Illinois Nuke Plant Can’t Take the ‘Global Warming’ Heat
(Automatically Shuts Down)
CHICAGO—As if more evidence were needed that the Nuclear Renaissance is a mirage, Exelon’s LaSalle 1&2 reactors automatically shut themselves down on one of the hottest days of the summer, according to NRC reports.
“This once again demonstrates how incapable nuclear power is of dealing with global warming conditions,” observes Dave Kraft, Director of the Chicago-based Nuclear Energy Information Service, an Illinois safe-energy and nuclear watchdog organization. “Rather than saving humanity from global warming, it seems that we’re going to have to figure out ways of saving finicky nuclear plants from global warming instead,” says Kraft.
According to NRC documents[1], LaSalle units 1&2 automatically shut themselves down when temperatures inside the reactor building exceeded safe limits for operation. A similar incident occurred at the Donald C. Cook reactors in Michigan in the super hot summer of 2006, when the Cook reactors scrammed after exceeding heat standards.
CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION:
The LaSalle reactors did not automatically shut down to zero power levels during this event, but scaled back power output – reportedly to be 76% and 82% respectively for Units 1&2 -- and were to have achieved cold shutdown within 36 hours if temperatures did not reduce in the facility. According to the NRC report (last updated 8/13/2010):
“At 2050 [CDT] on 8/12/10, LaSalle Unit 1 and Unit 2 commenced a Plant Shutdown. At 1952 [CDT] on 8/12/10, LaSalle Ultimate Heat Sink exceeded the 101.25?F limit per Technical Specification LCO 3.7.3, Condition B. Per Technical Specification LCO 3.7.3, Required Action B.1, both Unit 1 and Unit 2 are to be in Mode 3 (Hot Shutdown) in 12 hours. Per Technical Specification LCO 3.7.3 Required Action B.2, both Unit 1 and Unit 2 are to be in Mode 4 (Cold Shutdown) in 36 hours. Technical Specification LCO 3.7.3, Ultimate Heat Sink requires that both Unit 1 and Unit 2 to be in MODE 3 by 8/13/10 at 0752 [CDT] and MODE 4 by 8/14/10 at 0752 [CDT].” [ED. NOTE -- emphasis ours]
LaSalle station staff called to report that the plants apparently reduced temperatures, and were currently back in operation. Power levels for Units 1&2 are currently at 99% and 83% respectively. A correspondence requesting clarification sent to NRC by NEIS the morning of 8/13/10 received no reply.
Quad Cities 1, however, has shut down to zero power levels. Shutdown cause is being determined.
**Nuclear Energy information Service is a non-profit nuclear power watchdog and safe-energy education organization.
http://www.neis.org
June 3rd, 2010
Comcast's proposed takeover of NBC Universal would be a media disaster. If the deal goes through, Comcast would absorb dozens of cable networks and 27 television stations and influence 200 NBC affiliates. It would be the biggest media takeover in a generation.
PROTEST & SEIZE BP!! The response to the call to action has been amazing. People across the country are mobilizing to take to the streets over the next seven days and demand: Seize BP! It is now clear that BP is incapable of solving the crisis, and oil will continue to gush until at least August. BP and the government are stalling, but the people of the Gulf coast and the environment can't wait. The time to take action is now.
"JS takes on Climate Change, COP15, and the skeptics. Did you know that the COP15 summit had 1500 limos driven across Europe to Copenhagen to ferry environmental delegates to and fro? Adding in all the air travel and energy expenditure, the carbon footprint of the summit alone is staggering."
-Charles Shaw
December 6th, 2009
God loves China the most
Category: Life
Heads up to the Dalai Lama
they stole Tibet but the earth is not steal-able
China is the answer to American foreign policy
we have a 'from China' news blackout
we are culturally blind to what regular people around the world are doing.
the new castle walls
tv news channels
great wall of China
great ball of fire
America and China should work out their difference.
make it known to the people how we work for each other.
no one is above or below; except in pay.
'everyone on earth has got somethign to say,'
screams the sun.
people be pirates.
governments should integrate our awareness towards collective cooperation not legal incorperation.
"Stop the Internet Takeover"
Internet User's Mandate
Whereas: The Internet is a free marketplace of ideas and information and NOT federal government property; and
Whereas: ALL Americans benefit from the open exchange of information facilitated by a free and unregulated internet; and
Whereas: The President of the United States has no constitutional authority to “disconnect” privately owned and operated networks; and
Whereas: The Internet Takeover and Shutdown Bill (S. 773) is simply a transparent attempt to centralize power in the executive branch;
Therefore: I urge you to oppose S. 773, the so-called “Cybersecurity Act of 2009,” and do everything in your power to see that it is defeated.
October 1st, 2009
"To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system whereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressors. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good." ~ MLK
August 4th, 2009
"Ye shall be as the Elohim, knowing good and evil." So testified the serpent of Genesis, and so did the Tree of Knowledge become the Tree of Death. For six thousand years the martyrs of science have toiled and perished at the foot of this Tree, so that it may become once more the Tree of Life.
