Weekend Economists' "44 Men 44" Review, February 18-21, 2011

[Demeter]

Hello everybody! Presidents' Day arrives this weekend, so we will consider the 44 men, and they were all men, who have led this country, either down the path of righteous government, or astray into something other than the wishes of the Founders and the People.

Presidents' Day is of course the bastardization that was designed to produce a Monday holiday while merging Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays and throwing a sop to all the also-rans.

"Titled Washington's Birthday, a federal holiday honoring George Washington was originally implemented by an Act of Congress in 1880 for government offices in the District of Columbia (20 Stat. 277) and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices (23 Stat. 516). As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington's actual birthday, February 22. On January 1, 1971, the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This date places it between February 15 and 21, which makes the name "Washington's Birthday" in some sense a misnomer, since it never lands on Washington's actual birthday, February 22.

The first attempt to create a Presidents Day occurred in 1951 when the "President's Day National Committee" was formed by Harold Stonebridge Fischer of Compton, California, who became its National Executive Director for the next two decades. The purpose was not to honor any particular President, but to honor the office of the Presidency. It was first thought that March 4, the original inauguration day, should be deemed Presidents Day. However, the bill recognizing the March 4th date was stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee (which had authority over national holidays). That committee felt that, because of its proximity to Lincoln's and Washington Birthdays, three holidays so close together would be unduly burdensome. During this time, however, the Governors of a majority of the individual states issued proclamations declaring March 4 to be Presidents' Day in their respective jurisdictions.

An early draft of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act would have renamed the holiday to "Presidents' Day" to honor the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln, which would explain why the chosen date falls between the two, but this proposal failed in committee and the bill as voted on and signed into law on 28 June 1968, kept the name Washington's Birthday.

By the mid-1980s, with a push from advertisers, the term "Presidents' Day" began its public appearance. Although Lincoln's birthday, February 12, was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have officially renamed their Washington's Birthday observances as "Presidents' Day", "Washington and Lincoln Day", or other such designations. However, "Presidents' Day" is not always an all-inclusive term.

--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington%27s_Birthday

That's what happens when you get a holiday designed by a committee.

And so, on to the news of the weekend. Post what you've got. Talk about a president, past, present, or future. Enjoy!

[Demeter]

1. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, TWO GEORGIA BANKS FAIL

Habersham Bank, Clarkesville, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with SCBT National Association, Orangeburg, South Carolina, to assume all of the deposits of Habersham Bank.

The eight branches of Habersham Bank will reopen during their normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Habersham Bank, a division of SCBT National Association...As of December 31, 2010, Habersham Bank had approximately $387.6 million in total assets and $339.9 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, SCBT National Association agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and SCBT National Association entered into a loss-share transaction on $270.7 million of Habersham Bank's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $90.3 million. Compared to other alternatives, SCBT National Association's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Habersham Bank is the nineteenth FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the fifth in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was North Georgia Bank, Watkinsville, on February 4, 2011.

Citizens Bank of Effingham, Springfield, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with HeritageBank of the South, Albany, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of Citizens Bank of Effingham.

The four branches of Citizens Bank of Effingham will reopen on Saturday as branches of HeritageBank of the South...As of December 31, 2010, Citizens Bank of Effingham had approximately $214.3 million in total assets and $206.5 million in total deposits. HeritageBank of the South will pay the FDIC a premium of 1.0 percent to assume all of the deposits of Citizens Bank of Effingham. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, HeritageBank of the South agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and HeritageBank of the South entered into a loss-share transaction on $158.1 million of Citizens Bank of Effingham's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $59.4 million. Compared to other alternatives, HeritageBank of the South's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Citizens Bank of Effingham is the twentieth FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the sixth in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Habersham Bank, Clarkesville, earlier today.

[some guy]

ooh, first rec

:D

thanks for doing this every week. I hope you have a great weekend. :hug:

[Demeter]

4. Congrats!

You are welcome. As for the weekend, I just plan on surviving until March brings relief. Some deluded weatherman is forecasting snow....

We've been having nearly steady 50 mph "gusts" today--the power flickered 10 times between 3 and 6 PM at my last job of the day. I'm afraid to look for updates on weather or power outages.

[bread_and_roses]

41. We are in the same weather band

I read your posts about the cold with extra sympathy, as we were in the same iron grip, when you got snow, we got snow, it was near 50 F here yesterday, we have been under a weather advisory for high winds since last night, and right now have light snow falling, which, due to the still high winds, seems to be suspended in the air, giving the effect of a white mist.

Makes me feel as if we are neighbors.

[Demeter]

15. AND TWO IN CALIFORNIA

Charter Oak Bank, Napa, California, was closed today by the California Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Bank of Marin, Novato, California, to assume all of the deposits of Charter Oak Bank.

The two branches of Charter Oak Bank will reopen on Tuesday as branches of Bank of Marin...As of December 31, 2010, Charter Oak Bank had approximately $120.8 million in total assets and $105.3 million in total deposits. The FDIC will retain $28.5 million of the assets for later disposition...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $21.8 million. Compared to other alternatives, Bank of Marin's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Charter Oak Bank is the twenty-first FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in California. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Canyon National Bank, Palm Springs, on February 11, 2011


San Luis Trust Bank, FSB, San Luis Obispo, California, was closed today by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with First California Bank, Westlake Village, California, to assume all of the deposits of San Luis Trust Bank, FSB.

The sole branch of San Luis Trust Bank, FSB will reopen on Tuesday as a branch of First California Bank...As of December 31, 2010, San Luis Trust Bank, FSB had approximately $332.6 million in total assets and $272.2 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, First California Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and First California Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $241.7 million of San Luis Trust Bank, FSB's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $96.1 million. Compared to other alternatives, First California Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. San Luis Trust Bank, FSB is the twenty-second FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the third in California. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Charter Oak Bank, Napa, earlier today.

[Demeter]

21. TOTAL LOSS FOR THE WEEKEND: $267.6M

Not bad for a holiday weekend....

[hamerfan]

80. There are still

Banks in Georgia? And people still put money in them? :crazy:

[Demeter]

103. Well, there WERE

Not sure if any are left.

[Demeter]

2. "The Father of His Country": George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander in chief of the Continental Army in 1775–1783, and he presided over the writing of the Constitution in 1787. As the unanimous choice to serve as the first President of the United States (1789–1797), he developed the forms and rituals of government that have been used ever since, such as using a cabinet system and delivering an inaugural address. As President, he built a strong, well-financed national government that avoided war, suppressed rebellion and won acceptance among Americans of all types, and Washington is now known as the "Father of his country"...

Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the United States Constitution in 1787 because of his dissatisfaction with the weaknesses of Articles of Confederation that had time and again impeded the war effort. Washington became the first President of the United States in 1789. He attempted to bring rival factions together to unify the nation. He supported Alexander Hamilton's programs to pay off all state and national debt, implement an effective tax system, and create a national bank, despite opposition from Thomas Jefferson. Washington proclaimed the U.S. neutral in the wars raging in Europe after 1793. He avoided war with Britain and guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795, despite intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although never officially joining the Federalist Party, he supported its programs. Washington's "Farewell Address" was an influential primer on republican virtue and a stern warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars.

Washington had a vision of a great and powerful nation that would be built on republican lines using federal power. He sought to use the national government to improve the infrastructure, open the western lands, create a national university, promote commerce, found a capital city (later named Washington, D.C.), reduce regional tensions and promote a spirit of nationalism. "The name of American," he said, must override any local attachments.<1> At his death, Washington was hailed as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen".<2> The Federalists made him the symbol of their party, but for many years the Jeffersonians continued to distrust his influence and delayed building the Washington Monument. As the leader of the first successful revolution against a colonial empire in world history, Washington became an international icon for liberation and nationalism. His symbolism especially resonated in France and Latin America.<3> Historical scholars consistently rank him as one of the two or three greatest presidents...

Washington was born on February 11, 1731, based on the Julian calendar then in use in the British Colonies. When the Gregorian calender was adopted in the English Colonies (1752), he opted to begin observing his birthdate anniversary on the equivalent date of February 22, 1732...

Today, the February holiday has become well-known for being a day in which many stores, especially car dealers, hold sales. Until the late 1980s, corporate businesses generally closed on this day, similar to present corporate practices on Memorial Day or Christmas Day. With the late 1980s advertising push to rename the holiday, more and more businesses are staying open on the holiday each year, and, as on Veterans Day and Columbus Day, most delivery services outside of the U.S. Postal Service now offer regular service on the day as well. Some public transit systems have also gone to regular schedules on the day. Many colleges and universities hold regular classes and operations on Presidents Day. Various theories exist for this, one accepted reason being to make up for the growing trend of corporations to close in observance of the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. However, when reviewing the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill debate of 1968 in the Congressional Record, one notes that supporters of the Bill were intent on moving federal holidays to Mondays to promote business. Over time, as with many federal holidays, few Americans actually celebrate Washington's Birthday, and it is mainly known as a day off from work or school, although many non-governmental workers do not take the day off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington

[Demeter]

3. Anyone Care to Predict How Car Sales Will Fare THIS Weekend?

Anyone? Timmy? Larry? Ben? Bueller?

[hamerfan]

5. K&R!

Great job, Demeter!

[Demeter]

6. Where Does US Stand Among World's Drunkest Nations?

This is for the faction that wanted to celebrate beer...

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/478113/where_does_us_stand_among_world%27s_drunkest_nations/#paragraph5

The World Heath Association has come out with a report listing the world's countries in order of alcohol-consumption per capita.

The winner? Moldova, followed by other Eastern European countries, with the US somewhere in the middle. As the WHO report states:

A large variation exists in adult per capita consumption (Figure 1). The highest consumption levels can be found in the developed world, mostly the Northern Hemisphere, but also in Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Medium consumption levels can be found in southern Africa, with Namibia and South Africa having the highest levels, and in North and South America. Low consumption levels can be found in the countries of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and southern Asia and the Indian Ocean. These regions represent large populations of the Islamic faith, which have very high rates of abstention.

Other statistics included the type of alcohol consumed, with spirits being popular in Eastern Europe, wine in Western Europe, and beer in the good old US of A...

[AnneD]

17. Fudd.....

Was that you wanting to celebrate beer? :toast:

[Fuddnik]

19. That was this afternoon.

Tonight, I'm celebrating vodka. I think it's Russian New years, or Boris Yeltsin's birthday or something.

[theold fossil]

23. la Bohemia

My wife says it tastes like horse piss. But it reminds me of Mexico
and I don't have to stick a lime in it so I can drink it.

[AnneD]

43. Do you really need a reason......

OK. Today was the day that Krushchev succeeded the Crimea to the Ukraine. That's good for me....was it good for you.:evilgrin:

[Demeter]

7. John Adams: Second President, Second Banana

John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States (1797–1801). Hailing from New England, Adams, a prominent lawyer and public figure in Boston, was highly educated and represented Enlightenment values promoting republicanism. A conservative Federalist, he was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.

Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence, and assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a representative of Congress in Europe, he was a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining important loans from Amsterdam bankers. A political theorist and historian, Adams largely wrote the Massachusetts state constitution in 1780, but was in Europe when the federal Constitution was drafted on similar principles later in the decade. One of his greatest roles was as a judge of character: in 1775, he nominated George Washington to be commander-in-chief, and 25 years later nominated John Marshall to be Chief Justice of the United States.

Adams' revolutionary credentials secured him two terms as George Washington's vice president and his own election in 1796 as the second president. During his one term, he encountered ferocious attacks by the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party led by his bitter enemy Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army and navy especially in the face of an undeclared naval war (called the "Quasi War") with France, 1798-1800. The major accomplishment of his presidency was his peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamilton's opposition.

In 1800 Adams was defeated for reelection by Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts. He later resumed his friendship with Jefferson. He and his wife, Abigail Adams, founded an accomplished family line of politicians, diplomats, and historians now referred to as the Adams political family. Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. His achievements have received greater recognition in modern times, though his contributions were not initially as celebrated as those of other Founders...

Adams was not a popular leader like his second cousin, Samuel Adams. Instead, his influence emerged through his work as a constitutional lawyer and his intense analysis of historical examples,<9> together with his thorough knowledge of the law and his dedication to the principles of republicanism. Adams often found his inborn contentiousness to be a constraint in his political career.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams

POPULAR CULTURE HAS "DISCOVERED" JOHN ADAMS AND HIS WIFE ABIGAIL THROUGH RECENT TV SERIES ON HIS LIFE, AND EARLIER, THE POPULAR AND STUNNINGLY DRAMATIC MUSICAL COMEDY: "1776", WHICH I CANNOT RECOMMEND TOO MUCH.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqAdlkJDt7k&feature=related

[Demeter]

9. I have been to the Adams Historical Site in Quincy, MA

and of all the historical places I've seen, this one actually felt like: at any moment, John and Abigail would put in an appearance. It was well worth the trip.

[bread_and_roses]

42. That is how I felt when I went to Salem

Despite the commercialization of "the Witches" there were still angles and corners in the town where one could feel as if walking in the 17th century. The memorial was very moving. Perhaps we could use the Witch Trials as a WE theme sometime - endlessly apt.

[Demeter]

8. Chomsky: Uprising in the USA?

http://www.alternet.org/story/149953/chomsky%3A_uprising_in_the_usa??page=entire
It’s very interesting. The reason why you can’t get Democratic leaders to join is because they agree. They are also trying to destroy the unions. In fact, if you take a look at—take, say, the lame-duck session. The great achievement in the lame-duck session for which Obama is greatly praised by Democratic Party leaders is that they achieved bipartisan agreement on several measures. The most important one was the tax cut. And the issue in the tax cut—there was only one issue—should there be a tax cut for the very rich? The population was overwhelmingly against it, I think about two to one. There wasn’t even a discussion of it, they just gave it away. And the very same time, the less noticed was that Obama declared a tax increase for federal workers. Now, it wasn’t called a "tax increase"; it’s called a "freeze." But if you think for 30 seconds, a freeze on pay for a federal workers is fiscally identical to a tax increase for federal workers. And when you extend it for five years, as he said later, that means a decrease, because of population growth, inflation and so on. So he basically declared an increase in taxes for federal workers at the same time that there’s a tax decrease for the very rich.

And there’s been a wave of propaganda over the last couple of months, which is pretty impressive to watch, trying to deflect attention away from those who actually created the economic crisis, like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, their associates in the government who—Federal Reserve and others—let all this go on and helped it. There’s a—to switch attention away from them to the people really responsible for the crisis—teachers, police, firefighters, sanitation workers, their huge pensions, their incredible healthcare benefits, Cadillac healthcare benefits, and their unions, who are the real villains, the ones who are robbing the taxpayer by making sure that policemen may not starve when they retire. And this is pretty amazing, like right in the middle of the Madison affair, which is critical...

[Fuddnik]

20. I saw his interview on Democracy Now, Thursday night.

Chomsky for President.

[Demeter]

37. Wis. Dem Legislator: We Are No Longer At Hotel In Rockford -- And Focus Should Be On The Issues

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/wis-dem-legislator-we-are-no-longer-at-hotel-in-rockford-and-focus-should-be-on-the-issues.php

Some of the missing Wisconsin Democratic state senators were located today -- but only briefly. The local ABC affiliate in Milwaukee reported that some of the Dems were found at the Clock Tower Resort and Conference Center, a hotel in Rockford, Illinois, just a short distance over the state line. But now, Democratic state Sen. Chris Larson tells TPMDC that they've left that location.

"I can say that some of us were there, but there's nobody there anymore," said Larson.

I then asked Larson why they left. "Well, it came out, a reporter stopped, and we heard that there were others on the way," said Larson. "So we wanted to make sure the story is not so much about where we are, or where we're going, but where Wisconsin is, and where Wisconsin is going."

"We weren't all there, we haven't all been in the same location," Larson also added. "We're moving around."

Larson said the heart of the story should remain the prospect of state Republicans "getting rid of 50 years of worker rights in less than a week. That's what the focus is. And that's why we are out and moving. People want to focus on where people stopped. That's besides the point. People are missing the fact that 50 years of history could be slipping away."

The Democrats walked out of the state Senate earlier on Thursday, depriving it of the three-fifths majority needed for quorum on budget matters, in revolt against Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget and its anti-public union provisions. They appear to have gone even further in leaving the state itself, in order to avoid being forced back to the chamber...

[Demeter]

38. WI Governor's Fake Budget Crisis: Gave Tax Breaks to Wal-Mart to Further Real Agenda -- Union Bustin

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/479146/wi_governor%27s_fake_budget_crisis%3A_gave_tax_breaks_to_wal-mart_to_further_real_agenda_--_union_busting/#paragraph4

...most people don't know the true horror of this bill. I have come to set the record straight particularly when I saw a Front Page Diary here on Daily Kos that, again, talks about this bill only affecting state workers.

There is no fiscal crisis in Wisconsin. Governor Walker reports a nearly 130 million dollar deficit, but doesn't report that he caused it by giving a 140 million dollar tax break to large multinational corporations here in Wisconsin (e.g. WalMart). However, this cover story gives him an excuse to do the unthinkable.

State workers in Wisconsin have been without contracts for some time. The latest agreement (containing major concessions) was not passed by the State Legislature last year due to political maneuvering which led one Democrat to vote against it (he was later rewarded with a position in the new Walker administration).

But that's not really what I came to talk about. I came to talk about a so-called Budget Repair Bill to solve a fake budget crisis without addressing the budget at all.

So, what's in the bill? Prohibition of any unions or collective bargaining for most state workers. Those that continue to have any union representation at all will be limited to bargaining for wages only which will have a mandatory limit which will be set annually by the State Legislature. So, basically, the boss will tell you how much you are permitted to ask for.

No collective bargaining over insurance (so employees can be given high deductible junk insurance with no say in the matter), benefits, pensions, holidays or personal days, vacation, working conditions, adequate staffing, class size, worker safety issues, mandatory overtime, shift selection, requests for days off, etc.

If that wasn't bad enough, union dues would no longer be collected through payroll deduction so the unions would have to collect the dues themselves member by member. On top of that, unions would need to recertify every year . This is the same process that is used when employees band together to form a union in the first place; a process already so onerous and difficult (therefore, profitable to the many union-busting firms across this country) that new unions and locals are rarely formed.

Think that's bad? The real hidden horror is that Scott Walker didn't stop with state employees, but extended the impact of the bill to all city, town, village, and county employee in the State of Wisconsin. That's the real reason that thousands of public employees are in Madison. It's why non-public employee unions are supporting us. It's why students, patients, and citizens in general have joined us....

[4dsc]

79. When do these tax break take effect?

Some are claiming these tax cuts don't take effect until later next budget cycle. If true that doesn't make for a good argument to include them now. Clarification needed. Thanks

[Tansy_Gold]

84. No union member should EVER set foot in Walmart again.

Not in Wisconsin, not anywhere. EVER.

Not only has this corporation shipped hundreds of thousands of union manufacturing jobs to China, but now they are almost literally taking away jobs that mean nothing to Walmart directly.

Walmart exemplifies everything that is wrong with the corporate business model. That model has not only destroyed the American economy (and the American dream), but it has also enslaved millions of workers elsewhere, all in the name of the greed of the wealthy few.

Fuck Walmart, a brazillion times over.




Tansy Gold

[DemReadingDU]

87. Most people are clueless

For them, it's all about the cheap prices. They do not want to know about the business model of Walmart. It's sickening. Actually, in our family when we get near a Walmart, we get nasty rashes, so we don't go near those stores.


and not satisfied with just building bigger stores, Walmart is going to build smaller stores in your neighborhood


10/13/10 Wal-Mart to add small U.S. stores
Wal-Mart Stores Inc will increase store building in the United States next year, including adding more smaller stores to try to reach more customers, even as it expects sales at existing stores to improve in coming months.

Most of the stores the company plans to build in the United States will be larger than 60,000 square feet. But Wal-Mart plans for 30 to 40 of its 185-205 new U.S. discount stores to be smaller than that, Bill Simon said at the company's annual meeting with analysts and investors in Rogers, Arkansas.
more...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/13/us-walmart-idUSTRE69C09V20101013
:puke:


edit to add another article
9/20/10 Wal-Mart to aggressively roll out smaller stores
Retail giant aims at densely populated, urban areas like New York City and San Francisco to pump sluggish sales
more...
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/09/20/wal_mart_urban_expansion

[snot]

91. +1!

[Demeter]

10. Thomas Jefferson: Three's a Charm!

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)<1> was the third President of the United States (1801–1809) and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). An influential Founding Father, Jefferson envisioned America as a great "Empire of Liberty" that would promote republicanism.

Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793), and second Vice President of the United States (1797–1801). He made the Louisiana Purchase (1803), and sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). Tensions escalated with Britain and France, leading to war with Britain in 1812 shortly after he left office.

He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state<3> and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). Jefferson's revolutionary view on individual religious freedom and protection from government authority have generated much interest with modern scholars. He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the co-founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for 25 years.

Jefferson, born into a prominent planter family, owned hundreds of slaves throughout his life; he held views on the racial inferiority of Africans common for his time and place. Allegations that Jefferson fathered several children with his slave Sally Hemings have been made since Jefferson's time. Based on late 20th century historical studies and a 1998 DNA analysis, a consensus supporting this claim has emerged among leading scholars.

--Wikipedia

THOMAS JEFFERSON WAS THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE--ONE FOOT IN DEMOCRACY, THE OTHER IN SLAVERY, ONE HALF SCHOLAR, THE OTHER HALF, REVOLUTIONARY. A MAN OF GREAT CONTRAST AND CONFLICT, HE IS THE THIRD LEG OF THE TRIPOD OF FOUNDERS.

[theold fossil]

26. White eyes....

were the 1st illeagal immigrants!!!!!

[Demeter]

11. Fed Up Americans Run First-Ever Anti-Afghanistan-War TV Ad

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/02/17/fed-up-americans-run-first-ever-anti-afghanistan-war-tv-ad/

Americans of all ideological persuasions are fed up with the Afghanistan War. We’re fed up with a $5.7 billion-per-month military campaign that’s gone nowhere over the past 12 months. We’re fed up with being told we’ll have to do without vital public services because of the sorry state of our national finances, while at the same time our politicians are spending $2 billion a year to police a dusty Afghan town called Marjah. But most of all, we’re tired of the song-and-dance from officials who think they can spin a year full of ugly setbacks as “progress.” We know better.

Americans of all ideological persuasions are fed up with the Afghanistan War. We’re fed up with a $5.7 billion-per-month military campaign that’s gone nowhere over the past 12 months. We’re fed up with being told we’ll have to do without vital public services because of the sorry state of our national finances, while at the same time our politicians are spending $2 billion a year to police a dusty Afghan town called Marjah. But most of all, we’re tired of the song-and-dance from officials who think they can spin a year full of ugly setbacks as “progress.” We know better.

We’re so fed up, in fact, that over the past week, with the help of Brave New Foundation’s Rethink Afghanistan campaign, several hundred ordinary Americans pooled their resources in an online fundraising drive and picked three everyday people to star in the first-ever anti-Afghanistan-War TV ad. The ad has run all this week in Washington, D.C. on CNN to get make sure politicians know we want our troops brought home–because it’s time.

For months, public opinion polls have been very clear on Americans’ opposition to the Afghanistan War. This past week, Gallup’s latest poll showed that 72 percent of Americans want Congress to act this year to speed up troop withdrawals from Afghanistan. This support cuts across ideological lines, with strong majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents wanting Congress to rein in the war. And yet, somehow, President Obama and Congress persist in requesting and approving funds to keep this war going long past a time period acceptable to most of their constituents.

What will it take to get policy-makers’ attention to the fact that the war isn’t making us safer and isn’t worth the cost? The worst year for U.S. troop deaths ever so far in the war? Check. The worst year for civilian casualties? Check. The highest annual cost of the war so far? Check. We could throw in 9 percent unemployment at home, an economic crisis, and deficit hysteria at home as well. There’s simply no justification for continuing to spend almost $6 billion a month on a futile, brutal war while cutting programs that keep people from freezing in the winter...

[snot]

94. +1!

[Demeter]

12. James Madison; For whom Madison, Wisconsin, was Named, 4th President

James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817) and is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

He was the principal author of the United States Constitution, and is often called the "Father of the Constitution". In 1788, he wrote over a third of the Federalist Papers, the most influential commentary on the Constitution. The first president to have served in the United States Congress, he was a leader in the 1st United States Congress, drafting many basic laws, and was responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution and thus is also known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights".<1> As a political theorist, Madison's most distinctive belief was that the new republic needed checks and balances to protect individual rights from the tyranny of the majority.

