The God That Failed...

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...The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult  by Chris Floyd
Beginning with Margaret Thatcher's election in 1979, government after government - and party after party - fell to the onslaught of an extremist faith: the narrow, blinkered fundamentalism of the "Chicago School." Epitomized by its patron saint, Milton Friedman, the rigid doctrine held that an unregulated market would always "correct" itself, because its workings are based on entirely rational and quantifiable principles. This was of course an absurdly reductive and savagely ignorant view of history, money and human nature; but because it flattered the rich and powerful, offering an "intellectual" justification for rapacious greed and ever-widening economic and social inequality, it was adopted as holy writ by the elite and promulgated as public policy.

This radical cult - a kind of Bolshevism from above - took its strongest hold in the United States and Britain, and was then imposed on many weaker nations through the IMF-led "Washington Consensus" (more aptly named by Naomi Klein as the "Shock Doctrine"), with devastating and deadly results. (As in Yeltsin's Russia, for example, where life expectancy dropped precipitously and millions of people died premature deaths from poverty, illness, and despair.)

According to the cult, not only were markets to be freed from the constraints placed on them after the world-shattering effects of the Great Depression, but all public spending was to be slashed ruthlessly to the bone. (Although exceptions were always made for the Pentagon war machine.) After all, every dollar spent by a public entity on public services and amenities was a dollar taken away from the private wheeler-dealers who could more usefully employ it in increasing the wealth of the elite -- who would then allow some of their vast profits to "trickle down" to the lower orders.

This is a woman who is incapable of passing a Turing test

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Ellis Weiner at HuffPo:
With Palin we encounter the purest example, in our lifetime, of a candidate whose mere presence on a national ticket demeans and pollutes the very process. To watch her being interviewed is to behold someone not only unwilling, but constitutionally unable, to give a lucid answer to a serious question...

This is a woman who is incapable of passing a Turing test, let alone acting as a Vice-President.

Ganja war

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America’s 20-Millionth Marijuana Arrest – Coming To Your Home Or Person?


American law enforcement will make its 20-millionth marijuana arrest. Regrettably however, the US will not be one step closer to any solution of this “problem” than when the federal government first started arresting people for cannabis seventy-one years ago today, with the first federal cannabis prohibition arrest of Samuel Caldwell.

Halfway through this epoch in American history known as cannabis prohibition, Richard M. Nixon’s own handpicked Shafer Commission studied cannabis for nearly two years and concluded: no criminal penalties for adult possession of 100 grams of marijuana.

Nixon was shocked by their findings and tried to bury the Shafer Commission’s report. Nixon instead proceeded with the “don’t try to confuse me with the facts, I’ve got my mind made up” approach to governance, and the full-scale war on cannabis commenced.

It's 2 o'clock sir, time for your medal

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McCain's Medals
"McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat," explains Bill Bell, a veteran of Vietnam and chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs -- the first official U.S. representative in Vietnam since the 1973 fall of Saigon. "Since McCain got 28 medals," Bell continues, "that equals out to about a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys -- grunts on the ground -- who had more than 7,000 hours in combat and I can tell you that there were times and situations where I'm sure a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison. The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down."

The poor buggers have suffered enough

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Nick Clegg: It would be madness to raise taxes now
Liberal Democrats are committed to lowering taxes for those who need help while raising them for the rich by closing the loopholes that benefit the wealthy. This is what families want and need: a simple, fair tax system that cripples no one. Some say our plans are no longer possible given the crisis. They are wrong – tax cuts are not just possible, they are vital.

During the 1980s recession, the chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, raised taxes and cut spending. Many imagine that such an approach is needed today, but times have changed and it would be madness to raise taxes now.
Nonsense. If the rich are worse off because of the financial crisis they'll pay less tax anyway. The principle remains the same. If you intend to raise the tax rate of people earning over a specific amount it matters not one jot what is happening to the economy.


Spot The Difference

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The Debate That Made No Difference
Tonight’s debate between the two corporate candidates’ was predictable and superficial. If I were to judge the by the debates only, I would have a hard time differentiating between the two. Both Senator’s were very close to one another on most issues save healthcare which in all reality is just a “straw-man” issue that probably won’t be enacted in the next term of either candidate, but it makes good fodder for political discourse