Tuesday Reads
Posted: November 30, 2010 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: Arab States, Budget Deficit, dread bunny Roberts, Federal Deficit, Federal Reserve, fiscal security, iran, Obama federal worker's salary freeze, Social Security, Wikileaks 58 Comments
good morning!!!
Well, the top story is still the Wikileak’s data drop of all those diplomatic cables. Here’s an interesting take on all the information that was released about the Arab states and their feelings about Iran by The Atlantic.
Sure, we knew that Middle East governments were concerned about Iran. But we didn’t know to what degree. The cumulative impact of these cables is profound.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the largest, wealthiest, and among the most conservative Middle East nations, made “frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program,” the American embassy in Riyadh reported in April 2008. “He told you to cut off the head of the snake,” one of the King’s aides reminded the American ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus when they were in the kingdom for a two day visit.
From tiny Bahrain, King Hamid, in a meeting with Gen. Petraeus seven months later, said that Iran was the source for much of the trouble in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He argued forcefully for taking action to terminate their nuclear program, by whatever means necessary,” according to a leaked cable from the American embassy there. “That program must be stopped,” the King told Gen. Petraeus. “The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.”
This the same chilling language, which the American public is accustomed to hearing from hardline Israeli officials. Hearing it expressed by Muslim leaders in the Middle East might now have a profound effect on American public opinion.
Robert Mackey at the Lede Blog of the NYT has a group of things up that you may want to explore including videos and reactions from around the world. This one from Iran and its president takes the cake.
Asked about the leaked American cables — some of which frankly reveal the enmity of Arab leaders for Iran — Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told reporters in Tehran, “let me first correct you. The material was not leaked, but rather released in an organized way,” Iran’s state-run Press TV reported.
As my colleagues William Yong and Alan Cowell add:
Mr. Ahmadinejad said at a news conference on Monday that Iran’s relations with its neighbors would not be damaged by the reports.
“Regional countries are all friends with each other. Such mischief will have no impact on the relations of countries,” he said, according to Reuters.
“Some part of the American government produced these documents,” he said. “We don’t think this information was leaked. We think it was organized to be released on a regular basis and they are pursuing political goals.”
According to Press TV, Mr. Ahmadinejad also said the cables, “have no legal value and will not have the political effect they seek. He also called the documents released by WikiLeaks a “game,” adding that they are “not worth commenting upon and that no one would waste their time reviewing them.”
That seems to provide an answer to how Tehran would react to the disclosure of information that the leaders of several Arab countries had encouraged the United States to take action to stop its nuclear program. Speaking of Iran, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, for instance, is quoted in the documents urging Washington to “cut off the head of the snake” while there was still time.
What’s that old joke about de Nile and it not being just a river in Egypt?
Progrowth liberal has a post up about Obama’s proposed two year salary freezes for federal workers. The title sounds oddly familiar. I bet if you do a search of this blog, you’ll find an old post or two with that same title. Hmmm. The title is ‘Barack Hoover?‘
This strikes me as short-term fiscal restraint but not a really serious attempt to getting the long-term fiscal house in order. In other words precisely the opposite of what we should be doing while in a very depressed economy. So why would this President make such a recommendation?
Okay, so my thought was it’s really an 11th dimensional chess move by the President to make sure he gets credit for Republican policies that pass before the Republicans can do it so he can move towards reelection when he’ll REALLY start work on those FDR initiatives Yes? (No, I didn’t write that with a straight face.) Or, we can follow PGL’s suggestion to Lawrence (Larry) Mishell over at Economic Policy Institute and a post called ‘Federal pay cuts: A bad idea for what gain?’ Go check the table out–not nifty but still useful–and then you’ll see why Mishell’s bottom line is what it is.
This is another example of the administration’s tendency to bargain with itself rather than Republicans, and in the process reinforces conservative myths, in this case the myth that federal workers are overpaid. Such a policy also ignores the fact that deficit reduction and loss of pay at a time when the unemployment rate remains above 9% will only weaken a too-weak recovery
So, what I want to know is who is he listening to because it certainly doesn’t seem like it’s any economists that I can find or read. Not even the monetarists and the conservatives are supporting these things.
