Evo Morales stiirred up UN drugs control investigations

Empty Words on Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN, Georgia and Equatorial Guinea

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 The International Narcotics Control Board released its 2005 annual report on Tuesday, during an embargoed briefing by retired U.S. diplomat and Board member Melvyn Levitsky. Asked by Inner City Press if the Board has taken a position on statements about coca by Bolivia�s new president Evo Morales, Mr. Levitsky responded that while the report ends with November 2005, Bolivia is a signatory to treaties that cover coca, and that the twenty five year opt-out for medical uses is not applicable. Mr. Levitsky confirmed that opium production in Afghanistan has increased since 2001, and ascribed this to areas of the country being outside of government control. The question arose, if the military firepower currently supporting the government of Hamid Karzai can't or won't turn the tide on opium production, it will be difficult to see anti-drug goals of the Board realized.

Earlier in the briefing Mr. Levitsky had said that Afghan production is moving through Iran and Russia; asked to clarify, he said trafficking would have to move through the �former Soviet republics of Central Asia in order to get to Russia.
The report, in its 552^nd paragraph on page 79, states that Turkmenistan, whose extensive borders with Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are inadequately controlled, continues to be used as a transit country by trackers of Afghan opiates.

Also reported, but not connected, is the Board�s note a page earlier that �current legislation in Armenia, Georgia and Turkmenistan is insufficient to deal with the problem of money laundering; the Board urges the Governments of those countries to remedy the situation without delay.

Interviewed after the briefing by Inner City Press, Mr. Levitsky said that money laundering is not in the mandate of the International Narcotics Control Board. �We don�t have a section that monitors flows,� he said. Asked if the Board provides narcotic-specific information to the Financial Action Task Force, Mr.Levitsky shook his head and mentioned changes in Swiss and even Russian banking secrecy laws, but nothing about Turkmenistan, much less Georgia.

Georgia�s permanent representative to the UN, Revaz Adamia, confirmed in a Feb. 1 press briefing quotes by National Bank of Georgia president Roman Gotsiridze regarding Russian banks money laundering in Abkhazia. Mr. Adamia spoke of money laundering for �terrorism,� and said that he would more get more specifics from the National Bank of Georgia. While such information has yet to be provided, in Tbilisi Mr. Gotsiridze has said more, being quoted in a Rustavi-2 TV report on February 23 that

The National Bank has asked the FATF to examine illegal activities of Russian commercial banks in Abkhazia. Here is a list of the Russian commercial banks that have been illegally operating in Abkhazia and laundering massive amounts of black money. It is not ruled out that there may be even more serious violations, for example financing of terrorism, going on in this uncontrolled area. Banks operating in Abkhazia are illegal and unlicensed banking establishments. The Russian legislation itself prohibits any economic relations with unlicensed organizations.

Inner City Press on Feb. 28 posed written questions to Georgia�s mission to the UN; the questions were not responded to by deadline.

International Narcotics Control Board briefer

Footnote on a footnote: The report states that Equatorial Guinea remains the only State in Africa that is not yet a party to any of the three main international drug control treaties (page 42). The Secretary-General on Feb. 27 met with the long-time president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and afterwards hailed him. One wonders if the topics of money laundering came up...

On the Web: http://www.incb.org/incb/en/annual_report.html

A related previous Inner City Press report --

Abkhazia: Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia, Even Terror�s Haven

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 1 -- The situation in Abkhazia should be internationalized, said Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations, Revaz Adamia, on February 1. Briefing reporters at the UN Headquarters, Mr. Adamia characterized the plight of ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia as one of ethnic cleansing and even genocide. He cited a figure of 10,000 dead (as well as 100 Russian soldiers killed). His prepared remarks referred to �de facto annexation� and that �acquisition of property in the conflict zones, including property of refugees and IDPs, by the Russian entities is underway at full steam.�

As Inner City Press reported in December, the President of Georgia's National Bank Roman Gotsiridze has accused Russian banks in Abkhazia of money laundering and of financing terrorism. At the Feb. 1 UN briefing, Mr. Adamia responded to questioning by reiterating the allegation, and specifying that the perpetrator of particular terror attacks in Turkey is living in Abkhazia, he has a shelter there. Mr. Adamia promised to provide Inner City Press with further information and evidence; watch this space.

On January 31, the Security Council extended the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) until March 31. The mission consists of 122 military observers and 13 civilian police officers.

After the briefing, in an interview with Inner City Press, Ambassador Adamia provided an update on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline. He stated that the Georgian section pipe is full of oil, but that this is not yet the case in Turkey. He stated that Turkmenistan wants to use the BTC pipeline, but that the Kremlin for now is blocking it. This, Adamia said, makes more likely the construction of an underwater trans-Caspian pipeline. Pipe dream? Rose (revolution) colored glasses? Only time will tell.

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org -

In Locked Down Iraq, Oil Flows Unmetered While Questions Run in Circles

What is the Sound of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War at UN

Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of Ferronikeli Mines

Abkhazia: Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia, Even Terror�s Haven

Post-Tsunami Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives

Halliburton Repays $9 Million, While Iraq�s Oil Remains Unmetered

Darfur on the Margins: Slovenia�s President Drnovsek�s Quixotic Call for Action Ignored

Who Pays for the Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN

Citigroup Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org -

For reporting about banks, predatory lending, consumer protection, money laundering, mergers or the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), click here for Inner City Press's weekly CRA Report. Inner City Press also reports weekly concerning the Federal Reserve, environmental justice, global inner cities, and more recently on the United Nations, where Inner City Press is accredited media. Follow those links for more of Inner City Press's reporting, or, click here for five ways to contact us, with or for more information.

Gutierrez pushing FTAs with S, Korea, Columbia, Panama

Gutierrez Promotes FTAs to Poultry Industry in Atlanta

I have received a comment that the above material is copyright and that I must edit it.

In three years on the blogosphere, I have never received a complaint before as long as I provided a link.

So all materail regarding Secretary Guterriuz' announcement can be read by my readers at the link above.

If you decide to use this material yourseslves, please contact the publishers before you using it.

[And the only other complaint I recieved was from someone running a survival blog who I strongly suspect was running a cointel survival blogsite - you know, something to make on totally paranoid. Someone once filed a complaint against me to google making allegations anonymosly and google investigated and found them groundless. In that case, I was pretty sure that they had ties to the RNC. Not saying anything- just making an observation.]

# 19 People’s Movement Challenges Neoliberal Agenda
Sources:
Trade Matters, American Friends Service Committee, May 3, 2006
Title: “Is the US Free Trade Model Losing Steam?”
Author: Jessica Walker Beaumont
http://www.afsc.org/trade-matters/trade-agreements/LosingSteam.htm

International Herald Tribune, December 28, 2006
Title: “Economic Policy Changes With New Latin American Leaders”
Author: Mark Weisbrot
http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=773&Itemid=45

International Affairs Forum, March 31, 2007
Title: “Is Hugo Chavez a Threat to Stability? No.”
Author: Mark Weisbrot
http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1102&Itemid=45

Student Evaluator: Toni Catelani
Faculty Evaluator: Phil Beard, Ph.D.

The US Free Trade model is meeting increasingly successful resistance as people’s movements around the world build powerful alternatives to neoliberal exploitation.

This is particularly evident in Latin America, where massive opposition to US economic domination has demanded that populist leaders and parties take control of national governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Uruguay.

Latin American presidents are delivering on promises to fix the mistake of twenty-five years of neoliberal reforms that resulted in the region’s worst economic collapse in more than one hundred years. In the two decades preceding World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies, 1960-1980, the region’s income per person grew by 82 percent. By comparison it grew just 9 percent 1980–2000, and only 4 percent 2000–2005.

Strong ties between Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, along with cooperative relationships with major economies including Argentina and Brazil, are creating the real potential for autonomous alternatives to US-dictated economic policy in the Western Hemisphere.

In the past year alone several leaders have announced plans to cut ties with the World Bank and IMF. After a sweeping reelection in December 2006, Chavez announced April 30, 2007 that, having paid off debts to the World Bank and the IMF, Venezuela would cut ties with both institutions.1 Chavez has been able to put his nation on a path of solid growth by fulfilling his 1998 campaign promise to renationalize Venezuela’s oil industry (PDVSA). Though fierce US opposition to his move to end foreign privatization led to a failed US-backed military coup in 2002, nationalized oil is now the source of nearly half the Venezuela government’s revenues and 80 percent of the country’s export earnings. Venezuela’s economy has grown 38 percent in the last three years.

