment, he said. A government fiscal stimulus programme will have a "questionable" immediate effect on consumption and financial markets, Farmer said.

Instead, he said he supports the idea of letting the Federal Reserve or government step into the stock market by buying indexed securities such as those linked to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index...

Read more: http://gulfnews.com/business/Economy/10268...

This one is going to really make you angry. Within the last month, the "federal government agreed Sunday to take unprecedented steps to stabilize Citigroup Inc. by moving to guarantee close to $300 billion in troubled assets weighing on the bank's books, according to people familiar with details of the plan.

Treasury has agreed to inject an additional $20 billion in capital into CITI"...http://seekingalpha.com/article/107514-cit...

So, just another bank bailout... nothing to see here move right along...

The real insulting part of this is that today it was announced that the government of Dubai had received 8 Billion in funding from CITI:

Citigroup Incorporated has arranged more than $8 billion (Dh29.3 billion) finance for various Dubai government entities in recent months, the global banking group said.

"This is in line with our commitment to the UAE market in general, and reflects our positive outlook on Dubai in particular," said Citi's chairman, Sir Win Bischoff in a statement.

Officials familiar with Citi's recent deals with Dubai entities said the amount is an aggregate of about half a dozen deals Citi did with Dubai's public sector entities during the past few months.

"We continue to place the Gulf region among our globally most significant markets, and we certainly see opportunities across all of the UAE's financial sectors. In the last 2 years, we've participated in most major financing transactions across the region including the UAE... http://gulfnews.com/business/Banking_and_F...

So, CITI has been giving taxpayer money directly to Dubai. No doubt those are some real sweetheart deals they are getting!

The 'real' economy has been a slow steady slide since the election of 'W'. During most of that time, the media reports were about how 'great' the economy was doing. We all know that was a lie.

Now, they are taking great glee in reporting the 'hard times'. Obama is the new FDR... Where will the first breadline happen... ARG!!! (head is exploding at this point)...

Of course they haven't been paying attention!

Not only that, they are not paying attention now. In fact, their rhetoric is fueling a good deal of the panic.

I am not saying the economy isn't bad (it is). What I am saying is that the media will absolutely screw-up the story and usually spin-it to favor the right.

This is the time that W's advice after 9/11 might actually be useful... Ignore the media hype, and if you have a job, go shopping (bargains abound in this season).

We're always waiting for the next person (President) who is going to save us and put things right. Of course those in power have mothballed Dr. Dean... he believed in what really needs to be done: organize... organize... organize from the bottom up.

Obama is not going to save us... Hell, he most likely isn't even liberal or progressive.

So, we need to do what the Christian Right did and keep the organization coming. Obama, so far, has completely ignored those that brought him to power... However,so far on our side all I have heard is a little grumbling. That won't work. That only gets us the back of the bus.

Maybe it's time to kick the transition in the ass!

Sorry, but if something is TOO BIG to fail it deserves to be broken-up. It's time to end the monopoly that some of these banks have.

Abu Dhabi has been bailing CITI out for over a year now... that's why their equity amount is so large.

Here are my ideas about saving our auto industry:


1. Pass a 5 year moratorium on sales tax for Automobiles MANUFACTURED in the United States.

2. Raise the Federal Gasoline Tax by 6cents per gallon. These would be setup into 3 funds. 2cents would go towards a general bailout fund. Companies could apply for emergency loans. Taxpayers would receive shares equal to the dollar amount in relation to the present stock price. 2 cents would go for an R&D and modernization fund. Taxpayers would also receive shares or warrants. All money would have to spent in the US and companies would only borrow what they needed. The other 2cents would be put in a fund for the states to implement mass transit and other transport projects designed to make jobs. The new tax would Sundown after 10 years. If there is money left in the fund, it would remain a permanent bailout fund for the auto industry.

3. To receive the benefits of the entire package, the industry would have to agree to new CAFE and emission standards effective within 4 years. Additionally, 50% of manufactured vehicles should use alternative sources of energy (or be hybrids) by 2015.

4. Pass a universal healthcare package that would take the burden off of U.S. manufacturing.

5. Top managers, board, CEO, CFO could make no more than 100% of the average company salary until the company has been profitable for 4 consecutive quarters.



