::> I love it when republicans start sniveling about lack of money...

warren pease (1000+ posts)

Sun Jun-08-08 11:31 PM Response to Original message

44. I love it when republicans start sniveling about lack of money...

...It's usually followed by the sounds of a democratic victory party. But the bigger picture is the obscene sums of money required to be considered a viable presidential candidate. It's been out of hand since Buckley vs. Valeo in 1976, and now this whining harpy writes that Obama may end up with around $300 million in total contributions for the whole election cycle. That's just amazing, and the really sick thing is that most of it will go to the same TV networks that miss no opportunity to disrespect dems and praise the GOP. I just hope to hell they don't spend a dime with Fux or CNN or ABC -- not that the others are much better, but these three have really set the standard for bottom feeding. So there's good news and bad. On the good side, there's the fact that GOPers are openly sniveling over a lack of money. This has to be a first; just the idea of republicans running short on cash is enough to heal the sick, raise the dead and eliminate the heartbreak of psoriasis for all time. There's good old fashioned payback, too, and I think it's long overdue. One of the sweetest sights in the universe is the giant crater formed by smug and sanctimonious lard-asses as they come crashing back to earth after their 15 minutes in the limelight. Better yet if the object reentering earth's atmosphere happens to look like KKKarl Rove. So they're stuck with a ridiculous candidate who actually wants to position himself as the only one of the lot who will build on the Bush administration's legacy of decency and compassion at home, and its nearly perfect record of foreign policy triumphs. Now there's a winning strategy if I ever saw one. If the RNC didn't have the cell phone numbers of some of the finest professional election thieves around, along with the loyalty of the corporate swineherds who run the companies that build the machines that rig our privatized elections, they'd have no possibility of winning anything above alderman in a one-horse, two-bar, three-pickup town somewhere in the blistering heat of the great southwestern desert. Finally, because McCain won't come within $200 million of Obama's war chest, we'll see much less of this tumorous, beady eyed lying old bastard trying to fob off his persona of the week on voters who, in general, would rather swallow swords than have anything to do with electing this guy. On the bad news side, the kind of money that's apparently necessary to fund a modern presidential campaign is insane. It's nice that Obama's going for individual donors and staying away from PACs and lobbyists. But if this keeps up, it'll be impossible to exclude any potential sources of money and, as usual, the corporatocracy will outspend the peasantry by a million to one. The simple truth is that any relatively solvent Wall St. investment firm, for example, can afford to buy as many senators and members of the House as necessary to secure a favorable outcome on key pieces of legislation. This is particularly true when XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. On the other hand, when I get through with the monthly debt-slave routine, it's tough to afford even a memento like a new plastic comb to help legitimize Senator Widestance's long vigils in airport mens rooms from sea to shining sea. I can usually afford a couple of meals out, a box of strawberry sorbet popsicles and a case of tuna and shrimp gluten-free, non-toxic, poison-free, certified non-lethal gourmet food for the cats -- who are so exceptionally cool that they actually deserve gourmet food. I'll probably have to develop a taste for it myself if the Bush economic miracle continues to worry my usual clients about spending money on freelancers, causing my business to turn into an unwilling but de facto non-profit corporation. So absent public financing of campaigns at all levels -- president to county coroner -- the financial arms race will continue to spiral out of control. Only the super-rich or incredibly well-connected members of the middle-class will have any chance to run for office, much less win. So why even bother with elections? Let's just total up the dollars and whoever has the most money on "election day" wins. No expensive election infrastructure, no suppressing turnout, no hanging chads, no "intent of the voter," no Diebold, ES&S or Sequoia, no vote flipping, voter caging, voter roll purging, no under-supply of machines in dem precincts... All that's in the past. Best of all, it turns an expensive undertaking into that most treasured of American institutions: a profit center. By the time the various federal, state and local jurisdictions get through slicing off their pieces of the action, the campaign will likely be in the red. The roads will have a couple hundred fewer potholes, though, so it all works out in the end. wp

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Ghost Dog (1000+ posts)

Mon Jun-09-08 03:33 PM Response to Reply #44

47. This deserves getting copied to my scratchpad,

http://scratchpad-siboney.blogspot.com / ...if you don't object.