"That Absolute which is sought by the foolish and found only by the wise is the truth, the reality and the reason of universal equilibrium. Such equilibrium is the harmony which proceeds from the analogy of opposites. Humanity has sought so far to balance itself as if on one leg- now on one and now again on the other. Civilizations have sprung up and have fallen, through the anarchic alienation of despotism, or alternatively through the despotic anarchy of revolt, Here superstitious enthusiasms and there the pitiful schemes of materialistic instinct have misguided the nations; but at last it is God Himself Who impels the world towards believing reason and reasonable beliefs. We have had enough and to spare of the prophets apart from philosophy and the philosophers destitute of religion. Blind believers and skeptics are on a par with each other, and both are equally remote from eternal salvation.
“Genius is judged by the tribunal of mediocrity, and this judgment is without appeal, because, being the light of the world, genius is accounted as a thing that is null and dead whenever it ceases to enlighten. The ecstasy of the poet is controlled by the indifference of the prosaic multitude, and every enthusiast who is rejected by general good sense is a fool and not a genius. Do not count the great artists as bondsmen of the ignorant crowd, for it is the crowd which imparts to their talent the balance of reason.
“Light is the equilibrium between shadow and brightness. Motion is the equilibrium between inertia and activity. Authority is the equilibrium between liberty and power. Wisdom is equilibrium in thought; virtue is equilibrium in the affections; beauty is equilibrium in form.”
Excerpts from The History of Magic by Eliphas Lévi
full text here
For the more one looks into the origins of the current disaster, the clearer it becomes that the key wrong turn — the turn that made crisis inevitable — took place in the early 1980s, during the Reagan years.
Attacks on Reaganomics usually focus on rising inequality and fiscal irresponsibility. Indeed, Reagan ushered in an era in which a small minority grew vastly rich, while working families sawonly meager gains. He also broke with longstanding rules of fiscal prudence.
Last week Republicans on Capitol Hill held a strategy summit on how to defeat key parts of the president's health care plan.
At one point, Republican pollster Frank Luntz declared, "You're not going to get what you want, but you can kill what they're trying to do."1
Luntz wrote a confidential memo that laid out the Republican strategy: Pretend to support reform. Mislead Americans about the heart of Obama's plan, the public health insurance option. Scare enough people to doom real reform.
Since most people don't know much about the public health care option, these lies could take root if we don't fight back. Can you send this out to all your friends and neighbors?
5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OBAMA'S PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE OPTION
The choice of a public health insurance plan is crucial to real health care reform. But right now, it's being smeared by conservatives and insurance-industry front groups. Here's what you really need to know:
1. Choice, choice, choice. If the public health insurance option passes, Americans will be able to choose between their current insurance and a high-quality, government-run plan similar to Medicare. If you like your current care, you can keep it. If you don't—or don't have any—you can get the public insurance plan.2
2. It will be high-quality coverage with a choice of doctors. Government-run plans have a track record of innovating to improve quality, because they're not just focused on short-term profits. And if you choose the public plan, you'll still get to choose your doctor and hospital.3
3. We'll all save a bunch of money. The public health insurance option won't have to spend money on things like CEO bonuses, shareholder dividends, or excessive advertising, so it'll cost a lot less. Plus, the private plans will have to lower their rates and provide better value to compete, so people who keep their current insurance will save, too.4
4. It will always be there for you and your family. A for-profit insurer can close, move out of the area, or just kick you off their insurance rolls. The public health insurance option will always be available to provide you with the health security you need.5
5. And it's a key part of universal health care. No longer will sick people or folks in rural communities, or low-income Americans be forced to go without coverage. The public health insurance plan will be available and accessible to everyone. And for those struggling to make ends meet, the premiums will be subsidized by the government.6
Sources:
1. "Words Designed to Kill Health Care Reform," Huffington Post, May 7, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51414&id=16121-3502219-RPiOTbx&t=4
2, 3, 4, 5, 6. "The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform," Institute for America's Future
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51396&id=16121-3502219-RPiOTbx&t=5
May 7th, 2009
Corporate media forced to charged dwindling readership for news content as establishment propaganda organs wither and die while alternative media soars
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave a strange response when asked about plans for mainstream news websites to charge for content, declaring, “The current days of the internet will soon be over.”
He was making reference to the fact that corporate media websites cannot continue to survive under their current failing business model.
The establishment media is dying and advertising revenue has plummeted as people turn to blogs and the alternative media for their news in an environment of corporate lies and spin.
This has forced sectors of the corporate media to charge the dwindling number of loyal readers they have left for news content, a practice which is set to become widespread according to Murdoch. This will only send more people over to the alternative media as the old organs of de facto state-controlled propaganda wither and die.
“Asked whether he envisaged fees at his British papers such as the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, (Murdoch) replied: “We’re absolutely looking at that,” reports the Guardian. “Taking questions on a conference call with reporters and analysts, he said that moves could begin “within the next 12 months‚” adding: “The current days of the internet will soon be over.”