As leader in the House of Representatives, Madison worked closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government. Breaking with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in 1791, Madison and Thomas Jefferson organized what they called the Republican Party (later called the Democratic-Republican Party)<6> in opposition to key policies of the Federalists, especially the national bank and the Jay Treaty. He secretly co-authored, along with Thomas Jefferson, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798 to protest the Alien and Sedition Acts.

As Jefferson's Secretary of State (1801–1809), Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the nation's size, and sponsored the ill-fated Embargo Act of 1807. As president, he led the poorly prepared nation into the War of 1812 against Great Britain. A series of disasters at the beginning of the war damaged his reputation, but by 1814–15 American forces repulsed major British invasions, the Federalist opposition fell into disarray, and Americans felt triumphant at the end of the war. During and after the war, Madison reversed many of his positions. By 1815, he supported the creation of the second National Bank, a strong military, and a high tariff to protect the new factories opened during the war...

Bank of the United States

The twenty-year charter of the first Bank of the United States was scheduled to expire in 1811, the second year of Madison's administration. Madison failed in blocking the Bank in 1791, and waited for its charter to expire. Secretary of the Treasury Gallatin wanted the bank rechartered, and when the War of 1812 broke out, he discovered how difficult it was to finance the war without the Bank. Gallatin's successor as Treasury Secretary, Alexander J. Dallas, proposed a replacement in 1814, but Madison vetoed the bill in 1815. By late 1815, however, Madison asked Congress for a new bank, which had strong support from the younger, nationalistic Republicans such as John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, as well as Federalist Daniel Webster. Madison signed it into law in 1816, creating the Second Bank of the United States appointed William Jones as its president.

War of 1812

British insults continued, especially the practice of using the Royal Navy to intercept unarmed American merchant ships and "impress" (conscript) all sailors who might be British subjects for service in the British navy. Madison's protests were ignored by the British, so he helped the nationalist Republicans to stir up public opinion in the west and south for war. One argument by the so-called "war hawks" was that an American invasion of British Canada would be easy and would provide a good bargaining chip. Madison carefully prepared public opinion for what everyone at the time called "Mr. Madison's War", but much less time and money was spent building up the army, navy, forts, and state militias. After he persuaded Congress to declare war, Madison was reelected President over DeWitt Clinton but by a smaller margin than in 1808 (see U.S. presidential election, 1812). Some historians in 2006 ranked Madison's failure to avoid war as the sixth worst presidential mistake ever made.<26><27>

In the ensuing War of 1812, the British, Canadians, and First Nations allies won numerous victories, including the capture of Detroit after the American general there surrendered to a smaller force without a fight, and the occupation of Washington, D.C. which forced Madison to flee the city and watch as the White House was set on fire by British troops. The attack was in retaliation for a U.S. invasion of York, Upper Canada (now Toronto, Ontario), in which U.S. forces twice occupied the city, burning the Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada. The British also armed American Indians in the West, most notably followers of Tecumseh who were defeated at the Battle of the Thames. The Americans built warships on the Great Lakes faster than the British and Oliver Hazard Perry defeated the British fleet to avert a major invasion of New York in 1814. At sea, the British blockaded the entire coastline, cutting off both foreign trade and domestic trade between ports. Economic hardship was severe in New England, but entrepreneurs built factories that soon became the basis of the industrial revolution in America.

Madison faced formidable obstacles—a divided cabinet, a factious party, a recalcitrant Congress, obstructionist governors, and incompetent generals, together with militia who refused to fight outside their states. Most serious was lack of unified popular support. There were serious threats of disunion from New England, which engaged in massive smuggling to Canada and refused to provide financial support or soldiers.<28> However, by 1813, the main Indian threats in the South and West had been destroyed by Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison, respectively.

War-weariness led to the end of conflict after the apparent defeat of Napoleon in 1814. Both the British and American will to continue were exhausted, the causes of the war were forgotten, the Indian issue was resolved for the time being, and it was time for peace. New England Federalists, however, set up a defeatist Hartford Convention that discussed secession. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war in 1815. There were no territorial gains on either side as both sides returned to status quo ante bellum, that is, the previous boundaries. The Battle of New Orleans, in which Andrew Jackson defeated the British regulars, was fought fifteen days after the treaty was signed but before the news of the signing reached New Orleans.

Postwar

With peace finally established, the U.S. was swept by a sense that it had secured solid independence from Britain. The Federalist Party collapsed and eventually disappeared from politics, as an Era of Good Feelings emerged with a much lower level of political fear and vituperation, although political contention certainly continued.

Although Madison had accepted the necessity of a Hamiltonian national bank, an effective taxation system based on tariffs, a standing professional army and a strong navy, he drew the line at internal improvements as advocated by his Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin. In his last act before leaving office, Madison vetoed on states' rights grounds the Bonus Bill of 1817 that would have financed "internal improvements," including roads, bridges, and canals:<29>

Having considered the bill ... I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling this bill with the Constitution of the United States.... The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified ... in the ... Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers.

Madison rejected the view of Congress that the General Welfare provision of the Taxing and Spending Clause justified the bill, stating:

Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the purview of a legislative trust.

Madison urged a variety of measures that he felt were "best executed under the national authority," including federal support for roads and canals that would "bind more closely together the various parts of our extended confederacy."<30>
International

The Second Barbary War brought to a conclusive end the American practice of paying tribute to the pirate states in the Mediterranean and marked the beginning of the end of the age of piracy in that region...

[Demeter]

13. Obama and Geithner's Insidious Plan to Hand the Entire Housing Industry Over to the Banks

http://www.alternet.org/story/149960/obama_and_geithner%27s_insidious_plan_to_hand_the_entire_housing_industry_over_to_the_banks?page=entire

A most dastardly deed occurred last Friday when the Obama administration issued a 29-page policy statement totally abandoning the federal government’s time-honored role in helping Americans achieve the goal of homeownership. Instead of punishing the banks that sabotaged the American ideal of a nation of stakeholders by “securitizing” our homesteads into poker chips to be gambled away in the Wall Street casino, Barack Obama now proposes to turn over the entire mortgage industry to those same banks.

The proposal, originated by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, involves nothing less than a total “winding down” of the 80-year-old federal housing program, setting instead a new goal of a two-tiered America in which the masses are content to be mere renters of the American Dream. Such a deal for a country where, as the report concedes, “Half of all renters spend more than a third of their income on housing, and a quarter spend more than half.”

This is the same Geithner who during his tenure in the Clinton Treasury Department championed the total deregulation of the then-emerging market in collateralized debt obligations that sliced and diced people’s home mortgages into the toxic securities that created what his new report calls the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Later, as president of the New York Fed, he cheered on the banks as they went hog-wild, conning folks into buying homes they couldn’t afford and stuffing them into the incomprehensible securities that form the rot at the core of our bankrupt economy.

This is a made-in-the-U.S. nightmare that we inflicted on the world, thanks to an explosion in those toxic securities brought on by the deregulation that most of the Obama economic brain trust supported when they worked for President Bill Clinton and during the ensuing bubble years when they enriched themselves. As the report admits: “The U.S. is … the only high income country in which securitization plays a major role in housing finance.” Yet instead of ending that practice Obama now calls for more of the same: “The Administration believes the securitization market should continue to play a key role in housing finance.” Indeed, the plan’s goal of eliminating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will dry up the alternative public funding that has provided a source of mortgage support ever since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched Fannie Mae to check the power of the banks over mortgages. Now Obama proposes to eliminate that check and leave would-be homeowners to the tender mercy of the banking giants...MORE

[Demeter]

14. 5TH PRESIDENT: James Monroe

James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth President of the United States, serving two terms from 1817 to 1825. Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation.<1> His presidency was marked both by an "Era of Good Feelings" – a period of relatively little partisan strife – and later by the Panic of 1819 and a fierce national debate over the admission of the Missouri Territory. Monroe is most noted for his proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which stated that the United States would not tolerate further European intervention in the Americas.

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Monroe fought in the American Revolutionary War. After studying law under Thomas Jefferson from 1780 to 1783, he served in the Continental Congress. As an anti-Federalist delegate to the Virginia convention that considered ratification of the United States Constitution, Monroe opposed ratification, claiming it gave too much power to the central government. Nonetheless, Monroe took an active part in the new government and in 1790 he was elected to the Senate, where he joined the Jeffersonians. He gained experience as an executive as the Governor of Virginia and rose to national prominence when as a diplomat in France he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

During the War of 1812, Monroe held the critical roles of Secretary of State and the Secretary of War under President James Madison. Facing little opposition from the fractured Federalist Party, Monroe was easily elected president in 1816, winning over 80 percent of the electoral vote. As president, he sought to ease partisan tensions and embarked on a tour of the country. He was well received everywhere, as nationalism surged, partisan fury subsided and the "Era of Good Feelings" ensued. The Panic of 1819 struck and the dispute over the admission of Missouri embroiled the country in 1820. Nonetheless, Monroe won near-unanimous reelection. In 1823, he announced the Monroe Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy. Following his retirement in 1825, Monroe was plagued by financial difficulties. He died in New York City on July 4, 1831.

...Although Andrew Jackson served as a courier in a militia unit at age thirteen, Monroe was the last U.S. President to really fight in the War of Independence, serving with distinction at the Battle of Trenton, where he was shot in his left shoulder. He spent three months in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, recuperating from his wound. In John Trumbull's painting Capture of the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton, Monroe can be seen lying wounded at left center of painting. In an even more famous painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, Monroe is depicted holding the flag. Following his war service, he practiced law in Fredericksburg, Virginia...

Monroe died there from heart failure and tuberculosis on July 4, 1831, becoming the third president to die on July 4. His death came 55 years after the U.S. Declaration of Independence was proclaimed and 5 years after the death of the Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He was originally buried in New York at the Gouverneur family's vault in the New York City Marble Cemetery. Twenty-seven years later in 1858 the body was re-interred to the President's Circle at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. The James Monroe Tomb is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.//

Monroe was part of the African Colonization Society formed in 1816, which included members like Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. These men were not abolitionists, but they did find common ground with some abolitionists who supported colonisation, and together they helped send several thousand freed slaves to Africa from 1820–1840. The concern slave owners like Monroe and Jackson had was to prevent free blacks from influencing slaves to rebel in southern states. With about $100,000 in Federal grant money, the organisation also bought land for those people in what is today Liberia. <48> The capital of Liberia was named Monrovia after him...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Monroe

[Demeter]

16. Need to catch a few winks

See you in the morning!

[Demeter]

22. Wisconsin Is a Battleground Against the Billionaire Kochs' Plan to Break Labor's Back

http://www.alternet.org/story/149965/wisconsin_is_a_battleground_against_the_billionaire_kochs%27_plan_to_break_labor%27s_back?page=entire

The war on Wisconsin employees isn't just about the budget or Wisconsin: Koch toady Gov. Walker is just one soldier in the billionaire's offensive to kill labor...

As some 30,000 protesters overwhelmed the state capitol building in Wisconsin today, Democratic state senators hit the road, reportedly with State Police officers in pursuit. The Dems left the state in order to deprive Republicans the necessary quorum for taking a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's bill to strip benefits and collective bargaining rights from state workers. Newsradio 620 WTMJ reported that the Democratic senators were holed up in a Rockford, Illinois, hotel, out of reach of Wisconsin state troopers. Now, it seems, Republican lawmakers are beginning to waver on their support for the union-busting bill.

Last week, Walker threatened to activate the National Guard in the event of any disruption in services from public employees that, he said, could occur as a result of his legislation.

Gov. Walker claims that his war on the public workers in his state is simply about balancing Wisconsin's budget; believe that and there's a collapsed bridge in MInnesota I'd like to sell you. UPDATE: TPM's Brian Beutler reports that half of Wisconsin's budget shortfall results from three of Walker's own business-coddling initiatives. According to the Capitol Times, as quoted in Beutler's piece, in January, Walker pushed through "$140 million in spending for special interest groups." Walker claims a budget shortfall of $137 million. You do the math.

The fact is, Walker is carrying out the wishes of his corporate master, David Koch, who calls the tune these days for Wisconsin Republicans. Walker is just one among many Wisconsin Republicans supported by Koch Industries -- run by David Koch and his brother, Charles -- and Americans For Prosperity, the astroturf group founded and funded by David Koch. The Koch brothers are hell-bent on destroying the labor movement once and for all.

During his election campaign, Walker received the maximum $15,000 contribution from Koch Industries, according to Think Progress, and support worth untold hundreds of thousands from the Koch-funded astroturf group, Americans For Prosperity. AlterNet recently reported the role of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Americans For Prosperity in a vote-caging scheme apparently designed to suppress the votes of African-Americans and college students in Milwaukee. In 2008, Walker served as emcee for an awards ceremony held by Americans For Prosperity. There, he conferred the "Defender of the American Dream" award on Rep. Paul Ryan, now chairman of the House Budget Committee...

[Demeter]

24. John Quincy Adams: 6th President, First Political Dynasty

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He was also an American diplomat and served in both the Senate and House of Representatives. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of President John Adams and Abigail Adams. The name "Quincy" came from Abigail's maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, after whom Quincy, Massachusetts, is named.<1> As a diplomat, Adams was involved in many international negotiations, and helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine as Secretary of State. Historians agree he was one of the great diplomats in American history.<2>

As president, he proposed a program of modernization and educational advancement, but was stymied by Congress, controlled by his enemies. Adams lost his 1828 bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson. In doing so, he became the first President since his father to serve a single term. As president, he presented a vision of national greatness resting on economic growth and a strong federal government, but his presidency was not a success as he lacked political adroitness, popularity or a network of supporters, and ran afoul of politicians eager to undercut him.

Adams is best known as a diplomat who shaped America's foreign policy in line with his deeply conservative and ardently nationalist commitment to America's republican values. More recently he has been portrayed as the exemplar and moral leader in an era of modernization when new technologies and networks of infrastructure and communication brought to the people messages of religious revival, social reform, and party politics, as well as moving goods, money and people ever more rapidly and efficiently.<3>

Adams was elected a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts after leaving office, the only president ever to do so, serving for the last 17 years of his life with far greater success than he had achieved in the presidency. Animated by his growing revulsion against slavery<4>, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power and argued that if a civil war ever broke out the president could abolish slavery by using his war powers, a correct prediction of Abraham Lincoln's use of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Adams predicted the dissolution of the Union on the slavery issue, though he mistakenly predicted that if the South became independent there would be a series of bloody slave insurrections...

Adams served as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President James Monroe from 1817 until 1825, a tenure during which he was instrumental in the acquisition of Florida. Typically, his views concurred with those espoused by Monroe. As Secretary of State, he negotiated the Adams-Onís Treaty and wrote the Monroe Doctrine, which warned European nations against meddling in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. Adams' negotiated an agreement with Britain for a joint patrol against the slave trade, but it was watered down by the Senate and ultimately rejected. On Independence Day 1821, in response to those who advocated American support for Spanish America's independence movement from Spain,<15> Adams gave a speech in which he said that American policy was moral support for but not armed intervention on behalf of independence movements, stating that America "goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."<16> After the Napoleonic wars, Spain lost control of most of the American colonies. They revolted and declared independence. Rebels used American ports to equip privateers to attack Spanish ships, a practice defended by Henry Clay, who severely criticized both Monroe and Adams for their more cautious wait-and-see policy. The Floridas, still Spanish territory but with no Spanish presence to speak of, became a refuge for runaway slaves and Indian raiders. Spain was not in charge. Monroe sent in General Andrew Jackson who pushed the Seminole Indians south, executed two British merchants who were supplying weapons, deposed one governor and named another, and left an American garrison in occupation. Jackson thought he had Washington's approval, but the orders were vague. President Monroe and all his cabinet, except Adams, believed Jackson had exceeded his instructions. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun proposed to punish Jackson. Adams argued that since Spain had proved incapable of policing her territories, the United States was obliged to act in self-defense. Adams so ably justified Jackson's conduct as to silence protests either from Spain or Britain. Congress debated the question, with Clay as the leading opponent of Jackson, but it would not disapprove of what Jackson had done.

Adams negotiated the "Transcontinental Treaty" also known as the "Florida treaty" with Spain in 1819 that turned Florida over to the U.S. and resolved border issues regarding the Louisiana Purchase. The treaty recognized Spanish control of Texas (a claim taken up by Mexico when it declared independence of Spain). The post of Secretary of State was the normal path to the White House. After 1820 Adams, intent on winning the presidency, was less successful at the State Department. He failed to make key commercial treaties because he feared the necessary American concessions would be used to attack his candidacy. Instead the nation suffered from trade wars that could have been prevented...

Adams served as the sixth President of the United States from March 4, 1825, to March 4, 1829. He took the oath of office on a book of laws, instead of the more traditional Bible, to preserve the separation of church and state...

Another blow to Adams' presidency was his generous policy toward Native Americans. Settlers on the frontier, who were constantly seeking to move westward, cried for a more expansionist policy. When the federal government tried to assert authority on behalf of the Cherokees, the governor of Georgia took up arms. In contrast, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren instigated the policy of Indian removal to the west (i.e. the Trail of Tears).<23> Adams defended his domestic agenda as continuing Monroe's policies...

Adams had witnessed the Barbary Wars against the Islamic pirates of North Africa, and the Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Turks. Adams accepted that the Greek fight for independence from the Turks was only the beginning of a long conflict between Islam and the West...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_President_of_the_United_States

THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO THE STORY OF THIS MAN...HE DESERVES A SERIES, JUST LIKE HIS FATHER!

[Demeter]

25. How Hosni Mubarak Became One of the Richest Men in the World on Our Dime

The fortune amassed by Egypt’s former president and his two sons (both billionaires) could reach $70 billion.

http://www.alternet.org/story/149901/how_hosni_mubarak_became_one_of_the_richest_men_in_the_world_on_our_dime?akid=6515.227380.YvqyrG&rd=1&t=15

According to experts, the fortune amassed by Egypt’s former president and his two sons (both billionaires) could reach $70 billion. That includes funds in secret offshore bank accounts and investments in residences and real-estate properties reaching from Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills to Wilton Place in central London and Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheik tourist resort. Since Mubarak has been president for 30 years, he’s put that little fortune together at a record clip -- something like $2 billion or more a year. He and his family are now worth approximately four times the gross domestic product (GDP) of Paraguay, five times the GDP of embattled Afghanistan, and more than ten times the GDP of Laos. He may be the richest man and they the richest family on Earth. All this happened, by the way, in the years when millions of Egyptians -- at least one in every 10 -- lost their farms, while more than 40% of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day.

And let’s just mention a few others in the cast of characters who let the good times roll and made a few bucks off the reign of the Mubarak family: steel magnate and ruling party insider Ahmed Ezz, for instance, managed to eke out a $3 billion fortune, while former Interior Minister Habib Ibrahim El-Adly scraped by with a near-rock-bottom $1.2 billion. And they are just two of at least five much-loathed Mubarak cronies who reportedly crossed the billion-dollar mark in these years...

Meanwhile, don’t forget the Egyptian military. It didn’t do so badly in the Mubarak years either. After all, according to one expert, it owns "virtually every industry in the country," and it still managed to take in a handy $35 billion in “aid” from Washington since 1978.

[theold fossil]

27. Demeter,

I don't have enough posts to send you a private message - but you are
sitting on a good business model.

Regards

[Demeter]

34. As Wisconsin Protests Continue, Obama Sides With Workers

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/477620/as_wisconsin_protests_continue%2C_obama_sides_with_workers/#paragraph3

What a pleasant surprise! Perhaps Obama can see the threat of "partisanship" at last...

[Tansy_Gold]

130. And the workers, like Obama, wimp out

I'm so disgusted I can't see straight.

The Wisconsin teachers are going back to work; they'll become "week-end warriors/protesters." they led the walk-out and now I gues they're leading the wimp-out. I'm sure Fat-Ass-in-a-Flag Limbaugh will be on that like stink on shit.

I wrote two long rants about it last night; neither has generated a single response from DU.

Of course, there are DUers saying the teachers did the right thing by going back to work; after all, if they didn't, they might anger the moderates who might be swayed to support them. Excuse me? Support them in doing what? Doing nothing? Maintaining the corporate status quo? Appeasing the imperial governor?

So much for their commitment! As I wrote in one post, they knew the minute they chose to start this that they were taking risks. Risks that no one would give a shit. Risks that their protest could turn violent or draw out violence from others. Risks that they'd be summarily fired, even on trumped up charges. Risks that it would spread. By Friday night, virtually the whole world to the left of Attila the Hun was with them. Pizzas were being ordered by Egyptians. Ed Schulz was moved to tell Limbaugh on the air to wrap his fat ass in the flag. The leader of one police union rescinded his support of Walker.

And then it flizzled. The teachers voted to go back to work, to save their individual jobs and their individual benefits at least for the time being, because they effectively gave up the strength that's in their union action. Do nothing. Keep a low profile. Maybe the masters won't notice you and you can live out your life in peaceful servitude.

Is it that bad? Are the Wisconsin teachers slaves? No, of course not, and that's probably why their "uprising" was so short lived. They're really quite comfortable and have too much to lose. Maybe they only make $50,000 a year or so, but if you live modestly that should suffice. Oh, it may take a long time to pay off the student loans and you won't be able to buy a new Lexus every other year, but you shouldn't have any worries about putting food on the table.

It's only when people's very existence is at stake that they fight back, and the teachers should have known that when they started. Hell, Tansy Gold should have known it when this started.

Will there continue to be mass protests in Madison? Will they spread to Columbus and Topeka and Tallahassee and Springfield and Salem and Bangor and Trenton, Montgomery and Baton Rouge and Sacramento and Santa Fe and Bismarck? We'll see. Maybe. But I'm not holding my breath.

Much, of course, depends on what the 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators do. Will they hold out in Rockford? Will they show the stubbornness the pukes have in abundance? Or will they start offering compromise after compromise after compromise, until they announce their ultimate agreement with Walker on every single fucking issue the pukes wanted?

Back in 1979 I worked for a manufacturing company in Indiana. The production workers had voted in a union and signed their first two-year contract in 1977. When the contract expired in '79, they were itching for a strike. Management came from our home office in Ohio for the negotiations. At that time, management was not allowed to make any promises whatsoever in terms of "If you call off the strike, we'll do this." All they could do was put out the offer and wait to see if the union would accept. The union people could say pretty much whatever they wanted. Because I had all the payroll and HR records, I was in on some of the strategy sessions, if you want to call them that, but not in the actual meetings with the union. So I knew what both sides wanted, how far management was willing to go, and what the union was willing to settle for.

Of the roughly 150 production people, maybe 25 refused to strike. Most of them had little or no seniority and couldn't afford the unpaid time off, and there were a few who were staunchly anti-union. After a week, another 15 or 20 came back to work because they'd used up their vacation pay, they were bored with walking the picket line, and the bills were coming due. (There was minimal strike pay available from the union, and they were not eligible for unemployment.) By the middle of the second week, there were only a dozen or so diehards still enduring the oppressive heat and humidity of an Indiana August to picket, and half the work force was back in the plant. That Friday, the negotiating team reached a settlement and everyone was back on the job Monday.

What they settled for in terms of wages were raises that would barely, over the two years of the contract, cover what they'd lost in terms of two weeks' wages. They achieved virtually no gains in benefits (health insurance was in those days fully paid by the company) and modest gains in vacation and other time-off benefits. Of course they had no way of knowing that management was prepared, and even willing, to concede much more. Wage increases more than twice what the union asked were the beginning counter to the union's demands, and the company would have gone higher. They had a dental and vision care package ready to offer, but no one asked for it, so no one got it. (We non-union office staff groused about that, because if the union had got it, the company would have given it to us, too.)

I learned from that experience that you don't win by asking for too little. That gives the other side far too much wiggle room.

The Wisconsin teachers came back to work with no gains at all. They're now in a worse bargaining position than they were a week ago, because now the pukes know the teachers weren't serious.

We've all lost.




Tansy Gold

[Demeter]

134. That is depressing news

I haven't been following Wisconsin (my bad) with any detail. Thanks for the update.

Teachers are like victims of domestic violence--shell-shocked all the time. Still, it was a teachable moment...perhaps the snow was the last straw?

[AnneD]

18. Andrew Jackson.....

Not well thought of in the circles I travel in. He over rode the SCOTUS and allowed the eviction of the Cherokee from their homeland. And they wonder why we are paranoid and skeptical toward the government.