Chavez plans to set up a new lending institution run by Latin American nations and has pledged to support it with Venezuela’s booming oil revenues.1 Venezuela’s $50 billion in foreign exchange reserves is providing financial support to countries in the region without the exploitive policy conditions attached to WTO and World Bank lending. Leaders are thus able to deliver on promises to their people, contributing not only to stability but to the strengthening of Democracy in the region.

In April 2006, Evo Morales announced his rejection of the IMF and any future FTA with the US. He instead launched the Bolivian Peoples Trade Agreement (PTA), a socialist alternative to the neoliberal free trade model. The PTA emphasizes support of indigenous culture, reciprocity, solidarity, and national sovereignty. Above all the PTA emphasizes improved living conditions for the whole population as a result of international trade and investment. Bolivia’s 2005 passage of a Hydrocarbons Law raised the royalties paid by foreign gas companies to the government of Bolivia. While infuriating US corporations, the resulting tens of millions of dollars in revenue have enabled Bolivia to pay off its IMF debt and begin to build social programs and national reserves.
In December 2006, Rafael Correa, who recently won the presidential election in Ecuador on an anti-privatization, anti-US military base platform, announced plans to restructure Ecuador’s foreign debt in order to increase spending on crucial social programs. Ecuador has since paid its debt to the IMF and announced plans to sever ties to the institution. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has also announced negotiations toward an IMF exit.

Argentina was one of the IMF’s most publicized “successes” turned-crushing-failure at the end of the last century. From 1991 to 1998 the country adopted a host of IMF-recommended reforms including large-scale privatizations. The economy grew substantially during this period but went into a terrible downward slide beginning in mid-1998. At the end of 2001 the whole experiment fell apart, with the country defaulting on more than $100 billion of debt. The currency collapsed soon thereafter, and the majority of people fell below the poverty line in a country that had previously been one of the richest in Latin America.2

When Argentina’s President Nestor Kirchner finally refused the IMF’s debilitating repayment mandates, Argentina’s economy began to rebound—and it hasn’t stopped growing. In a remarkable expansion, which was never supposed to have happened according to IMF predictions, Argentina’s economy has grown by 47 percent in the past few years, making it the fastest growing economy in the Western Hemisphere, and pulling more than nine million people (in a country of 36 million) out of poverty.2 Argentina decided to make its break with the IMF in January 2006 by paying off its remaining $9.9 billion debt.

As of December 2005, Brazil is also free to make its own decisions, free from IMF interference, after paying off its debt two years ahead of schedule. “We repaid the money to show the world that this country has a government and it is the owner of its own nose,” Lula said at the time, adding, “Brazil has been able to decide that it does not want another IMF deal.”3

While it is an expanding reality that many strong and growing people’s movements have not been so fortunate as to have representative governments—the people of India (see story #8), Mexico (see story #18), and Niger (see story #3) are but a few examples—more and more elected leaders in Latin America are providing models of true democratic leadership that is of, for, and by the people.

Citations
1. Jorge Rueda, “Venezuela Pulling Out of IMF, World Bank,” Associated Press, May 1 2007.
2. Mark Weisbrot, “IMF’s Fall From Power,” Washington Post.com, April 13, 2007.
3. Xinhua, “Early Debt Payment Enables Brazil to Make Own Budget Decisions,” Peoples Daily Online, December 16, 2005.

UPDATE BY Jessica Walker Beaumont

Written a year ago, the American Friends Service Committee article “Is the US Free Trade Model Losing Steam?” accurately predicted a growing resistance among Latin American and African leaders to the current “one-size-fits-all” US trade policy model.

Proponents of the current US free trade model seem willing to do whatever it takes to keep the free trade train moving down the track. However their time is literally running out, in part due to the looming July 1 expiration of “fast track” authority that gives the Bush administration the power to negotiate free trade agreements on behalf of Congress.

Although Bolivia, Ecuador and Southern Africa stand firm against US Free Trade Agreements (FTA), there remains a “coalition of the willing” lining up to get their trade agreements. Pending trade pacts for Congressional consideration include those with Colombia, Peru, Panama and Korea. Greasing the wheels to pass these FTAs is a new “breakthrough trade deal” with the Bush administration announced by Democratic leadership on May 10, 2007.

It is said that the deal would improve new free trade agreements by requiring that they include labor and environmental standards, and by insuring better access to essential medicines. Sounds good right? Well, the deal was negotiated in secret with only a handful of Congressional members, the legal text is still not released, and high-powered big business groups are supporters. The official outline of the deal reveals all that is excluded, ignoring a cry for substantial rethinking of US trade policy.

Meanwhile Bolivia continues to advance its People’s Trade Agreement. In April, 2007 Bolivia (along with Venezuela and Nicaragua) decided to withdraw from the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) housed at the World Bank. This came out of the social movement started in 2001 against the US multinational Bechtel that sued Bolivia under the ICSID for $25 million after it was thrown out during the Cochabamba Water War. Dropping out of the ICSID sends a clear message that protecting private investment at the expense of the rights of the people will not be tolerated.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, elected into power on an anti-FTA and anti-US military base agenda, is considering doing the same. In April Correa expelled the World Bank’s representative in Quito, accusing him of withdrawing funds in protest over the government’s oil sector reforms.

Costa Rica offers a new beacon of hope as they have yet to ratify the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Huge resistance to CAFTA grew as people learned it would require the dismantling of Costa Rica’s public telecommunications sector that is funding education. On April 12, 2007 the Supreme Electoral Court approved a measure calling for a binding referendum on CAFTA, likely to take place in August or September. The CAFTA referendum will be Costa Rica’s first public referendum since it gained independence from Spain in 1821 (Inside US Trade, May 4, 2007).

Greg Palast on Ecuador

Good and Evil at the Center of the Earth:
A Quechua Christmas Carol
By Greg Palast
GregPalast.com

Monday 24 December 2007

Quito - I don't know what the hell seized me. In the middle of an hour-long interview with the President of Ecuador, I asked him about his father.

I'm not Barbara Walters. It's not the kind of question I ask.

He hesitated. Then said, "My father was unemployed."

He paused. Then added, "He took a little drugs to the States ... This is called in Spanish a mula [mule]. He passed four years in the states - in a jail."

He continued. "I'd never talked about my father before."

Apparently he hadn't. His staff stood stone silent, eyes widened.

Correa's dad took that frightening chance in the 1960s, a time when his family, like almost all families in Ecuador, was destitute. Ecuador was the original "banana republic" - and the price of bananas had hit the floor. A million desperate Ecuadorans, probably a tenth of the entire adult population, fled to the USA anyway they could.

"My mother told us he was working in the States."

His father, released from prison, was deported back to Ecuador. Humiliated, poor, broken, his father, I learned later, committed suicide.

At the end of our formal interview, through a doorway surrounded by paintings of the pale plutocrats who once ruled this difficult land, he took me into his own Oval Office. I asked him about an odd-looking framed note he had on the wall. It was, he said, from his daughter and her grade school class at Christmas time. He translated for me.

"We are writing to remind you that in Ecuador there are a lot of very poor children in the streets and we ask you please to help these children who are cold almost every night."

It was kind of corny. And kind of sweet. A smart display for a politician.

Or maybe there was something else to it.

Correa is one of the first dark-skinned men to win election to this Quechua and mixed-race nation. Certainly, one of the first from the streets. He'd won a surprise victory over the richest man in Ecuador, the owner of the biggest banana plantation.

Doctor Correa, I should say, with a Ph.D in economics earned in Europe. Professor Correa as he is officially called - who, until not long ago, taught at the University of Illinois.

And Professor Doctor Correa is one tough character. He told George Bush to take the US military base and stick it where the equatorial sun don't shine. He told the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which held Ecuador's finances by the throat, to go to hell. He ripped up the "agreements" which his predecessors had signed at financial gun point. He told the Miami bond vultures that were charging Ecuador usurious interest, to eat their bonds. He said ‘We are not going to pay off this debt with the hunger of our people. " Food first, interest later. Much later. And he meant it.

It was a stunning performance. I'd met two years ago with his predecessor, President Alfredo Palacio, a man of good heart, who told me, looking at the secret IMF agreements I showed him, "We cannot pay this level of debt. If we do, we are DEAD. And if we are dead, how can we pay?" Palacio told me that he would explain this to George Bush and Condoleezza Rice and the World Bank, then headed by Paul Wolfowitz. He was sure they would understand. They didn't. They cut off Ecuador at the knees.

But Ecuador didn't fall to the floor. Correa, then Economics Minister, secretly went to Hugo Chavez Venezuela's president and obtained emergency financing. Ecuador survived.

And thrived. But Correa was not done.