Murdoch’s newspapers and TV networks, which include Fox News and the Asian Star Network, have seen profits plummet from $216m to just $7m year-on-year. MySpace.com is also floundering despite a recent move to replace the company’s entire management staff.
It was all but over for the Boston Globe this week, following a threat to close the 137-year-old publication after net losses of $85 million this year alone. Only a last minute cost-cutting agreement on behalf of its owner, The New York Times Company, and The Boston Newspaper Guild, saved the newspaper.
But it’s not just establishment newspapers that are struggling to survive - social networking websites like Twitter and corporate online video giant You Tube are also deep in the red. Apparently, paying out millions in server fees for half the population of the planet to watch clips of cute puppies isn’t a sustainable business model.
This is why You Tube is being forced to pursue lucrative partnerships with giant production studios and broadcasters, at the expense of user generated content which has been relegated to a sub-section of its website, taking the “You” out of You Tube altogether. Content that may be deemed harmful to You Tube’s corporate agenda and its multi-million dollar partnership deals, like The Alex Jones Channel, is being systematically erased from You Tube’s website under the pretext of flimsy copyright infringement claims.
The jig is up for the corporate media. If they continue to allow free access to their content they will go out of business because there’s not enough advertising revenue coming in, whereas if they charge for content they will lose a huge chunk of their audience and their influence in shaping the news agenda will wane completely.
This is the price the corporate media has paid for lying, spinning and obfuscating on behalf of the virulently corrupt power elite and expecting the population to eat it up without question.
The corporate media monopoly has terminal cancer and they are losing their power, which is why they are aggressively supporting moves to phase out the old Internet altogether and replace it with “Internet 2,” a highly regulated and controlled electronic Berlin wall, where alternative voices will be silenced and giant corporate propaganda organs will dominate once again.
This is what Murdoch is really getting at when he assures us that, “The Internet will soon be over” and it’s down to us to stop that agenda from being realized.
MEDICAL CANNABIS BILLS Awaits Floor Vote in Both Chambers......
SENATE BILL 1381 passed the Public Health Committee on March 25 2009.
The vote was 6-2 in favor.
HOUSE BILL 2514 passed the Human Services committee on March 5, 2009.
The vote was 4-3 in favor.
Now both medical cannabis bills in Illinois can be voted on in their respective chambers anytime between now and the end of May. The votes will likely take place once the sponsor and lobbyist are confident that they have the votes needed to pass the legislation.
SENATE BILL 1381 &
HOUSE BILL 2514,
the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act.
This bill would allow for the legal possession of
7 cannabis plants &
2 ounces of dried cannabis,
(for patients who have been diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition, if they have been issued a registry I.D. card by the Department of Public Health.)
April 29th, 2009
-Project Censored
Founded by Carl Jensen in 1976, Project Censored is a media research program working in cooperation with numerous independent media groups in the US. Project Censored’s principle objective is training of SSU students in media research and First Amendment issues and the advocacy for, and protection of, free press rights in the United States. Project Censored has trained over 1,500 students in investigative research in the past three decades.
Through a partnership of faculty, students, and the community, Project Censored conducts research on important national news stories that are underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the US corporate media. Each year, Project Censored publishes a ranking of the top 25 most censored nationally important news stories in the yearbook, Censored: Media Democracy in Action, which is released in September. Recent Censored books have been published in Spanish, Italian and Arabic.
WASHINGTON — The National Archives has put into effect an emergency plan to handle electronic records from the Bush White House amid growing doubts about whether the agency's new $144 million computer system can cope with the vast quantities of digital data it will receive when President George W. Bush leaves office Jan. 20.
The technical challenge was an inevitable result of the explosion in cybercommunications, which will make the electronic record of the Bush years about 50 times as large as that left by the Clinton White House in 2001, archives officials estimate. The collection will include top secret e-mail messages tracing plans for the Iraq war as well as footage from the likes of Barney Cam 2008, a White House video featuring the first pet.
Under federal law, the government has "complete ownership, possession and control" of presidential and vice-presidential records. The moment Bush leaves office, the National Archives becomes legally responsible for "the custody, control and preservation" of the records.
Archives officials who disclosed the emergency plan said it would mean the agency would initially take over parts of the White House storage system, freezing the contents Jan. 20. Only later, after further study, will archivists attempt to move the records into the futuristic computer system they have devised as a repository for digital data.
Questions about the archives' capacity have added a new element to the
uneasiness felt by open-government advocates and historians, who already fear that outgoing White House officials, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney, may not turn over everything. Cheney asserted this month in a court case that he has absolute discretion to decide which of his records are official and which are personal, and thus do not have to be transferred to the archives,
The National Archives already has begun trucking boxes of paper records from the White House to a warehouse it is leasing in Lewisville, Texas, near the site where Bush's presidential library is to be built, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
"It's a monstrous volume of material," said Lee White, executive director of the National Coalition for History.