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warren pease (1000+ posts)

Mon Jun-09-08 05:11 PM Response to Reply #47

48. Sure, please distribute at will...

But please do me a favor and delete this damn sentence before re-posting: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX It's in the 10th paragraph from the top, counting from that one-line blurb at the beginning. It doesn't really need to be there and I forget why I put it in. It's not at all relevant to the previous sentence. Plus, it's got two separate tpyoes and I f-ing HATE tpyoes. Typos, too. Thanks. I really appreciate it. wp

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Ghost Dog (1000+ posts)

Mon Jun-09-08 11:28 PM Response to Reply #48

49. Errr, copied and understood, warren.

You've got the link and the

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LiberalPersona (393 posts)

Mon Jun-09-08 12:38 AM Response to Original message

45. I like where this is going

It really seems that we have many tactical advantages over the republicans this time around.

:: Has the Fed Painted Itself in a Corner?

ozymandius (1000+ posts)

Mon Jun-09-08 11:55 AM Response to Original message

17. Has the Fed Painted Itself in a Corner?

Without a doubt, the Federal Reserve now faces the most difficult financial and economic climate in our collective memory. And it is increasingly apparent that its options are constrained. Although it is premature to arrive at definitive judgments, it's nevertheless worth asking whether some of these limitations were unwittingly self-created. Friday's market rout, triggered by the one-two punch of an unexpectedly large rise in unemployment and an $11 spike in oil prices, put paid to the idea that the Fed might put through a wee interest rate increase before year end. We didn't expect anything more than 25 basis points, since the second leg of the credit crunch, this time dragging down regional and local banks, is underway. And Wall Street has not hit bottom either. But as Wolfgang Munchau tells us in the Financial Times, for the first time in modern memory, a foreign central bank's stance, in this case, the ECB's, is limiting the Fed's scope of action: In the past, European central bankers tended to follow the US Federal Reserve, often with delay, never perfectly, but generally in the same direction.....The policy response to our most recent financial crisis has been different. While the Fed cut by an accumulated 325 basis points, the Europeans first refused to follow, and they are now moving in the opposite direction.... the ECB is now likely to raise interest rates by 25 basis points next month, and I suspect this could be followed by another rate increase later this year.... This suggests that in terms of global monetary policy, we are in the middle of a shift from a unipolar to a bipolar world. In the past, the Fed’s policy alone used to determine the global monetary policy stance – via the dollar, the global anchor currency. Through long periods of loose monetary policies, including lengthy episodes of negative real interest rates, the Fed contributed directly to the rise in global inflation.... ..... As monetary policy of the world’s two largest economies moves in starkly opposite directions, interesting possibilities are opening up. One is whether the dollar will decline prematurely as a global currency – an issue on which economists are divided. Differential inflation rates could plausibly trigger such a shift. As US inflation rises, more and more countries may unpeg from the dollar to avoid imported inflation. If this trend persisted, the US would risk losing its exorbitant privilege – the ability to live beyond its means thanks to a globally domineering currency. Bernanke has treated the dollar with benign neglect, but now that the oil has become a preferred dollar hedge. Even if oil would fall to $110, it would still put brakes on the economy, and oil above $130 or higher will suck any remaining life out of the economy. The high prices haven't yet worked their way through to the pump, and the secondary effects, such as the price effects of higher shipping costs, are only beginning to kick in. But how did the Fed get itself here? There are different ways to frame the problem. We're of the view that the central bank took rates too low and left them low for too long in the dot-bomb era, and cut too deep, too fast this time. Former Fed economist Richard Alford explains that those decisions were the product of a flawed analytical framework.... http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/06/has-fed-painted-...

Manifestación: Contra la Central Térmica en el valle de Agando (Fuerteventura)

http://canarias.indymedia.org/index.php
05 jun 2008 (Updated)

por (((i))) canarias

Miles de personas en las calles


(más de 3000), los comercios cerrados en solidaridad con la causa, un sentimiento de rabia e impotencia y 4.700 firmas que rechazan la central térmica que pretenden ubicar cerca de Gran Tarajal, Giniginamar, Tarajalejo y Las Playitas. Además, los manifestantes ante la ausencia de los miembros del grupo de gobierno del Ayuntamiento de Tuineje, le enviaron un mensaje al Alcalde, Salvador Delgado, que nos gustaría que se repitiese en otros municipios de la isla: "alcalde, escucha, el pueblo está en lucha".


