The Okcitykid – A Peaceful Vet

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The Bailout and What’s Next Dear Friend, Yesterday marked a day that will go down in history, when Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike took on full responsibility to protect the interests of taxpaying Americans, and defeated the deceptive bail out bill, defying the dictates of the Administration, the House Majority Leadership, the House Minority Leadership and the special interests on Wall Street. Obviously Congress must consider quickly another course. There are immediate issues which demand attention and responsible action by the Congress so that the taxpayers, their assets, and their futures are protected. We MUST do something to protect millions of Americans whose homes, bank deposits, investments, and pensions are at risk in a financial system that has become seriously corrupted. We are told that we must stabilize markets in order for the people to be protected. I think we need to protect peoples’ homes, bank deposits, investments, and pensions, to order to stabilize the market. We cannot delay taking action. But the action must benefit all Americans, not just a privileged few. Otherwise, more plans will fail, and the financial security of everyone will be at risk. The $700 billion bailout would have added to our existing unbearable load of national debt, trade deficits, and the cost of paying for the war. It would have been a disaster for the American public and the government for decades and maybe even centuries to come. To be sure, there are many different reasons why people voted against the bailout. The legislation did not regard in any meaningful way the plight of millions of Americans who are about to lose their homes.? It did nothing to strengthen existing regulatory structures or impose new ones at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve in order to protect investors.?There were no direct protections for bank depositors.?There was nothing to stop further speculation, which is what brought us into this mess in the first place. This was a bailout for some firms (and investors) on Wall Street, with the idea that in doing so there would be certain, unspecified, general benefits to the economy. This is a perfect time to open a broader discussion about our financial system, especially our monetary system.?Such a discussion is like searching for a needle in a haystack, and then, upon finding it, discussing its qualities at great length. Let me briefly describe the haystack instead. Here is a very quick explanation of the $700 billion bailout within the context of the mechanics of our monetary and banking system: The taxpayers loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them. Confused? This is the system. This is the standard mechanism used to expand the money supply on a daily basis not a special one designed only for the “$700 billion” transaction. People will explain this to you in many different ways, but this is what it comes down to. The banks needed Congress’ approval. Of course in this topsy turvy world, it is the banks which set the terms of the money they are borrowing from the taxpayers. And what do we get for this transaction? Long term debt enslavement of our country. We get to pay back to the banks trillions of dollars ($700 billion with compounded interest) and the banks give us their bad debt which they cull from everywhere in the world. Who could turn down a deal like this? I did. The globalization of the debt puts the United States in the position that in order to repay the money that we borrow from the banks (for the banks) we could be forced to accept International Monetary Fund dictates which involve cutting health, social security benefits and all other social spending in addition to reducing wages and exploiting our natural resources. This inevitably leads to a loss of economic, social and political freedom. Under the failed $700 billion bailout plan, Wall Street’s profits are Wall Street’s profits and Wall Street’s losses are the taxpayers’ losses. Profits are capitalized. Losses are socialized. We are at a teachable moment on matters of money and finance. In the coming days and weeks, I will share with you thoughts about what can be done to take us not just in a new direction, but in a new direction which is just. Thank you, ? Dennis? www.Kucinich.us 216-252-9000???877-933-6647 PS Watch the 47 minute ‘Money as Debt’ animated documentary in?http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279. This is a useful, though by no means definitive, introduction to the topic of debt and the monetary system.?Let me know what you think.

PO Box 110475 | Cleveland | OH | 44111 | 216-252-9000

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HONESTY IS EQUALITY

You can say you are sorry
But if you don't really mean it
Why even say it
You can tell me you understand
But if you really don't
Why even try it
There's something you want
And your not getting it
Don't you get it
Just admit it
Why am I the bad man
What's this - you playing the sacrificial lamb
Games are for children - and I'm a grown man
Without honesty
Can't be no equality
Men are
And women don't lust
We need
And you have
Leave me alone
Will you
You just don't get it
And you never will

By: Roger Harkness

From Flyby News

The Methane Time Bomb
Tuesday 23 September 2008
by: Steve Conner, The Independent UK

In the past few days, researchers believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age. (Photo: Getty Images)?

Arctic scientists discover new global warming threat as melting permafrost releases millions of tons of a gas 20 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.

The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.

The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats.

Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia’s northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane – sometimes at up to 100 times background levels – over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.

In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through “methane chimneys” rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a “lid” to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age.

They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years.

Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane.

The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.

Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University in Sweden, one of the leaders of the expedition, described the scale of the methane emissions in an email exchange sent from the Russian research ship Jacob Smirnitskyi.