The October 2008 financial meltdown is not the result of a cyclical economic phenomenon. It is the deliberate result of US government policy instrumented through the Treasury and the US Federal Reserve Board
This is the most serious economic crisis in World history
The "bailout" proposed by the US Treasury does not constitute a "solution" to the crisis. In fact quite the opposite: it is the cause of further collapse. It triggers an unprecedented concentration of wealth, which in turn contributes to widening economic and social inequalities both within and between nations
The levels of indebtedness have skyrocketed. Industrial corporations are driven into bankruptcy, taken over by the global financial institutions. Credit, namely the supply of loanable funds, which constitutes the lifeline of production and investment, is controlled by a handful of financial conglomerates
With the "bailout", the public debt has spiraled. America is the most indebted country on earth. Prior to the "bailout", the US public debt was of the order of 10 trillion dollars. This US dollar denominated debt is composed of outstanding treasury bills and government bonds held by individuals, foreign governments, corporations and financial institutions
"The Bailout": The US Administration is Financing its Own Indebtedness
Ironically, the Wall Street banks --which are the recipients of the bailout money-- are also the brokers and underwriters of the US public debt. Although the banks hold only a portion of the public debt, they transact and trade in US dollar denominated public debt instruments Worldwide
In a bitter twist, the banks are the recipients of a 700+ billion dollar handout and at the same time they act as creditors of the US government
We are dealing with an absurd circular relationship: To finance the bailout, Washington must borrow from the banks, which are the recipients of the bailout
The US administration is financing its own indebtedness
Federal, State and municipal governments are increasingly in a straightjacket, under the tight control of the global financial conglomerates. Increasingly, the creditors call the shots on government reform
The bailout is conducive to the consolidation and centralization of banking power, which in turn backlashes on real economic activity, leading to a string of bankruptcies and mass unemployment
Will an Obama Administration Reverse the Tide?
The financial crisis is the outcome of a deregulated financial architecture
Obama has stated unequivocally his resolve to address the policy failures of the Bush administration and "democratize" the US financial system President-Elect Barack Obama says that he is committed to reversing the tide:
"Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers. In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people" (President-elect Barack Obama, November 4, 2008, emphasis added)
The Democrats casually blame the Bush administration for the October financial meltdown
Obama says that he will be introducing an entirely different policy agenda which responds to the interests of Main Street:
"Tomorrow, you can turn the page on policies that put the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of men and women all across Main Street. Tomorrow you can choose policies that invest in our middle class and create new jobs and grow this economy so that everybody has a chance to succeed, from the CEO to the secretary and the janitor, from the factory owner to the men and women who work on the factory floor( Barack Obama, election campaign, November 3, 2008, emphasis added)
Is Obama committed to "taming Wall Street" and "disarming financial markets"?
Ironically, it was under the Clinton administration that these policies of "greed and irresponsibility" were adopted
The 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act (FSMA) was conducive to the the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 A pillar of President Roosevelt’s "New Deal", the Glass-Steagall Act was put in place in response to the climate of corruption, financial manipulation and "insider trading" which resulted in more than 5,000 bank failures in the years following the 1929 Wall Street crash
Bill Clinton signs into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, November 12, 1999
Under the 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act, effective control over the entire US financial services industry (including insurance companies, pension funds, securities companies, etc. ) had been transferred to a handful of financial conglomerates and their associated hedge funds
The Engineers of Financial Disaster
Who are the architects of this debacle?
In a bitter irony, the engineers of financial disaster are now being considered by President-Elect Barack Obama's Transition Team for the position Treasury Secretary:
Lawrence Summers played a key role in lobbying Congress for the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act. His timely appointment by President Clinton in 1999 as Treasury Secretary spearheaded the adoption of the Financial Services Modernization Act in November 1999. Upon completing his mandate at the helm of the US Treasury, he became president of Harvard University (2001- 2006)
Paul Volker was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in the l980s during the Reagan era. He played a central role in implementing the first stage of financial deregulation, which was conducive to mass bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, leading up to the 1987 financial crisis
Timothy Geithner is CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which is the most powerful private financial institution in America. He was also a former Clinton administration Treasury official. He has worked for Kissinger Associates and has also held a senior position at the IMF. The FRBNY plays a behind the scenes role in shaping financial policy. Geithner acts on behalf of powerful financiers, who are behind the FRBNY He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
Jon Corzine is currently governor of New Jersey, former CEO of Goldman Sachs
Larry Summers (left) and Timothy Geithner