[Demeter]

28. Old Hickory: Andrew Jackson, 7th President

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). He was the military governor of pre-admission Florida (1821) and the commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans (1815) and is an eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy. A polarizing figure who dominated the Second Party System in the 1820s and 1830s, his political ambition and widening political participation shaped the modern Democratic Party.

His legacy is now seen as mixed, as a protector of popular democracy and individual liberty for American citizens, checkered by his support for slavery and Indian removal. Renowned for his toughness, he was nicknamed "Old Hickory". As he based his career in developing Tennessee, Jackson was the first president primarily associated with the American frontier...

During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson, at age thirteen, joined a local militia as a courier.<9> His eldest brother, Hugh, died from heat exhaustion during the Battle of Stono Ferry, on June 20, 1779. Jackson and his brother Robert were captured by the British and held as prisoners; they nearly starved to death in captivity. When Jackson refused to clean the boots of a British officer, he slashed at the youth with a sword, giving him scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British.<10> While imprisoned, the brothers contracted smallpox. Robert died a few days after their mother secured their release, on April 27, 1781. After his mother was assured Andrew would recover, she volunteered to nurse prisoners of war on board two ships in Charleston harbor, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. She died from the disease in November 1781, and was buried in an unmarked grave, leaving Jackson an orphan at age 14.<10> Jackson's entire immediate family had died from hardships during the war; Jackson blamed the British.

Jackson was the last U.S. President to have been a veteran of the American Revolution.

...By 1824, the Democratic-Republican Party had become the only functioning national party. Its Presidential candidates had been chosen by an informal Congressional nominating caucus, but this had become unpopular. In 1824, most of the Democratic-Republicans in Congress boycotted the caucus. Those who attended backed Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford for President and Albert Gallatin for Vice President. A Pennsylvanian convention nominated Jackson for President a month later, stating that the irregular caucus ignored the "voice of the people" and was a "vain hope that the American people might be thus deceived into a belief that he was the regular democratic candidate."<20> Gallatin criticized Jackson as "an honest man and the idol of the worshippers of military glory, but from incapacity, military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and constitutional provisions, altogether unfit for the office."<21>
1st Jackson postage stamp
issue of 1863

Besides Jackson and Crawford, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and House Speaker Henry Clay were also candidates. Jackson received the most popular votes (but not a majority, and four states had no popular ballot). The Electoral votes were split four ways, with Jackson having a plurality. Since no candidate received a majority, the election was decided by the House of Representatives, which chose Adams. Jackson supporters denounced this result as a "corrupt bargain" because Clay gave his state's support to Adams, and subsequently Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State. As none of Kentucky's electors had initially voted for Adams, and Jackson had won the popular vote, it appeared that Henry Clay had violated the will of the people and substituted his own judgment in return for personal political favors. Jackson's defeat burnished his political credentials, however; many voters believed the "man of the people" had been robbed by the "corrupt aristocrats of the East."...The Jackson coalition handily defeated Adams in 1828.

During the election, Jackson's opponents referred to him as a "jackass". Jackson liked the name and used the jackass as a symbol for a while, but it died out. However, it later became the symbol for the Democratic Party when cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized it.

Federal debt
See also: Panic of 1837

In 1835, Jackson managed to reduce the federal debt to only $33,733.05, the lowest it had been since the first fiscal year of 1791. By implementing a tariff and limits on terms of elected officials President Jackson remains the only president in United States history to have paid off the national debt. However, this accomplishment was short lived. A severe depression from 1837 to 1844 caused a tenfold increase in national debt within its first year.

Electoral College

Jackson repeatedly called for the abolition of the Electoral College by constitutional amendment in his annual messages to Congress as President. In his third annual message to Congress, he expressed the view "I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal Constitution giving the election of President and Vice-President to the people and limiting the service of the former to a single term. So important do I consider these changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in accordance with my sense of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new Congress." The institution Jackson railed against remains to the present day.

Opposition to the National Bank
Main article: Bank War

The Second Bank of the United States was authorized for a twenty year period during James Madison's tenure in 1816. As President, Jackson worked to rescind the bank's federal charter. In Jackson's veto message (written by George Bancroft), the bank needed to be abolished because:

* It concentrated the nation's financial strength in a single institution.
* It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
* It served mainly to make the rich richer.
* It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
* It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.
* Banks are controlled by a few select families.
* Banks have a long history of instigating wars between nations, forcing them to borrow funding to pay for them.

Following Jefferson, Jackson supported an "agricultural republic" and felt the Bank improved the fortunes of an "elite circle" of commercial and industrial entrepreneurs at the expense of farmers and laborers. After a titanic struggle, Jackson succeeded in destroying the Bank by vetoing its 1832 re-charter by Congress and by withdrawing U.S. funds in 1833. (See Banking in the Jacksonian Era)

The bank's money-lending functions were taken over by the legions of local and state banks that sprang up. This fed an expansion of credit and speculation. At first, as Jackson withdrew money from the Bank to invest it in other banks, land sales, canal construction, cotton production, and manufacturing boomed. However, due to the practice of banks issuing paper banknotes that were not backed by gold or silver reserves, there was soon rapid inflation and mounting state debts. Then, in 1836, Jackson issued the Specie Circular, which required buyers of government lands to pay in "specie" (gold or silver coins). The result was a great demand for specie, which many banks did not have enough of to exchange for their notes. These banks collapsed. This was a direct cause of the Panic of 1837, which threw the national economy into a deep depression. It took years for the economy to recover from the damage.

The U.S. Senate censured Jackson on March 28, 1834, for his action in removing U.S. funds from the Bank of the United States. When the Jacksonians had a majority in the Senate, the censure was expunged.


...The first attempt to do bodily harm to a President was against Jackson. Jackson ordered the dismissal of Robert B. Randolph from the Navy for embezzlement. On May 6, 1833, Jackson sailed on USS Cygnet to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he was to lay the cornerstone on a monument near the grave of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington's mother. During a stopover near Alexandria, Virginia, Randolph appeared and struck the President. He then fled the scene with several members of Jackson's party chasing him, including the well known writer Washington Irving. Jackson decided not to press charges.<11>

On January 30, 1835, what is believed to be the first attempt to kill a sitting President of the United States occurred just outside the United States Capitol. When Jackson was leaving the Capitol out of the East Portico after the funeral of South Carolina Representative Warren R. Davis, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed and deranged housepainter from England, either burst from a crowd or stepped out from hiding behind a column and aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. It has been postulated that moisture from the humid weather contributed to the double misfiring.<50> Lawrence was then restrained, with legend saying that Jackson attacked Lawrence with his cane, prompting his aides to restrain him. Others present, including David Crockett, restrained and disarmed Lawrence.

Richard Lawrence gave the doctors several reasons for the shooting. He had recently lost his job painting houses and somehow blamed Jackson. He claimed that with the President dead, "money would be more plenty" (a reference to Jackson's struggle with the Bank of the United States) and that he "could not rise until the President fell." Finally, he informed his interrogators that he was a deposed English King—specifically, Richard III, dead since 1485—and that Jackson was merely his clerk. He was deemed insane, institutionalized, and never punished for his assassination attempt.

Afterward, due to curiosity concerning the double misfires, the pistols were tested and retested. Each time they performed perfectly. When these results were known, many believed that Jackson had been protected by the same Providence that had protected the young nation. This national pride was a large part of the Jacksonian cultural myth fueling American expansion in the 1830s...

[Demeter]

29. The Disastrous War on Drugs Turns 40: 5 Ways to Stop the Madness

http://www.alternet.org/story/149895/the_disastrous_war_on_drugs_turns_40%3A_5_ways_to_stop_the_madness?page=entire

This June will mark forty years since President Nixon declared a "war on drugs," identifying drug abuse as "public enemy No. 1." ...It's hard to believe that Americans have spent roughly a trillion dollars (give or take a few hundred million) on this forty-year war. Hard to believe that tens of millions have been arrested, and many millions locked up in jails and prisons, for committing nonviolent acts that were not even crimes a century ago. Hard to believe that the number of people incarcerated on drug charges increased more than ten times even as the country's population grew by only half. Hard to believe that millions of Americans have been deprived of the right to vote not because they killed a fellow citizen or betrayed their country but simply because they bought, sold, produced or simply possessed a psychoactive plant or chemical. And hard to believe that hundreds of thousands of Americans have been allowed to die -- of overdoses, AIDS, hepatitis and other diseases -- because the drug war blocked and even prohibited treating addiction to certain drugs as a health problem rather than a criminal one.

Reflect we must on not just the consequences of this war at home but abroad as well. The prohibition-related crime, violence and corruption in Mexico today resemble Chicago during alcohol Prohibition -- times fifty. Parts of Central America are even more out of control, and many Caribbean nations can only hope that they are not next. The illegal opium and heroin markets in Afghanistan reportedly account for one-third to half of the country's GDP. In Africa, prohibitionist profiteering, trafficking and corruption are spreading rapidly. As for South America and Asia, just pick a moment and a country -- and the stories are much the same, from Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Brazil to Pakistan, Laos, Burma and Thailand.

Wars can be costly -- in money, rights and lives -- but still necessary to defend national sovereignty and core values. It's impossible to make that case on behalf of the war on drugs. Marijuana, cocaine and heroin are effectively cheaper today than they were at the start of the war forty years ago, and just as available now as then to anyone who really wants them. Marijuana, which accounts for half of all drug arrests in the United States, has never killed anyone. Heroin is basically indistinguishable from hydromorphone (aka Dilaudid), a pain medication prescribed by physicians that hundreds of thousands of Americans have consumed safely. The vast majority of people who have used cocaine did not become addicts. Each of these drugs is less dangerous than government propaganda claims but sufficiently dangerous that they merit intelligent regulations rather than blanket prohibitions.

If the demand for any of these drugs were two, five or ten times what they are today, the supply would be there. That's what markets do. And who benefits from persisting with doomed supply control strategies notwithstanding their evident costs and failures? Basically two sets of interests: those producers and sellers of illicit drugs who earn far more than they would if their product were legally regulated rather than prohibited; and law enforcers for whom the expansion of prohibitionist policies translates into jobs, money and the political power to defend their self-interests...

[Demeter]

30. Martin Van Buren: 8th President

Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth President of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President (1833–1837) and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson (1829–1831). He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second Party System, and the first president not of British descent—his family was Dutch. He was the first president to be born an American citizen,<2> his predecessors having been born British subjects before the American Revolution. He is also the only president not to have spoken English as his first language, having grown up speaking Dutch,<3> and the first president from New York.

Van Buren was the third president to serve only one term, after John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams. He also was one of the central figures in developing modern political organizations. As Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State and then Vice President, he was a key figure in building the organizational structure for Jacksonian democracy, particularly in New York State. However, as a president, his administration was largely characterized by the economic hardship of his time, the Panic of 1837. Between the bloodless Aroostook War and the Caroline Affair, relations with Britain and its colonies in Canada also proved to be strained. Whether or not these were directly his fault, Van Buren was voted out of office after four years, with a close popular vote but a rout in the electoral vote. In 1848, he ran for president on a third-party ticket, the Free Soil Party.

Martin Van Buren is one of only two people, the other being Thomas Jefferson, to serve as Secretary of State, Vice President and President.<4><5><6>

Van Buren was the first president to grant an exclusive interview to a reporter, James Gordon Bennett, Sr., of the New York Herald in 1839.<7>

Van Buren's unsuccessful reelection campaign in 1840 is regarded by etymologists as instrumental in the popularization of the word "OK". In the context of the campaign, the initialism was used as a nickname for Van Buren and stood for "Old Kinderhook," which was a reference to Van Buren's birthplace.

...In 1817 Van Buren's connection with so-called "machine politics" started. He created the first political machine encompassing all of New York, the Bucktails, whose leaders later became known as the Albany Regency. The Bucktails became a successful movement that emphasized party loyalty; they captured and controlled many patronage posts throughout New York. Van Buren did not originate the system, but gained the nickname of "Little Magician" for the skill with which he exploited it. He also served as a member of the state constitutional convention, where he opposed the grant of universal suffrage and tried to maintain property requirements for voting.

He was the leading figure in the Albany Regency, a group of politicians who for more than a generation dominated much of the politics of New York and powerfully influenced the politics of the nation. The group, together with the political clubs such as Tammany Hall that were developing at the same time, played a major role in the development of the "spoils system", a recognized procedure in national, state and local affairs. He was the prime architect of the first nationwide political party: the Jacksonian Democrats. In Van Buren's own words, "Without strong national political organizations, there would be nothing to moderate the prejudices between free and slaveholding states." ("Martin Van Buren" 103–114)

...It took Van Buren and his partisan friends a decade and a half to form the Democratic Party; many elements, such as the national convention, were borrowed from other parties.<14>

In the election of 1832, the Jackson-Van Buren ticket won by a landslide (heavily due to the fact that Andrew Jackson was a popular war hero). When the election of 1836 came up, Jackson was determined to make Van Buren, his personal choice, President to continue his legacy. Martin Van Buren's only competitors in the 1836 election were the Whigs, who ran several regional candidates in hopes of sending the election to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation would have one vote. William Henry Harrison hoped to receive the support of the Western voters, Daniel Webster had strength in New England, and Hugh Lawson White had support in the South. Van Buren was unanimously nominated by the 1835 Democratic National Convention at Baltimore. He expressed himself plainly on the questions of slavery and the bank at the same time voting, perhaps with a touch of bravado, for a bill offered in 1836 to subject abolition literature in the mails to the laws of the several states. Van Buren's presidential victory represented a broader victory for Jackson and the party. Van Buren entered the White House as a fifty-four year old widower with four sons. A famous quotation of his is "As to my presidency the best two days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it". Martin Van Buren was the first real American politician and was also the first to use grassroots campaigning in his presidential campaign. He wanted to make a political party that united the plain republicans of the north and the planters of the south.

...Van Buren had few economic tools to deal with the Panic of 1837. The Panic was followed by a five-year depression, with the failure of banks and then-record-high unemployment levels. It was one of the worst economic crisis in the nation's history. As a result Van Buren became very unpopular.<15>

Van Buren advocated lower tariffs and free trade, and by doing so maintained support of the South for the Democratic Party. He succeeded in setting up a system of bonds for the national debt. His party was so split that his 1837 proposal for an "Independent Treasury" system did not pass until 1840. It gave the Treasury control of all federal funds and had a legal tender clause that required (by 1843) all payments to be made in War, but it further inflamed public opinion on both sides.

In a bold step, Van Buren reversed Andrew Jackson's policies and sought peace at home, as well as abroad. Instead of settling a financial dispute between American citizens and the Mexican government by force, Van Buren wanted to seek a diplomatic solution. In August 1837, Van Buren denied Texas' formal request to join the United States, again prioritizing sectional harmony over territorial expansion.

In the case of the ship Amistad, Van Buren sided with the Spanish Government to return the kidnapped slaves. Also, he oversaw the "Trail of Tears", which involved the expulsion of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole from Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina to the Oklahoma territory. To help secure Florida, Van Buren also pursued the Second Seminole War, which had begun while Jackson was in office. The war, which would prove the costliest of the Indian Wars, was highly unpopular in the free states, where it was seen as an attempt to expand slave territory. Fighting was not resolved until 1842, after Van Buren had left office.

"Van Buren entered the presidency not only as the heir to Jackson's policies, Jefferson's ideology of limited government, and Smith's principles of political economy, but also an accomplished politician with a statesmanlike vision of the dangers facing the nation. This complex heritage would shape the new president's response to the multiple challenges of 1837."("Martin Van Buren" 103-114)

Engraved full-length portrait of a balding man standing next to a table with his left arm resting on a book and in the background a stone balustrade beyond which are trees and a building with columned portico
Portrait of Martin Van Buren

In 1839, Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement visited Van Buren to plead for the U.S. to help roughly 20,000 Mormon settlers of Independence, Missouri, who were forced from the state during the 1838 Mormon War there. The Governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs, had issued an executive order on October 27, 1838, known as the "Extermination Order". It authorized troops to use force against Mormons to "exterminate or drive from the state."<16><17> In 1839, after moving to Illinois, Smith and his party appealed to members of Congress and to President Van Buren to intercede for the Mormons. According to Smith's grandnephew, Van Buren said to Smith, "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you; if I take up for you I shall lose the vote of Missouri."<18><19>

Van Buren took the blame for hard times, as Whigs ridiculed him as Martin Van Ruin. Van Buren's rather elegant personal style was also an easy target for Whig attacks, such as the Gold Spoon Oration. State elections of 1837 and 1838 were disastrous for the Democrats, and the partial economic recovery in 1838 was offset by a second commercial crisis in that year. Nevertheless, Van Buren controlled his party and was unanimously renominated by the Democrats in 1840. The revolt against Democratic rule led to the election of William Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate....

Though he did vote against the admission of Missouri as a slave state, and though he would be the nominated presidential candidate of the Free Soil Party, an anti-slavery political party, in 1848,<20> there was no ambiguity in his position on the abolition of slavery during his term of office.<21> Van Buren considered slavery morally wrong but sanctioned by the Constitution.<22> When it came to the issue of slavery in DC and slavery in the United States, he was against its abolition, and said so in his Inaugural Address in 1836: "the institution of domestic slavery"... "I believed it a solemn duty fully to make known my sentiments in regard to it, and now, when every motive for misrepresentation has passed away, I trust that they will be candidly weighed and understood."

"I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding States, and also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists."<23> Slavery would be abolished in the District of Columbia on April 18, 1862.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_President_of_the_United_States

[Demeter]

31. Obama Budget To Give Physicians Two Year Respite From Medicare Reimbursement Cuts

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/14/obama-budget-sgr/

Reading through the news stories about President Obama’s $3.7 trillion budget blueprint, one thing becomes clear: the administration didn’t want to use the document to reignite the health care debate or make waves by overtly asking for new implementation dollars for the Affordable Care Act. And so its biggest piece of health care policy — as far as I can tell — is to delay cuts in physician reimbursement rates in the Medicare program. The Hill’s Julian Pecquet has the details:

The budget proposal would postpone for two years a scheduled 25 percent cut in the Medicare physician payment formula, known as the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), that’s set to go into effect at the end of the year. The $62 billion “doc fix” would be paid for by “changes that squeeze Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals and doctors and expand the use of generic drugs in federal health programs,” according to The New York Times.

Physicians’ groups are lobbying for a permanent repeal of the SGR, and it’s not clear how they’ll respond to a two-year solution. In any event, the proposed offsets are almost certain to attract considerable criticism when the administration releases additional details on Monday.

Indeed, the AMA and most health policy wonks have been clamoring for a fix to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), which came to life in 1997 as a means of controlling health care spending. According to the formula, the amount Medicare pays doctors for an average Medicare patient can’t grow faster than GDP. In 2002, medical inflation outpaced economic growth and Congress stepped in to avert the cuts and has been doing so ever since. Each year the problem just piles onto itself – so what was a 2% cut back in 2002 has mushroomed exponentially into a 25% cut.

The medical community has been pressuring Congress to stop kicking the can down the road and permanently fix the SGR but the cost of the endeavor — estimated north of $245 billion — has made a fix politically unfeasible. In 2009, the House mustered the support for a permanent “doc fix” but the effort has gone nowhere in the Senate, even as Republicans continue to argue that Democrats should have addressed the problem in the Affordable Care Act.

Obama’s two-year respite sounds like a good political compromise — it takes the politically toxic issue of the table for two years and gives doctors some relief from the anxiety of looming reimbursement cuts.

[DU GrovelBot]

32. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

This week is our first quarter 2011 fund drive. Democratic Underground is
a completely independent website. We depend on donations from our members
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[Demeter]

33. William Henry Harrison: President for a Month

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. The oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence, Harrison died on his 32nd day in office<1> of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment.

Before election as president, Harrison served as the first territorial congressional delegate from the Northwest Territory, governor of the Indiana Territory and later as a U.S. representative and senator from Ohio. He originally gained national fame for leading U.S. forces against American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned the nickname "Tippecanoe" (or "Old Tippecanoe"). As a general in the subsequent War of 1812, his most notable contribution was a victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, which brought an end to hostilities in his region.

After the war, Harrison moved to Ohio, where he was elected to the United States Congress, and in 1824 he became a member of the Senate. There he served a truncated term before being appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia in May 1828. In Colombia, he spoke with Simon Bolívar about the finer points of democracy before returning to his farm in Ohio, where he lived in relative retirement until he was nominated for the presidency in 1836. Defeated, he retired again to his farm before being elected president in 1840.

...He was the last president born as a British subject before American Independence. His father was a planter and a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) who signed the Declaration of Independence...

When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe. He took the oath of office on March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. He wore neither an overcoat nor hat, and delivered the longest inaugural address in American history. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend and fellow Whig Daniel Webster had edited it for length. Harrison rode through the streets in the inaugural parade.

The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda, essentially a repudiation of Jackson and Van Buren's policies. Harrison promised to reestablish the Bank of the United States and extend its capacity for credit by issuing paper currency (Henry Clay's American System); to defer to the judgment of Congress on legislative matters, with sparing use of his veto power; and to reverse Jackson's spoils system of executive patronage. He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government.

As leader of the Whigs and a powerful legislator (as well as a frustrated Presidential candidate in his own right), Clay expected to have substantial influence in the Harrison administration. He ignored his own platform plank of overturning the "Spoils" system. Clay attempted to influence Harrison's actions before and during his brief presidency, especially in putting forth his own preferences for Cabinet offices and other presidential appointments. Harrison rebuffed his aggression, saying "Mr. Clay, you forget that I am the President." The dispute intensified when Harrison named Daniel Webster, Clay's arch-rival for control of the Whig Party, as his Secretary of State, and appeared to give Webster's supporters some highly coveted patronage positions. Harrison's sole concession to Clay was to name his protegé John J. Crittenden to the post of Attorney General. When Clay pressed Harrison on the appointments, the president told him not to visit the White House again, but to address him only in writing. Despite this, the dispute continued until the president's death.

Clay was not the only one who hoped to benefit from Harrison's election. Hordes of office applicants came to the White House, which was then open to all comers who wanted a meeting with the President. Most of Harrison's business during his month-long presidency involved extensive social obligations—an inevitable part of his high position and arrival in Washington—and receiving visitors at the White House. They awaited him at all hours and filled the Executive Mansion. As he had with Clay, Harrison resisted pressure from other Whigs over patronage. When a group arrived in his office on March 16 to demand the removal of all Democrats from any appointed office, Harrison proclaimed, "So help me God, I will resign my office before I can be guilty of such an iniquity."

Harrison's only official act of consequence was to call Congress into a special session. He and Henry Clay had disagreed over the necessity of such a session, and when on March 11 Harrison's cabinet proved evenly divided, the president vetoed the idea. A few days later, however, Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing reported to Harrison that federal funds were in such trouble that the government could not continue to operate until Congress' regularly scheduled session in December; Harrison thus relented, and on March 17 proclaimed the special session in the interests of "the condition of the revenue and finance of the country." The session was scheduled to begin on May 31.

On March 26, Harrison became ill with a cold...The cold worsened, rapidly turning to pneumonia and pleurisy. He sought to rest in the White House, but could not find a quiet room because of the steady crowd of office seekers. His extremely busy social schedule made any rest time scarce...Harrison's doctors tried cures, applying opium, castor oil, leeches, and Virginia snakeweed. But the treatments only made Harrison worse, and he became delirious. He died nine days after becoming ill, at 12:30 a.m. on April 4, 1841, of right lower lobe pneumonia, jaundice, and overwhelming septicemia.

He was the first United States president to die in office. His last words were to his doctor, but assumed to be directed at John Tyler, "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." Harrison served the shortest term of any American president: March 4 – April 4, 1841, 30 days, twelve hours, and 30 minutes..

Impact of death

The untimely death of Harrison was a disappointment to Whigs, who hoped to pass a revenue tariff and enact measures to support Henry Clay's American System. John Tyler, Harrison's successor and a former Democrat, abandoned the Whig agenda, effectively cutting off from the party.

Due to the death of Harrison, three presidents served within a single calendar year (Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler). This has happened on only one other occasion, in 1881, when Rutherford B. Hayes was succeeded by James A. Garfield, who was assassinated later in that year. With the death of Garfield, Chester A. Arthur stepped into the presidency.

