Do you believe this joke? The PWG ? The President's Working Group. What does the President's Non-Working Group look like? And I have to wonder what the ones that are working are actually working on?
This is a real slap in the face to Bernanke. He doesn't know how to stop a slippery slope? Hello?
You know I really congratulate Americans for coming together like this to sink the lousy economy and end the war. It was pure genius !!!
I mean if you can't get the Congress to do "Stop-Loss" than hell you have to do it for them. I sincerely appreciate everyone that participated in this effort. It was a gas wasn't it. Now, all we have to do is sit back and watch it all happen. I mean don't stop now, we're almost there !!
Thanks !
Governor Paterson’s Tests (click here)
Published: March 17, 2008
David Paterson’s inauguration Monday as New York’s governor will bring a sigh of relief from many of the state Capitol’s regulars. This is not necessarily good news for him or for the citizens he will pledge to serve....
The New York Times since the Neocons arrived in the back hallways of the paper have become nothing but lousy, fucking bastards. I was waiting for this. If you are going to sink a Governor then you have to have plans for the Lieutenant Governor. They can all go straight to hell where they belong !!!!!!!!!!!!
The 'tone' of the paper has been more than condescending toward the new Governor of New York. First they make the point the man is legally blind and they go about explaining away the disability as if there was something to worry about in the first place. There is no decency left at The New York Times, only attempts to manipulate the opinions of the public. They should shut down the place, lock the front door and sell the real estate to Murdoch, because that is about what its worth anymore ! I get far better information from Barrons and the BBC, no one needs The New York Times anymore. They have GONE OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE !!!
The Dollar, Paulson, and Carlyle Capital
Written by Mike Whitney
Monday, 17 March 2008
Three Easy Pieces: The Dollar, Paulson, and Carlyle Capital
by Mike Whitney
So far, so bad. On Wednesday, crude-futures topped $110 for the first time, the dollar slipped to $1.55 per euro, and gold zoomed to a new high of $1,000 per ounce. Yikes!
The dollar has been shoved off a cliff and no one knows where it will land. Last week, the G-7 nations announced that if “irrational” prices movements persisted, they would “collectively take suitable measures to calm the financial markets.”
http://pacificfreepress.com/content/view/2402/1/
Paulson Defends Bear Stearns Bailout as 'The Right Decision'
Says That Drop In Home Prices Is 'Inevitable' And 'Necessary' Decline
By MARY BRUCE
March 16, 2008
Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson Sunday defended the Federal Reserve's recent bailout of investment bank Bear Stearns.
"The right decision here, I am convinced, was the decision that the Fed made, which was to do things, work with market participants to minimize the disruptions," Paulson said in a "This Week" interview with George Stephanopoulos.
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=4460517&page=1
Al Qaida give Austria three-day ultimatum
Agencies
Published: March 14, 2008, 10:37
Dubai: The North African Al Qaida wing on Thursday threatened to kill two Austrian hostages if it had abducted in Tunisia if Vienna failed to co-operate with requests to secure the release of some of the group's members jailed in Tunisia and Algeria.
The three-day ultimatum started at midnight on Thursday, Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said efforts were being made to secure the release of the hostages but noted that the demands were outside Vienna's jurisdiction.
"As you care for the safety of your citizens, we care to free our brothers who face the ugliest forms of torture at the prisons of Tunisia ... and Algeria," it said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Austria/10197370.html
Genesee County's air won't meet new EPA standards, but don't blame big industry
by Elizabeth Shaw The Flint Journal
Thursday March 13, 2008, 6:00 PM
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN -- Genesee County's air is too dirty to breathe, according to new ozone standards set for 2008 by the Environmental Protection Agency.
And the problem can't just be blamed on the traditional target of General Motors and big industrial polluters. It may be from cars, trucks, lawn mowers and other everyday things.
The EPA announced this week it was tightening the amount of ozone, commonly known as smog, allowed in the air.
Genesee County is among 14 Michigan counties whose most recent three-year average fails the new tighter standard, which could put it on the EPA's list of areas requiring air quality improvements over the next 20 years.
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/03/genesee_countys_air_wont_meet.html
CSX railroad plan upsets Polk leaders
By David DeCamp, Times Staff Writer
Published Saturday, March 15, 2008 8:42 PM
TALLAHASSEE — Big town politicians pushing their traffic on rural neighbors. A railroad with a lucrative government deal. An outraged small city.
It's the backstory of how Orlando may one day get commuter rail. And it's the reason for the heated debate dividing Central Florida and Tampa Bay lawmakers in Tallahassee.
The fight is over a complex plan struck under former Gov. Jeb Bush to run commuter trains on CSX's railroad through Orlando. In exchange, the state would subsidize the building of the biggest railyard in the Southeast in Winter Haven. It would help improve CSX's freight line through west-central Florida.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article418953.ece
Blackwater: Dubious claims
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Earlier this month, The Boston Globe reported that former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root uses offshore shell companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions in Social Security taxes and Medicare. To circumvent tax laws, the firm registers its American contractors in Iraq as employees of one of its two Caribbean shell companies.
And now a House Democrat is seeking a federal investigation into Blackwater Worldwide, a major war contractor. Rep. Henry Waxman says he has concerns that Blackwater's claims of business status, which he wrote in a letter sent out last week, "appear dubious." Indeed. Blackwater lists its security guards as independent contractors in order to be eligible for certain benefits, including federal small-business contracts.
How can a company that earns $1.25 billion in business contracts be eligible for $144 million in small-business contracts as well? Doing so, according to The New York Times, afforded Blackwater more than $31 million in avoided taxes.
Waxman points out that when it comes to protecting Blackwater guards, the company maintains that they are employees, but when it financially benefits from it, the company claims them only as independent contractors. Given that U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for the contractors' insurance benefits and premiums, it seems only fair that the company pay its share in taxes.
Knowing what we know about Blackwater, we urge federal investigators -- especially the Internal Revenue Service -- to take a close look at the company's dealings. Enough is enough.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/355077_blackwatered.html
FBI asked to investigate whether White House destroyed Plame email...
Mar 12 2008 1:18PM
Associated Press
FBI asked to investigate whether White House destroyed Plame e-mail
Washington (AP) The FBI is being asked to investigate whether White House e-mails about the Valerie Plame affair may have been destroyed.
The request comes from an ethics advocacy group. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is basing the request on a White House document that describes an effort to recover a week's worth of missing e-mail from 2003. The missing messages included some from Vice President Cheney's office.
White House technicians eventually retrieved e-mail from the missing week, but it's unclear whether all the e-mail from Cheney's office has been found.
Federal prosecutors sought the e-mail in the investigation of who leaked Plame's identity as a CIA agent. The investigation eventually led to the conviction of Cheney's former chief of staff on charges of perjury, obstruction and lying to federal agents.
http://www.kxmc.com/News/218316.asp
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