At the time of writing, Obama's favorite is Larry Summers, front-runner for the position of Treasury Secretary
Harvard University Economics Professor Lawrence Summers served as Chief Economist for the World Bank (1991–1993). He contributed to shaping the macro-economic reforms imposed on numerous indebted developing countries. The social and economic impact of these reforms under the IMF-World Bank sponsored structural adjustment program (SAP) were devastating, resulting in mass poverty
Larry Summer's stint at the World Bank coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the imposition of the IMF-World Bank's deadly " economic medicine" on Eastern Europe, the former Soviet republics and the Balkans
In 1993, Summers moved to the US Treasury. He initially held the position of Undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs and later Deputy Secretary. In liaison with his former colleagues at the IMF and the World Bank, he played a key role in crafting the economic "shock treatment" reform packages imposed at the height of the 1997 Asian crisis on South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia
The bailout agreements negotiated with these three countries were coordinated through Summers office at the Treasury in liaison with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Washington based Bretton Woods institutions. Summers worked closely with IMF Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer, who was later appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Israel
Larry Summers became Treasury Secretary in July 1999. He is a protégé of David Rockefeller He was among the main architects of the infamous Financial Services Modernization Act, which provided legitimacy to inside trading and outright financial manipulation
Larry Summers and David Rockefeller
"Putting the Fox in Charge of the Chicken Coop"
Summers is currently a Consultant to Goldman Sachs and managing director of a Hedge fund, the D.E. Shaw Group, As a Hedge Fund manager, his contacts at the Treasury and on Wall Street provide him with valuable inside information on the movement of financial markets. Under the helm of Larry Summers and as a direct result of the financial meltdown, the D. E. Shaw Group made record profits. At the end of October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, the D. E Shaw Group announced $7 billion in revenue, a 22 percent increase over the previous year, "with nearly three times more cash on hand than a year ago" (2theadvocate. com, 31 October 2008)
Putting a Hedge Fund manager (with links to the Wall Street financial establishment) in charge of the Treasury is tantamount to putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop
The Washington Consensus
Summers, Geithner, Corzine, Volker, Fischer, Phil Gramm, Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Rubin, not to mention Alan Greenspan, al al. are buddies; they play golf together; they have links to the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderberg; they act concurrently in accordance with the interests of Wall Street; they meet behind closed doors; they are on the same wave length; they are Democrats and Republicans
While they may disagree on some issues, they are firmly committed to the Washington-Wall Street Consensus. They are utterly ruthless in their management of economic and financial processes. Their actions are profit driven. Outside of their narrow interest in the "efficiency" of "markets", they have little concern for "living human beings". How are people's lives affected by the deadly gamut of macro-economic and financial reforms, which is spearheading entire sectors of economic activity into bankruptcy
The economic reasoning underlying neoliberal economic discourse is often cynical and contemptuous. In this regard, Lawrence Summers' economic discourse stands out. He is known among environmentalists for having proposed the dumping of toxic waste in Third World countries, because people in poor countries have shorter lives and the costs of labor are abysmally low, which essentially means that the market value of people in the Third World is much lower. According to summers, this makes it far more "cost effective" to export toxic materials to impoverished countries A controversial 1991 World Bank memo signed by of Chief Economist Larry Summers reads as follows (excerpts, emphasis added):
DATE: December 12, 1991 TO: Distribution FR: Lawrence H Summers Subject: GEP
"'Dirty' Industries: Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the Less Developed Countries? I can think of three reasons:
1) The measurements of the costs of health impairing pollution depends on the foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality.... From this point of view a given amount of health impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that
2) The costs of pollution are likely to be non-linear as the initial increments of pollution probably have very low cost. I've always though that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted, their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City. Only the lamentable facts that so much pollution is generated by non-tradable industries (transport, electrical generation) and that the unit transport costs of solid waste are so high prevent world welfare enhancing trade in air pollution and waste
3) The demand for a clean environment for aesthetic and health reasons is likely to have very high income elasticity. [the demand increases when income levels increase]. The concern over an agent that causes a one in a million change in the odds of prostrate cancer is obviously going to be much higher in a country where people survive to get prostrate cancer than in a country where under 5 mortality is is 200 per thousand.... "
Summers stance on the export of pollution to developing countries had a marked impact on US environmental policy:
In 1994, "virtually every country in the world broke with Mr. Summers' Harvard-trained "economic logic" ruminations about dumping rich countries' poisons on their poorer neighbors, and agreed to ban the export of hazardous wastes from OECD to non-OECD [developing] countries under the Basel Convention. Five years later, the United States is one of the few countries that has yet to ratify the Basel Convention or the Basel Convention's Ban Amendment on the export of hazardous wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries (Jim Valette, Larry Summers' War Against the Earth, Counterpunch, undated)