The House will be voting on a bill to extend tax cuts to the middle class. You may want to check out the process on CSPAN. Here’s the coverage of that from The Hill. Frankly, I don’t need no stinking tax cuts. I need a damned job! I also would like Wall Street to stop looting my retirement savings.
Lawmakers said there was only a limited discussion of the tax cut issue at a caucus meeting Monday night. No final decisions on the timing or procedure for votes are expected until after congressional leaders meet with Obama at the White House on Tuesday, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), said.
Van Hollen told reporters that the House vote would likely be held under a traditional rule, meaning Republicans would have at least one chance to offer an amendment to expand the tax cuts beyond the $250,000 level. If Democratic leaders hold the vote under suspension rules, the GOP would have no such opportunity but a two-thirds majority would be required for approval.
GOP leaders have argued against any tax hikes during a fragile economic recovery, saying that an increase for the top brackets could stifle small businesses.
Okay, so let me get this straight. The GOP calls it “a fragile economic recovery’ for folks making more than $250k a year, but thinks that extending unemployment benefits for the nation’s long term unemployed is just about enabling whining, lazy people so it’s just a bad idea. Right, ideology over economics and people. Check.
Oh, speaking of ideology and bunnies over economics and people, here’s another take on that stupid video about the QE2 and the Ben Bernank. It comes from Richard Alford–a retired economist for the NY FED–who guestposts on Naked Capitalism. (Oh, and any bunnies that talk like that down here get put into gumbo pots, just a warning.)
The video is popular and effective because it is not a detailed-footnoted-rigorous academic exercise. It humorously plays on what a substantial fraction of the audience already perceive to be true. It takes swipes at what many viewers see as an institution that is charged with promoting economic welfare yet they see it both detrimentally affecting their lives as well being arrogant and well insulated from accountability.
The Fed dismissed its critics while the housing bubble grew. It did so to its own detriment as well as to the detriment of the real economy and the financial sector. Those who defend of the Fed against the criticisms in this video may win every definitional battle, but they will lose the war for the hearts, minds and confidence of the American people.
Alford lists some things that the FED can do to counter the perceptions in the video that are at the heart of its effectiveness and viral status. It is more about how people feel rather than what they don’t know.
A liberal response was released to the Cat Food Commission. Matt Yglesias overviews it and links to the entire document. You may want to check it out. It doesn’t recommend devastating Social Security which is nice. If my kids were to support ruining Social Security, my assumption would be that they’re planning a house with a room for me some time soon. You might try that tactic with any mouthy young’n wanting privatization near you. Tell them that their moms will be moving back in with them or ask your kids which sofa is yours and when is it okay to move in? (Actually, I have to h/t Susie Madrak for that one. It’s a good suggestion.) This blueprint balances the budget by 2018.
Liberals didn’t like the Simpson-Bowles deficit plan largely because neither Simpson nor Bowles is a liberal so their proposal doesn’t encapsulate liberal thinking. Today the Our Fiscal Security coalition, comprised of Demos, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Century Foundation have released their fiscal blueprint which shows you would that liberal take would look like.
If you go to the site, you’ll find more details on Our Fiscal Security. It also has a lot of interesting links to facts on the budget, the deficit, taxes, jobs, and the recovery.
Putting our nation on a path of broad prosperity will require generating new jobs, investing in key areas, modernizing and restoring our revenue base, and greatly increasing the cost efficiency of the health care system. Achieving these goals, however, will require an informed and engaged public to help set national priorities.
The following report puts forth a blueprint that invests in America and creates jobs now, while putting the federal budget on a long-term sustainable path. We document the hard choices that need to be made and suggest specific policies that will yield lower deficits and a sustainable debt while preserving essential initiatives and investments.
Not that’s a refreshing change to the statements of glee about gridlocking the federal government and all its services coming from Simpson McScrooge doesn’t it?
Oh, and in keep in line with all of this spending stuff, did you read this at HuffPo?
The Obama administration will spend less than a quarter of the $50 billion it promised to homeowners facing foreclosure, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report Monday.
The CBO projection raises fresh questions about the success of the administration’s foreclosure-prevention efforts and its commitment to helping homeowners, even as unemployment hovers near 10 percent. Corporations and large banks appear to be in full-fledged recovery — last quarter, corporate profits reached an all-time high of $1.66 trillion on an annual basis — but households and small businesses seem to have been left out.