Elected President, one of his first acts was to establish a fund for the Ecuadoran refugees in America - to give them loans to return to Ecuador with a little cash and lot of dignity. And there were other dragons to slay. He and Palacio kicked US oil giant Occidental Petroleum out of the country.

Correa STILL wasn't done.

I'd returned from a very wet visit to the rainforest - by canoe to a Cofan Indian village in the Amazon where there was an epidemic of childhood cancers. The indigenous folk related this to the hundreds of open pits of oil sludge left to them by Texaco Oil, now part of Chevron, and its partners. I met the Cofan's chief. His three year old son swam in what appeared to be contaminated water then came out vomiting blood and died.

Correa had gone there too, to the rainforest, though probably in something sturdier than a canoe. And President Correa announced that the company that left these filthy pits would pay to clean them up.

But it's not just any company he was challenging. Chevron's largest oil tanker was named after a long-serving member of its Board of Directors, the Condoleezza. Our Secretary of State.

The Cofan have sued Condi's corporation, demanding the oil company clean up the crap it left in the jungle. The cost would be roughly $12 billion. Correa won't comment on the suit itself, a private legal action. But if there's a verdict in favor of Ecuador's citizens, Correa told me, he will make sure Chevron pays up.

Is he kidding? No one has ever made an oil company pay for their slop. Even in the USA, the Exxon Valdez case drags on to its 18th year. Correa is not deterred.

He told me he would create an international tribunal to collect, if necessary. In retaliation, he could hold up payments to US companies who sue Ecuador in US courts.

This is hard core. No one - NO ONE - has made such a threat to Bush and Big Oil and lived to carry it out.

And, in an office tower looking down on Quito, the lawyers for Chevron were not amused. I met with them.

"And it's the only case of cancer in the world? How many cases of children with cancer do you have in the States?" Rodrigo Perez, Texaco's top lawyer in Ecuador was chuckling over the legal difficulties the Indians would have in proving their case that Chevron-Texaco caused their kids' deaths. "If there is somebody with cancer there, [the Cofan parents] must prove [the deaths were] caused by crude or by petroleum industry. And, second, they have to prove that it is OUR crude - which is absolutely impossible." He laughed again. You have to see this on film to believe it.

The oil company lawyer added, "No one has ever proved scientifically the connection between cancer and crude oil." Really? You could swim in the stuff and you'd be just fine.

The Cofan had heard this before. When Chevron's Texaco unit came to their land the the oil men said they could rub the crude oil on their arms and it would cure their ailments. Now Condi's men had told me that crude oil doesn't cause cancer. But maybe they are right. I'm no expert. So I called one. Robert F Kennedy Jr., professor of Environmental Law at Pace University, told me that elements of crude oil production - benzene, toluene, and xylene, "are well-known carcinogens." Kennedy told me he's seen Chevron-Texaco's ugly open pits in the Amazon and said that this toxic dumping would mean jail time in the USA.

But it wasn't as much what the Chevron-Texaco lawyers said that shook me. It was the way they said it. Childhood cancer answered with a chuckle. The Chevron lawyer, a wealthy guy, Jaime Varela, with a blond bouffant hairdo, in the kind of yellow chinos you'd see on country club links, was beside himself with delight at the impossibility of the legal hurdles the Cofan would face. Especially this one: Chevron had pulled all its assets out of Ecuador. The Indians could win, but they wouldn't get a dime. "What about the chairs in this office?" I asked. Couldn't the Cofan at least get those? "No," they laughed, the chairs were held in the name of the law firm.

Well, now they might not be laughing. Correa's threat to use the power of his Presidency to protect the Indians, should they win, is a shocker. No one could have expected that. And Correa, no fool, knows that confronting Chevron means confronting the full power of the Bush Administration. But to this President, it's all about justice, fairness. "You [Americans] wouldn't do this to your own people," he told me. Oh yes we would, I was thinking to myself, remembering Alaska's Natives.

Correa's not unique. He's the latest of a new breed in Latin America. Lula, President of Brazil, Evo Morales, the first Indian ever elected President of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. All "Leftists," as the press tells us. But all have something else in common: they are dark-skinned working-class or poor kids who found themselves leaders of nations of dark-skinned people who had forever been ruled by an elite of bouffant blonds.

When I was in Venezuela, the leaders of the old order liked to refer to Chavez as, "the monkey." Chavez told me proudly, "I am negro e indio" - Black and Indian, like most Venezuelans. Chavez, as a kid rising in the ranks of the blond-controlled armed forces, undoubtedly had to endure many jeers of "monkey." Now, all over Latin America, the "monkeys" are in charge.

And they are unlocking the economic cages.

Maybe the mood will drift north. Far above the equator, a nation is ruled by a blond oil company executive. He never made much in oil - but every time he lost his money or his investors' money, his daddy, another oil man, would give him another oil well. And when, as a rich young man out of Philips Andover Academy, the wayward youth tooted a little blow off the bar, daddy took care of that too. Maybe young George got his powder from some guy up from Ecuador.

I know this is an incredibly simple story. Indians in white hats with their dead kids and oil millionaires in black hats laughing at kiddy cancer and playing musical chairs with oil assets.

But maybe it's just that simple. Maybe in this world there really is Good and Evil.

Maybe Santa will sort it out for us, tell us who's been good and who's been bad. Maybe Lawyer Yellow Pants will wake up on Christmas Eve staring at the ghost of Christmas Future and promise to get the oil sludge out of the Cofan's drinking water.

Or maybe we'll have to figure it out ourselves. When I met Chief Emergildo, I was reminded of an evening years back, when I was way the hell in the middle of nowhere in the Prince William Sound, Alaska, in the Chugach Native village of Chenega. I was investigating the damage done by Exxon's oil. There was oil sludge all over Chenega's beaches. It was March 1991, and I was in the home of village elder Paul Kompkoff on the island's shore, watching CNN. We stared in silence as "smart" bombs exploded in Baghdad and Basra.

Then Paul said to me, in that slow, quiet way he had,

"Well, I guess we're all Natives now."

Well, maybe we are. But we don't have to be, do we?

Maybe we can take some guidance from this tiny nation at the center of the earth. I listened back through my talk with President Correa. And I can assure his daughter that she didn't have to worry that her dad would forget about "the poor children who are cold" on the streets of Quito.

Because the Professor Doctor is still one of them.

Paulson's Plan to Punish the Public; The Motley Fool

Remember as you read this - you can't SIMPLY put the squeeze on Hank and George, this is a problem of long standing, going right back to the S&L crisis. maybe right back to 1941 when FDR bailed out that housing crisis by means of a WAR.

The PTB simply had to do something before the Christmas season. But this is a real good essay, a true, "wish I could say it that well" kind of item.

As for Hank, he deserves a right good bollocking as the Brits say.

As for being antiEvo, Hugo Chavez, and Ahmadinejad, as long as they follow the rule of law I see no reason to get intense about them. But those labels have a way of getting in the way of people seeing how nations conduct business within that framework are not the real target.

Bear in mind what I told you about MASSIVE jobcuts in the financial sector and how the corporate culture cannot handle the paperwork of ARMs? Well, this bailout is an attempt to end run around that problem .. but there will still be massive layoffs. And I still think we are going to see many huge office towers built to accomodate financial weath silent, empty, lights turned off before this all over. Have a look at your city's skyline as it is today and tell me what you see in about 1-2 years time.

Veeger

If you don't learn from the past ...

If the mortgage crisis and housing bubble have taught us one thing, it should be to watch out for the unintended consequences of greed. Unfortunately, our nation's legislators and political appointees haven't learned that lesson. Recent plans for housing and mortgage bailouts generally run from dumb to dumber. Today, The Wall Street Journal reported on yet another scheme, reportedly being spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. It's an idea so naively populist and antimarket that you would think it came from Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if not for its cringe-inducing, Beltway-wonk moniker: the Hope Now Alliance.

In short, bankers and loan-servicing outfits are going to lower interest rates on strapped borrowers so they don't lose their houses. How much, how long, and who qualifies are all still up in the air. No doubt, this will sound good to those folks who signed on for mortgages they can't actually afford. It will also look good to politicians angling to score points before the next election, and to bleeding hearts everywhere. It will also look good to select mortgage-industry players -- like Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C), which could really use a government-led bailout.

Unfortunately, this ill-conceived salve will ultimately punish the silent majority of Americans, people who didn't go out and make boneheaded financial decisions over the past half-decade. Let's take a look at why.