The 1997 Asian Crisis: Dress Rehearsal for Things to Come
In the course of 1997, currency speculation instrumented by major financial institutions directed against Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea was conducive to the collapse of national currencies and the transfer of billions of dollars of central bank reserves into private financial hands. Several observers pointed to the deliberate manipulation of equity and currency markets by investment banks and brokerage firms
While the Asian bailout agreements were formally negotiated with the IMF, the major Wall Street commercial banks (including Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and J. P. Morgan) as well as the "big five" merchant banks (Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney) were "consulted" on the clauses to be included in the Asian bail-out agreements
The US Treasury in liaison with Wall Street and the Bretton Woods institutions played a central role in negotiating the bailout agreements Both Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner, were actively involved on behalf of the US Treasury in the 1997 bailout of South Korea:
[In 1997] "Messrs. Summers and Geithner worked to persuade Mr. Rubin to support financial aid to South Korea. Mr. Rubin was wary of such a move, worrying that providing money to a country in dire straits might be a losing proposition..." (WSJ, November 8, 2008)
What happened in Korea under advice from Deputy Treasury Secretary Summers et al, had nothing to do with "financial aid"
The country was literally ransacked. Undersecretary of the Treasury David Lipton was sent to Seoul in early December 1997. Secret negotiations were initiated. Washington had demanded the firing of the Korean Finance Minister and the unconditional acceptance of the IMF "bailout"
A new finance minister, who happened to be former IMF and World Bank official, was appointed and immediately rushed off to Washington for "consultations" with his former IMF colleague Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer
"The Korean Legislature had met in emergency sessions on December 23. The final decision concerning the 57 billion dollar deal took place the following day, on Christmas Eve December 24th, after office hours in New York. Wall Street’s top financiers, from Chase Manhattan, Bank America, Citicorp and J. P. Morgan had been called in for a meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Also at the Christmas Eve venue, were representatives of the big five New York merchant banks including Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney. And at midnight on Christmas Eve, upon receiving the green light from the banks, the IMF was allowed to rush 10 billion dollars to Seoul to meet the avalanche of maturing short-term debts
The coffers of Korea’s central Bank had been ransacked. Creditors and speculators were anxiously awaiting to collect the loot. The same institutions which had earlier speculated against the Korean won were cashing in on the IMF bailout money. It was a scam. (See Michel Chossudovsky, The Recolonization of Korea, subsequently published as a chapter in The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Global Research, Montreal, 2003)
"Strong economic medicine" is the prescription of the Washington Consensus. "Short term pain for long term gain" was the motto at the World Bank during Lawrence Summers term of as World Bank Chief Economist (See IMF, World Bank Reforms Leave Poor Behind, Bank Economist Finds, Bloomberg, November 7, 2000)
What we dealing with is an entire " old boys network" of officials and advisers at the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the IMF, World Bank, the Washington Think Tanks, who are in permanent liaison with leading financiers on Wall Street
Whoever is chosen by Obama's Transition team will belong to the Washington Consensus
The 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act
What happened in October 1999 is crucial
In the wake of lengthy negotiations behind closed doors, in the Wall Street boardrooms, in which Larry Summers played a central role, the regulatory restraints on Wall Street’s powerful banking conglomerates were revoked "with a stroke of the pen"
Larry Summers worked closely with Senator Phil Gramm (1985-2002),chairman of the Senate Banking committee, who was the legislative architect of the the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act, signed into law on November 12, 1999 (See Group Photo above). (For Complete text click US Congress: Pub.L. 106-102). As Texas Senator, Phil Gramm was closely associated with Enron
In December 2000 at the very end of the Clinton mandate, Gramm introduced a second piece of legislation, the so-called Gramm-Lugar Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which paved the way for the speculative onslaught in primary commodities including oil and food staples
"The act, he declared, would ensure that neither the sec nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (cftc) got into the business of regulating newfangled financial products called swaps—and would thus "protect financial institutions from overregulation" and "position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century" (See David Corn, Foreclosure Phil, Mother Jones, July August 2008)
Phil Gramm was McCain's first choice for Secretary of the Treasury
Under the FSMA new rules – ratified by the US Senate in October 1999 and approved by President Clinton – commercial banks, brokerage firms, hedge funds, institutional investors, pension funds and insurance companies could freely invest in each others businesses as well as fully integrate their financial operations
A "global financial supermarket" had been created, setting the stage for a massive concentration of financial power. One of the key figures behind this project was Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, in liaison with David Rockefeller. Summers described the FSMA as "the legislative foundation of the financial system of the 21th century". That legislative foundation is among the main causes of the 2008 financial meltdown