Washington policymakers talk constantly about helping “Main Street” recover from the steepest downturn since the Great Depression. Spending less than a quarter of the money promised to help residents of “Main Street” keep their homes may not seem in line with that goal
Okay, so, that’s about it from me this morning. I’m not sure how much of this FDR-style policy I can handle. I might become a socialist and you’ll have to search under your beds for me daily.
[MABlue’s spooky pick]
Because BostonBoomer did a great job spooking us early this morning, I decided to stick with the program by sharing a story I read a couple of days ago.
CIA successfully inherited KGB’s psychoactive drugs technology
“The most important evidence to prove the use of psychotropic substances in “the land of the free” is the “KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation” manual, which was declassified in 1997. The manual was used by CIA counterintelligence from 1963 to 1985. According to the document, US special services used such methods as disrupting human biorhythms, threats, physical violence, hypnosis and narcotics.
“The USA used such methods in all armed conflicts in which the country was involved. Now look at what they do to Guantanamo prisoners. To crown it all, The Washington Times wrote in 2001 that US federal courts could approve the use of the serum of truth in the search for Bin Laden.
“Therefore, it does not seem appropriate for Americans or British to stir hysteria about “brutal Russians using inhuman methods for obtaining confessionary statements”
Oh! While you’re there you can also read this:
C.I.A.: Cocaine Import Agency
The increase of drugs in the U.S. and the EU, and the global drug trade, go hand in hand with imperial military expansion around the world. The “fight against drugs is a farce … ”
The Mercury News of San Jose, California, revealed that CIA agents sold hundreds of tons of cocaine in the U.S. during the years of the conflict in Nicaragua, in order to obtain funds for the Contras (US-created paramilitaries to prevent the Sandinista revolution). The report explains that Contra leaders met with a CIA agent to plan the operation. The drugs were transported in military aircraft to airports in Texas.
The drugs were first distributed in the black ghettos of Los Angeles, California, from there it spread throughout the country. In the early 80’s, crack and cocaine ravaged neighborhoods in the U.S., destroying the brains and the will to fight and protest.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I actually do think this is what he’s doing, except of course for the last part.
I mean, once again before even sitting down at the table he’s conceding something that any normal negotiator would reserve for getting something in return, and he didn’t invite any Republicans to stand with him to show this is as bipartisan agreement. I think he wants, for himself only, credit for something the 2012 campaign can call deficit reduction, and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Democrats or any middle class person’s income or the economy or whatever Dems could have got Republicans to give up in return for this.
Pre-emptive rolling over. It’s the Obama Doctrine.
To me Obama is simply an upper crust, GOP Trojan horse…He is there to lay down for the GOP wet dreams of decades breezing though as they get branded as being Dem…then the GOP can run against the disastrous results of exactly what they always wanted….it’s a perfect set up. The GOP gives up NOTHING for everything …as you point out, BO doesn’t even get one to stand with him as he turns everything over to them… Even I, Miss Downer , am shocked at the damage done and what this means for the next two years…and frankly the Upper Crust may indeed want Obama to be installed for another 4 years…we will know that by the caliber of GOP candidates for president . If it’s 18 second string vaudeville acts …then yes, they want Obama reinstalled…and then Katie bar the door…I just don’t see a bottom .
I commented over at corrente that Obama was selected to destroy the Dem (& “liberal”) brand and … so far, so good.
Ian Welsh is completely right when he says the Left must be seen to repudiate Obama.
“the Left must be seen to repudiate Obama”
Yes, but unfortunately I’m not sure what constitutes the public Left in America today will have it in them.
One thing that strikes me about the cables from the Saudis et al, is that the US has become the hit man of the world. You want somebody bombed? Call the US! The only difference is, we don’t get paid, and we can’t afford it.
Pshaw, I don’t get why anyone is surprised by this revelation, particularly if you are actually following what is going on in Iraq. The Iranians have been arming and supporting the Shiite sects and the Saudis(and us) have been counter arming the Sunni. In other words, the two areas have been fighting a proxy war in Iraq for awhile now. So why it’s some big news flash that the Saudis were encouraging us to take Iran out of the equation is beyond me. That whole area of the world loves to do land grabs. I’d have been cynical too if the Saudis approached me about ‘interfering.”
I don’t think anyone is-surprised at all.