A history of the housing Ponzi scheme
Since 2001, too-cheap financing pumped up housing prices to ridiculous levels. This was enabled by speculative lending from Wall Street to Main Street: Big banks like Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) and others were providing the lending capital to outfits like death-watch candidate Countrywide, mostly dead NovaStar Financial and Impac Mortgage Holdings, along with dozens of completely dead lenders. They did this by purchasing mortgage loans from these lenders so that they could chop them into mortgage-backed securities of dizzying complexity and dubious credit quality, which were, in turn, sold to suckers ... er, "investors" all over the world.

This provided a musical-chairs-like situation in which lenders produced as much volume as they could, no matter how bad the loans or credit risk, because they got paid to pass that risk along, through Wall Street's Wise bankers, to whatever "investor" ended up with the loans, in the form of stuff called MBS, CDOs, CDO-squared, R2D2, and so on. There was a flood of money to the lenders, which stimulated excessive demand, in turn stimulating excessive price appreciation. (You will note that there was no Paulson-led "Hope Now Alliance" coming together at that point to try and rein in this dangerous orgy of greed, though the consequences were plain to anyone who bothered to examine it.)

Greedy flippers and naive homebuyers resorted to gimmicky loans, like interest-only and "option" adjustable-rate mortgages, because it was the only way they could pay inflated prices for the properties they wanted. They got a few years of artificially low payments, thanks to artificially low teaser rates. The catch was that when the loans reset after a few years, they'd jump up several points, to 9%, 10%, 11%.

This may not sound like a big deal, until you run the math on the payments to see that many people would be facing twice the mortgage bill they were used to. Now that those mortgages are resetting and home prices are dropping like rocks, they can't make their payments, and they can't flip the houses for a profit, so loans are defaulting. The fancy securities -- what I call Wall Street dog food -- have become nearly worthless, and the music has stopped, without any chairs for anyone. Ironically, stupid, leveraged bets on these lousy securities have crippled the banks themselves, and CEOs and other execs have been getting the boot at places like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

Hank to the rescue!
Hank Paulson's latest plan to protect homebuyers from their own mistakes is simple: Lenders extend those teaser rates for a few years. It's a win-win, right? What's the harm, especially when there's no bill to pay? You just reset those interest rates to low levels, and everything will be fine, right? Who could be against a policy that would keep Americans in their homes? One negotiated with the private sector itself?

This Fool, for one.

Making the credit crunch crunchier
Remember, the only reason those teaser-rate loans were made in the first place was because lenders (and thus the investors buying the mortgages from the lenders) could count on a much larger, contractually guaranteed payoff in the future, when those interest rates were due to reset. Take away that payoff, and you take away any incentive to loan to borrowers of marginal credit quality. Usher in an era when government and banks reset loan rates at their whim, and you can be sure that investors will never again buy securities based on adjustable-rate mortgages.

If you think credit is tight now, just wait until you yank away potential returns from the people putting up the capital for all those loans.

And let's not forget that Paulson's plan introduces an incredible moral hazard. By rescuing greedy and naive borrowers from their mistakes, our government encourages others to take big, stupid, bankruptcy-inducing risks, secure in the knowledge that the government will bail them out when times get rough. That means trillions of dollars in capital will be ill-invested yet again, something that's much less likely to happen when speculators are made to suffer the consequences of their behavior.

No free lunches
Here's another problem. Someone is going to have to foot the bill for this. Banks and associated entities that will, over the short term, finance this homeowner bailout are not going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Reported Hope Now Alliance honchos such as Countrywide and Citigroup (NYSE: C) are, I'm certain, only doing this because they hope it will be cheaper than having to pay up for their lending sins all at once. Moreover, it gives them a chance to look like good guys who care about the commoners -- never mind that they were quite happy to fleece borrowers with gawd-awful mortgage "affordability products" for years.

Still, this will sting some of these banks and mortgage servicers, so you can bet they're going to pass along the costs. They're going to do it by firing employees. (Countrywide and Citigroup are already doing that.) They're going to do it by moving offices to offshore tax havens, outsourcing, closing branches, lowering deposit rates, hiking fees, and whatever else it takes. (Golden parachutes for Wall Street failures are pricey.)

Worst of all, they're going to do it by soaking future borrowers -- people like the majority of us, who didn't do something stupid -- with higher rates than we would have otherwise paid for mortgage loans, credit cards, and commercial loans. They'll have to. They've got their own lenders to pay, and those lenders aren't going to simply hand over-stretched Americans a pile of money.

Foolish final thought
There's another reason that Paulson's latest plan will punish the public. It will have the effect of artificially supporting a home-price bubble that desperately needs a correction. Historical rent-to-purchase data show just how far home prices need to come down in order to return to mean. That requires a painful drop, and it will happen sooner or later.

Paulson's plan means fewer homes dumped back on the market at lower prices, where they belong. Now that he's a politician and not the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Paulson apparently believes that the market shouldn't be allowed to correct on its own. He's wrong about that, and he's wrong to support any plan that will only delay the inevitable. Better the quick, painful correction than the decades-long, slow bleed that he's nurturing now. For evidence of how ugly things get when policymakers try to coddle the financial industry rather than let the market apply its harsher, faster, medicines, just take a look at how long the banking mess continued in Japan.

Of course, a decade from now, if the economy is still suffering because of an ill-conceived housing bailout plan designed to win favor with the public and cover the economic hind-end of his boss, George Bush, Paulson won't have to issue any gomen nasai. He'll already be long gone, retired to his millions.

You and I will pay the bills.

• Bernanke's Plan to Pick Your Pocket
• More Excess to the Rescue
• Prince Chokes on Wall Street's Dog Food

Paulson's Plan to Punish the Public; The Motley Fool

Remember as you read this - you can't SIMPLY put the squeeze on Hank and George, this is a problem of long standing, going right back to the S&L crisis. maybe right back to 1941 when FDR bailed out that housing crisis by means of a WAR.

The PTB simply had to do something before the Christmas season. But this is a real good essay, a true, "wish I could say it that well" kind of item.

As for Hank, he deserves a right good bollocking as the Brits say.

As for being antiEvo, Hugo Chavez, and Ahmadinejad, as long as they follow the rule of law I see no reason to get intense about them. But those labels have a way of getting in the way of people seeing how nations conduct business within that framework are not the real target.

Bear in mind what I told you about MASSIVE jobcuts in the financial sector and how the corporate culture cannot handle the paperwork of ARMs? Well, this bailout is an attempt to end run around that problem .. but there will still be massive layoffs. And I still think we are going to see many huge office towers built to accomodate financial weath silent, empty, lights turned off before this all over. Have a look at your city's skyline as it is today and tell me what you see in about 1-2 years time.

Veeger

If you don't learn from the past ...

If the mortgage crisis and housing bubble have taught us one thing, it should be to watch out for the unintended consequences of greed. Unfortunately, our nation's legislators and political appointees haven't learned that lesson. Recent plans for housing and mortgage bailouts generally run from dumb to dumber. Today, The Wall Street Journal reported on yet another scheme, reportedly being spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. It's an idea so naively populist and antimarket that you would think it came from Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if not for its cringe-inducing, Beltway-wonk moniker: the Hope Now Alliance.

In short, bankers and loan-servicing outfits are going to lower interest rates on strapped borrowers so they don't lose their houses. How much, how long, and who qualifies are all still up in the air. No doubt, this will sound good to those folks who signed on for mortgages they can't actually afford. It will also look good to politicians angling to score points before the next election, and to bleeding hearts everywhere. It will also look good to select mortgage-industry players -- like Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C), which could really use a government-led bailout.

Unfortunately, this ill-conceived salve will ultimately punish the silent majority of Americans, people who didn't go out and make boneheaded financial decisions over the past half-decade. Let's take a look at why.

A history of the housing Ponzi scheme
Since 2001, too-cheap financing pumped up housing prices to ridiculous levels. This was enabled by speculative lending from Wall Street to Main Street: Big banks like Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) and others were providing the lending capital to outfits like death-watch candidate Countrywide, mostly dead NovaStar Financial and Impac Mortgage Holdings, along with dozens of completely dead lenders. They did this by purchasing mortgage loans from these lenders so that they could chop them into mortgage-backed securities of dizzying complexity and dubious credit quality, which were, in turn, sold to suckers ... er, "investors" all over the world.

This provided a musical-chairs-like situation in which lenders produced as much volume as they could, no matter how bad the loans or credit risk, because they got paid to pass that risk along, through Wall Street's Wise bankers, to whatever "investor" ended up with the loans, in the form of stuff called MBS, CDOs, CDO-squared, R2D2, and so on. There was a flood of money to the lenders, which stimulated excessive demand, in turn stimulating excessive price appreciation. (You will note that there was no Paulson-led "Hope Now Alliance" coming together at that point to try and rein in this dangerous orgy of greed, though the consequences were plain to anyone who bothered to examine it.)