Harrison's death revealed the flaws in the constitution's clauses on presidential succession. Article II of the Constitution states that "In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, ... and (the Vice President) shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected". Scholars at the time disagreed whether the vice president would become President or merely Acting President. Further, the Constitution did not stipulate whether the vice president could serve the remainder of the president's term, until the next election, or if emergency elections should be held.

Harrison's cabinet insisted that Tyler was "Vice President acting as President." After the cabinet consulted with the Chief Justice Roger Taney they decided that if Tyler took the presidential Oath of Office he would assume the office of President. Tyler obliged and was sworn in on April 6. In May, Congress convened. After a short period of debate in both houses, it passed a resolution that confirmed Tyler in the presidency for the remainder of Harrison's term. Once established, this precedent of presidential succession remained in effect until the Twenty-fifth Amendment was ratified in 1967. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the succession of Lyndon B. Johnson to the presidency in 1963, the Twenty-fifth Amendment dealt with the finer points of succession. It defined in what situations the vice president was acting president, and in what situation the vice president could become president.

As the shortest-serving president, Harrison was the only one not to appoint a single federal judge at any level...His chief presidential legacy lies in his campaigning methods, which laid the foundation for the modern presidential campaign tactics. Harrison died nearly penniless. Congress voted to give his wife a Presidential widow's pension, a payment of $25,000, one year of Harrison's salary. This is equivalent to over $500,000 in 2009 dollars. She also received the right to mail letters free of charge.

Harrison was the first of only four presidents who did not have an opportunity to nominate a judge to serve on the Supreme Court.

Harrison's son John Scott Harrison served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio between 1853 and 1857.<82> Harrison's grandson, Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, was the 23rd president, from 1889 to 1893, making them the only grandparent–grandchild pair of presidents.

[Demeter]

35. Yes, Rep. Mike Kelly, if you shut down government, Social Security checks don't get sent

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/17/945817/-Yes,-Rep-Mike-Kelly,-if-you-shut-down-government,-Social-Security-checks-dont-get-sent?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

There really does need to be an entrance exam to getting your name on a ballot. The latest argument for this is GOP freshman Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA).

Now, freshmen Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) is also parroting the notion of a pain-free shutdown. ThinkProgress caught up with Kelly at last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Though he stopped short of supporting a government closure, Kelly defended the potential consequences of a shutdown. He argued that even if there is a shutdown, the government is “not going to stop, people aren’t going to lose their Social Security checks and they’re not going to lose their access to Medicare and Medicaid”:

KEYES: If these cuts, either defunding or dismantling Obamacare, either dies in the Senate or dies at Obama’s veto pen, would you be willing to join Jim DeMint and others who have said that this is worth trying to have a showdown and potentially a government shutdown just to show how serious we are about this?

KELLY: I don’t know that you have to have a government shutdown. We can do things with funding. At the end of the day, Congress controls the purse strings. So when you defund and you take the funding away from certain things, you in fact shut down that part. But shutting down the government, nobody wants to hear that. The other thing is, I don’t like that terminology of shutting down the government because really, it’s a fear factor. People know it’s not realistic. The government is not going to shut down, it’s not going to stop. People aren’t going to lose their Social Security checks and they’re not going to lose their access to Medicare and Medicaid. I think we have to be careful when we use that kind of talk. I think what we’re talking about is, look, we control the funding, let’s make sure we’re doing the right thing for the people.

KEYES: So even if that were to happen, theoretically, it wouldn’t be as bad as people make it out to be?

KELLY: No, I don’t think so. I really don’t....

Kelly’s assertions are simply not true. One need look no further than the federal government shutdown of 1995 for proof. During the nearly four-week shutdown, Social Security checks were not mailed and Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements were disrupted.

Now, what could happen is that every member of Congress and all of their staff are put to work doing the jobs of the Social Security and Veterans Administration employees who are shut out of their jobs, making sure that those checks go out. Short of that, it doesn't happen. And, yes, Rep. Mike Kelly is still an ignoramus.

[AnneD]

44. Zachary Taylor number 12 (posted in the wrong spot).....

Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor died just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. He is thought to have died of gastroenteritis. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.

I guess he wasn't so rough or ready.

He was also the last slave owner and Whig to hold office. I guess we can all be thankful for that.

Edited to add sorry Demeter, I was trying to give you a break-guess we reached for the same shiny penny.

[Demeter]

36. John Tyler: Elevated to 10th President by Succession; "His Accidency"

John Tyler, Jr. (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth President of the United States (1841–1845) and the first to succeed to the office following the death of a predecessor.

A longtime Democratic-Republican, Tyler was nonetheless elected Vice President on the Whig ticket. Upon the death of President William Henry Harrison on April 4, 1841, only a month after his inauguration, the nation was briefly in a state of confusion regarding the process of succession. Ultimately the situation was settled with Tyler becoming President both in name and in fact. Tyler took the oath of office on April 6, 1841, setting a precedent that would govern future successions and eventually be codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment...The protocol was so uncertain that Secretary of State Daniel Webster discreetly requested the counsel of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (who declined, citing concerns about the separation of powers). ARE YOU LISTENING, SUPREMES? ...On June 1, 1841, impressed by his authoritative actions, both houses of Congress passed resolutions declaring Tyler the 10th President of the United States. Tyler had thus become the first U.S. vice president to assume the office of president upon the death of his predecessor, establishing a precedent that would be followed seven times in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet it was not until 1967 that Tyler's action of assuming both the full powers and the title of the presidency was legally codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment...Once he became president, he stood against his party's platform and vetoed several of their proposals. In result, most of his cabinet resigned and the Whigs expelled him from their party.

...After Tyler vetoed a tariff bill in June 1842, the House of Representatives initiated the first impeachment proceedings against a president in American history. A committee headed by former president John Quincy Adams, who was now a member of Congress, condemned Tyler's use of the veto and stated that Tyler should be impeached.<15> This was not only a matter of the Whigs supporting the bank and tariff legislation which Tyler vetoed. Until the presidency of the Whigs' archenemy Andrew Jackson, presidents vetoed bills rarely, and then generally on constitutional rather than policy grounds,<16> so Tyler's actions also went against the Whigs' idea of the presidency. Adams then sponsored a constitutional amendment to change the two-thirds requirement to override a veto to a simple majority, but neither house passed such a measure.

On January 10, 1843, a resolution introduced by John Minor Botts, of Virginia, charged "John Tyler, Vice President acting as President" with nine counts of impeachable offenses, including corruption, official misconduct, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.<17> The resolution was defeated, 83-127.

The Whigs were unable to pursue further impeachment proceedings in the subsequent 28th Congress, as in the elections of 1842 they lost control of the House (although they retained a majority in the Senate).

On Tyler's last full day in office, March 3, 1845, Congress overrode his veto of a bill relating to revenue cutters and steamers. This marked the first time any president's veto had been overridden.

...Arguably the most famous and significant achievement of Tyler's administration (aside from setting the precedent for Vice-Presidential succession) was the annexation of the Republic of Texas in 1845. Tyler was the first president born after the adoption of the Constitution, the only president to have held the office of President pro tempore of the Senate, and the only former president elected to office in the government of the Confederacy during the Civil War (though he died before he assumed said office)....Tyler's death was the only one in presidential history not to be officially mourned in Washington, because of his allegiance to the Confederacy. Tyler is also sometimes considered the only president to die outside the United States because his place of death, Richmond, Virginia, was part of the Confederate States at the time. Tyler's favorite horse named "The General" is buried at his Sherwood Forest Plantation with a gravestone which reads, "Here lies the body of my good horse 'The General.' For twenty years he bore me around the circuit of my practice and in all that time he never made a blunder. Would that his master could say the same."

USS Princeton accident
Second wife, Julia Gardiner Tyler

The last year of Tyler's presidency was marred by a freak accident that killed two of his Cabinet members. During a ceremonial cruise down the Potomac River on February 28, 1844, the main gun of the USS Princeton blew up during a demonstration firing. Tyler was unhurt, but Thomas Gilmer, the Secretary of the Navy, and Abel P. Upshur, who had succeeded Daniel Webster at the State Department nine months earlier, were instantly killed. Also killed or mortally wounded were Rep. Virgil Maxey of Maryland, Rep. David Gardiner of New York, Capt. Beverly Kennon, Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs, and the President’s valet, while some 20 others were injured.

Tyler's future second wife, Julia Gardiner, whom Tyler had met two years earlier at a reception, was also aboard the Princeton that day. Her father, David Gardiner, was among those killed during the explosion. Upon hearing of her father's death, Gardiner fainted into the President's arms.<18>

Tyler and Gardiner were married not long afterwards in New York City, on June 26, 1844. This made Tyler the first of three sitting presidents to be married in office. The other two were Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson.

[Demeter]

39. House Votes To Block FCC's 'Net Neutrality' Rules

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110217-718244.html

House lawmakers voted Thursday night to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from implementing controversial new rules that would govern the flow of traffic over the Internet. The rules, known as network neutrality, would affect such companies as AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Comcast Corp. (CMCA) because they own the networks over which the Internet often flows. They would be barred from discriminating as to what content flows over the Web. The FCC agreed on the rules last year, but has not yet implemented them fully.

Republican lawmakers are opposed to the new regulations, arguing that they are an unnecessary intrusion by the federal government into the private marketplace. "For some reason, the FCC has decided to overstep its bounds and apply 19th Century regulations to a 21st Century network," Rep. Cliff Stearns (R., Fla.) said.

On Wednesday, Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the FCC, faced heavy criticism from House panel over the policy.

House lawmakers approved an amendment to a wider spending bill that stated that no funds included in the bill could be used by the FCC to implement the network neutrality regulations. The vote is the only way the Republican-controlled House could prevent the policy from taking effect.

The amendment was successfully added to a spending bill to fund the federal government through the remaining months of fiscal 2011.

House lawmakers hope to complete work on the legislation by the end of the week. They are likely to work late into the night Thursday, and complete it then, although work could continue on Friday or even over the weekend. Once they do complete the bill, the Senate must still take up the bill or pass its own version of spending legislation. Senate Democrats have made it clear they don't intend to take up the legislation, setting up a political battle of wills between the House and Senate.

Congress must pass some form of spending bill by midnight on March 4 when the current temporary funding bill lapses. Otherwise, the federal government would be forced to shut down.

[Demeter]

40. James K. Polk, 11th President

James Knox Polk (pronounced /ˈpoʊk/ POKE; November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th President of the United States (1845–1849). Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.<1> He later lived in and represented the state of Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as Speaker of the House (1835–1839) and Governor of Tennessee (1839–1841). Polk was the surprise ("dark horse") candidate for president in 1844, defeating Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party by promising to annex Texas. Polk was a leader of Jacksonian Democracy during the Second Party System.

Polk was the last strong pre-Civil War president and the first president whose photographs while in office still survive. Polk is noted for his foreign policy successes. He threatened war with Britain then backed away and split the ownership of the Oregon region (the Pacific Northwest) with Britain. When Mexico rejected American annexation of Texas, Polk led the nation to a sweeping victory in the Mexican–American War, followed by purchase of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. He secured passage of the Walker tariff of 1846, which had low rates that pleased his native South. He established a treasury system that lasted until 1913.

Polk oversaw the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy and the Smithsonian Institution, the groundbreaking for the Washington Monument, and the issuance of the first postage stamps in the United States.

When advised of his nomination, Polk replied: "It has been well observed that the office of President of the United States should neither be sought nor declined. I have never sought it, nor should I feel at liberty to decline it, if conferred upon me by the voluntary suffrages of my fellow citizens." Because the Democratic Party was splintered into bitter factions, Polk promised to serve only one term if elected, hoping that his disappointed rival Democrats would unite behind him with the knowledge that another candidate would be chosen in four years... He died of cholera three months after his term ended.

Scholars have ranked him favorably on the list of greatest presidents for his ability to set an agenda and achieve all of it. Polk has been called the "least known consequential president" of the United States.

When he took office on March 4, 1845, Polk, at 49, became the youngest man at the time to assume the presidency. According to a story told decades later by George Bancroft, Polk set four clearly defined goals for his administration:

* The reestablishment of the Independent Treasury System.
* The reduction of tariffs.
* Acquisition of some or all of Oregon Country.
* The acquisition of California and New Mexico from Mexico.

In 1846, Polk approved a law restoring the Independent Treasury System, under which government funds were held in the Treasury rather than in banks or other financial institutions. This established independent treasury deposit offices, separate from private or state banks, to receive all government funds.

IT IS TRULY AMAZING HOW MANY OF OUR PRESIDENTS WERE LIFE-LONG SLAVE-HOLDERS

[Demeter]

45. GOP tries to slash Wall Street law

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49783.html

The federal agencies charged with enforcing last year’s Wall Street reform law are starving for money, short staffed and worried about being able to implement the far-reaching crackdown on the financial industry.

And that’s exactly what top Republicans in charge of banking and Wall Street oversight want.As top key administration officials appeared before the Senate banking committee on Thursday to plead for more money to enforce the so-called Dodd-Frank act, Republicans admitted that they were aiming to dismantle and defund the law.

...The two agencies hit hardest by the failure to pass a full 2011 budget are the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Both the SEC and the CFTC — which were given a substantial increase in power by the regulatory reform law — were slated to get significant funding bumps this year. The chiefs of both agencies said Thursday they don’t have the resources for day-to-day operations, let alone enough manpower to deal with the workload of implementing the sweeping overhaul.

The president called for the SEC budget to grow from $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion in fiscal 2012 and asked for an allocation of $308 million for the much smaller CFTC, up from the agency’s $168 million budget prior to the passage of the Wall Street reform bill.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49783.html#ixzz1EPmqVDoH

[AnneD]

47. WHAT....there was a law...

Guess they really should't pay for something we are not getting. :sarcasm: but you knew that-you read SWT and WEE.

[Demeter]

46. Zachary Taylor, President #12

Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader, AND COUSIN OF JAMES MADISON. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass. Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office, and the last Whig to win a presidential election. 10 OUT OF 12, BY MY COUNT!...Taylor was the last Southerner to be elected president until Lyndon Johnson, 116 years later in 1964.

Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor died just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. He is thought to have died of gastroenteritis. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore...

Taylor had never reportedly revealed his political beliefs before 1848, nor voted before that time.<23> He thought of himself as an independent, believing in a strong and sound banking system for the country, and thought that Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836.<23> He believed it was impractical to talk about expanding slavery into the western areas of the United States, as he concluded that neither cotton nor sugar (both were produced in great quantities as a result of slavery) could be easily grown there through a plantation economy.<23> He was also a firm nationalist, and due to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare, he believed that secession was not a good way to resolve national problems.<23> Taylor, although he did not agree with their stand on protective tariffs and expensive internal improvements, aligned himself with Whig Party governing policies; the President should not be able to veto a law, unless that law was against the Constitution of the United States; that the office should not interfere with Congress, and that the power of collective decision-making, as well as the Cabinet, should be strong.

...The true cause of Zachary Taylor's premature death is not fully established.<32> On July 4, 1850, after watching a groundbreaking ceremony for the Washington Monument during the Independence Day celebration, Taylor sought refuge from the oppressive heat by consuming a pitcher of milk and a bowl of cherries.<33>} At about 10:00 in the morning on July 9, 1850, very ill, Taylor called his wife to him and asked her not to weep, saying: "I have always done my duty, I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me." Upon his sudden death on July 9, the cause was listed as gastroenteritis...In the late 1980s, college professor and author Clara Rising hypothesized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation.<36> On June 17, 1991, Taylor's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner, where radiological studies were conducted and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed. The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at reinterment. He was reinterred in the same mausoleum he had been interred in since 1926. A monolith was constructed next to the mausoleum later on. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed arsenic levels several hundred times lower than they would have been if Taylor had been poisoned.<37><38> Rather, it was concluded that on a hot July day Taylor had attempted to cool himself with large amounts of cherries and iced milk. “In the unhealthy climate of Washington, with its open sewers and flies, Taylor came down with cholera morbus, or acute gastroenteritis as it is now called.” He might have recovered, Samuel Eliot Morison felt, but his doctors “drugged him with ipecac, calomel, opium and quinine (at 40 grains a whack), and bled and blistered him too. On July 9, he gave up the ghost.”...Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. Michael Parenti devoted a chapter in his 1999 book History as Mystery to "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor," speculating that Taylor was assassinated because of his moderate stance on the expansion of slavery — and that his autopsy was botched. It is suspected that Taylor was deliberately assassinated by arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen-provided dishes he sampled during the Independence Day celebration.<32> Other dissenting historians claim as suspicious the facts that there were no eyewitness accounts of Taylor consuming cherries and milk on that day; that there are no confirmed cholera outbreaks in Washington in 1850; that Taylor's symptoms were not those of typhoid (spread by flies); that Taylor was not given the aforementioned drugs until he was already deathly sick, on the third day of his acute illness; and that Taylor was not bled until near death on the fifth and last day of his illness.

[Hotler]

48. KIcking! Thank you for my heart. n/t

[Demeter]

49. UK Uncut targets banks as copycat group forms in America

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/18/uk-uncut-targets-banks-america

Hundreds of protesters are expected to occupy banks around the country amid signs the direct action movement that has shut more than 100 high street stores in the UK is spreading to the US.

Activists from UK Uncut, a campaign group set up five months ago to oppose government cuts and corporate tax avoidance, will stage their first national day of action against the banks on Saturday with protesters expected to bring more than 30 high street branches of Barclays to a standstill.

The group has previously targeted companies accused of avoiding millions of pounds in tax. The demonstrations come as it emerged that protesters in the US have formed a copy cat group, US Uncut...CARL Gibson, 23, who started the first US group a week ago after reading a piece in the Nation, told the Guardian there are already US Uncut "chapters" in 20 states and at least 10 demonstrations planned for 26 February – the date of UK Uncut's second day of action against the banks...

http://www.usuncut.org/ SEE ACTION MAP AT THIS LINK

US Uncut Takes the Stage

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158719/us-uncut-takes-stage


A Ten-Step Guide to Launching US Uncut

http://www.thenation.com/article/158280/ten-step-guide-launching-us-uncut

1.Get some friends you trust and respect, and identify a tax dodger to target.

2. Find the company’s flagship store in your neighborhood. Scout it out. Determine the best way to shut it down.

3.Pick a meeting point and time. Ask some high-profile people to tweet a link explaining what you are doing and why. Ask Michael Moore, Naomi Klein, Glenn Greenwald—anybody who can reach thousands of people quickly.

4.Send the call out to as many active networks as possible. For example, the Coffee Party got a huge number of followers on Facebook but hasn’t done much—why not turn it into a network to organize this?

5.Pick a Twitter hashtag so people can follow the action as you shut down the target.

6.As soon as you’ve done this, put a call out for people to copy you, wherever they are around the country, on a certain day.

7.Set up a website to list all the actions being planned, all the information on the targets and all the resources people will need. Use a Google map to show where all the actions are planned.

8.Choose a few carefully crafted key messages and repeat them over and over again to the media. Explain that if X company paid its taxes, Y budget cut or tax increase wouldn’t have to happen.

9.Call days of action. Aim to have shutdowns arranged in as many cities as possible.

10.Pick a new target and do it again. Do it bigger.

[bread_and_roses]

75. UK Uncut mounts direct action against 50 branches as Barclays admits it paid 1% corporation tax

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/19-0

The direct action by UK Uncut, taking place in more than 30 towns and cities including London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, came as Barclays was forced to admit it paid just £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009 – a year when it rang up a record £11.6bn of profits.

A UK Uncut spokesman said: "We are hoping to very peacefully and legally send a big message to Barclays that paying 1% corporation tax is not really acceptable."

There are around 10 different protests underway in central London with protesters staging a live stand-up comedy show, a breakfast club for children and setting up a library.

Working America http://www.workingamerica.org/ , the community arm of the AFL-CIO, started a campaign called "I am Not Your ATM" a while back, but it seems to have fizzled out....I think it should be revived, and just call it straight up "Make the Banks Pay."

[Demeter]

50. Millard Fillmore, Unlucky 13th President

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president.

At the Whig national convention in 1848, the nomination of Gen. Zachary Taylor for president angered supporters of Henry Clay and opponents of allowing slavery in the territories gained in the Mexican–American War. A group of practical Whig politicians nominated Fillmore for vice president. Fillmore came from a non-slave state and delegates believed he would help the ticket carry the populous state of New York.
Engraving of Millard Fillmore

Fillmore was also selected in part to block New York state machine boss Thurlow Weed from receiving the vice presidential nomination (and his front man William H. Seward from receiving a position in Taylor's cabinet). Weed eventually got Seward elected to the Senate. This competition between Seward and Fillmore led to Seward's becoming a more vocal part of cabinet meetings and having more of a voice than Fillmore in advising the administration. The battle would continue even after Taylor's death.

Taylor and Fillmore disagreed on the slavery issue in the new western territories taken from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Taylor wanted the new states to be free states, while Fillmore supported slavery in those states to appease the South. In his own words: "God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil ... and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution."

Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. During one debate, Senator Henry S. Foote of Mississippi pulled a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Fillmore made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals. A few days before President Taylor's death, however, Fillmore suggested to the president that he would vote in favor of the North if the vote on Henry Clay's bill was tied.Being Zachary Taylor`s Vice President, he assumed the presidency after Taylor`s death.

He opposed the proposal to keep slavery out of the territories annexed during the Mexican-American War (to appease the South), and so supported the Compromise of 1850, which he signed, including the Fugitive Slave Act ("Bloodhound Law") which was part of the compromise... On the foreign policy front Fillmore was particularly active in the Asian Pacific, especially Japan. American shipping interests had become more keen on opening Japan up to outside trade because it would allow them to stop for supplies en route to China and Southeast Asia.<11> American shippers also looked to the British opening of China to trade as an example of the "benefits of new trade markets." Fillmore, with help from Secretary of State Daniel Webster, sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open Japan to Western trade. THIS WAS THE SUBJECT OF SONDHEIM'S "PACIFIC OVERTURES" MUSICAL...A GRIPPING SHOW, THOUGH NOT TERRIBLY POPULAR

Though Perry did not reach Japan until Franklin Pierce had replaced Fillmore as president, Fillmore earns the credit for ending Japanese isolation because it was he who ordered the trade mission.

Fillmore was also a staunch defender against foreign intervention in Hawaii. France's Napoleon III attempted to annex the Hawaiian Islands, but was forced to withdraw after a strongly worded message from Fillmore suggesting that "the United States would not stand for any such action."

Though President Taylor had signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty preventing Britain and the US from taking more possessions in the Americas, Great Britain and the United States were still attempting to gain ground in the region. The situation became tense enough that Fillmore ordered several warships to guard American merchants in an attempt to prevent British interference.

Fillmore was also caught in a situation involving Cuba. Many southerners were eager to expand the bounds of slavery and since slavery territories were locked down because of the Compromise of 1850, many southerners turned to the Caribbean. Venezuelan Narciso López gathered a small force of Americans to invade Cuba. Though Fillmore tried to block such efforts, he was nevertheless unsuccessful as López managed to sail out of New Orleans. Despite the invasions failure, López tried another invasion a year later which came to a quick end after Spanish troops routed them from the island. The incident became particularly embarrassing for Fillmore because southerners felt he should have supported the invasion, while Northern democrats were upset at his apology to the Spanish. In response the French and British dispatched warships to the region. Fillmore sent a stern warning saying that under certain conditions control of Cuba "might be almost essential to our (America's) safety."

Another issue that presented itself during Fillmore's presidency was the arrival of Lajos Kossuth (exiled leader of a failed Hungarian revolution). Kossuth wanted the United States to abandon its nonintervention policies when it came to European affairs and recognize Hungary's independence. The problem came with the enormous support Kossuth received from German-American immigrants to the United States (who were essential in the reelection of both Whigs and Democrats). Fillmore refused to change American policy, and decided to remain neutral despite the political implications that neutrality would produce.

...After his presidency, he joined the Know-Nothing movement; throughout the Civil War, he opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson.

[Demeter]

51. Obama Should Be Ashamed of His Budget

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/477369/obama_should_be_ashamed_of_his_budget/#paragraph5

“This freeze would cut the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, bringing this kind of spending — domestic discretionary spending — to its lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was President. Let me repeat that….”

That was our president announcing his 2012 budget. And indeed let’s repeat that — and note a few things he didn’t say.

While around 22 million Americans are looking for work…

And almost 62 million workers are working for sub-poverty wages…

While one out of three kids is living in poverty…

And nearly 3 million families have lost their homes last year alone…

While spending on war grows, another $118 billion this year, and military contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing see record profits….