Fuente: http://fuerteventuralimpia.blogspot.com/2008/06/manifestacin-contra-la-central-trmica.html

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Sábado 7 de Junio de 2008 a las 12 horas en Gran Tarajal. Salida desde el Parque Félix López.

El Avance de Plan Territorial Especial de Ordenación de Infraestructuras Energéticas de la isla de Fuerteventura propone ubicar en el valle de Agando (T.M. Tuineje) un sistema de generación de energía eléctrica de 300 megawatios, una planta de almacenamiento y distribución de hidrocarburos con capacidad de 100.000 metros cúbicos y una planta almacenamiento de hidrógeno.

La Plataforma Ciudadana contra la Central Térmica de Agando, constituida como respuesta al Plan, basa su oposición en que:

• Supone un riesgo para la calidad del aire y, por tanto, para la salud y la calidad de vida de la población de Gran Tarajal, Giniginamar, Tarajalejo y otros asentamientos de población circundantes al valle de Agando.
• La descarga de combustible por el muelle de Gran Tarajal, por el riesgo que ello implica al tratarse de mercancías peligrosas, sus efectos ambientales y su incompatibilidad con otros usos, supone un lastre que condicionará las decisiones sobre las perspectivas futuras de Gran Tarajal y del municipio de Tuineje
• El Avance del Plan se ha llevado adelante a pesar de la oposición de municipio a que se instalara una central térmica en el Valle de Agando reflejada en la resolución aprobada por unanimidad en el pleno del Ayuntamiento de Tuineje celebrado en el año 2004.
• La Plataforma ciudadana comparte la necesidad que la central térmica salga de Puerto del Rosario por las molestias que acusa su población, pero matiza que no deben cometerse los mismos errores ubicando de nuevo estas infraestructuras contaminantes en las cercanías de otros núcleos de población. Este Plan pretende ubicar la central térmica entre dos poblaciones, Gran Tarajal y Giniginamar.

# Web de la plataforma
# Manifiesto
# Hoja informativa
# Misterio eléctrico
# El extraño caso de una central eléctrica que nadie quiere (y que sin embargo, se mueve)
# La energía solar en Fuerteventura

Más... (12 com.)

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La manifestación de Gran Tarajal contra la central térmica de Agando en la prensa corporativa:

Licencia

This work is in the public domain.

Revisions

• Most recent version
• (1) 08/06 / andrés (fuerte)

EN LA PROVINCIA:

3.000 voces contra la Central de Agando en Fuerteventura Los vecinos de Gran Tarajal tomaron este sábado las calles para rechazar la nueva industria eléctrica

LA PROVINCIA

ANTONIO CABRERA / PUERTO DEL ROSARIO

Gran Tarajal se vistió este sábado de luto. 3.000 vecinos tomaron sus calles ataviados con camisetas negras para mostrar su rechazo a la instalación de la central térmica que pretende ubicar el Gobierno de Canarias en el Valle de Agando. Un solo pueblo y una sola voz para hacer llegar a las instituciones públicas, principalmente al Ayuntamiento de Tuineje y Cabildo de Fuerteventura que "Agando no se toca, alguien se equivoca", como proclamaban al unísono.

/Leer el artículo completo (con comentarios)…

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EN CANARIAS 7:

Pues, la noticia no aparece de momento en la edición "online" de Canarias 7. En parte, su reportaje (de CATALINA GARCÍA/PUERTO DEL ROSARIO) dice:

Enarbolando la bandera de la calidad de la vida y del respeto al medio ambiente, cerca de 3.000 personas se echaron en Gran Tarajal ayer a la calle en señal de protesta contra el proyecto de instalación de la central eléctrica en el valle de Agando. La opinión de los vecinos quedó clara en la concentración y en las casi 5.000 firmas que piden, a través de una iniciativa popular, la implicación del Ayuntamiento de Tuineje y el Cabildo Insular para que manifiesten la más enérgica oposición al plan que promueve el cambio de la central desde El Charco a Agando.

…

El respeto en general por el medio ambiente son las razones que esgrime la plataforma ciudadana contra la central térmica. Este proyecto supone un riesgo para la calidad del aire, «y por lo tanto para la salud y la calidad de vida» de la población de Gran Tarajal, Ginginámar y otros asentamientos de población cercanos a Agando.

/Artículo completo sólo disponible en edición impresa (¿de Fuerteventura?)…