Greedy flippers and naive homebuyers resorted to gimmicky loans, like interest-only and "option" adjustable-rate mortgages, because it was the only way they could pay inflated prices for the properties they wanted. They got a few years of artificially low payments, thanks to artificially low teaser rates. The catch was that when the loans reset after a few years, they'd jump up several points, to 9%, 10%, 11%.

This may not sound like a big deal, until you run the math on the payments to see that many people would be facing twice the mortgage bill they were used to. Now that those mortgages are resetting and home prices are dropping like rocks, they can't make their payments, and they can't flip the houses for a profit, so loans are defaulting. The fancy securities -- what I call Wall Street dog food -- have become nearly worthless, and the music has stopped, without any chairs for anyone. Ironically, stupid, leveraged bets on these lousy securities have crippled the banks themselves, and CEOs and other execs have been getting the boot at places like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

Hank to the rescue!
Hank Paulson's latest plan to protect homebuyers from their own mistakes is simple: Lenders extend those teaser rates for a few years. It's a win-win, right? What's the harm, especially when there's no bill to pay? You just reset those interest rates to low levels, and everything will be fine, right? Who could be against a policy that would keep Americans in their homes? One negotiated with the private sector itself?

This Fool, for one.

Making the credit crunch crunchier
Remember, the only reason those teaser-rate loans were made in the first place was because lenders (and thus the investors buying the mortgages from the lenders) could count on a much larger, contractually guaranteed payoff in the future, when those interest rates were due to reset. Take away that payoff, and you take away any incentive to loan to borrowers of marginal credit quality. Usher in an era when government and banks reset loan rates at their whim, and you can be sure that investors will never again buy securities based on adjustable-rate mortgages.

If you think credit is tight now, just wait until you yank away potential returns from the people putting up the capital for all those loans.

And let's not forget that Paulson's plan introduces an incredible moral hazard. By rescuing greedy and naive borrowers from their mistakes, our government encourages others to take big, stupid, bankruptcy-inducing risks, secure in the knowledge that the government will bail them out when times get rough. That means trillions of dollars in capital will be ill-invested yet again, something that's much less likely to happen when speculators are made to suffer the consequences of their behavior.

No free lunches
Here's another problem. Someone is going to have to foot the bill for this. Banks and associated entities that will, over the short term, finance this homeowner bailout are not going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Reported Hope Now Alliance honchos such as Countrywide and Citigroup (NYSE: C) are, I'm certain, only doing this because they hope it will be cheaper than having to pay up for their lending sins all at once. Moreover, it gives them a chance to look like good guys who care about the commoners -- never mind that they were quite happy to fleece borrowers with gawd-awful mortgage "affordability products" for years.

Still, this will sting some of these banks and mortgage servicers, so you can bet they're going to pass along the costs. They're going to do it by firing employees. (Countrywide and Citigroup are already doing that.) They're going to do it by moving offices to offshore tax havens, outsourcing, closing branches, lowering deposit rates, hiking fees, and whatever else it takes. (Golden parachutes for Wall Street failures are pricey.)

Worst of all, they're going to do it by soaking future borrowers -- people like the majority of us, who didn't do something stupid -- with higher rates than we would have otherwise paid for mortgage loans, credit cards, and commercial loans. They'll have to. They've got their own lenders to pay, and those lenders aren't going to simply hand over-stretched Americans a pile of money.

Foolish final thought
There's another reason that Paulson's latest plan will punish the public. It will have the effect of artificially supporting a home-price bubble that desperately needs a correction. Historical rent-to-purchase data show just how far home prices need to come down in order to return to mean. That requires a painful drop, and it will happen sooner or later.

Paulson's plan means fewer homes dumped back on the market at lower prices, where they belong. Now that he's a politician and not the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Paulson apparently believes that the market shouldn't be allowed to correct on its own. He's wrong about that, and he's wrong to support any plan that will only delay the inevitable. Better the quick, painful correction than the decades-long, slow bleed that he's nurturing now. For evidence of how ugly things get when policymakers try to coddle the financial industry rather than let the market apply its harsher, faster, medicines, just take a look at how long the banking mess continued in Japan.

Of course, a decade from now, if the economy is still suffering because of an ill-conceived housing bailout plan designed to win favor with the public and cover the economic hind-end of his boss, George Bush, Paulson won't have to issue any gomen nasai. He'll already be long gone, retired to his millions.

You and I will pay the bills.

• Bernanke's Plan to Pick Your Pocket
• More Excess to the Rescue
• Prince Chokes on Wall Street's Dog Food

November Vigil: 16-18,2007
Take a Stand for Human Rights!
No, I have never BEEN to Georgia for this event. However, I have helped locals organize for this annual event since 1968! This is simply a MUST DO commitment for anyone truly concerned with ending bloody neocolonialism And HATS OFF! to Evo Morales.


On the weekend of November 16-18, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia for the Vigil and the Nonviolent Direct Action to Close the School of the Americas and to end the racist system of violence and domination that the SOA represents. Take a Stand for Justice!

The weekend will include a massive rally, nonviolent direct action training, workshops, benefit concerts, puppet shows, teach-ins and more! Please check back soon for schedule changes and updates.

EVENTS: See a detailed schedule of this weekend's many gatherings, teach-ins, films, and concerts in Columbus, Georgia. Click here for information about reserving a table.

Please download the November flier and spread the word about the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) and upcoming vigil and nonviolent direct action.

HOTELS: See a list of hotel and other accomodations in and around Columbus, Georgia. If you are looking for housing, contact Ashley at the Columbus Visitors Bureau to see which hotels have vacancies. Reach the Visitors Bureau at 1-800-999-1613. MEDIA OUTREACH: Taking a little time to carry out a handful of media-related tasks before you head to Georgia can profoundly impact the number of people in your area who know about the SOA/WHINSEC issue and the number of people who get involved in the work to close it down. Read about how you can work with your local media or contact us in the SOA Watch office at 202-234-3440 or media@soaw.org">media(at)soaw.org for more information and resources. TRAVEL: See information on traveling to Columbus, whether by plane, car, bus, train or something more creative. ATTENTION! - If you are not a U.S. citizen or resident or will be traveling with someone who is neither, please make sure to inform yourself and your friend or loved one on some of the possible risks. SOA Watch supports the struggle for immigrant rights and we therefore provide the following information: - SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS for persons without U.S. citizenship considering participating in the November Vigil - IMMIGRATION CHECKLIST for November Vigil participants RIDE BOARD: Need a ride? Have a ride? Want to share a bike/car/van/bus/scooter with other fellow human rights advocates? See our Ride Board where you can post or find a ride to this year's Vigil. ACCESSIBILITY & INTERPRETATION: ASL and English<>Spanish interpretation services will be available during the vigil weekend. Find out more about interpretation services, large print and Braille programs and wheelchair accessibility. PEACEMAKERS NEEDED:SOA Watch is looking for Peacemaker Volunteers to work at the vigil this year. Read more about how you can participate, and how to contact Peacemaker coordinators. LOCAL GROUPS: Do you know others in your area that are working to close down the School of the Americas? Connect with others now before heading to Georgia. Click here for a listing of SOA Watch local groups. If your group is not listed, please add your contact information. Don't see a group for your area? Consider starting one! For more information, contact us at info@soaw.org or at 202-234-3440 or contact your regional representative for more information about those in your region working to close the SOA/ WHINSEC. NOVEMBER ORGANIZING PACKET: The November Organizing Packet is a great resource for you and your community as you spread the word about the SOA/ WHINSEC and as you make plans to attend the November 16-18 Vigil to Close the SOA at Fort Benning, Georgia. In it, you'll find information about what to expect at Ft. Benning, logistical information to assist your trip planning, media, legislative, fundraising and outreach tips and resources, and flyers you can reproduce and use in your community. Download the 2007 November Organizing Packet Order a hardcopy of the November Organizing Packet for $3 from SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC, 20017. Read about past Vigils to Close the School of the Americas. Photos by Cally Golding, Andi Gelsthorpe and Ted Stein Evo Morales Announces: "No More Bolivian Soldiers to the SOA/WHINSEC!" We are very excited to share that on October 10th, 2007, President Evo Morales announced that Bolivia will gradually withdraw its military from the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), renamed in 2001 the School of the Americas (SOA). Bolivia is now the fifth country - after Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela - to formally announce a withdrawal from this brutal military training school. "We will gradually withdraw until there are no Bolivian officers attending the School of the Americas” said Morales. Questioning the U.S. government foreign policy he noted that “they are teaching high ranking officers to confront their own people, to identify social movements as their enemies.” This is a great victory for torture survivors, social movement leaders and human rights activists of Bolivia and the Americas. The SOA/WHINSEC has played a significant role in Bolivia’s recent political history, Hugo Banzer Suarez, who ruled Bolivia from 1971-1978 under a brutal military dictatorship attended the school in 1956 and was later inducted into the school’s “hall of fame” in 1988. The SOA has trained tens of thousands of Bolivian military officers in the past fifty years. In October of 2006, two former graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC, Generals Juan Veliz Herrera and Gonzalo Rocabado Mercado were arrested on charges of torture, murder, and violation of the constitution for their responsibility in the death of 67 civilians in El Alto Bolivia during the “Gas Wars” of September-October 2003. In March 2006 a School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) delegation led by Lisa Sullivan-Rodriguez, Salvadoran torture survivor Carlos Mauricio, and SOA Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois met with President Evo Morales to request that Bolivia cease to send troops for training at the SOA/WHINSEC. Read more about the SOA Watch Latin America Project

