"James Kwak" - Convenient Arguments

Friday 1 April 2011

http://50.17.184.149/convenient-arguments/1301184000

Here’s my solution to our national debt. We have a one-time, 100 percent tax on all wealth (net worth) of all United States residents, with a $10 million per-person exemption. With household wealth at around $60 trillion, that should be plenty to pay off the accumulated debt and shore up Social Security and Medicare for the next century.* The government promises never to do it again. Since we only care about future behavior, a one-time wealth tax should have no impact on people’s incentives to work, and hence no distorting effect on the economy.

Don’t like that idea? How about this one. The Federal Reserve creates $20 trillion in money but, instead of crediting it to large banks’ accounts at the Fed, it credits it to Treasury’s account. Again, no more debt. Again, the Fed promises never to do it again.

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"Christine Ahn & Sukjong Hong" - Bring War Dollars Home by Closing Down Bases

Published on Friday, April 1, 2011 by Foreign Policy in Focus

http://www.fpif.org/articles/bring_war_dollars_home_by_closing_down_bases

by Christine Ahn and Sukjong Hong

On the eighthanniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. fighter planes took off to start yet another military action -- this time, in Libya. A recent Gallup poll found that only 47 percent of Americans approved of military action in Libya, the lowest level of support for military intervention in 40 years. At the same time, U.S. President Barack Obama has sent Congress a budget that includes $1.2 trillion dollars for military and security expenditures. Clearly, Americans are weary of war, especially during an economic crisis that has threatened jobs, health plans, and pensions most families need to survive.

The hopeful news is that a grassroots movement of ordinary people across U.S. towns and cities has launched the New Priorities campaign, uniting under the demand to “bring the troops and war dollars home” by cutting defense spending instead of benefits, jobs, and basic government services. Worldwide actions are also being planned for the Global Day of Action on Military Spending on April 12^th to shine a light on egregious amounts of military spending by the world’s governments. Central to these efforts must include demands to shut the 1,000-plus U.S. military bases in over 46 countries.

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"Amy Halran" - Maine Town Declares Food 'Sovereignty'

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/03/maine-town-declares-food-sovereignty/

Local Food

by Amy Halloran | Mar 10, 2011

Following the lead of Sedgwick, Maine to exempt itself from state and federal food safety regulations, three other towns in Hancock County are now poised to adopt similar "food sovereignty" measures. 

Titled "The Ordinance to Protect the Health and Integrity of the Local Food System," Sedgwick's four-page document invokes the town's right to self-governance, and states that local producers and processors may sell food to consumers without licensing.  

"We have faith in our citizens' ability to educate themselves and make informed decisions," reads the ordinance, which was adopted unanimously March 5 at a meeting of about 100 residents. "We hold that federal and state regulations impede local food production and constitute a usurpation of our citizens' right to foods of their choice."

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"David Swanson" - Prediction -- 20 Years of War in Libya

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Prediction-20-Years-of-Wa-by-David-Swanson-110330-389.html

By David Swanson

Johan Galtung, sometimes called the father of peace studies, predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union and the refusal of Egyptian soldiers to attack civilians. His prediction of the collapse of the US empire in 2020 appears to be on schedule. So, it was noteworthy when he predicted on Tuesday at the University of Virginia that the war in Libya would last 20 years. If, however, NATO and the opposition were to kill Gadaffi, he said, the fighting could go on for more than 20 years.

This prediction came the day after Obama gave one of those speeches, like his speeches on Gitmo or Iraq, where he persuades you that something is already over without actually making that claim. How can the war (excuse me, humanitarian intervention) in Libya be over and have 20 years left to go?

Galtung argues that predictions of quick success in Libya depend on an ignorance of history and a reduction of broad social forces to the caricature of a single person. There are five forces at work in the Arab Revolution, Galtung argues: opposition to dictatorship (demand for civil rights), opposition to inequality and poverty (demand for economic rights), opposition to the U.S. and Israeli empires, the revolt of the youth, and the revolt of women. When a government is on the wrong side of all five forces, Galtung claims, it is doomed.

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"Michael Collins" - The Hidden Truth About Nuclear Power

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Hidden-Truth-About-Nuc-by-Michael-Collins-110328-135.html

March 28, 2011 By Michael Collins A poster at The Agonist, Joaquin, published an elegant and important analysis this weekend.  His tightly packed, brief post made three key points.  We're headed for an ugly future with nuclear power based on shortages and future fuel cycles more volatile than those imploding and exploding in Japan.  Governments, the nuclear industry, and the media are avoiding this issue entirely.  As a result, the rulers and technocrats who got us to the latest meltdown cannot be trusted to make any more decisions about energy needs. (Image) "The truth is, there is a big fat lie that the nuclear power industry and the media are foisting on the public and that has not changed." Joaquin "What is it", the big fat lie, Joaquin asks. "This lie has to do with the nature of nuclear power in the future. Everyone is asking, can we make nuclear technology, the current, nuclear technology safe? In truth, the current risks with the nuclear fuel cycle i.e., the risks of contaminating the environment, are not the risks of the future because the current nuclear fuel cycle is not the fuel cycle that will be used in the future. There's just not that much uranium left to fuel an extensive expansion of nuclear power generation."  Joaquin (See Note 1)