“We had a hectic finishing of the sampling programme yesterday and this past night,” said Dr Gustafsson. “An extensive area of intense methane release was found. At earlier sites we had found elevated levels of dissolved methane. Yesterday, for the first time, we documented a field where the release was so intense that the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface. These ‘methane chimneys’ were documented on echo sounder and with seismic [instruments].”

At some locations, methane concentrations reached 100 times background levels. These anomalies have been seen in the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, covering several tens of thousands of square kilometres, amounting to millions of tons of methane, said Dr Gustafsson. “This may be of the same magnitude as presently estimated from the global ocean,” he said. “Nobody knows how many more such areas exist on the extensive East Siberian continental shelves.

“The conventional thought has been that the permafrost ‘lid’ on the sub-sea sediments on the Siberian shelf should cap and hold the massive reservoirs of shallow methane deposits in place. The growing evidence for release of methane in this inaccessible region may suggest that the permafrost lid is starting to get perforated and thus leak methane… The permafrost now has small holes. We have found elevated levels of methane above the water surface and even more in the water just below. It is obvious that the source is the seabed.”

The preliminary findings of the International Siberian Shelf Study 2008, being prepared for publication by the American Geophysical Union, are being overseen by Igor Semiletov of the Far-Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1994, he has led about 10 expeditions in the Laptev Sea but during the 1990s he did not detect any elevated levels of methane. However, since 2003 he reported a rising number of methane “hotspots”, which have now been confirmed using more sensitive instruments on board the Jacob Smirnitskyi.

Dr Semiletov has suggested several possible reasons why methane is now being released from the Arctic, including the rising volume of relatively warmer water being discharged from Siberia’s rivers due to the melting of the permafrost on the land.

The Arctic region as a whole has seen a 4C rise in average temperatures over recent decades and a dramatic decline in the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by summer sea ice. Many scientists fear that the loss of sea ice could accelerate the warming trend because open ocean soaks up more heat from the sun than the reflective surface of an ice-covered sea.

www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html

For FN’s resource page on this issue, see:
Mounting Evidence of Extreme Global Warming

My two cents: The Mini Ice Age will be here the end of 2012

The 700 billion bail out did not pass – THANK GOD!

But after a several hours of impassioned debate, the bill’s opponents – the majority of whom were from the Republican Party – got their way.

Excerpt from the BBC News

It seems that the Republicans are the true American’s now.?? Are the Democrats in power now because Bush was so bad we got tired of Republicans, that’s what they say, but do you know what really happens.? The exclusive one percent of the richest people in the world play a good game of cards and we’re just a part of the game.? The democrates have a better chance of winning now and they bought them and have them now and that’s why the demorats vote for them now.

Do you think Obama is going to win because he’s a democrat.? No, Obama is going to win because Murdock says so, who by the way, made bush the winner.

They tell us what they want us to hear and we make decisions based?on what we think we know, but we are fish being caught, hook, line and sinker.?

Should we stop and look at the trees, the birds and the sound of the wind and hear the voice of our own heart, then they will not so easily catch us.

Who should you vote for in November.? Let me tell you, don’t vote demorat and don’t vote republirat.? Vote for the PERSON, not the party.? Vote for the person you know will do the best job.

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies — who must soon vacate the White House — are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday’s New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

“Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

“Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

“At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

“Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury’s proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions.”
Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to “consult” in the bailout.
The problem is, nobody truly knows what this “collapse” is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn’t know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can’t figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Falling for whom? NOTHING in this “bailout” package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What’s this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called “collapse” was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people’s home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it’s because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn’t afford. Here’s the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage “crisis” may never have happened.

This bailout’s mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It’s to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It’s to make sure their yachts and mansions and “way of life” go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something — NOW! Here’s what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they’ve made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what’s the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we’ll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say “NO!” If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.

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Here is a 1 800 you can call: for the Whitehouse (switchboard). Call and tell them what We The People think of the Wall Street bailout.
1-800-828-0498, Free Call, (White House Switchboard)

Ask the operator to connect you to any Senator or Congressperson. Call all 535 of if you can.

My two cents: I predict that in ten years we will be raising a different flag. I don’t know if it will be Asian or Arab, I suspect a little of both. But it won’t Russia or China or even communist at all. We will be ruled by religion and I believe it will be an Islamic religion. I base this on a dream I had that keeps coming back to me.

Posted: Mon 12 Jun 2006

I had a dream last night that I was a part of a crew employed by the government to uncover a structure under the ice of Antarctica that would contain the answer, led by a recently discovered prophesy that led the government and policy.