And studies show that $2.2 trillion is needed to bring infrastructure to the basic level businesses need.

…Domestic spending will be at its lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower?

Between 1979 and 2005, the CBO numbers show, the average after-tax income of households in the top 0.01 percent quintupled — from just over $4 million to nearly $24.3 million. In 2009, as million of workers lost their jobs, on Wall Street at the thirty-eight biggest firms, investors and executives earned $140 billion — the highest sum ever.

James Madison famously wrote that the new American republic was to be “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people,” not aristocratic privilege or hereditary right. Yet in 2010 undisclosed private donors and multinational corporations funneled millions of dollars into our media, saturating the airwaves and skewing the election....

[Demeter]

52. Franklin Pierce, 14TH President, 4th Cousin of Barbara Bush

Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869), an American politician and lawyer, was the 14th President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He is the only President from New Hampshire.

Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" (a Northerner with Southern sympathies) who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Later, Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general. His private law practice in his home state, New Hampshire, was so successful that he was offered several important positions, which he turned down. Later, he was nominated as the party's candidate for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention.<1> In the presidential election, Pierce and his running mate William R. King won by a landslide in the Electoral College. They defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham by a 50% to 44% margin in the popular vote and 254 to 42 in the electoral vote.

His amiable personality and handsome appearance caused him to make many friends, but he suffered tragedy in his personal life. As president, he made many divisive decisions which were widely criticized and earned him a reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. Pierce's popularity in the North declined sharply after he came out in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repealing the Missouri Compromise and renewed the debate over expanding slavery in the West. Pierce's credibility was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto. Historian David Potter concludes that the Ostend Manifesto and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were "the two great calamities of the Franklin Pierce administration.... Both brought down an avalanche of public criticism." More importantly, says Potter, they permanently discredited Manifest Destiny and "popular sovereignty" as political doctrines.

Abandoned by his party, Pierce was not renominated to run in the 1856 presidential election and was replaced by James Buchanan as the Democratic candidate. After losing the Democratic nomination, Pierce continued his lifelong struggle with alcoholism as his marriage to Jane Means Appleton Pierce fell apart. His reputation was destroyed during the American Civil War when he declared support for the Confederacy, and personal correspondence between Pierce and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was leaked to the press. He died in 1869 from cirrhosis.

Philip B. Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt reflected the views of many historians when they wrote in The American President that Pierce was "a good man who didn't understand his own shortcomings. He was genuinely religious, loved his wife and reshaped himself so that he could adapt to her ways and show her true affection. He was one of the most popular men in New Hampshire, polite and thoughtful, easy and good at the political game, charming and fine and handsome. However, he has been criticized as timid and unable to cope with a changing America."

[Demeter]

53. House GOPer Introduces Bill Designed to Help Prosecute WikiLeaks Under Espionage Act

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/476528/house_goper_introduces_bill_designed_to_help_prosecute_wikileaks_under_espionage_act/#paragraph5

Republican Rep. Peter King of New York has introduced a piece of legislation that would help prosecute Julian Assange's whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks under the shady Espionage Act. Specifically, the SHIELD Act would amend the Espionage Act -- the 1917 law that's considered by many to be unconstitutional -- to cover the publication of classified documents.

Here's what Rep. King, the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, had to say in introducing the legislation, via Raw Story:

"Julian Assange and his associates who have operated and supported WikiLeaks not only damaged US national security with their releases of classified documents, but also placed at risk countless lives, including those of our Nation’s intelligence sources around the world," Rep. King, the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. "As international pressure has held back Assange, we now find that his colleagues are planning to spin off a new website called OpenLeaks, dedicated to the same dangerous conduct."....

"These organizations are a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States," Rep. King continued. "Julian Assange and his compatriots are enemies of the US and should be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. This legislation provides the Attorney General with additional authority to do just that."

The U.S. government is really reaching to try and find a way to prosecute Assange and his site -- by detaining and torturing Bradley Manning and engaging in this ongoing (and absurd) flirtation with the Espionage Act, which no one publisher has ever been convicted under. (And which, by the way, the New York Times technically violated, per the Feds' standards, although the paper has received relatively little heat compared to Assange.)

The American Prospect's Adam Serwer discusses why this new bill, and the Espionage Act in general, are both so problematic.

If WikiLeaks is prosecuted under the Espionage Act as it currently exists, then no journalistic institution or entity is safe. The idea that anytime that a journalist obtains a document that has "information related to the national defense" that could be used "to the injury of the United States" they could be subject to prosecution would destroy national-security journalism as it currently exists. Also frightening is the reality that government officials looking to skew public debates one way or another regularly leak information to the press, so the government would really only be prosecuting people for publishing leaked information they didn't want leaked.

I think there's this idea that because the New York Times and the Washington Post are treasured journalistic institutions the government wouldn't dare engage in the kind of coercion it has leveled so effectively against Assange, and that even if he were prosecuted under an archaic unconstitutional law like the Espionage Act, he's a scary foreigner and there's no way that Americans would be treated the same way....

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=12&year=2010&base_name=the_espionage_act_and_wikileak

It's a double-standard of epic proportions, no doubt. And it makes the U.S. government look incredibly sad and desperate.

[plumbob]

69. Why hasn't God taken King yet?

Any takers?

His presence and stench strongly suggests either:
there is no God;
there is, but he doesn't care what happens to us;
there is, but he's a psycho who enjoys torturing us this way.

Suggested length: 300 words, double-spaced, 12 point font, due immediately.

This is why teaching is fun.

[Demeter]

78. Because God Wants Lazy Americans to Get Off the Couch

and start being responsible...

[Demeter]

54. James Buchanan, 16th President--Never married, He Lost the South

James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868, English pronunciation: /bjuːˈkænən/) was the 15th President of the United States, from 1857 to 1861, and the last president to be born in the 18th century. He is the only president from Pennsylvania and the only president who was a life-long bachelor.

Buchanan (often called Buck-anan by his contemporaries) was a popular and experienced state politician and a very successful attorney before his presidency. He represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Minister to Russia under President Andrew Jackson. He also was Secretary of State under President James K. Polk. After turning down an offer for an appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as Minister to the United Kingdom under President Franklin Pierce, in which capacity he helped draft the controversial Ostend Manifesto.

After unsuccessfully seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1844, 1848, and 1852, "Old Buck" was nominated in the election of 1856. Throughout most of Franklin Pierce's term he was stationed in London as a Minister to England and therefore was not caught up in the crossfire of sectional politics that dominated the country. Buchanan was viewed by many as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery question. His subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race with Fremont and Fillmore. As President, he was often called a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies, who battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War. Buchanan's view of record was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. Buchanan, first and foremost an attorney, was noted for his mantra, "I acknowledge no master but the law."

By the time he left office, popular opinion had turned against him, and the Democratic Party had split in two. Buchanan had once aspired to a presidency that would rank in history with that of George Washington.<3> However, his inability to impose peace on sharply divided partisans on the brink of the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents. Buchanan biographer Philip Klein puts these rankings into context: "Buchanan assumed leadership <...> when an unprecedented wave of angry passion was sweeping over the nation. That he held the hostile sections in check during these revolutionary times was in itself a remarkable achievement. His weaknesses in the stormy years of his presidency were magnified by enraged partisans of the North and South. His many talents, which in a quieter era might have gained for him a place among the great presidents, were quickly overshadowed by the cataclysmic events of civil war and by the towering Abraham Lincoln.

...No Secretary of State has become President since James Buchanan, although William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, often served as Acting Secretary of State during the Theodore Roosevelt administration.

Buchanan's Inauguration was the first one to be recorded in photographs.


The Dred Scott case

In his inaugural address, in addition to promising not to run again, Buchanan referred to the territorial question as "happily, a matter of but little practical importance" since the Supreme Court was about to settle it "speedily and finally." Two days later, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Dred Scott Decision, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Part of Taney's written judgment has been characterized as obiter dictum — statements commonly made by a jurist that are not central to the decision in the case; in this instance such comments delighted Southerners while creating a furor in the North. Buchanan, in his view, preferred to see the territorial question resolved by the Supreme Court. It is known that he was told of the Court's decision a week before his inauguration.<20> Abraham Lincoln denounced him as an accomplice of the Slave Power, which Lincoln saw as a conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and nationalize slavery. However, there is no extant contemporaneous statement that Buchanan interfered in the Court's rendering of the Dred Scott decision.

Panic of 1857 HOW CONVENIENT, ON THE EDGE OF CIVIL WAR..

In August suddenly came the Panic of 1857, brought on mostly by 1) the people's over-consumption of goods from Europe to such an extent that the Union's Specie was drained off; 2) overbuilding by competing railroads; and 3) rampant land speculation in the west. Most of the state banks had overextended credit, to more than $7.00 for each dollar of gold or silver. The Republicans considered the Congress to be the culprit for having recently reduced tariffs. Buchanan's response was reform not relief. The government would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. He urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie, and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy did eventually recover on the shoulders of determined individuals able and willing making difficult but sound business choices. Nevertheless, the recovery came only after many lives had suffered despair, poverty and even starvation.<33> The South was considered to have been less severely affected, due to "King Cotton", than the North where manufacturers were hardest hit.


Utah War

In March 1857, Buchanan received conflicting and unconfirmed reports from federal judges in Utah that their offices had been disrupted and they had been driven from their posts by the Mormons. While some of these reports may have had some basis in fact, historically the Mormons had valid complaints against the federal government's actions in the territory. The Pierce administration had refused to facilitate Utah's being granted statehood and the Mormons feared the loss of their property rights. Taking the wildest rumors at face value and believing the Mormons to be in open rebellion against the United States, Buchanan sent the Army in November of that year to replace Brigham Young as Governor with the non-Mormon Alfred Cumming. While the Mormons' defiance of federal authority in the past had become traditional, some question whether Buchanan's action were a justifiable or prudent response to uncorroborated reports.<34> Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract.<34> After Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition destroying wagon trains, oxen and other Army property, Buchanan dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission succeeded, the new governor was shortly placed in office, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to all inhabitants who would respect the authority of the government, and moved the federal troops to a non-threatening distance for the balance of his administration.

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55. Brent crude rises towards $103,buoyed by MidEast

http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE71H03720110218

Brent crude oil rose towards $103 a barrel on Friday, as unrest spreading across the Middle East fanned fears of a supply disruption in the major oil-producing region.

U.S. crude fell, but held above $86 a barrel, after jumping more than $1.00 the previous day.

Parts of the Middle East and Arab North Africa could see renewed public anger towards their governments on Friday, with the focus on Bahrain and Libya as protesters bury people killed in recent clashes.

In Libya's eastern city of Benghazi early on Friday, thousands of anti-government protesters crowded on to the streets, a day after "Day of Rage" demonstrations led to skirmishes with security forces in which more than 20 people may have been killed.

Tension between Israel and Iran continued to seethe amidst uncertainty about Iran's plans to send navy ships through the Suez Canal, in a move that Israel has called a "provocation"....

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56. Abraham Lincoln, 16th President

I refer you all to last weekend's "Valentine to Lincoln"

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Demeter/889

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57. Bank Lending From ECB Skyrockets

The European Central Bank said banks borrowed more than €15.8 billion from its emergency marginal-lending facility Wednesday, the highest level in more than 19 months. The ECB did not give an explanation for the borrowing surge, but such increase tends to reflect acute liquidity problems...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657704576149832795596882.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

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58. Andrew Johnson, 17th President

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th President of the United States (1865–1869). On April 15, 1865, following Lincoln's death that morning, Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States by the newly appointed Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. Johnson was the first vice president to succeed to the presidency upon the assassination of a president and the third vice president to become a president upon the death of a sitting president... Johnson presided over the Reconstruction era of the United States in the four years after the American Civil War. His tenure was controversial as his positions favoring the white South came under heavy political attack from Republicans.

At the time of the secession of the Southern states, Johnson was a U.S. Senator from Greeneville in East Tennessee. As a Unionist, he was the only Southern senator not to quit his post upon secession. He became the most prominent War Democrat from the South and supported Lincoln's military policies during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. In 1862, Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of occupied Tennessee, where he proved to be energetic and effective in fighting the rebellion and beginning transition to Reconstruction.

Johnson was nominated for the Vice President position in 1864 on the National Union Party ticket. He and Lincoln were elected in November 1864 and inaugurated on March 4, 1865. Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865.

As president, he took charge of Presidential Reconstruction — the first phase of Reconstruction — which lasted until the Radical Republicans gained control of Congress in the 1866 elections. His conciliatory policies towards the South, his hurry to reincorporate the former Confederate states back into the union, and his vetoes of civil rights bills embroiled him in a bitter dispute with Radical Republicans. The Radicals in the House of Representatives impeached him in 1868, charging him with violating the Tenure of Office Act, but he was acquitted by a single vote in the Senate.

Johnson's party status was ambiguous during his presidency. As president, he did not identify with the two main parties — though he did try for the Democratic nomination in 1868 — and so while President he attempted to build a party of loyalists under the National Union label. Asked in 1868 why he did not become a Democrat, he said, "It is true I am asked why don't I join the Democratic Party. Why don't they join me ... if I have administered the office of president so well?" His failure to make the National Union brand an actual party made Johnson effectively an independent during his presidency, though he was supported by Democrats and later rejoined the party as a Democratic Senator from Tennessee from 1875 until his death of a stroke at 66.<4> For these reasons he is usually counted as a Democrat when identifying presidents by their political parties.<5> Johnson was the first U.S. President to undergo an impeachment trial; the senate fell one vote short of removing him from office. He is commonly ranked by historians as being among the worst U.S. presidents.

On April 15, 1865, following Lincoln's death that morning, Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States by the newly appointed Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. Johnson was the first vice president to succeed to the presidency upon the assassination of a president and the third vice president to become a president upon the death of a sitting president.

Impeachment

First attempt

There were two attempts to remove President Andrew Johnson from office. The first occurred in the fall of 1867. On November 21, 1867, the House Judiciary committee produced a bill of impeachment that consisted of a vast collection of complaints against him. After a furious debate, a formal vote was held in the House of Representatives on December 5, 1867, which failed 57–108.

Second attempt: The 1868 Impeachment Resolution

Johnson notified Congress that he had removed Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War and was replacing him in the interim with Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas. Johnson had originally wanted to replace Stanton with General Ulysses S. Grant, but Grant refused to accept the position. This violated the Tenure of Office Act, a law enacted by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto, specifically designed to protect Stanton.<30> Johnson had vetoed the act, claiming it was unconstitutional. The act said, "...every person holding any civil office, to which he has been appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate ... shall be entitled to hold such office until a successor shall have been in like manner appointed and duly qualified," thus removing the president's previous unlimited power to remove any of his cabinet members at will. Years later in the case Myers v. United States in 1926, the Supreme Court ruled that such laws were indeed unconstitutional.<31>

The Senate and House entered into debate over the act. Thomas attempted to move into the war office, for which Stanton had Thomas arrested. Three days after Stanton's removal, the House impeached Johnson for intentionally violating the Tenure of Office Act.

On March 5, 1868, a court of impeachment was constituted in the Senate to hear charges against the president. William M. Evarts served as his counsel. Eleven articles were set out in the resolution, and the trial before the Senate lasted almost three months. Johnson's defense was based on a clause in the Tenure of Office Act stating that the then-current secretaries would hold their posts throughout the term of the president who appointed them. Since Lincoln had appointed Stanton, it was claimed, the applicability of the act had already run its course.

There were three votes in the Senate. One came on May 16 for the 11th article of impeachment, which included many of the charges contained in the other articles, and two on May 26 for the second and third articles, after which the trial adjourned. On all three occasions, 35 senators voted "guilty" and 19 "not guilty", thus falling short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction in impeachment trials by a single vote. A decisive role was played by seven Republican senators - William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, James W. Grimes, John B. Henderson, Lyman Trumbull, Peter G. Van Winkle and Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, who provided the decisive vote;<32> disturbed by how the proceedings had been manipulated to give a one-sided presentation of the evidence, they voted against conviction, in defiance of their party and public opinion.<33> President John F. Kennedy discusses this in further detail in his book, Profiles In Courage.

Christmas Day amnesty for Confederates

One of Johnson's last significant acts was granting unconditional amnesty to all Confederates on Christmas Day, December 25, 1868, after the election of Ulysses S. Grant to succeed him, but before Grant took office in March 1869. Earlier amnesties, requiring signed oaths and excluding certain classes of people, had been issued by Lincoln and by Johnson.

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60. Chinese stance throws G20 indicator deal into doubt

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/18/us-g-idUSTRE71G4FX20110218

China rejected plans on Friday to use real exchange rates and currency reserves to measure global economic imbalances, casting heavy doubt on the ability of Group of 20 major economic powers to reach agreement.

Speaking shortly before the start of a two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bankers, Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren also said the G20 should use trade figures rather than current account balances to assess economic distortions.

G20 countries, which together account for 85 percent of world economic output, are trying to agree a set of measurements as a basis for economic policy guidelines to avoid a repeat of the 2008 global financial crisis.

"We think it is not appropriate to use real effective exchange rates and reserves," Xie said at a meeting with Russian, Brazilian and Indian counterparts.

The hardline Chinese stance highlighted splits over how to define economic imbalances and prescribe action to remedy them, a key aim of France's G20 presidency.

A G20 official said China was the only country which spoke against accepting the list of indicators...

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59. Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877) as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America. Grant began his lifelong career as a soldier after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843. Fighting in the Mexican American War, he was a close observer of the techniques of Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. He resigned from the Army in 1854, then struggled to make a living in St. Louis and Galena, Illinois.

After the American Civil War began in April 1861, he joined the Union war effort, taking charge of training new regiments and then engaging the Confederacy near Cairo, Illinois. In 1862, he fought a series of major battles and captured a Confederate army, earning a reputation as an aggressive general who seized control of most of Kentucky and Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh. In July 1863, after a long, complex campaign, he defeated five Confederate armies (capturing one of them) and seized Vicksburg. This famous victory gave the Union control of the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, and opened the way for more Union victories and conquests. After another victory at the Battle of Chattanooga in late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general and gave him charge of all of the Union Armies. As Commanding General of the United States Army from 1864 to 1865, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of very high casualty battles known as the Overland Campaign that ended in a stalemate siege at Petersburg. During the siege, Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns launched by William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George Thomas. Finally breaking through Lee's trenches at Petersburg, the Union Army captured Richmond, the Confederate capital, in April 1865. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Soon after, the Confederacy collapsed and the Civil War ended.

During Reconstruction, Grant remained in command of the Army and implemented the Congressional plans to reoccupy the South and hold new elections in 1867 with black voters. This gave Republicans control of the Southern states. Enormously popular in the North after the Union's victory, he was elected to the presidency in 1868. Reelected in 1872, he became the first president to serve two full terms since Andrew Jackson did so forty years earlier. As president, he led Reconstruction by signing and enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence. He helped rebuild the Republican Party in the South, an effort that resulted in the election of African Americans to Congress and state governments for the first time. Despite these civil rights accomplishments, Grant's presidency was marred by economic turmoil and multiple scandals. His response to the Panic of 1873 and the severe depression that followed was heavily criticized. His low standards in Cabinet and federal appointments and lack of accountability generated corruption and bribery in seven government departments. In 1876, his reputation was severely damaged by the graft trials of the Whiskey Ring. In addition, his image as a war hero was tarnished by corruption scandals during his presidency. He left office at the low point of his popularity.<1><2>

After leaving office, Grant embarked on a two-year world tour that was received favorably with many royal receptions. In 1880, he made an unsuccessful bid for a third presidential term. In 1884, broke and dying of cancer, he wrote his memoirs. Historians have ranked his Administration poorly due to tolerance of corruption. His presidential reputation has improved among scholars who are impressed by the Administration's support for civil rights for freed slaves.

...A civilian at age 32, Grant struggled through seven financially lean years. From 1854 to 1858, he labored on a family farm near St. Louis, Missouri, using slaves owned by Julia's father, but it did not prosper. He bought one of these slaves in 1858, which made him one of twelve U.S. Presidents who owned slaves during their lifetime.

Panic of 1873

The Panic of 1873 was a world-wide depression that started when the stock market in Vienna crashed in June 1873. Unsettled markets soon spread to Berlin, and throughout Europe. Three months later, the Panic spread to the United States when three major banks stopped making payments, the New York Warehouse & Security Company on September 8, Kenyon, Cox, & Co. on September 13, and the largest bank, Jay Cooke & Company, on September 18. On September 20, the New York Stock Exchange shut down for ten days. All of these events created a depression that lasted five years in the United States, ruined thousands of businesses, depressed daily wages by 25% from 1873 to 1876, and brought the unemployment rate up to 14%. Some 89 out of 364 American railroads went bankrupt.<45><46>

The causes of the panic in the United States included over-expansion in the railroad industry after the Civil War, losses in the Chicago and Boston fires of 1871 and 1872, respectively, and insatiable speculation by Wall Street financiers. All of this growth was done on borrowed money by many banks in the United States having over-speculated in the railroad industry by as much as $20,000,000 in loans. Grant, who knew little about finance, relied on bankers for advice on how to curb the panic. Secretary of Treasury William A. Richardson responded by liquidating a series of outstanding bonds. The banks, in turn, issued short-term clearing house certificates to be used as cash. By October 1, $50,000,000 had been released into an economy desperate for paper currency. This was done without undermining the value of the dollar. By January 10, 1874, Richardson continued to liquidate bonds that released a total of $26,000,000 of greenback reserves into the economy. Although this curbed the Panic on Wall Street it did nothing to stop the ensuing five year depression. Grant did nothing to prevent the panic and responded slowly after the banks crashed in September. The limited action of Secretary Richardson did nothing to increase confidence in the general economy.<47><48><49>

Vetoes inflation bill

After the Panic of 1873, Congress debated an inflationary policy to stimulate the economy and passed the Inflation Bill on April 14, 1874. The bill released an additional $100,000,000 into the nation's tight money supply. Many farmers and working men in the southwest anticipated that Grant would sign the bill. Those with outstanding loans needed greenbacks to stay in business. Eastern bankers favored a veto because of their reliance on bonds and foreign investors. On April 22, 1874, Grant unexpectedly vetoed the bill on the fiscal grounds that it would destroy the credit of the nation. Initially, Grant favored the bill, but decided to veto after evaluating his own reasons for wanting to pass the bill.

I RECOMMEND CONTINUED READING OF GRANT'S POST-PRESIDENCY DOINGS...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_President_of_the_United_States

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61. Egyptians Say Military Discourages an Open Economy

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/world/middleeast/18military.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

The Egyptian military defends the country, but it also runs day care centers and beach resorts. Its divisions make television sets, jeeps, washing machines, wooden furniture and olive oil, as well as bottled water under a brand reportedly named after a general’s daughter, Safi.

From this vast web of businesses, the military pays no taxes, employs conscripted labor, buys public land on favorable terms and discloses nothing to Parliament or the public.

Since the ouster last week of President Hosni Mubarak, of course, the military also runs the government. And some scholars, economists and business groups say it has already begun taking steps to protect the privileges of its gated economy, discouraging changes that some argue are crucial if Egypt is to emerge as a more stable, prosperous country.

“Protecting its businesses from scrutiny and accountability is a red line the military will draw,” said Robert Springborg, an expert on Egypt’s military at the Naval Postgraduate School. “And that means there can be no meaningful civilian oversight.”

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62. Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th President of the United States, serving one term from 1877 to 1881. As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution. Hayes was a reformer who began the efforts that would lead to civil service reform and attempted, unsuccessfully, to reconcile the divisions that had led to the American Civil War fifteen years earlier.

Born in Delaware, Ohio, Hayes practiced law in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) and was city solicitor of Cincinnati from 1858 to 1861. When the Civil War began, Hayes left a successful political career to join the Union Army. Wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain, he earned a reputation for bravery in combat and was promoted to the rank of major general. After the war, he served in the U.S. Congress from 1865 to 1867 as a Republican. Hayes left Congress to run for Governor of Ohio and was elected to two terms, serving from 1867 to 1871. After his second term had ended, he returned to practicing law for a time, but returned to serve a third term as governor in 1875.

In 1876, Hayes was elected president in one of the most contentious and hotly disputed elections in American history. Although he lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, Hayes won the presidency by the narrowest of margins after a Congressional commission awarded him twenty disputed electoral votes. The result was the Compromise of 1877, in which the Democrats acquiesced to Hayes's election and Hayes accepted the end of military occupation of the South.