Financial Disarmament
There can be no meaningful solution to the crisis, unless there is a major reform in the financial architecture, implying inter alia the freezing of speculative trade and the "disarming of financial markets". The project of disarming financial markets was first proposed by John Maynard Keynes in the 1940s as a means to the establishment of a multipolar international monetary system. (See J.M. Keynes, Activities 1940-1944, Shaping the Post-War World: The Clearing Union, The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Royal Economic Society, Macmillan and Cambridge University Press, Vol. XXV, London 1980, p. 57)
Main Street versus Wall Street
Where are Obama's "Main Street appointees"? Namely individuals who respond to the interests of people across America. There are no labor or community leaders on Obama's list for key positions
The President-elect is appointing the architects of financial deregulation
Meaningful financial reform cannot be adopted by officials appointed by Wall Street and who act on behalf of Wall Street
Those who set the financial system ablaze in 1999, have been called back to turn out the fire
The proposed "solution" to the crisis under the "bailout" is the cause of further economic collapse
There are no policy solutions on the horizon
The banking conglomerates call the shots. They decide on the composition of the Obama Cabinet. They also decide on the agenda of the Washington Financial Summit (November 15, 2008) which is slated to lay the groundwork for the establishment of a new "global financial architecture"
The Wall Street blueprint has already been discussed behind closed doors: the hidden agenda is to establish a unipolar international monetary system, dominated by US financial power, which in turn would be protected and secured by US military superiority
Neoliberalism with a "Human Face"
There is no indication that Obama will break his ties to his Wall Street sponsors, who largely funded his election campaign
Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bill Gates' Microsoft are among his main campaign contributors
Warren Buffett, among the the world's richest individuals, not only supported Barak Obama's election campaign, he is a member of his transition team, which plays a key role deciding the composition of Obama's cabinet
Warren Buffett
Unless there is a major upheaval in the system of political appointments to key positions, an alternative Obama economic agenda geared towards poverty alleviation and employment creation is highly unlikely
Barack Obama. November 7 Press Conference Joe Biden (far left), newly appointed chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (far right) Photo: Charles Dharapak
What we are witnessing is continuity
Obama provides a " human face" to the status quo. This human face serves to mislead Americans on the nature of the economic and political process
The neoliberal economic reforms remain intact
The substance of these reforms including the "bailout" of America's largest financial institutions ultimately destroys the real economy, while spearheading entire areas of manufacturing and the services economy into bankruptcy
Thanks to the freedom fighters:
ThirdEyeWide
$LadyKennedy$
♪♠ Unique ♪♠
NoDancing@800 FEMA
Concentration Camps Nationwide
Eddie NWO Censored
October 7th, 2008
October 6th, 2008
They are Stealing from YOU!
Here's How to Fix the Wall Street Mess
...from Michael Moore
Michael Franti, Matisyahu, Wookiefoot, Dead Prez, and Anti-flag played the Ripple Effect concert on the Capitol lawn. This event was a Peace Demonstration to the Republican National Convention happening in our City.
We accomplished this despite the efforts of the Police to provoke a Riot.
With 30min left on our Permit Rage Against the Machine showed up !! Zach Delarocha was followed by the Feds and accosted the minute he stepped back stage. Dozens of Feds and StormTroopers crashed the fence and stopped the band from taking the stage. They had no law behind the action, but were hoping to stall long enough to run over our permitted time.
The crowd began to chant and swell with energy at seeing this go down.
The helicopters swooped in and hundreds of Storm troopers marched in expecting (and provoking) a full on Riot !
Proclaiming himself to be a free citizen Zach marched out into the masses and requested that they sit !!!
this is what followed
Then he walked off towards the Excel Center....and the entire crowd followed !!!!!!
the rest is HISTORY and can be seem on you tube.
The Cops went to town on these kids !
WOW...this was super powerful and we thank you all who were there for keeping our end of the deal ..... THE PEACE
luv
jojo
August 11th, 2008
Dog lovers of the world unite. Our federal government's zero-tolerance anti-drug crusade reached a new low in Prince George's County, Maryland, when police killed two innocent pet Labrador retrievers while improperly conducting a SWAT-style drug raid on the mayor's house.
Date: September 28, 2007 10:54 PM Body: EXTREME URGENCY!!! Sen. Bills NOW DISARM Veterans, Declare WAR,
On 9/26/07, Larry Lee Lawson wrote: So called 'hate' bill, and gun bills will remove 1st and 2nd amendment RIGHTS!! Global FILTH moving NOW to grab that 'brass ring'!!
I've been trying to express how important it's been to get ready for what's coming. THEY'RE COMING FOR THE GUNS NOW! If this doesn't start an internal revolution, you might as well stick your head in their noose. The very ZIONIST murderers who pushed our kids to DEATH in these wars are now working to disarm them and U.S.
And at the VERY time they're preparing to start a DRAFT and another WAR on Iran and probably Syria!
While you'd BEST be acquiring Beans BULLETS and Bibles, (YESTERDAY!) You might TRY calling Senators to try to stop this. TAKE OUR GUNS AND YOU ARE GUILTY OF TREASON!
THE WAR WILL BE ON!!!
Again folks, the same mentalities that MURDERED 66 MILLION in the Soviet Union now RUN the Homeland GESTAPO! GET ARMED AND GET READY!!!