Event in Washington denounces injustice in the case of the Cuban Five A Travesty of Justice: The Cuban Five. The media has devoted almost no attention to it, despite international ramifications of the case with regard to the US judicial system and the US harboring of terrorists. To learn about a case destined to become infamous was the call of prestigious American intellectuals as author Saul Landau, veteran journalist Peter Eisner and lawyer Jose Pertierra.
Evo Morales Joins Call for the Release of the Cuban Five Bolivian President Evo Morales joined Tuesday the world movement demanding the release of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in United States. Morales condemned a week ago the US government for keeping the Five in prison, while criminals like Luis Posada Carriles and ex Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada are walking free in that nor

A Travesty of Justice: The Cuban Five. The media has devoted almost no attention to it, despite international ramifications of the case with regard to the US judicial system and the US harboring of terrorists. To learn about a case destined to become infamous was the call of prestigious American intellectuals as author Saul Landau, veteran journalist Peter Eisner and lawyer Jose Perti

Events Since The Oral Argument Of February 14th

In the five months since the oral argument the following events of note have occurred that support both the substantive defense of the Five as well as their argument on venue: a Cuban terrorist arrested with more than 1500 weapons, another one confessed having given $1.4 million to purchase weapons for overthrowing the government in Cuba, and a member of the Miami Board of Education confessed feeling threatened if he votes against the exile wishes.

	Mission Against Terror
	When stripped to its essentials, this story is truly heart-breaking and asks the obvious question: Why? What did they do to warrant such ruthless punishment? Why aren’t they spoken of in the United States? The answer finds itself in the unexplainable: it’s incredible that thousands, no, millions of people should be so well informed and so obsessed by the war on terror and not know anything at all about these five Cubans that are suffering a total of four life sentences plus 75 years in prison for fighting against terrorism. By ignoring them – unconsciously or otherwise – there is an acceptance of the criminal hallucination that the US judicial system employs when dealing with anything related to the Cuban Revolution.

	Additional Punishment
	On December 14, 2001 the judge of the court that sentenced the Cuban Five imposed an additional sanction that actually helps terrorism. According to the sentence applied to René González - and two weeks later against Antonio Guerrero - once they had finished their prison terms they would not be allowed to frequent places where criminal groups operate in South Florida.

	Alarcon: "The Cuban 5 Have Been the Victims of Torture by the US"
	Deliberately isolated in five different prisons spread throughout the immense U.S. territory, the Five are also suffering from the fact that the District Attorney's office and the FBI constantly separated them from their families in order to try and crush their spirits, explained Ricardo Alarcón. This article was published on December 18, 2004 by the American Political Newsletter COUNTERPUNCH.

	Bush's Hypocrisy: Cuban Terrorists
	Bush can count on cheers whenever he delivers a favorite line from the Bush Doctrine enunciated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks: "Any country that harbors a terrorist is equally guilty as the terrorist." But this supposedly clear cut rule applies differently when a Bush ally is implicated in terrorism and the Bushes are the ones doing the harboring. While the anti-harboring principle is cited when invading Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration continues to turn a blind eye to the presence of right-wing Cuban terrorists living in the United States.

A open letter to President Evo Morales Ayma

My question is what are you doing in terms of education for the young in Bolivia to prevent the same cycle that realist my age have seen happen again and again. The fuel of Capitalism is greed. Greed can only be controlled with early education. Can Morales defeat the twins capitalism and war?

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Tag(s): Blackwater; Change; Empire; Freedom; Government; Iran; Iraq; Media; Peace; Peace; People; People; Political Parties ; Truth; World
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October 5, 2007 at 18:08:22 FROM FASCISM TO FREEDOM: Stirring the Winds of Political Climate Change by Steve Bhaerman Page 1 of 3 page(s) http://www.opednews.com

There is a poignant passage in Kurt Vonnegut's book Slaughterhouse Five where he imagines a devastating bombing scene as a movie being run backward on a projector. The fires on the ground disappear as the bombs are sucked up into the bombers, which fly backward and land on a military base. There, the bombs are removed from the planes and taken to a factory, where they are dismantled. Perhaps this wishful fantasy was inspired by Vonnegut's own experience watching the fire bombing of Dresden.

If and when our bombs begin falling on Iran, given our current limitations in navigating space and time, we will not be able to run the movie backward. The dead will still be dead, the destroyed will still be destroyed, and among the casualties will be our own open society. The damage will be irreversible, and in fact will have reversed 230 years of forward progress towards a just society, and a sane world.

But there is something we can and must "run backward" at this time. We must stand together to face the dark forces that have taken us from freedom to fascism, and reverse the momentum back to sanity and freedom.

There are two common impulses at a crisis time like this. The first is, "Don't just stand there. Do something!" The other is, "Don't do something. Just stand there." So instead of futilely flailing about or hopelessly resigning, it makes sense to take a deep breath and fully assess the situation. The first piece of good news is, there are at least 50 million of us in accord that the reins of power have gotten out of our hands, and this illegitimate power must be reined in.

Three situations that have been in the news in recent weeks -- the tasering of the student by police in Florida and the "tasering" of MoveOn by the U.S. Senate; the momentum toward attacking Iran that the Democratic misleadership seems to have fallen in line with; the further exposure of Blackwater as "contractors" in the Mafia sense of "contract" -- have focused a sense of urgency. That's a good thing.

Perhaps finally those hundred thousand organizations Paul Hawken talks about as working for a healthier world can stop what they are doing and address the huge elephant in the living room -- the American empire that promotes torture and assassination abroad and fascism at home. We must face the obstacle right in front of us that stands in the way of all of the good things that are possible in this world. In other words, there will be no action on climate change until there is political climate change, and to have political climate change requires focus. As the Swami says, "If we want the political winds to change, we must all blow in the same direction at the same time."

Whoa Cowboy -- A Two-Step Plan to Rein in Illegitimate Power

We don't want to be wasting precious energy blowing against the wind or rowing against the flow, so it makes sense to look for the open channels that can flow us toward a concerted and effective movement. So first of all, let's establish two short-term intentions. If we accomplish these, we will be able to demonstrate to our "leaders," to ourselves and to the world that we are on our way to restoring legitimate rule to America. These are:

1. Preempt and prevent an attack on Iran.

2. Reverse the trend of fascism at home.

There are specific implications of these, including coming up with a workable Middle East strategy for peace, restoring habeas corpus and repealing the so-called Patriot Act, disempowering private fascist armies such as Blackwater, and launching a people's impeachment and truth and reconciliation movement. (I'd personally like to call the organization Citizens for Impeaching the Administration, CIA for short, but that's a conversation for later. We will earn that next level by mastering this one first.)

So let's look at our leverage points right now and see how we can begin applying that leverage. What do we have going for us?

1. The Ongoing Up-Wising. There is a growing awareness on the part of progressive left and libertarian right -- not to mention millions of other Americans -- that neither the neoconservatives nor the neoliberals have the interests of we the people at heart. As Ron Paul continues to gather support on the Republican side from disenfranchised conservative voters, more and more people on all sides are waking up to the sad truth that politics as usual means the usual lies. There is a great deal of emotional energy that is being aroused here, and so our task is to find a highly-effective way to focus it.

2. "Generally" Speaking, There is Unprecedented Opposition to War Policies. Those who are bearing the more immediate cost of empire, members of our military, are waking up as well. A recent article indicates that twenty recently-retired generals are speaking out against the Iraq War and the proposed attack on Iran. This includes the former U.S. Commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. The implications of this are huge. According to the aforementioned article ten days ago in the San Diego Union-Tribune (in the heart of military country), "What might be called The Revolt of the Generals has rarely happened in the nation's history. In op-ed pieces, interviews and TV ads, more than 20 retired U.S. generals have broken ranks with the culture of salute and keep it in the family. Instead, they are criticizing the commander in chief and other top civilian leaders who led the nation into what the generals believe is a misbegotten and tragic war."