Hayes believed in meritocratic government, equal treatment without regard to race, and improvement through education. He ordered federal troops to quell the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and ordered them out of Southern capitals as Reconstruction ended. He implemented modest civil service reforms that laid the groundwork for further reform in the 1880s and 1890s. Hayes kept his pledge not to run for re-election. He retired to his home in Ohio and became an advocate of social and education reform.


Disputed electoral votes FRAUD ALERT!


On November 10, three days after election day, Tilden appeared to have won 184 electoral votes: one short of a majority.<101> Hayes appeared to have 165 votes, with the 19 votes of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina still in doubt.<101> Because of fraud by both parties in the three disputed states, the results were uncertain, and Republicans and Democrats both claimed victories there.<102> To further complicate matters, one of the three electors from Oregon (a state Hayes had won) was disqualified, reducing Hayes's total to 164. If either candidate could claim the 20 disputed votes, he would be elected president.

There was considerable debate about which person or house of Congress was authorized to decide between the competing slates of electors, with the Republican Senate and the Democratic House each claiming priority. By January 1877, with the question still unresolved, Congress agreed to submit the matter to a bipartisan Electoral Commission, which would be authorized to determine the fate of the disputed electoral votes. The Commission was to be made up of five representatives, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices. To ensure partisan balance, there would be seven Democrats and seven Republicans, with Justice David Davis, an independent respected by both parties, being the fifteenth member. The balance was upset when Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the Senate, hoping to sway his vote. Davis disappointed Democrats, however, by refusing to serve on the Commission on account of his election to the Senate. As all of the remaining Justices were Republicans, Justice Joseph P. Bradley, believed to be the most independent-minded of them, was selected to take Davis's place on the Commission. The Commission met in February and the eight Republicans voted to award all 20 electoral votes to Hayes Democrats were outraged by the result and attempted a filibuster to prevent Congress from accepting the Commission's findings.<111> As the March 4 inauguration day neared, Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders met at Wormley's Hotel in Washington to negotiate a compromise. Republicans promised that, in exchange for Democratic acquiescence in the Committee's decision, Hayes would withdraw federal troops from the South and accept the election of Democratic governments in the last of the unredeemed South. The Democrats agreed, and the filibuster was ended. Hayes was elected, but Reconstruction was finished.

Great Railroad Strike

In his first year in office, Hayes was faced with the United States' largest labor disturbance to date: the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. In order to make up for financial losses suffered since the panic of 1873, the major railroads cut their employees' wages several times in 1877. In July of that year, workers from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad walked off the job in Martinsburg, West Virginia to protest their reduction in pay. The strike quickly spread to workers of the New York Central, Erie, and Pennsylvania railroads, with the strikers soon numbering in the thousands. Fearing a riot, Governor Henry M. Mathews asked Hayes to send federal troops to Martinsburg, and Hayes did so, but when the troops arrived there was no riot, only a peaceful protest. In Baltimore, however, a riot did erupt on July 20 and Hayes ordered the troops at Fort McHenry to assist the governor in its suppression; by the time they arrived, the riot had dispersed. Pittsburgh next exploded into riots, but Hayes was reluctant to send in troops without the governor first requesting them. Other discontented citizens joined the railroad workers in rioting. After a few days, he resolved to send in troops to protect federal property wherever it appeared to be threatened and gave Major General Winfield Scott Hancock overall command of the situation, marking the first use of federal troops to break a strike against a private company. The riot spread further, to Chicago and St. Louis, where strikers shut down railroad facilities. By July 29, the riots had ended and federal troops returned to their barracks. Although no federal troops had killed any of the strikers, or been killed themselves, clashes between state militia troops and strikers resulted in deaths on both sides. The railroads were victorious in the short term, as the workers returned to their jobs and some wage cuts remained in effect, but the public blamed the railroads for the strikes and violence, and they were compelled to improve working conditions and attempted no further cuts. Business leaders praised Hayes, but his own opinion was more equivocal; as he recorded in his diary: "The strikes have been put down by force; but now for the real remedy. Can't something be done by education of strikers, by judicious control of capitalists, by wise general policy to end or diminish the evil? The railroad strikers, as a rule, are good men, sober, intelligent, and industrious."

Currency debate

Hayes confronted two issues regarding the currency. The first was the coinage of silver, and its relation to gold. In 1873, the Coinage Act of 1873 stopped the coinage of silver for all coins worth a dollar or more, effectively tying the dollar to the value of gold. As a result, the money supply contracted and the effects of the Panic of 1873 grew worse, making it more expensive for debtors to pay debts they had contracted when currency was less valuable. Farmers and laborers, especially, clamored for the return of coinage in both metals, believing the increased money supply would restore wages and property values. Democratic Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri proposed a bill that would require the United States to coin as much silver as miners could sell the government, thus increasing the money supply and aiding debtors. William B. Allison, a Republican from Iowa offered an amendment in the Senate limiting the coinage to two to four million dollars per month, and the resulting Bland–Allison Act passed both houses of Congress in 1878. Hayes feared that the Act would cause inflation that would be ruinous to business, effectively impairing contracts that were based on the gold dollar, as the silver dollar proposed in the bill would have an intrinsic value of 90 to 92 percent of the existing gold dollar. Further, Hayes believed that inflating the currency was an act of dishonesty, saying "xpediency and justice both demand an honest currency." He vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto, the only time it did so during his presidency.

The second issue concerned United States Notes (commonly called greenbacks), a form of fiat currency first issued during the Civil War. The government accepted these notes as valid for payment of taxes and tariffs, but unlike ordinary dollars, they were not redeemable in gold. The Specie Payment Resumption Act of 1875 required the treasury to redeem any outstanding greenbacks in gold, thus retiring them from circulation and restoring a single, gold-backed currency. Sherman agreed with Hayes's favorable opinion of the Act, and stockpiled gold in preparation for the exchange of greenbacks for gold. Once the public was confident that they could redeem greenbacks for specie (gold), however, few did so; when the Act took effect in 1879, only $130,000 out of the $346,000,000 outstanding dollars in greenbacks were actually redeemed. Together with the Bland–Allison Act, the successful specie resumption effected a workable compromise between inflationists and hard money men and, as the world economy began to improve, agitation for more greenbacks and silver coinage quieted down for the rest of Hayes's term in office.

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63. Madoff clean-up fees set to top $1.3bn

The army of lawyers and consultants helping to recover funds from Bernard Madoff’s $19.6bn fraud stands to earn more than $1.3bn in fees, according to new figures that detail the cost of liquidating the huge Ponzi scheme.

The biggest payment is set to go to Baker Hostetler, the law firm where Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee charged with recouping money for Mr Madoff’s victims, is a partner.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/OJX849/GYN7Q/KE7BHF/QF48E5/W1/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=17

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64. Dimon to get first cash bonus in three years

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chairman and chief executive, will receive a cash bonus for the first time in three years, in addition to about $17m-worth of stock

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/HDAL1J/XBAN6/ZBRXGI/GKO3F8/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=18

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65. Investment banks’ pay costs accelerate

Pay at Europe’s four largest groups rose by a total of nearly £2.4bn in 2010, as higher headcounts and fixed salaries largely wiped out any savings from lower bonuses

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/HDAL1J/XBAN6/ZBRXGI/OJMGHK/1G/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=18

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66. Lloyds accelerates sales of UK branches

Antonio Horta-Osório, the incoming chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, is planning to accelerate the sale of 600 branches and has already begun the process of hiring investment banking advisers to lead the divestment.

A deal could be completed within a matter of months, compared with a timetable of up to two years envisaged by outgoing boss Eric Daniels.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/M946KI/87I64/5C1QBO/EW81WK/VU/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=18

[Demeter]

67. James A. Garfield, 20th President--Another Assasination

James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) served as the 20th President of the United States, from March 4, 1881 until his assassination on September 19, 1881.<1> He survived a brief 200 days in office, the second shortest presidential tenure to that of William Henry Harrison. He was the only incumbent of the U.S. House of Representatives to be elected President.<2>

James Garfield was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio and in 1856 graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts. He married Lucretia Rudolph in 1858, and in 1860 was admitted to the Bar while serving as an Ohio State Senator (1859–1861). Garfield served as a major general in the United States Army during the American Civil War and fought at the Battle of Shiloh. He was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1863, opposing slavery and secession. When the leading GOP presidential contenders – Ulysses S. Grant, James G. Blaine and John Sherman – failed to garner the requisite support, Garfield became the party's compromise nominee for the 1880 Presidential Election and successfully defeated Democrat Winfield Hancock.<3> In his inaugural address, Garfield proposed substantial civil service reform which was eventually passed by his successor, Chester A. Arthur, in 1883 as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. His presidency was cut short when he was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881 while entering a railroad station in Washington D.C.. Garfield was the second United States President to be assassinated. As a consequence of Garfield's brief tenure in office, accomplishments were few. Following his death, he was succeeded by Vice-President Chester A. Arthur.

IT IS AMAZING HOW MANY PRESIDENTS LOST THEIR FATHERS IN THEIR MINORITY...BUT GARFIELD HAD NO WEALTH TO CUSHION THE LOSS...

A central controversial issue during the Election of 1880 was Chinese immigration; an issue that could make or break any Presidential contender during this time period. Those in the West, particularly California, were against Chinese immigration claiming that growth in the Pacific would be limited. Easterners, such a Senator George F. Hoar, took a more philosophical and religious stand in favor of Chinese immigration. Garfield, on July 12, 1880 favored limiting Chinese immigration, which he labeled as "an invasion to be looked upon without solicitude." However, Garfield's primary supporter in the Senate, James G. Blaine, had sent out a letter that allegedly favored Chinese immigration. It was speculated that Blaine's letter cost Garfield valuable electoral votes in California.

In the general election, Garfield defeated the Democratic candidate Winfield Scott Hancock, another distinguished former Union Army general, by 214 electoral votes to 155. (The popular vote had a plurality of less than 2,000 votes out of more than 8.89 million cast; see U.S. presidential election, 1880.) He became the only man ever to be elected to the Presidency straight from the House of Representatives and was, for a short period, a sitting representative, senator-elect, and president-elect. If sworn in, he would have been the first U.S. senator to be elected president; Warren G. Harding became the first to do so forty years later. However, Garfield resigned his other positions and, on March 4, 1881, took office as President, and never sat in the Senate, where that term began on the same day...President Garfield had only 4 months to establish his presidency before being fatally shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a deranged political office seeker, on July 2, 1881.

[Demeter]

68. Nice as it is to fill gaps in my knowledge,

I will have to stop and fill up gaps in my purse now. Have a good Saturday.

It's a good thing there's 3 days to this weekend; I'm not getting through 44 presidents very quickly, nor the 160+ emails that interweave....

Down in DC, the collapse of my father's house proceeds at a precipitous pace, now that he has finally signed with a realtor. Sis and her hubby are neck-deep in moving everything, including Dad out.

The odds of his arriving in Mass. alive and not going directly into a hospital are slim. Nothing like watching a slow-moving train wreck from 800+ miles...

Sorry if I seem ornery. March should be better, if it doesn't snow between now and then.

[bread_and_roses]

70. 21st President: Chester A. Arthur

just the name and the photo make me laugh, I'm sorry to say - as well as the thought "who the hell is that?" when his name came up as 21st.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_A._Arthur

Arthur's primary achievement was the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. The passage of this legislation earned Arthur the moniker "The Father of Civil Service" and a favorable reputation among historians.

Publisher Alexander K. McClure wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired... more generally respected." Author Mark Twain, deeply cynical about politicians, conceded, "It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration

Well enough, but it is disturbing to see the iconic Mark Twain praising someone who:

The Arthur Administration enacted the first general Federal immigration law. Arthur approved a measure in 1882 excluding paupers, criminals, and the mentally ill.

In response to anti-Chinese sentiment in the West, Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion Act. The act would have made illegal the immigration of Chinese laborers for twenty years and denied American citizenship to Chinese Americans currently residing in the United States who were not already citizens and who were not born in the United States.<14> Arthur vetoed this steep restriction on the grounds that it violated the Burlingame Treaty. He was immediately denounced by newspapers in California. When a compromise restriction of ten years was proposed, Arthur agreed and signed the revised bill, however the Chinese Americans residing in the United States were denied citizenship.<14> The Act was renewed every ten years until the National Origins Act of 1924 essentially eliminated Chinese immigration because the quotas were based on the 1890 numbers. The Act had remarkable staying power and was not fully repealed until sixty-one years later in 1943, by which time the US was an ally of Nationalist China in the fight against Japan during World War II. Under such circumstances, the Act had become an embarrassment to the US, necessitating its repeal.

Arthur was reluctant to enforce the 15th Amendment in the United States Constitution and never attempted while President to overturn "Jim Crow" laws throughout the nation that prevented African-Americans from voting. This may have been caused by a Supreme Court decision to overturn civil right cases and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

[bread_and_roses]

71. 22nd Pres - Grover Cleavland - early DINO?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland

Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who opposed high tariffs, free silver, inflation, imperialism and subsidies to business, farmers or veterans. His battles for political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives.<1> Cleveland won praise for his honesty, independence, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism.<2> As a reformer he worked indefatigably against political corruption, patronage, and bossism. His second term coincided with the Panic of 1893, a severe national depression that Cleveland was unable to reverse. It ruined his Democratic party, opening the way for Republican landslides in 1894 and 1896, and for the agrarian and silverite seizure of his Democratic party in 1896. The result was a political realignment that ended the Third Party System and launched the Fourth Party System and the Progressive Era.<3>

Cleveland took strong positions and in turn took heavy criticism. His intervention in the Pullman Strike of 1894 to keep the railroads moving angered labor unions nationwide and angered the party in Illinois; his support of the gold standard and opposition to free silver alienated the agrarian wing of the Democratic Party.<4> Furthermore, critics complained that he had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic disasters—depressions and strikes—in his second term.<4>

...Cleveland, like a growing number of Northerners (and nearly all white Southerners) saw Reconstruction as a failed experiment, and was reluctant to use federal power to enforce the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guaranteed voting rights to African Americans. ... Although Cleveland had condemned the "outrages" against Chinese immigrants, he believed that Chinese immigrants were unwilling to assimilate into white society.<114> Secretary of State Bayard negotiated an extension to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and Cleveland lobbied the Congress to pass the Scott Act, written by Congressman William Lawrence Scott, which would prevent Chinese immigrants who left the United States from returning.<115> The Scott Act easily passed both houses of Congress, and Cleveland signed it into law on October 1, 1888.<115>

Cleveland viewed Native Americans as wards of the state, saying in his first inaugural address that "his guardianship involves, on our part, efforts for the improvement of their condition and enforcement of their rights."<116> He encouraged the idea of cultural assimilation, pushing for the passage of the Dawes Act, which provided for distribution of Indian lands to individual members of tribes, rather than having them continued to be held in trust for the tribes by the federal government.<116> While a conference of Native leaders endorsed the act, in practice the majority of Native Americans disapproved of it.<117> Cleveland believed the Dawes Act would lift Native Americans out of poverty and encourage their assimilation into white society, but its ultimate effect was to weaken the tribal governments and allow individual Indians to sell land and keep the money.<116>

However:

Cleveland was a committed non-interventionist who had campaigned in opposition to expansion and imperialism. He refused to promote the previous administration's Nicaragua canal treaty, and generally was less of an expansionist in foreign relations.<110> Cleveland's Secretary of State, Thomas F. Bayard, negotiated with Joseph Chamberlain of the United Kingdom over fishing rights in the waters off Canada, and struck a conciliatory note, despite the opposition of New England's Republican Senators.<111> Cleveland also withdrew from Senate consideration the Berlin Conference treaty which guaranteed an open door for U.S. interests in the Congo.<112>

[bread_and_roses]

72. Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President - maybe a RINO?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Harrison

... in the Senate ... The major issue confronting Senator Harrison in 1881 was the budget surplus. Democrats wished to reduce the tariff, thus limiting the amount of money the government took in; Republicans instead wished to spend the money on internal improvements and pensions for Civil War veterans. Harrison took his party's side and advocated for generous pensions for veterans and their widows. <41> Harrison also supported, unsuccessfully, aid for education of Southerners, especially the children of the slaves freed in the Civil War, believing that education was necessary to make the white and black populations truly equal in political and economic power.<42> Harrison differed from his party in opposing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, believing that it violated existing treaties with China.<43> ...

... Harrison, a Republican, was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland. His administration is most remembered for economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act ...

... Defeated by Cleveland in his bid for re-election in 1892, Harrison returned to private life in Indianapolis. He later represented the Republic of Venezuela in an international case against the United Kingdom....

... Civil service reform was a prominent issue following Harrison's election. Harrison had campaigned as a supporter of the merit system, as opposed to the spoils system.<64> Although some of the civil service had been classified under the Pendleton Act by previous administrations, Harrison spent much of his first months in office deciding on political appointments.<65> Congress was widely divided on the issue and Harrison was reluctant to address the issue in hope of preventing the alienation of either side. The issue became a political football of the time and was immortalized in a cartoon captioned "What can I do when both parties insist on kicking?"<66> Harrison appointed Theodore Roosevelt and Hugh Smith Thompson, both reformers, to the Civil Service Commission, but otherwise did little to further the reform cause.<67>

Harrison quickly saw the enactment of the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890, a cause he had championed while in Congress.<68> In addition to providing pensions to disabled Civil War veterans (regardless of the cause of their disability), the Act depleted some of the troublesome federal budget surplus.<68> Pension expenditures reached $135 million under Harrison, the largest expenditure of its kind to that point in American history, a problem exacerbated by Pension Bureau commissioner James R. Tanner's expansive interpretation of the pension laws.<68>

[bread_and_roses]

73. 24th President - Cleaveland Redux - income tax and union busting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland#Second_term_as_president_.281893.E2.80.931897.29 (again)

... Having succeeded in reversing the Harrison administration's silver policy, Cleveland sought next to reverse the effects of the McKinley tariff. What would become the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was introduced by West Virginian Representative William L. Wilson in December 1893.<157> After lengthy debate, the bill passed the House by a considerable margin.<158> The bill proposed moderate downward revisions in the tariff, especially on raw materials.<159> The shortfall in revenue was to be made up by an income tax of two percent on income above $4,000<159> (US$97.5 thousand in present terms<35>).

bold emphasis added - note that threshold for paying income tax!

The Pullman Strike had a significantly greater impact than Coxey's Army. A strike began against the Pullman Company over low wages and twelve-hour workdays, and sympathy strikes, led by American Railway Union leader Eugene V. Debs, soon followed.<168> By June 1894, 125,000 railroad workers were on strike, paralyzing the nation's commerce.<169> Because the railroads carried the mail, and because several of the affected lines were in federal receivership, Cleveland believed a federal solution was appropriate.<170> Cleveland obtained an injunction in federal court, and when the strikers refused to obey it, he sent in federal troops to Chicago and 20 other rail centers.<171> "If it takes the entire army and navy of the United States to deliver a postcard in Chicago," he proclaimed, "that card will be delivered."<172> Most governors supported Cleveland except Democrat John P. Altgeld of Illinois, who became his bitter foe in 1896. Leading newspapers of both parties applauded Cleveland's actions, but the use of troops hardened the attitude of organized labor toward his administration.<173>

[bread_and_roses]

74. whew - I'm beat already - how the hell does Demeter do this every week?

Well, I got us to the half-way mark, anyway...or a little past...brain too scrambled even to divide. It is wearying, reading about all these old white men, with their mixed records, D or R alike....

... and seeing the Party politics - really as far as I am concerned mostly the Capitalist Party of whatever nominal stripe ... the waffling on what is right, the calculation for elections putting the Ds, say, sometimes in the right and sometimes squarely in the wrong...depressing as all hell.

You can only serve one master, it seems to me. You either serve the people or you serve Capital. And as long as you pick and choose - sometimes here, sometimes there - Capital will win in the end. As we have been seeing in these times since I-Piss-On-His-Grave-Reagan.

Maybe the tide is receding just a little in Wisconsin. It's not turning yet, not with the unions saying they are willing to give up some wages and benefits. That's the wrong road, as excited and happy as I am to see them - and the community with them! students! parents! - out there in the street. It's a start, at least.

[Demeter]

119. Speed Reading, Cutting and Pasting

Seems a shame to just read all that and let it dribble through the fingers of my mind like sand...

but some weeks it's really hard to bear the stupidity of those making the big decisions....

[bread_and_roses]

76. ROFL look at these Wisconsin signs!

some are truly hilarious! http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-protest-signs-at-the-wisconsin-capitol?awesm=awe.sm_5GZZd&utm_content=awesm-tweet-button-horizontal&utm_medium=awe.sm-twitter&utm_source=hootsuite.com

[AnneD]

77. Idea shamelessly stolen from a sign

Walk Like An Egyptian......

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=ksx-UloL7kY

And of course...The Bangles

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=4nuhja7y4TM

[Demeter]

81. Split in Economy Keeps Lid on Prices (TALK ABOUT POSITIVE SPIN!)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703312904576146500586838290.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

The pace of consumer price increases in the U.S. is quickening after being dormant for months. But a tug of war between the prices of goods and the prices of services, playing out beneath the surface, could keep inflation from becoming the worry it is in China, Europe and many emerging markets.

Overall prices were up 1.6% in January from a year earlier, the government said Tuesday, the biggest increase in eight months. Rising prices for highly visible items from gasoline to Starbucks coffee are feeding popular fears that inflation is back. But in many other businesses, from barber shops to Sunday's Daytona 500 Nascar race, prices haven't risen much at all, and in some cases even have dropped.

The conflicting forces: Soaring commodities costs world-wide are pushing up prices for many goods, while a slowly recuperating U.S. economy, soft housing market and a persistently high unemployment rate are holding down prices for U.S. services.

Goods prices were up 2.2% from a year earlier, paced by jumps in food and energy prices, according to the Labor Department's January consumer-price index, and are rising faster than they did before the recession. But services prices were up only 1.2% from a year earlier, far below the 3.4% inflation rate registered for services between 2000 and 2008.

The opposing pull of prices for goods and services could have a big effect on the course of U.S. inflation. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is betting that rising prices for goods like gas and food will not spread into the broader economy. He and many private forecasters do not expect the U.S. to see the kind of rising inflation now plaguing China, India and other parts of the world...

BERNANKE IS OUT OF HIS MIND...WHAT ARE SERVICE WORKERS SUPPOSED TO EAT, GRASS?

[Demeter]

82. Mutual Fund Investors Return in Force

http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=370495

Long-term flows roared back in January with nearly $30 billion in estimated inflows, reversing December's $10.6 billion outflow. U.S. stock funds led the surge with nearly $16 billion in inflows, with U.S. stock exchange-traded funds collecting another $10 billion. This is the biggest haul for open-end U.S. stock funds since February 2006 and the best January since 2004. It also reverses eight consecutive months of outflows. Conversely, nearly $76 billion fled money market funds, the majority of which left taxable funds. This was the largest money market exodus since April 2010.

The municipal-bond retreat continued with about $12.5 billion in outflows, slightly less than last month's record $13.4 billion in redemptions. The combined $33.5 billion in outflows over the last three months is by far the worst such stretch ever. On the other hand, taxable-bond funds returned to positive flows with $10.7 billion in deposits, with bank-loan and high-yield funds the most popular. International stock accumulated an estimated $7.3 billion in new money, about half of which went to emerging-markets funds...

[Demeter]

83. Hedge Funds May Pose Systemic Risk in Crisis, U.S. Report Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-17/hedge-funds-may-pose-systemic-risk-in-crisis-u-s-report-says.html

Hedge funds and insurers might threaten U.S. economic stability in a time of crisis, according to a report aimed at helping regulators decide which non-bank financial companies warrant Federal Reserve supervision.

An exodus of hedge-fund investors could “cause activity in some markets to freeze,” said the Feb. 3 report by staff of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. The report, obtained by Bloomberg News, also said the failure of a large insurance company could “result in dramatic and destabilizing actions being taken by investors.”

The 80-page report is a preliminary draft that, without making recommendations, offers a glimpse of issues regulators, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, will consider when deciding which firms should be designated “systemically important” and warrant central bank scrutiny. The council, created by last year’s Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law to prevent another financial crisis, may begin making those rulings by midyear.

Companies including Blackrock Inc., the world’s largest money manager, and lobbyists for the hedge-fund and mutual-fund industries have made the case to regulators they aren’t important enough to the financial system to merit the designation. Financial executives have said the costs of more regulation would put them at a disadvantage to their competitors...