URGENT Action: Lieberman Trying to SNEAK Iran War Declaration Through Senate http://www.rense.com/general78/sneak.htm ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/no_iran_war_declaration.php
Israel Seeks Exemption From Atomic Rules http://www.hdnews.net/Story/p0673_BC_Nuclear_Israel_1stLd_Writethru_09_25_0796
Hate Bill Ready For Senate Vote http://www.rense.com/general78/hatbbi.htm
URGENT! Disarmament Bill Being Rammed Through Senate http://www.gunowners.org/a092507.htm
Anti-gun California Senator Dianne Feinstein Is At It Again! http://www.gunowners.org/a091707.htm
Problems With HR 2640 NRA Compromise Is Bad For Gun Owners http://www.gunowners.org/netb.htm
Mark Koernke, said today on The Intel Repot today that:
"…this whole thing with the Veteran's disarmament bill is part of this overall package because again people there is an agenda a foot. Now we worked on this this week and we got a conformation in a round about way. Now there has been a lot of people talking about the fact that Remington, Winchester, and Federal cartridge have all announced that they are not going to be selling any more ammunition to the general population. They are not going to sell components such as bullets or primers either. Now everybody heard about that this has been under the table. What ever stocks and inventories are out there are out there when they exhaust there are going to be bare shelves or at least there is going to be a great reduction in what they make available. So my co host Don called Remington, Winchester, and Federal; talked to a number of different of people there on the phone. Nobody would come upon the air on our programming to deny that that claim was true or false to deny that it existed even in other words to come up on the air and tell the American people oh that's crazy that's all a lie. They are not going to do it nobody from Winchester, nobody from Remington, and nobody from Federal cartridge would come up on the air to disclaim what it is that has been leaked out what as far as what's happening behind the scenes… Let's put it this way people that's a confirmation that yes its happening it's a go… It is not a rumor its going to happen its not an if its now simply its is happening…"
I had recorded Mark Koernke's show today so I was able to play it back several times to type out a nearly word for word transcription of it even though I am no secretary. You can hear it for yourself. Download it here in mp3 www.sendmefile.com/00585744
It is 10 minutes out of his hour long show.
Next Step Toward North American Union Put Firmly in Place
The next step toward the dissolution of the USA was officially put into place on Saturday. The beginning of the NAU (North American Union) has now been officially established. As many as 100 Mexican trucking companies may now deliver their cargo—whatever it may be—anywhere within the United States of America. The most liberal court in the nation—the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals—cleared the way for the Open Borders crowd, on Friday 31 August 2007; another day that will live in historical infamy. The leftist-leaning court disregarded concerns from both the Sierra Club and the Teamsters (is this court now fighting their own?) that US government oversight groups would not provide the checks necessary for public safety concerns. The liberal courts, anti-US swarms and Open Borders politicos should be smiling broadly today. They have won another bloodless coup-d’etat against the will of the American people.
Question: Do any of us still believe that the US government will fulfill its duty and use the 2006 allocated border fence funds to actually build the required barrier to drug dealers, terrorists and all other illegals? Thus far it has been all talk and little-to-no action.
The anti-US-sovereignty politicians and their minions have worked as quickly and clandestinely as possible to create the situation that would put the active no borders framework in place—in order to make any border fence unworkable. Don’t forget that all of these pesky sovereignty borders will slow down the one-world government politicians’ plans. And, with no national or other sovereignty issues to worry about, these political entities will no longer need to be concerned about any and all voters. As we are seeing with the NAU and SPP (“Security and Prosperity Partnership”), We-the-People have already been effectively bypassed. Our dissenting input to our “leaders” on these issues has been denied. Taking away or severely limiting our right to vote—without our input or consent—should be just as easy.
So, we now have potentially or actually dangerous Mexican trucks with which we must contend; equipment that in the past has been shown to be less than safe. These trucks will be allowed to go anywhere within the continental US. Our government says this is a safe pilot program. Uh-huh. And we already know how “safe” imports from China have become and how the US government is “protecting us” from them. Anyone want a piece of Chinese live-worm chocolate? With fewer and fewer individuals willing to protect our southern border—including elected politicians and US border patrol chiefs—We-the-People are being repeatedly placed in the position of having to fight our own government. Can the demise of our republic be far away? It doesn’t look like it.
The American people—liberals, conservatives and moderates—rose up to oppose the Senate-proposed Illegals’ Amnesty bill. Our opposition stopped it. However, our elected political lawmakers and law-enforcers had ‘Plan B’ up their sleeves—a plan that would entail only the interests of said politicians and one that renders the US electorate both pointless and unnecessary. Chillingly, Plan B seems to be working well.
Mr. CALLAWAY: Mr. Chairman, under unanimous consent, I insert into the Record at this point a statement showing the newspaper combination, which explains their activity in the war matter, just discussed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MOORE]:
“In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, ship building and powder interests and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press in the United States.
“These 12 men worked the problems out by selecting 179 newspapers, and then began, by an elimination process, to retain only those necessary for the purpose of controlling the general policy of the daily press throughout the country. They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, national and international, of these papers; an agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.
“This contract is in existence at the present time, and it accounts for the news columns of the daily press of the country being filled with all sorts of preparedness arguments and misrepresentations as to the present condition of the United States Army and Navy, and the possibility and probability of the United States being attacked by foreign foes.
“This policy also included the suppression of everything in opposition to the wishes of the interests served. The effectiveness of this scheme has been conclusively demonstrated by the character of the stuff carried in the daily press throughout the country since March, 1915. They have resorted to anything necessary to commercialize public sentiment and sandbag the National Congress into making extravagant and wasteful appropriations for the Army and Navy under false pretense that it was necessary. Their stock argument is that it is 'patriotism.' They are playing on every prejudice and passion of the American people.”
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