About as surprised as a report that “water is wet”. 😉
Yes, but note that they don’t foot the bill for the WARS, that is why I say that if they want to be Hawkish then they should pass a WARS TAX. At present their only plan is to raid the Social Security Fund and tell us that we are a burden while they take our money.
Thank you. That was my point. Everybody wants the US to fight their wars. Then they point at us and call us bullies and all we get out of the deal is bankruptcy.
Halliburton gets endless no bid contracts…and they and their ilk are all that matters to our “leaders”…if we the people have to eat cat food…well sacrifices have to be made…but just by us peons of course. On this Titanic , the life boat call is, ” executives and executives first! ” The women and child be damned.
You would have thought that would’ve stopped with Cheney out of office, wouldn’t you?
From Spiegel Online an interesting Photo Gallery: How America Sees the Germans.
… and this How the US Sees Select World Politicians.
Add to that what former US ambassador in Berlin, John Kornblum, has to say:
“But perhaps reading the released telegrams will also help us all better to understand how difficult and frustrating diplomacy can be, why secrecy is necessary. Diplomats, like politicians and journalists, are also human. They too love to exchange gossip.” 😆
From the NYT article on the pay freeze:
So what is going to happen at these private meetings? Beatings? Torture? If I were one of those commission members, I’d call in sick that day.
And the NYT says the federal pay freeze is just Obama’s opening offer to the Republicans. It will save 5 million, but that’s a drop in the bucket while he’s probably going to extend the tax cuts to the rich.
“We can’t afford to fall back onto the same old ideologies or the same stale sound bites,” he said.
Don’t tell me he’s falling back on the same old, same stale rhetoric, as a solution for the long term unemployed…
Obama should be forced to sit in a room and listen to his own rambling public statements over and over and over again.
Pure torture-LOL!!
…..he was also charged with “illegally recording the San Diego Airport Authority.
Ah see he WAS a terrorist afterall ! /snark
Speaking of TSA, here’s a TSA joke. I actually saw my dr today and as part of the usual questions, since I hadn’t been there a while, dr asked if I had ever had a mammogram.
I sad, “No, I’m waiting for them to offer it at the airport.”
Dr looked blank for a minute then said, “oh, yeah, I figure they can crank up the power a bit there and offer virtual colonoscopies too.”
Heh.
Btw, WV, (((hugs))) on the house sale & everything. Just saw that thread from last night.
votermom,
(((hugs back at ya))), Thanks you all make me smile. 🙂
The joke is sooo true, and in fact I wouldn’t mind a breast pat down if it were done by an OBGYN and gave me an ALL CLEAR SLIP! Most men don’t know that women get a hands on check on their breasts to check for breast cancer, so they could at least offer a TRUE service by having a PROFESSIONAL doing the breast checks.
Yeah WV, sending thoughts you way on the changes your experiencing in your life. It is a difficult time, but it is a catalyst of sorts. It will get you focused on important matters that many times go ignored by women, important matters such as you. (hope that made sense) Anyway, good luck and stay strong.
Noam Chomsky: WikiLeaks Cables Reveal “Profound Hatred for Democracy on the Part of Our Political Leadership”
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/30/noam_chomsky_wikileaks_cables_reveal_profound
………………
‘Chomsky’s connection to the Pentagon Papers’
Their news casts have been very informative and with very interesting guests.
Wow, now that is interesting and would explain the Russian position about the ‘Arms escalation’.
…
via the above link tweet:
No revelations there, except for a questionable number 6. Not too good.
Check out the interactive mapping on the website.
Used in American mental institutions every day of the year, along with threats, physical violence, and, at times, hypnosis and narcotics. The methods pioneered in mental institutions and tested on patients eventually are applied to the rest of the population for purposes of social control.
I personally have never trusted ‘Prozac’ and the spin of it being an all blah, blah, treatment for folks. Which one are you speaking about, or is it all in general as a control for the population?
All of it, the drugs and the overall treatment, which is highly authoritarian and IMO abusive, loss of freedom and dignity, psychological abuse. The only one of these which is sometimes necessary is loss of freedom, and that usually only partially.
Also, the suggestions which are made over and over again, some of which are designed to keep you ever from telling. It is sophisticated mental manipulation.