[bread_and_roses]

85. The Education Reform Fig Leaf Is Finally Stripped Away

Excellent article - not just about education:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/20-1

... watching a full frontal attack waged to eliminate or neutralize collective bargaining, job security, due process, and the last shreds of academic freedom of Tennessee teachers. But then, it’s not just in Tennessee or just teachers, for this war is being waged on workers in the public or private sectors in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey, and elsewhere. This crusade is inspired, funded, and directed by a handful of billionaires who are guided neither by political allegiance nor moral compass. These oligarchs, rather, see workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain as the final stumbling block to the creation of a corporate state that is unimpeded in its aspirations for social control and unrestrained greed and, thus, unchecked by either labor laws or considerations or workers' rights.

... there doesn’t seem to anything that can satisfy the demands of the extremists now in charge of corporate education reform in many states, including Tennessee and Wisconsin. Appeasement clearly has not worked, and the war that is now being waged in Wisconsin and elsewhere on teachers and other workers shows an insatiable hunger that cannot be satisfied by more attempts to preserve a place at the table as the chair is being pulled out from under every teacher’s professional organization across the nation. One can make a strong argument, in fact, that the Obama Administration’s early embrace of the Bush education agenda has encouraged the Far Right to move farther right faster, thus opening up public education to threats that are now shocking in their ferocity, velocity, and callousness...

... The problem now for the corporate reformers is that the takeover of public education is not happening fast enough, as Americans are sick and growing sicker of the years of strong-arm tactics that have left their children hating school, stressed out, and less prepared for the tests of living—or for competing in the global economy, which was, indeed, exported by the oligarchs some years back as they declared new education disasters. And thus the bare-knuckled actions of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and the radicals of the Tennessee Legislature, which finally make the naked realities impossible to ignore any longer.

bold emphasis added

The article is also quite savage - justifiably in my view - about the mealy-mouthed, accommodating, anything to keep "a seat at the table" surrender-without-a-fight AFT.

[snot]

95. Good article.

I'm curious for more insight into the inner motivations/thinking of union leaders.

[DemReadingDU]

86. Presidents from Ohio

2/16/11 A primer on Buckeye State presidents

Ohio might be best-known as the Buckeye state, but it also bears the moniker of Mother of Presidents.

It seems only appropriate that Ohioans hankering for some American history during Presidents Day weekend check out the homes and haunts of the eight U.S. presidents who were either born or raised in the state. There is a plethora of sites to explore in all corners of the state, making it a veritable presidential playground.

“We are one of the richest states in terms of presidential history,” said Tamara K. Brown, public relations manager for the Ohio Tourism Division, tied only by Virginia, which also has eight native sons who went on to occupy the Oval Office.

William Henry Harrison (9th)
Ulysses S. Grant (18th)
Rutherford B. Hayes (19th)
James A. Garfield (20th)
Benjamin Harrison (23rd)
William McKinley (25th)
William Howard Taft (27th)
Warren G. Harding (29th)

lots more...
http://www.daytondailynews.com/entertainment/dayton-events-things-to-do/day-trips-provide-a-primer-on-buckeye-state-presidents-1083251.html


I've had my 2 pre-school grands for a couple days, and haven't read anything. Just now starting to catch-up.

[Po_d Mainiac]

93. I could write a book about the Presidents from Maine

:rofl:

[Demeter]

96. BFEE Bush books don't sell

[Po_d Mainiac]

120. He was not a resident

[bread_and_roses]

88. 25th, McKinley: Last 19th/first 20th/New Advertising/Assassinated

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley

scanning thru the entry on McKinley, maybe the most important item is:

His campaign, designed by Mark Hanna, introduced new advertising-style campaign techniques that revolutionized campaign practices and beat back the crusading of his arch-rival, William Jennings Bryan. The 1896 election is often considered a realigning election that marked the beginning of the Progressive Era...

... Campaign manager Hanna raised $3.5 million from big business, and adopted newly-invented advertising techniques to spread McKinley's message.<4> Although Bryan was ahead in August, McKinley's counter-crusade put him on the defensive and gigantic parades for McKinley in every major city a few days before the election undercut Bryan's allegations that workers were coerced to vote for McKinley. He defeated Bryan by a large margin. His appeal to all classes marked a realignment of American politics. His success in industrial cities gave the Republican party a grip on the North comparable to that of the Democrats in the South.

Enter the dragon. And thus, here we be.

[Demeter]

89. Three States Join the Movement for State-Owned Banks

http://www.truth-out.org/restoring-economic-sovereignty67820

"It is time to declare economic sovereignty from the multinational banks that are responsible for much of our current economic crisis. Every year, we ship over a billion dollars in Oregon taxpayer dollars to out-of-state and multinational banks in the form of deposits, only to see that money invested elsewhere. It's time to put our money to work for Oregonians."

-Bill Bradbury, former Oregon senate president and secretary of state, quoted in The Nation

Responding to an unfilled need for credit for local government, local businesses and consumers, three states - Oregon, Washington and Maryland - in the last month have introduced bills for state-owned banks, joining Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts and Hawaii to bring the total number of states with state-owned banks bills to seven.

While Wall Street is reporting record profits, local banks are floundering, credit for small businesses and consumers remains tight and local governments are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. There is even talk of allowing state governments to file for bankruptcy, something current legislation forbids. The federal government and the Federal Reserve have managed to find trillions of dollars to prop up the Wall Street banks that precipitated the credit crisis, but they have not extended this largesse to the taxpayers and local governments that have been forced to pick up the tab.

In January, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that the Fed had ruled out a central bank bailout for state and local governments. The collective state budget deficit for 2011 is projected at $140 billion, a mere one percent of the $12.3 trillion the Fed managed to come up with in liquidity, short-term loans and other financial arrangements to bail out Wall Street banks, multinational corporations and foreign financial institutions following the 2008 credit crisis. But Chairman Bernanke said the Fed is limited by statute to buying municipal government debt with maturities of six months or less that is directly backed by tax or other assured revenue, a form of debt that makes up less than two percent of the overall muni market. State and municipal governments, it seems, are on their own.

Faced with federal inaction and growing local budget crises, an increasing number of states are exploring the possibility of setting up their own state-owned banks, following the model of North Dakota, the only state that seems to have escaped the credit crisis unscathed. The 92-year-old Bank of North Dakota (BND), currently the only state-owned US bank, has helped North Dakota avoid the looming budgetary disasters facing other states. In 2009, North Dakota sported the largest budget surplus it had ever had. The BND helps fund not only local government, but also local banks and businesses, by providing matching funds for loans to commercial banks to support small business lending.

In the last month, three states have introduced bills for state-owned banks, following the North Dakota model. On January 11, a bill to establish a state-owned bank was introduced in the Oregon State legislature; on January 13, a similar bill was introduced in Washington State; and on February 4, a bill was introduced in the Maryland legislature for a feasibility study looking into the possibility of a state-owned bank. These three join Illinois, Virginia, Hawaii and Massachusetts, which introduced similar bills in 2010.

[Demeter]

90. U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo Mozilo

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mozilo-20110219,0,3665171.story

Federal prosecutors have shelved a criminal investigation of Angelo R. Mozilo after determining that his actions in the mortgage meltdown — which led to a $67.5-million settlement against him — did not amount to criminal wrongdoing.

As the former chairman of Countrywide Financial Corp., Mozilo helped fuel the boom in risky subprime loans that led to the crippling of the banking industry and the near-collapse of the financial system...A federal grand jury in Los Angeles began probing Mozilo in 2008, and four months ago he agreed to pay a $22.5-million fine and to repay $45 million in what the government said were ill-gotten gains to former Countrywide shareholders. The payments settled a civil action by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But the criminal investigation has wound down without indictments of Mozilo or others at his Calabasas company, according to people familiar with both the prosecution and the defense teams, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter..."Sometimes the public thinks all you have to do is to indict someone and that's it," one of the federal sources said. "But you have to be able to prove your case, and it can be worse losing a case than not bringing one at all."

...One defense attorney, however, said the government would probably keep a close watch on civil litigation by Countrywide shareholders against Mozilo and could still decide to bring charges depending on what develops in those cases.

...Along with avoiding criminal charges, Mozilo also escaped paying two-thirds of the SEC settlement. Though he was required to come up with the $22.5-million fine himself, Bank of America and insurance companies covered the $45 million in restitution to shareholders...

[Po_d Mainiac]

92. Let other litigants do the grunt work

In the mean time the orange man dies of old age. :grr:

[Demeter]

97. You Won't BELIEVE What's Happening, Today

First, it's snowing. A lot. All that bare pavement and mud and dormant grass has disappeared under an ever-mounting blanket of heavy, white SNOW #%$^@&#^!

Second, my sister is in a car driving...to Massachusetts, with husband, whose retinas are bleeding, and Dad, who really belongs in the ICU. I'd check if she was driving into this snowstorm, but I'm a coward.

Third, I did the 400 free papers this morning once the dawn broke (the sun never came out), after getting up at 1 AM and doing the paid papers. It took two hours, after which I was shivering uncontrollably and put on all available clothes and blankets and passed out. I'm much better now, except for points 1 and 2, above.

If there ever was a sense that the world was unraveling right before our eyes, well, my personal life greatly resembles the greater reality right now. I can't deal with the Supreme coup, the Koch infants, and the Wisconsin Walker, who should start running for his life...and then, there's the Middle East, all primed for a lit match...and the banksters, who are probably glad of all the cover (better late than never)...

Next weekend is going to be a lulu. How could it not be?

[Pale Blue Dot]

129. I feel the same way.

I won't go into detail, but I have a general feeling of impending doom and today's news isn't helping.

[Demeter]

98. Egypt's Military Dissolves Parliament; Calls for Vote

http://www.truth-out.org/egypts-military-dissolves-parliament-calls-vote67698

The Egyptian military, for the first time publicly laying out the terms of its rule, said Sunday that it had dissolved the country’s parliament, suspended its constitution and called for elections in six months, according to a statement by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces read on state television.

The announcement went a long way toward meeting the demands of protesters, who distrusted both houses of parliament after elections in the fall that were widely considered corrupted.

The announcement came only minutes after the prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, made his own appearance on state television and said the country’s economy was “stable” and that the primary focus of the new caretaker government would be “to bring security back to the Egyptian citizen.”

It was unclear whether the two statements were meant to compliment each other. The military did reiterate though that the civilian cabinet would remain in place over the next six months...

THIS IS GOOD NEWS, IF THE MILITARY CAN FOLLOW THROUGH...THEY ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING A LOT FROM DEMOCRACY, THOUGH. ASIDE FROM MUBARAK'S CRONY DEALS, THEY ARE THE ECONOMY.

[Demeter]

99. Egyptians Can Claim Mubarak's Stolen Billions

http://www.truth-out.org/egyptians-can-claim-mubaraks-stolen-billions67708



Geneva - For decades, European bank accounts and trusts and the real estate market were havens for dictators seeking safe places to deposit billions of dollars they were stealing from their countries of origin.

The pressure exerted upon European private banks and justice departments by anti-corruption watchdog groups and associations of lawyers has at last made changes to one of these notorious havens for embezzled fortunes.

In Switzerland, the government just approved a law that eases the historical secrecy of Swiss private banks. The law allows for money deposited here by Third World dictators to be reimbursed to the legitimate governments of the dictators’ countries of origin.

The law, which came into effect on Feb 1, and dubbed "lex Duvalier", in reference to the infamous former Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, is being used to revise the bank accounts and trusts maintained in Switzerland by Arab dictators such as Tunisian Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian Hosni Mubarak.

"The new law allows the Swiss government to return money to their legitimate owners in cases of proven embezzlement," Valentin Zellweger, head of the department for international law at the Swiss government, told IPS.

According to official Swiss figures, the Egyptian government keeps accounts and trusts in local banks for some 3,800 billion dollars. At least one third of this amount is held in so-called custodial accounts, the typical bank instrument used to conceal wealth obtained through embezzlement of public funds...

[Demeter]

100. Britain under pressure to trace Mubarak's money

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/13/AR2011021300701.html

Britain's government is under pressure to trace and freeze the assets of deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

Mubarak's family has strong links to the U.K. and Mubarak's son Gamal once ran a London-based investment firm which may have helped house some of the family's fortune. Earlier this week authorities moved to freeze suspected Mubarak assets in Switzerland but the U.K. has so far held off on any similar move.

The country's treasury says such a move could only be carried out if Egyptian authorities request it, or if Mubarak is blacklisted by European or U.N. officials, or if not freezing the money presented a direct threat to U.K. interests.
ad_icon

Former junior foreign minister Mark Malloch Brown said Sunday that any Mubarak accounts should be frozen now.

[Demeter]

112. Egypt's Workers Revolt; This isn't about Mubarak By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27504.htm

...The real story about what's going on in Egypt is being suppressed in the US because it doesn't jibe with the "ain't capitalism great" theme that the media loves to reiterate ad nauseam. The truth is that the economic policies that Washington exports to the rest of the world have ignited massive labor unrest, which has set the Middle East ablaze. Mubarak is the first casualty in this war against neoliberalism, but there will be many more to come. In fact, Mubarak's resignation is probably just a sop to Egyptian workers, hoping that they'll follow the military's advice and sheepishly return to their sweatshops so fatcat CEOs in Berlin and Chicago can extract a few more farthings from their labor. But that probably won't happen, because the 18 days in Tahrir Square has had a transformative affect on the consciousness of 80 million Egyptians who've suddenly "had enough". The people have awaken from their slumber and now they're ready to rumble.

The revolution started long before the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, and it will continue for a long time to come. Workers everywhere have been rebelling against the miserable conditions, slave wages and "privatization", the crown jewel of neoliberalism. The privatization of state industries in Egypt is the proximate cause of the current uprising. It's led to a general slide in living standards to the point where people would rather face the policeman's truncheon than endure more-of-the-same...This revolution has working class roots, which is why the establishment press refuses to explain what's really going on. Any talk about "class" is Verboten in US media because it tends to reflect poorly on the robber barons who created the greatest extremes in inequality in the history of the world...This isn't about removing a despot. It's about class warfare, of which no one will speak in western media.

...Workers seem to know intuitively that Mubarak is just replaceable cog in the imperial mechanism. So far, they have not been placated, subdued or co-opted, although the Obama crew and their favorite junta-leader, Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi, will undoubtedly keep trying...The Obama administration isn't "pulling the strings" in this revolution, in fact, they're hanging on for dear life. The US has very little control over events on the ground and all of their efforts are focused on damage control. That's why Obama continues to make his silly pronouncements every day, cautioning protesters to remain peaceful and invoking the words of Martin Luther King to calm the waters. But no one's paying any attention to Obama. He's completely irrelevant. Nor do they care that Hillary Clinton wants Congress to allocate more money for “to bolster the rise of secular political parties”. Whatever for?? The horse has already left the barn.

The Egyptian military isn't in control either, which is why they keep issuing conflicting communiques--one minute celebrating the triumph of Tahrir Square and the next minute threatening a crackdown if people don't return to work. Once the military commits to a given-strategy and starts mowing down striking workers en masse, then the real revolution will begin and a new political reality will start to emerge. Nothing galvanizes the attention or stirs one's class roots more than blood in the streets...The Egyptian people want what's owed to them---their freedom, their dignity, and a fair share of the pie. And it looks like they might just get it.

[Demeter]

113. Egypt raises pays by15 percent

http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2145981&Language=en


CAIRO, Feb 17 (KUNA) -- The Supreme Council of the Egyptian armed forces has decided to raise the pays of civil servants, military personnel and pensioners by 15 percent.

The minister of finance is expected to take required procedures to put the new army decree into effect.

Egyptian workers from all walks of life have recently staged wide-spread demonstrations and protests against low pays.

[Demeter]

114. We Are Egypt Revolution Roundup #3

http://ampedstatus.org/analysis-of-the-global-insurrection-against-neo-liberal-economic-domination-and-the-coming-american-rebellion-we-are-egypt-revolution-roundup-3/

If you think what’s happening in Egypt won’t happen within the United States, you’ve been watching too much TV. The statistics speak for themselves...

MASSIVE RESOURCE WITH MULTIPLE LINKS

[Demeter]

118. Lessons From Egypt For The American People By Charles Kadlec

...As I reflected on the demonstrations in Egypt and followed the news of the events that followed, it occurred to me there were two vital lessons for the American people that have been overlooked.

The first is that the entire notion the United States can pursue an independent monetary policy is a dangerous and erroneous conceit.

The surge in food prices that has contributed directly to the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries throughout the Middle East can be traced directly to the Fed’s parochial effort to stimulate the domestic economy with an inflationary monetary policy...Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s position that it is up to each country to protect itself from the Fed’s inflationary (policies) ignores this simple fact: The dollar is at the center of the international monetary system. Many currencies, including the Egyptian pound, are linked to the dollar. As a result, when the Fed’s easy money policies drive the value of the dollar down and the dollar price of commodities up, it contributes directly to monetary and political instability throughout the world...The costs of an inflationary monetary policy aimed at stimulating employment are far greater than any temporary (THEORETICAL--DEMETER) benefit to the American people. The Fed’s decision to ignore the international implications of its actions is tantamount to willful negligence.

The second lesson is those who serve in our government are no more able to anticipate the future in their immediate area of responsibility than are the rest of us...That what is happening in Egypt was a surprise does not mean those who failed to forecast the uprising are incompetent (I DISAGREE--IT IS GROSS INCOMPETENCE). Instead, it shows the hubris of those who claim competent and well-informed government officials and public servants have the power to anticipate the future...

We ignore both of these lessons from Egypt at our peril.

Read more: Lessons From Egypt For The American People http://dailyreckoning.com/lessons-from-egypt-for-the-american-people/#ixzz1EXuGR2CR

[Demeter]

101. Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail? MAT TAIBBI

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216?page=1

...Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom — an industrywide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities — has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses. Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What's more, many of these companies had corporate 0/*7chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even "one dollar" just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick "The Gorilla" Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars.

Invasion of the Home Snatchers

Instead, federal regulators and prosecutors have let the banks and finance companies that tried to burn the world economy to the ground get off with carefully orchestrated settlements — whitewash jobs that involve the firms paying pathetically small fines without even being required to admit wrongdoing. To add insult to injury, the people who actually committed the crimes almost never pay the fines themselves; banks caught defrauding their shareholders often use shareholder money to foot the tab of justice. "If the allegations in these settlements are true," says Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, "it's management buying its way off cheap, from the pockets of their victims."

To understand the significance of this, one has to think carefully about the efficacy of fines as a punishment for a defendant pool that includes the richest people on earth — people who simply get their companies to pay their fines for them. Conversely, one has to consider the powerful deterrent to further wrongdoing that the state is missing by not introducing this particular class of people to the experience of incarceration. "You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide. "That's all it would take. Just once."

But that hasn't happened. Because the entire system set up to monitor and regulate Wall Street is fucked up.

Just ask the people who tried to do the right thing...

[Demeter]

102. MUSICAL INTERLUDE

I JUST THOUGHT THIS MELANCHOLY BALLAD FIT THE TIMES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-GOgLS0DIU

[Demeter]

104. and a little Dilbert for sad humor..

[Demeter]

105. What is a Weekend Without Mark Fiore?

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-defense-budget-pentagon-obama-cuts-military-phony-animated-video-mark-fiore-animation

[Demeter]

109. MEMORABLE QUOTES:

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

- Frederic Bastiat(1801-1850), French economist



"If once (the people) become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and
Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems
to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions."

- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd US President



"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, thE banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."


- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd US President



(Corruption in high places would follow as) "all wealth is aggregated in a few
hands and the Republic is destroyed."

- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th US President (1861-65)

[Demeter]

106. CIC and Blackstone team up in Japan purchase

China Investment Corp, the country’s main sovereign wealth fund, has teamed up with Blackstone to buy a Japanese property loan portfolio from Morgan Stanley at a steep discount to its face value of $1.1bn, according to sources familiar with the matter

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/LVA6WW/C5OP2T/FDFZE/C561QI/BMH3F6/YT/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=20

[Demeter]

107. BIG BS ALERT: G20 strikes compromise on global imbalances

The world’s leading finance ministers and central bankers overcame Chinese objections at the weekend to strike a compromise deal meant as a first step towards tacking global economic imbalances.

France secured agreement at a Paris summit of the G20 group of countries on indicators that would be monitored to avert future economic crises. But China successfully blocked greater scrutiny of its massive foreign exchange reserves and the use of exchange rates as an indicator.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/WDI4RR/LQ5O9N/WH2F8/3OPQFF/9ZLFI6/6C/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=19

[Demeter]

108. Ireland behind €16bn spike in ECB lending

Anglo Irish Bank and the Irish Nationwide Building Society, Ireland’s two most troubled lenders, were behind a spike in overnight borrowings this week from the European Central Bank, according a person familiar with the transactions.

The use of ECB overnight funding jumped to €16bn ($21.9bn) on Thursday compared with the normal level of around €1bn, causing commotion in money markets.

A person involved in the transaction said the banks were required to swap amounts borrowed under the normal liquidity facility provided by the ECB for more expensive overnight money as a consequence of the preparations for the orderly wind down of the two institutions, which is being overseen by Ireland’s Central Bank.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/183YPR/FDFZE/WL9WPG/9ZLFI7/4O/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=19


TRUTH WILL OUT--THERE ARE NO SECRETS ANY MORE

[Demeter]

110. Obama’s FY 2012 Budget Is A Tool Of Class War: Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27513.htm


Obama’s new budget is a continuation of Wall Street’s class war against the poor and middle class. Wall Street wasn’t through with us when the banksters sold their fraudulent derivatives into our pension funds, wrecked Americans’ job prospects and retirement plans, secured a $700 billion bailout at taxpayers’ expense while foreclosing on the homes of millions of Americans, and loaded up the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet with several trillion dollars of junk financial paper in exchange for newly created money to shore up the banks’ balance sheets. The effect of the Federal Reserve’s “quantitative easing” on inflation, interest rates, and the dollar’s foreign exchange value are yet to hit. When they do, Americans will get a lesson in poverty.

Now the ruling oligarchies have struck again, this time through the federal budget. The U.S. government has a huge military/security budget. It is as large as the budgets of the rest of the world combined. The Pentagon, CIA, and Homeland Security budgets account for the $1.1 trillion federal deficit that the Obama administration forecasts for fiscal year 2012. This massive deficit spending serves only one purpose--the enrichment of the private companies that serve the military/security complex. These companies, along with those on Wall Street, are who elect the U.S. government.

The U.S. has no enemies except those that the U.S. creates by bombing and invading other countries and by overthrowing foreign leaders and installing American puppets in their place.

China does not conduct naval exercises off the California coast, but the U.S. conducts war games in the China Sea off China’s coast. Russia does not mass troops on Europe’s borders, but the U.S. places missiles on Russia’s borders. The U.S. is determined to create as many enemies as possible in order to continue its bleeding of the American population to feed the ravenous military/security complex.

The U.S. government actually spends $56 billion a year, that is, $56,000 million, in order that American air travelers can be porno-scanned and sexually groped so that firms represented by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff can make large profits selling the scanning equipment...


...The American elites are transforming themselves into idiots as they seek to replicate in America the conditions that have led to the overthrows of similarly corrupt elites in Tunisia and Egypt and mounting challenges to U.S. puppet governments elsewhere.

All we need is a few million more Americans with nothing to lose in order to bring the disturbances in the Middle East home to America.

[Demeter]

111. U.S. Justice v. the World By Glenn Greenwald

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27518.htm

...Padilla -- like so many other War on Terror detainees -- has spent years in American courts trying unsuccessfully to hold accountable the high-level government officials responsible for his abuse and lawless imprisonment (which occurred for years prior to his indictment). Not only has Padilla (and all other detainees) failed to obtain redress for what was done to them, but worse, they have been entirely denied even the right to have their cases heard in court. That's because the U.S. Government has invented -- and federal courts have dutifully accepted -- a whole slew of legal doctrines which have only one purpose: to insulate the country's most powerful political officials from legal accountability even when they commit the most egregious crimes, such as imprisoning incommunicado and torturing an American citizen arrested and detained on U.S. soil.