There should be no SINGLE ATM bailout. Let's get some smart government going in this country. What other ideas would you add to this package?

If you mention the economy to anyone say the Bush Recession. If it slips further... the Bush Depression.

We need to get the ownership thing down right now... before January 20.

If we have any of the Dem leaders on the talking head shows... they need to repeat this ad infinitum.

I am finding that just a bit ironic... NO?

Obama won a mandate from the people and yet some people are already second-guessing and criticizing. You know what? Obama has already proven himself the best American politician of his generation and he has EARNED my support.

I did not come to Obama easily. His positions always struck me as being farther to the right than I personally am willing to go. I also had my doubts about his ability to win. And, you know what? He has proven me wrong at every turn.

Here is the bottom-line: I trust Obama to put together the best team for him and for the country.

If he wants Rahm, fine...
If he wants Hillary, fine...
If he wants Summers, fine...
IF not, I can live with that too...

After all that he has shown me, I am going to trust Obama to get it right.

I am standing by Obama...

I love the weasel wording in the original... why doesn't the article explain the 'fishy'?

I know where some of those library funds came from... the Al Maktoum family and the Al Nahayan family in the UAE.


And, just why did they donate quite a lot to the library?


THEY LIKE AND RESPECT THE GUY!




I like Obama, but would never be construed as a koolaid drinker... but I am QUITE willing to give Obama some credit and let him put together the team he wants AND America needs.

Besides Hillary is not a DONE deal...

In terms of my own preference, I would prefer to see Richardson or Hillary equally.

Think about it. We are obviously not being given the full story about the Syrian operation on Sunday.

It was not standard operating procedure. In recent years, the main resource used against known terrorist targets inside neighboring countries was Predator Drones.

Why would you risk Special Ops forces inside of hostile territory? It seriously sounds like they were trying to seize a particular and significant target (think October Surprise). However, it seems to have gone wrong... i.e. they acted on bad intelligence.



US military helicopters attacked a farm in eastern Syria near the Iraq border yesterday, killing eight civilians, including five members of the same family, Syria has said. The Syrian foreign ministry summoned the US charge d'affaires in Damascus to protest over the raid. Syria's state news agency SANA said four helicopters had taken part in the raid on a building under construction in the Bou Kamal border area, in eastern Syria. Bou Kamal is the main crossing point into Iraq... http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/...

U.S. military helicopters launched an extremely rare attack Sunday on Syrian territory close to the border with Iraq, killing eight people in a strike the government in Damascus condemned as "serious aggression."

A U.S. military official said the raid by special forces targeted the network of al-Qaida-linked foreign fighters moving through Syria into Iraq. The Americans have been unable to shut the network down in the area because Syria was out of the military's reach.

"We are taking matters into our own hands," the official told The Associated Press in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of cross-border raids.

The attack came just days after the commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq said American troops were redoubling efforts to secure the Syrian border, which he called an "uncontrolled" gateway for fighters entering Iraq.

A Syrian government statement said the helicopters attacked the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, five miles inside the Syrian border. Four helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction shortly before sundown and fired on workers inside, the statement said.

The government said civilians were among the dead, including four children... http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ianwYiL...

I am currently reading "The Fall of the House of Bush" by Craig Unger. While reading I had one of those awful light bulb moments concerning the present race for the WH.

The section of the book is the one related to the assassination of Rabin in Israel. Leading up to that assassination, Likud (Netanyahu et al) had systematically poisoned the waters calling Rabin a terrorist and pointing out the un-Israeliness of Rabin's supporters and supporters of the Oslo Accords.

Here is a rather telling excerpt:

Rabin's adversaries on the right jumped into the fray-- including Christian evangelicals. "I was Ambassador for four years of the peace process, and the Christian fundamentalists were vehmently opposed to the the peace process," said Itamar Rabinovich, who seved as the Israeli ambassador to the United States between 1993 and 1996 (136).

I can't help but believe the right and the McCain campaign is engaging in similar tactics vis a vis Obama. Their campaign of racist smears, Muslim innuendos, and anti-American finger pointing has served to poison and anger the right against a likely Obama Presidency.

Someone please tell me I need a