There is prophesy if Isreal accepted Jesus and there is prophesy if Isreal did not accept Jesus and that was the key that led us to believe in this prophesy that took us to Antarctica, thus the reason for global warming.

The law required that you submit to the doctors treatment (I’m guessing we were ill from the global warming).

The alarm went off before I could find out what the answer was we were trying to uncover.

Do you know what an RSS Feed is? You mean you don’t know and you use a computer? Well I guess they didn’t teach that in school did they?

I don’t know what they are either and I have and have had several blogs, even myspace, which had an rss feed. And I don’t know what they’re there for and I don’t even know what to do with them. Its time I learn, having done so, I share this wonderful new knowledge with you.

By the way, in an earlier technical post I explained that I couldn’t get FTP to work in Linux, well aparently there was something wrong with my Linux, after reinstalling Linux I discovered it was just as easy to set up as in Windows. So I’m back to using my Linux, so try to hack me if you can.

Timbre’ Wolf Sends Me This:

OBAMA

Iraq: Wants to keep at least 85,000 troops in Iraq to protect “US interests”

Foreign Affairs: Might NOT nuke Iran.

Homeland Security: Would NOT repeal the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act or any other “Security” provisions. Would NOT reinstate the Bill of Rights.

Immigration: Supports a fence along Mexican border. Experts assert that a fence would be an ecological disaster. Need I say more?

Economy: Supports more corporate tax breaks.

Education: Supports more Federal programs (money) for public education and college. This would, of course, translate to more government oversight/ involvment (and they’ve done such a good job in the past!).

Energy: Gives lipstick service to “renewable energy” but endorses “clean coal,” nuclear power, and automakers who build . . . let me see, GAS BURNING CARS. But he does want to give more support for renewable energies, and wants to give automakers help with health coverage in exchange for more hybrid production. But wait . . . he wants universal health care anyway.

Climate Change: Believes in anthropogenic causes of global warming.

Health: Supports universal health care, and believes government should buy prescription drugs in bulk to reduce costs.

Social Security: Believes in it.

Stem Cell Research: Supports embryonic stem-cell research

Same Sex Marriage: Does not support same-sex marriage but endorses “civil unions.”

Abortion: Pro-choice

Gun Control: Supports bans for weapons used for sudden, violent onslaught

McCain

Iraq: Wants to “win.” “USA! USA! USA!”

Foreign Affairs: Might nuke Iran. “Bomb, bomb, bomb . . . bomb, bomb, Iran”

Homeland Security: Supports Patriot Act and wants intelligence officials to have all tools they need. Opposes detaining enemy combatants without legal rights. Would not reinstate the Bill of Rights.

Immigration: Supports tightening current border patrol.

Economy: Supports more corporate tax breaks.

Education: Supports sending federal dollars directly to local schools.

Energy: Gives “lipstick on a pig” service to alt energy but wants much more nuclear power and “clean coal.”

Climate Change: Believes in anthropogenic causes of global warming. But his running mate doesn’t care about that because Alaska is already too damn cold.

Health: Supports importing prescription drugs from Canada, Mexico, and France to lower costs. Ok, I must confess he didn’t actually say WHERE we should get the drugs.

Social Security: Believes in it.

Stem Cell Research: Supports embryonic stem-cell research

Same Sex Marriage: Opposes same-sex marriage (believes it’s a state issue)

Abortion: Neither pro nor con: thinks that states should decide.

Gun Control: Supports background checks for citizens.

Chris sends this:

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with TED. It’s an amazing conference held every year with world thinkers and doers. They’ve been putting their talks online for a little while. This one might help you in reaching out to conservative voters. At least help you understand their mindset.

Chris

Jonathan Haidt: The real difference between liberals and conservatives (19 minutes)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we’re left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.

My two cents:? In my younger years I was a liberal and when I grew up I became a conservative, now I’m WHATEVER.

From eldib.wordpress.com


A GROWTH OF NOT BELIEVING

Anger is not seeing
And hatred is deceiving
If you think you have a right
It is only because your not believing
Anger is the fruit of the seed of fear
Hatred is a feeling towards that thing
Attempting to remove this deception
Fear comes from not understanding
Not understanding comes from not listening
Not listening comes from your ego
Convincing you that you already know
Ego comes from insecurity
Protecting you from harm
Insecurity comes from not believing
In our creator
Who loves us
And has a plan for us
That plan's in force I tell you
Has been since the beginning
If you look for it
You can see it
And know it exists

By: Roger Harkness

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My beliefs have changed some since I have written this.

Money may be the root of all evil but fear is the soil it grows in.