Years ago people were forced kicking and screaming into institutions, EST, medication. Think Frances Farmer. Troubled people were not docile about it, they fought the manipulation and intimidation.
But Americans –maybe all people, maybe it’s human nature– are so susceptable to conforming, belonging, being one with the crowd, a couple of decades of marketing and people now willingly, eagerly, want thought-numbing medication. Conformists like Nancy Reagan swallowed Miltown by the palmful but now even Carrie Fisher goes on talk shows cheering the wonderous effects of electroshock.
So many of my friends are medicated, it’s stunning. They wouldn’t dream of using marijuana, something that grows from the earth, but they stock their handbags and dobkits with all kinds of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, sleeping pills. Then they’re so so surprised they have no direction or genuine passion.
By the way, this is sort of interesting:
Gee, anyone come to mind? Hemmm….
And BTW BTW, has anyone else noticed that the way side effects are revealed in ads for medication has changed? The long lists of horrendous side effects (like “this may lead to blinding headaches or leak out of your ass”) have been tempered to lines like, “if you are sensitive to [can’t be deciphered] certain side effects may effect you” while lovely pictures promise All Will Be Well.
I’m not bitter, I just can’t find my Rose Colored Glasses.
Narcissism No Longer a Psychiatric Disorder
That’s one way to cure it…I guess that concided “normal” now
Score one for Barack Obama. Not that he’d be diagnosed anyway; the powerful usually are not.
Zaladonis,
The best one, on side effects is this:
May cause fatal events
Hemmm, I have yet to meet someone that had more than ONE FATAL EVENT!
This is a good post by Taylor Marsh on the WikiLeaks leaks issues and brings in some past concerns issues to the front burner.
No surprise there, the patriarchy at work…
So did anybody else watch the President at his presser following his meeting with Republicans?
Dour.
Unengaged.
Took no questions.
I’m glad I knew this is who he is because if I believed what Obamabots believed I’d be very sad watching this unfold. But of course most of them are not — they’re defensive.
President Obama Calls GOP Meeting ‘Productive’
I’m so glad you posted that.
I resisted snarking about him reading the whole thing but REALLY! With writers and a script this is the best they could come up with?!
And zero passion. Zero enthusiasm. Needless to say, zero hope.
Euch.
Seems he will always reside in the “uncanny valley” – no matter how much exposure he is given. There is not a chip for real.
Here he is, and thanks, because I missed the live one.
OK, the prior partly LEAKED report will be out in its full glory @ 2pm.
Sima, any thoughts: Senate passes overhaul of food safety system
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AT54C20101130
I want to thank you for that post on Nov. 17th: I missed that one…that was the day the Boy broke his nose.
Yea, I’m brewing up a post about it. I guess my main thoughts are to move to the next line of barricades, the rule making procedures that’ll take place with the FDA and USDA and good grief, Homeland Security.
At least the Tester amendment and a few other good ones passed. I can see right how they will get around those though, and since the bill was supported mostly by Big Ag (remember this was supposed to be a bill to rein in Big Ag) I think we’ll get some stinker rules pretty quickly.
On a brighter note, the bill is full of unfunded mandates. That should make food safety even worse for imports and the like, but let the little guy get by for a while.
OK, this was just to good to pass, http://susiemadrak.com/?p=10574V I’ve always said, “he’s a lily liver little chicken pants that sleeps on plastic sheets”.
“Ed Henry just said that it’s true that President Obama apologized for failing to be bipartisan and promised to work harder to find common ground”. I should have added that comment.
A federal pay freeze might make sense under a scenario where there was sacrifice by all stakeholders in this circus we call a republic. But in the current context of corporate predation and revolving door guvmint it is simply another nail in the coffin of the middle class. . . R.I.P.
And, BTW, why a priori exempt the military which now largely consists of contract mercenaries? I can’t count the number of times my pay was frozen, sometimes for as long as 3 years, while involved in clinical research at medical schools and the VA hospitals.
Dak,
Please explain how this is possible???? They make Billions in profit and get a REFUND!?!
Write offs and tax credits. You should talk to my sister the CPA and her tax lawyer hubby. Not my field.
Shit, for what The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (“Insha’Allah some day the Three Holy Mosques”) is paying for one floor at Columbia Presbyterian he could the entire Kings County Hospital and all the homes is a one mile radius around that facility.