Along those same lines comes the speculation that the recent transport of nuclear weapons from Minot Air Force Base -- and the leaking of that information -- could have been an attempt on the part of a faction in the military to thwart a nuclear attack on Iran.

Pay No Attention to the (Wo)Man IN FRONT of the Curtain

In spite of the fact that both the progressive left and the non-neocon right are waking up to this lowjacking of America, there has been virtually no transpartisan concerted action. From a contextual standpoint, our mission now is to remove our focus from the political puppet show of candidates telling the usual lies. (Swami's new slogan is "Pay no attention to the (wo)man IN FRONT OF the curtain".) Instead, we need to focus our attention and financial resources on the three truth-telling candidates: Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel and Ron Paul. What's important is that these three represent the functional wings of both left and right that need to come front and center for us to win. Show them you support truth and send them money. Send the "front-running" candidates empty envelopes with photo copies of your checks to the other three candidates to indicate you are no longer willing to fund lies. Seriously. This is an important discipline right now, particularly for those who identify as Democrats.

Think of the Democrats as the flawed lover who tells us they are going to leave their "spouse" (i.e., the powers of the American empire) but never do. When they need something from us, they tell us how much they love us -- but they always go home to the Empire. So ... now we have to be strong. We have to tell them we are no longer willing to get into bed with them without a commitment. It's either the empire or us! In other words, will they respect us the day after Election Day? The best way to make sure is to make them respect us now.

Speaking of Dempublicrats, the reason why they've painted themselves into such a pathetic corner is because they have failed to contextualize the war in Iraq for what it is -- a war for empire. What Chalmers Johnson said in his recent book, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic is something wise patriots on both the left and the right have understood: Empire abroad is incompatible with freedom at home. Just as surely as the American Revolutionaries were up against the British Empire 230 years ago, American Evolutionaries today must understand today's challenge is the American Empire, a leviathan bigger than either King George.

So ... coming from that context, and recognizing the American people have to recapture the political conversation before we recapture our government, what do we do? The answer is ... I don't have the answer. But working together on the twofold intention of preventing the next war (and in the process, ending the current one) and restoring freedom in this country, I have complete confidence that we WILL prevail. What we have been lacking until now has been a unifying, drop-everything-else mission that proactively takes us forward. If fifty million of us blow in the same direction at once, there is no doubt we can bring down the wall of lies just as surely as the Berlin Wall came down.

Where There's a Willingness, There's a Way

The way has not showed up as yet because there hasn't been the collective, focused will. First the will, then the way. The will requires a willingness to stand and keep standing, understanding that standing is easier when we are standing together. Next comes the intention, the prize we have our eyes on. What does it look like and feel like to no longer have to be afraid of your own government, and know the world is in less danger because of it? What will we see in the world that will tell us we have momentum towards peace? That we've won back precious freedoms at home? That we are on our way to working together instead of being manipulated into fighting one another?

Once we have that focused intention -- and know it is shared by tens of millions of Americans, with more awakening every day -- and are strengthened in our willingness, the ways will be obvious and many. The nature of leadership in this context is that it will come from everywhere, and above all the shared intention and the willingness to persevere. As for what kinds of structures and campaigns will be needed, here are some ideas:

1. A High Profile Front and Center Movement. It's inevitable, and will hopefully happen sooner and not later. We need a high-profile, celebrity-laden, transpartisan council of well-known, well-respected, influential individuals and organizations to finally draw the line and JUST SAY NO to fascism at home and preemptive, undeclared warfare abroad. That means repeal of the Patriot Act, restoration of habeas corpus, repudiation of police state tactics and the end of the dictatorship by unitary executive.

Tactically, we are seeking to recapture the media, and at the same time -- just to make sure --put the media in its place. This means we need to launch a massive non-media campaign. We need to communicate outside the mainstream media, and preempt the media by speaking to people in the community directly -- by the each or by the bunch. Each of us holding this holistic context is an educator.

We use car banners, truck banners and if we can afford it, billboards. We wear arm bands. In so doing, we constantly remind ourselves of how many of us there are out there. Above all, we must go way beyond the obsolete distinctions of "Democrat" and "Republican." Clear-thinking and goodhearted people on both sides have been hoodwinked into gravitating to the neoliberal and neoconservative camps -- two-sides of the same worthless coin. The greatest political awakening of this new century will be this: Supporters of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have more in common with each other than with the leaders of their respective political parties. The heart and soul of these campaigns are in the same place, even if the details and approaches (more government vs. less government) are different. As we allow ourselves to be politically educated -- i.e., as the patriot left and the patriot right compare notes -- those with their hearts in the right place will work together to develop creative policies that are impossible under the thumb of empire.

2. Massive Snail Mail Campaigns to March for Us, Even When We Stay Home. Meanwhile, we strategically use snail mail in great numbers focused on specific entities, to make it clear to politicians, media moguls, and newspeople that we're hip to the scam, and we're not buying it anymore. There's a lot of power in handwritten snail mail. First of all, the powers that be in power respect the numbers. Each piece of mail they receive represents thousands of e-mails, they figure. Secondly, it's an opportunity to "get personal," not in an insulting way but in a poignant way.

What could happen if those in power were repeatedly exposed to heartfelt messages from clear and courageous Americans, not angry but firm? With photos. That would mean a website where people could post their letters before sending, so even if Senators and media moguls didn't read them, everyone else would. It's easy to imagine people getting together with their twenty best friends and having an evening gathering to write letters together -- using art to appropriately focus emotion. It might even become habit-forming.

Meanwhile, the letters to news media can be focused and staggered -- one week for Fox, one for CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC and MSNBC. Some should specifically cultivate and support allies like Keith Olbermann and Bill Moyers, offering story ideas. The letters should focus on the media failing America and how to make up for it by balancing the coverage and putting those dissenting generals on the news shows. If not, then not putting them on becomes the issue, and the pressure intensifies. Various members of our board of notables begin making phone calls to the CEOs of these companies, and if nothing else, that gets in the papers.

3. A General Strike, or Something Even Better. There is even the suggestion in Harpers Magazine of using election day this year to declare a General Strike. This is an intriguing idea, but the Swami says, "Let's throw them a curve, and have a general ball instead!" In other words, instead of acting like we are a protesting minority, understand that we are in the majority, and use the day to celebrate awakened citizens from across the political spectrum coming together to proclaim government of, by and for the people where the government does our bidding, not the bidding of the highest bidder. We need to gather at every city hall and local public meeting place on this day and declare together that we the people are no longer willing to be divided and conquered by our misleaders.

Is this possible? Can we do it? We humans are usually pretty good responding to an emergency once we realize there is one. We've been shamelessly and shamefully manipulated into responding to the wrong emergency, and now we must "emerge 'n see" the truth that united we stand, and divided we fall. This means Americans with different opinions coming together to declare their support for rule by law, peace when possible, and freedom at home. These are the core values 75% to 90% of us stand for, and if we can't stand together and hold our own government to that -- well, maybe we humans deserve to flunk third dimension.

To reiterate what I think is the most important point, intention strengthens will, and will finds a way. If we can stop "politics as usual" long enough to gather "under one big intent" the organizations and structures needed will make themselves known. Believe me, this is in the works. Meanwhile, begin to hold the dual intentions of freedom at home and peace abroad, and add your energy and momentum to anything that moves that agenda along. For example, there is now a petition circulating -- inspired by a similar letter by retired air force Captain Robert Bowman. Afterdowningstreet.org now has a letter signed by various luminaries from Thom Hartmann to Willie Nelson "instructing" our troops not to participate in an attack against Iran. At the very, very least we can get behind this move and make sure it hits the major news outlets.

So ... your feedback and ideas are welcome. If there is a way you would like to participate, if there is an organization you have that would get behind this, please let me know. This is not a time to hang back and hope that a political savior will save us next November. We have met the savior, and it is us. The best way to insure retaking the country is to do it before the 2008 election. Right now, the powers that be in power have control over the two lame choices we get. It's up to us to let them know we're not buying those choices, and we have a different agenda, one that represents the true and awakening heart and soul of America.

www.wakeuplaughing.com

Steve Bhaerman is a writer, humorist and uncommontator who's been posing as cosmic comic Swami Beyondananda for the past 20 years. As the Swami, Steve is the author of four books including his latest, Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction. His website is www.wakeuplaughing.com.