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"Josh Mitteldorf" - Half a Million Protestors on the Streets of London; Silence in the US Media

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Half-a-Million-Protestors-by-Josh-Mitteldorf-110329-982.html

March 29, 2011 By Josh Mitteldorf In Britain as in the US, an economic crisis that was caused by rogue bankers is being used as an excuse to slash public services, even as the Wall St thugs get bailed out at public expense. The British government has announced massive cuts in government services and employment. In response, 500,000 people flooded into the streets this weekend, in a mostly-peaceful protest march. Did the New York Times cover this event? The only article I could find was titled Police Brace for Royal Wedding. The Associated Press had a small article, posted on the NPR web site, but not, to my knowledge picked up in their radio news. BBC reported on the event, underplayed the causes and message of the protestors, overplayed reports of scattered violence. Teachers, nurses, firefighters, public sector workers, students, pensioners and campaign groups all took part in Saturday's mass demonstration. The event dwarfed protests in Wisconsin, where tens of thousands have protested in recent weeks. Where can we go to read background and analysis of these events?

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"Peter Dale Scott" - Who are the Libyan 'Freedom Fighters' and their Patrons?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Who-are-the-Libyan-Freedo-by-Peter-Dale-Scott-110328-30.html

March 28, 2011 By Peter Dale Scott Preface The world is facing a very unpredictable and potentially dangerous situation in North Africa and the Middle East. What began as a memorable, promising, relatively nonviolent achievement of New Politics -- the Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt -- has morphed very swiftly into a recrudescence of old habits: America, already mired in two decade-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sporadic air attacks in Yemen and Somalia, now, bombing yet another Third World Country, in this case Libya. The initially stated aim of this bombing was to diminish Libyan civilian casualties. But many, senior figures in Washington, including President Obama, have indicated that the US is gearing up for a quite different war for regime change, one that may well be protracted and could also easily expand beyond Libya.1 If it does expand, the hope for a nonviolent transition to civilian government in Tunisia and Egypt and other Middle East nations experiencing political unrest, may be lost to a hard-edged militarization of government, especially in Egypt. All of us, not just Egyptians, have a major stake in seeing that that does not happen.

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"Mike Whitney" - Housing Market Blues - The Bleeding Continues

By Mike Whitney

Global Research, March 30, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24056

The collapse in housing prices is gaining pace proving that the Fed's bond purchasing program (QE2) has been an utter failure. While liquidity sloshes around in the equities markets, the distress on Main Street is more excruciating than ever. The release of the Case-Shiller index of property values on Tuesday, confirmed analysts worst fears, that the decline in prices is accelerating on the downside further weakening household balance sheets, wiping out precious home equity, and thrusting working class families back into the red.

According to Bloomberg :

"Residential real estate prices dropped in January by the most in more than a year, raising the risk that U.S. home sales will keep slowing. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 3.1 percent from January 2010, the biggest year-over-year decrease since December 2009....

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"Chris Busby" - The Dangers of Radiation -- Deconstructing Nuclear Experts

What these people have in common is ignorance

By Chris Busby

Global Research, March 31, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24060

Since the Fukushima accident we have seen a stream of experts on radiation telling us not to worry, that the doses are too low, that the accident is nothing like Chernobyl and so forth. They appear on television and we read their articles in the newspapers and online. Fortunately the majority of the public don't believe them. I myself have appeared on television and radio with these people; one example was Ian Fells of the University of Newcastle who, after telling us all on BBC News that the accident was nothing like Chernobyl (wrong), and the radiation levels of no consequence (wrong), that the main problem was that there was no electricity and that the lifts didn't work. " If you have been in a situation when the lifts don't work, as I have" he burbled on, "you will know what I mean." You can see this interview on youtube and decide for yourself.

What these people have in common is ignorance. You may think a professor at a university must actually know something about their subject. But this is not so. Nearly all of these experts who appear and pontificate have not actually done any research on the issue of radiation and health. Or if they have, they seem to have missed all the key studies and references. I leave out the real baddies, who are closely attached to the nuclear industry, like Richard Wakeford, or Richard D as he calls himself on the anonymous website he has set up to attack me, "chrisbusbyexposed".

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"Gary Younge" - Will Republican Voters Believe Anything? The Right's Hyperbolic, Dysfunctional World

By Gary Younge, Comment Is Free
Posted on March 28, 2011, Printed on March 31, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150409/

Polls suggest there are between one in three and one in four Americans who would believe anything. More than a third thought President George Bush did a good job during Hurricane Katrina; half of those thought he was excellent.

Throughout most of 2008, as the economy careered into depression, just over one in four believed Bush was handling the economy well. As Bush prepared to leave office in January 2009, bequeathing bank bailouts, rampant unemployment, and Iraq and Afghanistan in tatters, a quarter of the country approved of his presidency.

These are national polls that span the political spectrum. So you can imagine how concentrated the distortions become when filtered through the tainted lens of the right. A poll earlier this month revealed that a quarter of Republicans believe a community rights organisation called Acorn will try to steal the election for Barack Obama next year, while 31% aren't sure whether it will or not. It won't. Because Acorn does not exist. It was defunded and disbanded after a successful sting operation by conservatives a couple of years ago.

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