Yesterday, in South Carolina, an Obama-appointed federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Padilla against former Bush officials Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Paul Wolfowitz and others. That suit alleges that those officials knowingly violated Padilla's Constitutional rights by ordering his due-process-free detention and torture. In dismissing Padilla's lawsuit, the court's opinion relied on the same now-depressingly-familiar weapons routinely used by our political class to immunize itself from judicial scrutiny: national security would be undermined by allowing Padilla to sue; "government officials could be distracted from their vital duties to attend depositions or respond to other discovery requests"; "a trial on the merits would be an international spectacle with Padilla, a convicted terrorist, summoning America's present and former leaders to a federal courthouse to answer his charges"; the litigation would risk disclosure of vital state secrets; and "discovery procedures could be used by our enemies to obtain valuable intelligence."

In other words, our political officials are Too Important, and engaged in far Too Weighty Matters in Keeping Us Safe, to subject them to the annoyance of the rule of law. It's much more important to allow them to Fight The Terrorists without restraints than to bother them with claims that they broke the law and violated the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. That's the mentality that has resulted in full-scale immunity for both political and now private-sector elites in a whole slew of lawbreaking scandals -- from Obama's refusal to investigate Bush-era crimes or high-level Wall Street criminality to retroactive immunity for lawbreaking telecoms and legal protection for defrauding mortgage banks. With very few exceptions -- yesterday's ruling, for instance, brushed aside a contrary decision from a Bush-43-appointed federal judge in California last year that refused to dismiss Padilla's lawsuit against John Yoo for having authorized his torture (that decision is on appeal) -- Executive Branch officials and the federal judiciary have conspired to ensure that the former are shielded from judicial scrutiny even for the most blatant and horrifying crimes...

Not a single War on Terror detainee has been accorded any redress in American courts for the severe abuses to which they were subjected (including innocent people being detained for years, rendered and even tortured), and worse, no detainee has been allowed by courts even to have their claims heard.

....we now have a multi-tiered justice system in the United States where citizens have their legal rights, obligations and punishments determined exclusively by their status and class. Thus, someone like Jose Padilla, in the lowest class of literal non-person (accused Terrorist), has virtually no chance regardless of the merits of his claims against someone like Donald Rumsfeld, who resides in the highest and most privileged class (high-level political official). As Padilla's counsel, Ben Wizner, said, the court yesterday ruled "that Donald Rumsfeld is above the law and Jose Padilla is beneath it." That's just what the American justice system is...The U.S. Government stands virtually alone in steadfastly blocking all such investigations even though it was the U.S. in the lead in creating this torture and detention system. Indeed, the American political class barely bothers any longer with even the pretense of legal accountability. Each political party shields the other from any accountability in a ritual of lawlessness, while the courts concoct ever-new doctrines for shielding our political class from any legal scrutiny...

The contrast between how America's War on Terror victims and abuses have been treated in the American justice system versus much of the rest of the world is instructive indeed. In those other places, at least some vestiges of the rule of law prevails. In the U.S., the rule of men does.

[Demeter]

115. Baghdad wants U.S. to pay $1 billion for damage to city

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/17/us-iraq-usa-damages-idUSTRE71G2T820110217

Iraq's capital wants the United States to apologize and pay $1 billion for the damage done to the city not by bombs but by blast walls and Humvees since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein...


PERFECTLY REASONABLE...

[Demeter]

116. A Real-Market Alternative By David Korten

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27497.htm

The economic choice we face is no longer between capitalism and communism, but rather between Wall Street and Main Street.

In America we are taught from birth that capitalism is synonymous with markets, democracy, and individual liberty. Whatever its flaws, the only alternative is communism, or so we are told.

This sets up a false and dangerously self-limiting choice between two economic models both of which create concentrations of power that stifle liberty and creativity for all but the few at the top.

Communism is dead. As we now look for solutions to our current economic crisis, the relevant distinction is not between capitalism and communism, but rather between Wall Street and Main Street.

The Wall Street economy is centrally planned and managed by big banks and corporations for which money is both means and end. The primary goal is monopoly control of markets, physical resources, and technology to maximize profits and bonuses.

Main Street economy is comprised of local businesses and working people who self-organize to provide livelihoods for themselves, their families, and their communities producing real goods and services in response to community needs. Main Street exemplifies the market economy envisioned by Adam Smith; Wall Street is the antithesis...

...A criminal syndicate is “fixed” by shutting it down through the enforcement of laws that protect the public interest. You “fix” a cancer by removing it and rebuilding the healthy tissue. Main Street is the healthy tissue from which a healthy real market economy can be built.

[Demeter]

117. For PO: Today’s Best Investment…Rhymes With Pickles By Gary Gibson

http://dailyreckoning.com/todays-best-investment-rhymes-with-pickles/#ixzz1EXtclJNc

[Po_d Mainiac]

121. ITYS

[Demeter]

127. HERE'S ANOTHER: Silver Bankers May Be Sitting on Big Derivatives Losses & Fed May Be Funding Them

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2011/02/silver-bankers-sitting-on-big.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+JessesCafeAmericain+%28Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

My question is simple. What are bankers like J.P. Morgan and HSBC doing playing in such size in this market? What is the economic and productive benefit? Perhaps there is a good answer. The taxpaying public certainly deserves to know. The CFTC says they have looked into this, but the detailed results of their findings remain less than forthcoming.

IF this is legitimate hedging for producers then all well and good, but then there is no justification for secrecy. If these are trading positions held by the bank, or by the bank as agent for speculators, then there may be a greater reason for secrecy, but the magnitude of the shorts is far out of bounds in size. Ten years of production is not a short position, but the entire market and then some.

The CFTC certainly appears to be acting poorly as the market regulator for the people. Given the regulatory failures of the past ten years that lead to the financial crisis, it would be useful if the Congress were to make very pointed inquiries regarding this situation. But given the performance of the Congress, and their affinity for the deep pockets and big contributions of the financial sector, that may be too much to hope for.

I think it is worth noting that the BIS data, which I use myself, is very good, but normally six months in arrears or more. I tend to use it to track the float in eurodollars which the Fed stopped publishing when it also halted the production of M3 data. But this is not Harvey's fault, but merely another sign of the opaque nature of the US markets. There is no reason not to demand monthly disclosure. Investors and depositors are always expected to make informed decisions, and then they are denied the information from large market participants using their positional advantage.

The comment and analysis below is from Harvey Organ's most recent commentary.

"The huge rise in silver price has caught the silver bankers totally offside on the silver banking. The BIS data released in November (www.goldexsextant.com) shows that the G 10 bankers have collectively sold forwards and swaps to the tune of 4 billion oz and short naked calls for another 3 billion oz. The total, 7 billion oz represents 10 years of production. If you just do the forwards, then it is 7 years of annual silver production.

Let us say the average cost of acquiring these derivatives and forwards equate to $15.00 for silver. Thus collectively the entire G10 bankers are feeling massive pain (losses) to the tune of:


7 billion oz of silver( 32.30-15.00) = 7 billion x $17.30 = 121.1 billion dollars of losses.

This is in a market of only 14 billion dollars. It begs the question to what economic need was this done.This is still off balance sheet.

If you include only the forwards or swaps (the lending of actual metal to which nothing has come back yet) then the losses are:

4 billion x 17.30 or 69 billion dollars.

Regardless how you look at it, the bankers are in serious trouble with this huge rise in silver prices. I hope you understand the severity of the situation."

This situation merely highlights Obama's failure as a reformer, and the general failure of both parties to act in positions of trust for the American people, rather than the special interests that provide them money and sincecures after they leave office....MORE

[Demeter]

122. Send WI protesters a solidarity pizza!

http://www.correntewire.com/send_wi_protesters_solidarity_pizza

This is astounding! As of right now, Ian’s Pizza on State’s normal in-store and delivery operations are on hold — due to the high volume of calls, we are only processing orders donated to the protesters. By our (rather harried) count, we’ve heard from 30 states and 5 countries (including Egypt, Korea, and our northern friends, Canada). Wow. Thank you! To our regular customers: We really apologize, but… wow.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ians-Pizza-on-State/187063310047?sk=wall

[DemReadingDU]

123. That's amazing!

Maybe since that restaurant is so busy, why doesn't another restaurant do the same thing?

[Demeter]

124. Iceland’s president blocks Icesave deal

Iceland’s president has again blocked a deal for the country to repay Britain and the Netherlands €4bn lost in the failed Icesave bank, triggering another referendum

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/KEM0RK/EKRAI/6VLRNZ/3OFQ24/QR/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=21

[Demeter]

144. Iceland's Voters Get Final Say on Repaying British, Dutch Depositor Debt

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-20/iceland-president-blocks-bill-guaranteeing-5-billion-u-k-dutch-deposits.html

Iceland’s President Olafur R. Grimsson will give his country’s voters the final say on repaying about $5 billion in debts owed to the U.K. and the Netherlands to cover depositor claims.

Grimsson’s announcement yesterday that he won’t sign a depositor accord struck between the three countries’ governments in December follows lawmaker approval of the bill. He told reporters he was responding to popular demand for a referendum after more than 42,000 of Iceland’s 318,000 inhabitants signed a petition asking him to block the accord. Forty-four of the Reykjavik-based parliament’s 63 lawmakers voted for the bill on Feb. 16.

“There is support for the view that the people should once again, as before, act together with the parliament as the legislator in this matter,” Grimsson said.

Yesterday’s announcement marks the second time Grimsson has rejected an agreement designed to compensate the U.K. and Netherlands for depositor losses stemming from the October 2008 failure of Landsbanki Islands hf. His Jan. 5, 2010, refusal to sign a prior accord prompted Fitch Ratings to cut Iceland’s credit grade to junk. Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s give Iceland’s debt the lowest investment grade.

Grimsson’s decision threatens to sour relations with the U.K. and Netherlands after Iceland’s government persuaded the two countries to negotiate a new deal following last year’s rejection of the previous accord....

[Demeter]

125. Business jet travel rebounds as rich splash out for privacy

The mode of transport, shunned in the recession as a sign of ostentation, is recovering in a further sign that the world’s richest people are spending more freely again

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/NSW2RN/VTVRG/6VLRLI/KE26NZ/MQ/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=21

IT'S A DESIRE FOR PRIVACY AND SECURITY, NEITHER OF WHICH CAN BE BOUGHT...

[Pale Blue Dot]

126. "Massive Collapse" For Angela Merkel Following Today's Hamburg Election As Germans "Just Say No"

To More European Bail Outs

As the results of the first of seven German regional elections hits the wire, the German people are heard loud and clear: "no more bail outs." The outcome of the Hamburg election is nothing short of a disaster for Angela Merkel and her ruling (for now) CDU party. Bloomberg reports that "Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party lost control of Hamburg, Germany’s richest state, in the first of seven state votes this year that threaten to limit her scope to respond to Europe’s debt crisis, television projections show." Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union took 20.8 percent in today’s election, its worst result in the port city since at least World War II, ARD television projections showed. The Social Democrats, the main national opposition party, took 49.8 percent, enough to end the CDU’s 10-year rule in Hamburg and form a majority government without need of a coalition partner. The CDU suffered “a massive collapse of support in this booming city that must set off hand-wringing in Berlin,” said Hans-Juergen Hoffmann, managing director of Hamburg-based pollster Psephos. “Merkel will surely be concerned now that this disaster won’t be repeated in upcoming state elections.” To their great chagrin, the young participants on the FRBNY's OMO desk will have to be absent from their President's Day NYU mixers overnight as they are urgently needed by JC Trichet: the reason - buying up every single Portuguese bond as soon as the market opens tomorrow: "There’s a risk to peripheral bonds if Germany is seen not to be displaying support for the countries that are in trouble,” said Orlando Green, assistant director of capital- markets strategy at Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment bank in London. “The market would have been hoping that a deal would have been struck already” before the elections." And while German people are just modestly more civilized than their North African peers, what has happened in Germany is nothing short of a revolution to the existing status quo. The attempt to cover up European bail outs with endless rhetoric is over. If Merkel continues the course she is on, she is history... and she knows it too well. Time to be less than bullish on the EUR's prospects.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/massive-collapse-angela-merkel-following-todays-hamburg-election-germans-just-say-no-more-eu

[bread_and_roses]

132. Can anyone explain this to me in words of one syllable?

I've never liked Merkel, but I don't understand much of this international banks/bail-outs etc. stuff unless someone explains it to me in simple words - and I have no idea of what this means, or whether it is "good" or not - and I don't mean for the market, I mean for Main Street everywhere - for people.
b&r, not too ashamed of her dimness - none of us can keep up with everything, except some here, but i cannot aspire to their level

[Demeter]

135. What I Get Out of This

(and I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else yet, since I spent the morning shoveling)

The Germans gave Angela and the NeoLiberals a big FU. The German people are tired of paying for everybody else's economies: Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Eastern Europe, etc. They want out of the Euro, they think, even though Germany is the primary beneficiary, because those benefits never get below the level of the bankster CEOs.

Also remember that Germany is a destination place for people fleeing worse places: Iron Curtain ex-satellites, Africa, the Middle East and even the far East. The Germans aren't comfortable with that kind of diversity: none of the small, formerly homogeneous European states are. And they don't want to go back to the bad old days of imported terrorists duking it out in the Fatherland.

Again, lay this at the feet of the banksters--without them, most of this wouldn't be happening, and the changes would be much more gradual. By draining the cash out of the world, the Banksters took the oil out of the economic engine, and the world is going to seize up.

[Demeter]

138. MORE: Graham Summers’ Free Weekly Market Forecast

http://www.gainspainscapital.com/

...When we talk about “solvent” Europe we’re largely talking about Germany which is currently in the process of seven state elections. If the first, in Hamburg, is anything to go by, the German people are sick of both the bailouts and the European Union and want to ditch the Euro entirely.

Indeed, current German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party got completely trounced in the first election in Hamburg over the weekend taking in only 20% of the vote. Merkel now has a choice, stick with the Euro and commit political suicide or ditch the Euro/ demand the less solvent members leave.

If Merkel opts for the second choice, then the Euro in its current form is finished and a collapse will begin. Seeing as the Euro currently accounts for over 50% of the US Dollar index, a collapse there could result in a sharp US Dollar rally, NOT because the US’s financial position improved, but simply because it’s the Euro’s turn to collapse first.

However, once that process ends, it will be the US Dollar’s turn on the chopping block. The markets are already preparing for this with inflation hedges exploding higher across the board...

[bread_and_roses]

140. thanks, Demeter

I wasn't too far off - Merkel is a Bankster Bud and the German people are getting screwed just like the Irish, the Greeks, the everyone else inc the US. As is typical the worm in the human brain writhes and ends up trying to kill its brothers and sisters because they come from over some border line, or are brown, or speak a different language, pray to different gods, whatever. So the world turns.

[Pale Blue Dot]

128. As BP Prepares To Evacuate Staff From A Burning Libya, Commodities Are Exploding

Is this one of those "who could have possibly seen it coming" moments? As events in Libya overnight spiralled out of control, with dozens if not hundreds killed, the parliament buildng in Tripoli on fire, and output at one of the country's oil fields reported to have been stopped by a workers' strike, BP has said it will soon begin evacuating some of its personnel from the 9th largest producer of oil. And just to complete the total chaos, Iran warships are now going to pass the Suez on Tuesday instead of today, to the full glory of a fully open US stock market. The result: gold over $1,400; silver over $33.50; Crude front month over $93; Brent over $105; etc. And the US stock market is closed, meaning the HFT levitation can resume tomorrow as if today never happened...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bp-prepares-evacuate-staff-burning-libya-commodities-are-exploding

[Fuddnik]

131. Oh, this should be fun.

[Demeter]

133. THE HEARTS JUST KEEP ON COMING--THANKS TO ALL!

I'm feeling the love...

Also the effects of two hours of shoveling, driving down unplowed highways, and taking the puppy for a romp in the park (he loved it).

The Presidents' Day snowstorm dumped 8 inches locally, which is much more when the driveway has been plowed in. Bye-bye, snowdrops.

Still a bit more snow promised, and low temps in the single digits, for the next couple of days. This is just feint. Winter is OVER! OVER! OVER! OVER!

The caravan is reaching Connecticut in an hour...nobody has killed anybody, yet.

Any and all divine intervention would be greatly appreciated.

[Demeter]

136. Find the Taxes That Do Double Duty

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/business/economy/20view.html

THE nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects a cumulative federal deficit of nearly $3.8 trillion over the next four years. So the $100 billion in annual spending cuts advocated by House Republicans will have a negligible impact on that total...More troubling, many of their proposals promise only to increase it. Nutritional support for low-income women and infants was cut by more than $1 billion, training and employment grants to states by $1.4 billion. Such programs exist not only to help people in need, but also to prevent costly problems down the road. Cutting them will make future deficits larger, not smaller.

Clearly, reduced spending alone can’t solve our deficit problem. With baby-boomer retirements looming and the electorate unwilling to embrace large cuts in Social Security and Medicare, we must also raise additional revenue.

The good news is that doing so will not require difficult sacrifices from anyone. But it will require a Congress that is willing to redesign tax policy from the ground up. Although Tea Partiers and others decry taxes of all kinds, many levies actually make the country richer, not poorer. The way forward lies in greater reliance on these kinds of taxes...

A tax on any activity not only generates revenue, but also discourages the activity. The second effect, of course, underlies the claim that taxes inhibit economic growth. That’s often true of taxes on useful activities, a primary source of current tax revenue. Job creation, for example, is discouraged by the payroll tax, and investment is discouraged by the income tax, which is also a tax on savings...But the reverse is true when we tax activities that cause harm to others. By entering a congested highway, we help to impose delays that in turn cost others thousands of dollars — even though entering those highways may save us only negligible time when compared with alternatives. In buying a heavy vehicle, we put the lives of others at risk, even though a lighter one might have served us almost as well. Taxes levied on harmful activities kill two birds with one stone. They generate desperately needed revenue while discouraging behaviors whose costs greatly outweigh their benefits...



Robert H. Frank is an economics professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.

I PROPOSE CONFISCATORY TAXES ON ANYONE HOLDING GOVERNMENT OFFICE, AND ANOTHER ON STUPIDITY.

[Demeter]

139. Fairer Tax Reporting, Finally

http://www.truth-out.org/fairer-tax-reporting-finally67870

Income from wages has been reported to the Internal Revenue Service ever since World War II. Starting in 2011, income from stock market capital gains will effectively begin to get the same treatment.

This closes a loophole that cost the Treasury billions every year. It takes a big burden off taxpayers. And it never would have happened without a man the Left loved to hate.

He's Evan Bayh (D-IN), newly retired from the Senate. His Blue Dog politics rankled liberals, and he was trashed for giving up a seat that would flip to the GOP. All the same, Bayh made tax reporting fairer than it's ever been in America...He did it by passing a bill that requires brokers to report basis prices to the IRS. Basis prices are what investments cost going in, and brokers didn't have to turn over these numbers. They had to report proceeds, but not basis prices.

The only way to figure capital gains is to have both numbers, and do the arithmetic. For nearly a century, since the beginning of income taxes in 1916, capital gains income has been reported on the honor system. Now the IRS will get basis prices along with proceeds. Brokers won a gradual phasing in: new stock purchases this year, mutual funds in 2012, bonds and options in 2013.

[Demeter]

137. The US Today: What Happens When You Let Investment Bankers Run a Country

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-today-what-happens-when-you-let-investment-bankers-run-country-0

...Investment banking as an industry runs almost completely contrary to wealth creation since it thrives on fees rather that capital appreciation. Investment banking is about making DEALS (any deals) regardless of whether the deals make sense or benefit both parties (after all, the advisors to the deals, the investment bankers, get paid based on commission and free stock).

Indeed, investment banking is one of the few industries on the planet in which you can get rich by creating debt for others to pay off. Goldman Sachs, as you know, is an investment bank. And this financial crisis is riddled with former Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street execs.

Indeed, you can see the “investment banking” stamp everywhere. Consider the major deals the Feds have created and consider the actual benefit they offer to the parties involved:

§ Bear Stearns/ JP Morgan
§ The US taxpayer/ Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
§ The US taxpayer/ AIG (and all of its counterparties)
§ Merrill Lynch/ Bank of America


All of these deals were terrible. All of them were rushed through. And all of them were allowed because of lax regulation/ poor analysis. To this day no one in the mainstream media seems to have adequately analyzed these deals in a way that includes actual numbers. Instead we get dopey adages like “it’s about stemming the tide,” it’s important to “stop the bleeding,” “it’s about saving the system.”

You can also see the “investment banking” stamp on the Federal Reserve. Three years ago give or take, the Fed balance sheet was just $800 billion worth of Treasuries. Today, its balance sheet contains $2.5+ trillion worth of assets, and with only $53 billion in capital, the Fed is leveraged at 47 to 1!

Tons of junk assets that aren’t properly valued? Refusal to reveal the real worth of your balance sheet? Leveraged to the hilt?



Sounds like investment banking!

[bread_and_roses]

141. the whole shebang (at least in US) in brief

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/21-5

When a Country Goes Insane
by Robert Freeman

This must be what it’s like when a country goes insane, when it falls down a rabbit hole and tries to pretend that everything is normal.

It can’t tell truths from lies. Hucksters pose as upright men, and people imagine they are Solons, avatars of insight come down from the ages. Sleazy operators pass themselves off as statesmen, as thinkers of deep gravitas, and the crowds, unable to distinguish sanctimony from sincerity, bravado from bullshit, lap it up.

Let’s be clear. It was the Republicans who wrecked the economy. Both their people and their policies drove the economy into the ditch. They wrecked the economy not once, but twice in the last eighty years.

So Republicans condescending to instruct Americans about how to fix the economy is like the captain of the Titanic lecturing shipping operators about safe procedures for navigating the north Atlantic. No sane society would tolerate it. But this one does.

He goes on with a brief summary of just how bad it is - unemployed, foreclosed, wealth destroyed, union bashing, etc. My only quarrel is that he neglects to mention the active complicity of the bought-and-sold Ds.

[Hotler]

146. I love this part......

Hate is stronger than logic and more than anything else, Republicans love their hate. It’s the only thing that gives them power. The more vicious, the more loony they are, the more they are treated like savants, like prophets channeling some higher wisdom, come though it may from the self-loathing gutter of political prostitution. They pull stuff out of their ass and brazenly pass it off as stone tablets. And people swoon.

So fucking true.

[Demeter]

142. Problem: Paying off mortgage results in default

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/problemsolver/ct-biz-0220-problem-schweitzer-20110220,0,3621642.column

...It was with great pride that she paid off her mortgage in November, 24 years early. The monthly payments, she said, were leaving her too little spending money. With the mortgage gone, she would also avoid decades of interest payments.

Get tickets to Chicago Live!, a stage show brought to you by the Chicago Tribune and The Second City >>

Her lender, Bank of America, had given her the payoff amount and reminded her she also had money in her escrow account for taxes. The Bank of America representative told her not to worry — when she paid off the mortgage, the $2,776.13 in escrow would be applied to the principal.

On Nov. 13, Schweitzer went to her bank and obtained a cashier's check for $61,385.44 which, combined with the escrow money, equaled the $64,161.57 payoff...On Jan. 15, Schweitzer received a letter from Bank of America informing her that her monthly payment was past due.

"We want to help you avoid foreclosure," the letter said.

A subsequent mailing told Schweitzer her loan was in default. Supposedly, she owed $63,999.26. To add insult to injury, Bank of America began tacking on late charges and fees.

The final straw, she said, was when Bank of America notified the credit agencies that she was in default.

Baffled, she again began calling Bank of America, but ran into a series of walls.

"They have so insulated themselves that the manager that I spoke to had supposedly no access to a fax machine, no e-mail address that could be accessed from outside of BofA, and you could never reach them directly by phone," Schweitzer said....

[Demeter]

143. Oil groups prepare to close down in Libya \

Oil groups prepare to close down in Libya
Oil production in Libya is set to drop dramatically as major international companies and sub-contractors evacuate their staff from the north African country, potentially sending oil prices much higher

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/19JYUU/RNY5X6/1O51V/UUEX42/9ZL1R5/SN/t?a1=2011&a2=2&a3=21

[plumbob]

145. Good. Maybe once this unreliable, filthy energy supply actually

is priced to reflect its true volatility and unsuitability as a primary energy source, perhaps we can get started really on clean, safe, domestic supplies of solar and wind energy. Will there be suffering in the short run? Yep, for me, too.

Never gonna get changed any other way.

Even with a $300 billion a year subsidy in terms of global military presence, the oil industry cannot guarantee delivery of their flawed, filthy fuel.

[Demeter]

147. THAT'S A WRAP, FOLKS

Ran out of time and space for the Presidents...guess I have something to do next weekend.