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delia

a 50-million-strong blow-job? Or maybe if enough people blew in the opposite direction, the ruling class would sit up and take notice. Imagine if 50 million ''observers'' showed up at this convention: Second North American Secessionist Convention 3-4 October 2007 Chattanooga, Tennessee 16 Organizations, numerous observers registered as of 9/4/07 by delia (0 articles, 43 comments) on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 3:40:37 PM

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ladybroadoak

GLOBAL movement, more grassrootz, more creative, more info Inclusive versus exclusive, creative versus same old, same old ... We are the change in the world we want to see!! "I'm crazy, you're crazy, they're crazier .." Simeon Toko One thing that has bothered me since the new "movement"'s inception is lack of GLOBAL focus - a movement is needed that is not so AMERICOCENTRIC, as that is part and parcel of the old meme. This does not mean going in and finding some token front person. Too much of the movement has been dedicated (and perhaps subconsciously) to handing over our power to organizations that are personality dominated. Hence it is easy to say that "leaders" are mic hogs or attention whores .. or whatever .. as the inevitable backlash comes back and then precious energy gets wasted propping up said leaders instead of broadening the base of support for our organizations. I think it is HIGH time for some of the leaders to step away from the mic .. it's holding people BACK. Instead, focus on creating new forms of media - OpEd News is certainly one of a new form of media, but we need radio stations, even a TV station beaming back REAL news from around the Globe, 24/7. In organizing terms, the energy has gone towards building what is know as "technocracies" - groups rallied around so-called experts. Ex CIA people, scholars (!!!), mothers of dead soldiers who devote full time attention to the "movement" has been The Movement's wont rather than focussing on grassroots methods of organizing that have been shown to work over time; these grasssrootz organizations cannot be shredded as easily. To a certain extent, the reason we are so fond of OpEd News is that this nearly as close to a grassroots organization as has arisen .... but the CONTENT is AMERICOCENTRIC continually. I know good hearted people who do nothing all day but read the Oh! Woe is me! opeds that crop up on the internet, never once pausing to read material being generating in a HOST of other countries. This is so totally imbalanced and impolitic these days. The more global types of organizations have faltered and fallen in my opinion for at least two identifiable reasons. First, they tend to be male dominated and women are regularly silenced or not taken seriously. Whenever I get some points made in a group, OUT I GO so that Mr. "enlightened" liberal stays ON TOP. (and that is why I continue to love Rob Kall and will support what he does; I am GRATEFUL. He is truly a GROWING individual. He has a lot to teach the HACKS out there, who are legion.) Two, they tend to be new agey and don't appeal to the main stream person who has other spiritual ideas. This is not ALWAYS the case, but then the exceptions tend to go back to the Americocentric model. We live in a world of TRANSNATIONALS, and a rapid concentration of capital "assets" ripped off indigneous peoples. These ripped off people's have PLENTY to say about fighting back and yet people tend to ignore what they have to show and teach us. The most excellent paper I have read during the last three years was written by Dr. Michael Yellowbird at the University of Kansas, a discussion paper to say native peoples should cease and desist from fighting in wars. I managed through a network to get this paper disseminated in Australia and New Zealand to every single major aborinal communities, WARRIOR communities as well as get it into the hands of every Parliamentarian in OZ and NZ. At the time I did, I wondered would anyone else do that? Make sure it didn't stay with America's shores? Our organizations stay only as healthy as WE ourselves focus on true service, service undertaken for the good of ALL so we can rise above pettiness and status considerations, which I see just rife in the groups I am in or have left. Anyone who reads OpEd News for a period of time knows that I push the use of art and creativity continually. That's what WE have and the choke hold of the fascists lacks. That's why we waste our efforts on things like debating Hilary Clinton's campaign, choosing between the lesser of evils!! (I don't, but other people who claim to be Ghadhi-ites do ..) We COULD be out there doing one little creative act a day, with dedication, until it just all mounts up -- that's what American Indian Injustice group does! And it WORKS. There are 700 individuals who get involved when an active alert is sounded. IMHO, we must reach out higher and FURTHER .. and include every brother and sister in our organizations. I am on one news group made up of Canada, US and Ontario citizens and I love the discussions because there is way more depth to them. The Canadian and UK contingents are more diverse (and I've asked at least one of them to come to OpEd and post his fantastic views, to share his unique insights.) For myself, the one single unifying issue is the use of low level radiation issue. It affects us ALL. The information on its effects is being SUPRESSED!! Last year the Low Level Radiation campaign released a minority report from a major study that is totally SHOCKING!! without this information NO ONE NO WHERE is operating from an informed position. So I put together a long (but not THAT long) chain letter and asked people to circulate it an important document to show others. One friend of mine put together important youtube videos on aspects of low level radiation that are MUST SEE and included them in my posting. Anyone reading this I implore you to take this information and put it in other people's hands!! Read it and have your feelings and get to work!! by then passing it on in anyway you can. Here's a postcard Eileen Danemann put out. I am personally hacking away every day on my blog which has a GLOBAL focus, and I also am building a website for earthlings anonymous. I live on disability and running a yahoo research group, doing my blog, writing for OpEd News (although I did some posts in New Zealand this year on interventionISM and recovery from trauma) and getting enough people together to start an INTERNATIONAL website is all I can personally do. But it is what I do ... My blog has over 1400 items devoted to planetary healing we are ALL suffering PTSD and TRAUMA. I cannot run the large a list of tags, so it must be accessed by putting topics in the blog search box - I direct my 5th chakra energies (100%!) into a daily effort and I Invite people to use at a resource continually - it gets read by right wingers constantly and I am aware of that and write accordingly. Spy agencies, foreign governments, the military - they ALL read it! But the progressives? Forget it! They don't want to re-educate themselves yet seems to me, because it takes finding what we all have in common, rather than focussing on our differences and getting with a DAILY Program of Recovery ... we've all been done in by counterintel pro, psyops, agitprop ... The focus must move to RECOVERY !! My blog is my attempt to create a HUGE POSTER for recovery .. and I still have another 3000 items to put on it!! The problem is, as it is for many thinking outside "the box" is I don't have resources to take things ever further and get some HELP! I think I have a plan .. I set up a google group to start a beehive of dialogue on the use of art to catapault the use of OUR propoganda. I announced it here at OpEd News. No one came! No one. I can say that I am "wrong" or I can say the time was NOT right, or . but I still think that massive GLOBAL art demos are the wave of the future . ones that bypass appealing to a deaf, insane, bought off, over lobbied CONGress. Target dates to do mass GLOBAL mails into DC are possible; days to make noise everywhere on the planet can be set. The old methods are truly the best - shout, scream, make noise, the things man did before Big Pharma and the deliberate creation of dysfunction and diseases ... Our PRESENCE must be felt and the best way to do this is to be totally present each and every single day, beaming our intentions and then DOING what we must do. But it AIN'T gonna change by creating a network of only "this" woman should be listened to, or only "That" guy has credentials to know what he is talking about ... and we must start paying attention to what indigenous people trying to leader us to .. a more fair society for ALL. Here's a link to inspiration from Evo Morales ... Now if we could just truly start thinking of ourselves as EARTHLNGS, living in a Milleium of the Living, we wouldn't be so easy to divide and conquer, although we must bear in mind the only way to achieve human rights/social justice is through national sovereigny . and the FASCISTS truly do want to take that away. Join up and start working against the North American Alliance ( NAU ), right now referred to as the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP ). They"'ll keep changing the letters as it suits them ... In North America the front lines are at Lake Sharbot and in Nevada .... and I hope at least ONE PERSON will read this, decide to sign up and help people stand the ground of sanity. Consider - More recently, Douglas Valentine, author of THE PHOENIX PROGRAM (CIA torture and assassination program in Vietnam), explained on Radio Liberty on October 18, 2006: "Democracy has been hijacked from us. It's been hijacked by these very powerful industrialists for whom the CIA really works. They don't work for you. They don't work for me. They don't work for the middle class. They don't work for the lower class. They work for a very elite group of Americans who control the wealth in this country. And their job is, through whatever means possible... to preserve the priviliges of this ruling one or two or three percent of the industrialists in this country. And, frankly, they do a very, very, very good job of it. and this is from my first OpEd News piece: The Information Age has been a useful tool for the gathering of the female tribes. Fed up with "finding themselves", women want to find a way to help others and themselves. Life has suddenly taken on new meaning and purpose. We no longer move down the streets in isolation. There is no "glass ceiling" in the streets. We are all equal. All voices are heard. All banners are read and celebrated. We can vote with our feet to say that "Enough is enough." And we know the angels are at our side. We move fearless and forward to a day when we wake up unafraid. "Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." - Thomas Edison -