The Sewerhead

Mark Ames takes down the little twit.

War on Toyota

Along with all the other wars our way-in-over-his-head President has started/will start, the terrific economic writer Mike Whitney explains the most current:

Does anyone really believe that Toyota is being pilloried in the media for a few highway fatalities?

Nonsense. If Congress is so worried about innocent people getting killed, then why haven't they indicted US commander Stanley McChrystal for blowing up another 27 Afghan civilians on Sunday?

But this isn't about bloodshed and it's certainly not "safety regulations". It's about politics -- bare-knuckle Machiavellian politics. An attack on Toyota is an attack on Japan's leading export. It is an act of economic war. Here's a excerpt from the New York Times which explains what is really going on:

"The Japanese economy has emerged from its worst recession since World War II, but is still reeling. Japan must do more to lift its economy out of deflation and boost long-term growth, S.&P. said.

“The outlook change reflects our view that the Japanese government’s diminishing economic policy flexibility may lead to a downgrade unless measures can be taken to stem fiscal and deflationary pressures,” S.&P. said. “The policies of the new Democratic Party of Japan government point to a slower pace of fiscal consolidation than we had previously expected.”

President Barack Obama is expected to address similar worries in the Untied States on Wednesday, with a call for a freeze in spending on many domestic programs, a move he hopes will quell perceptions that government spending is out of control. Fiscal problems in Greece and Ireland have also helped put the spotlight on the issue of national debt."

Japan's new liberal government is fighting deflation using the traditional methodology, by lowering interest rates and increasing fiscal stimulus. But that's not what Washington wants. Neoliberal policymakers and their buddies in the right-wing think tanks want "fiscal consolidation" which means harsh austerity measures that will deepen the recession, increase unemployment, and trigger a wave of defaults and bankruptcies. This is how western corporatists and bank tycoons keep their thumb on the developing world and thrust their economies into perennial crisis. It's the "shock doctrine" and it's been the IMF's modus operandi for over 20 years. Japan is being stuffed into a fiscal straight-jacket by supporters of the Washington consensus whose goal is to weaken government and accelerate the privatization of public assets and services.

The ratings agencies are being used in the same way as the media; to wage an economic/guerrilla war on Japan and force the administration to rethink their economic policies. (Note: There is no chance that Japan will default on its debt because it pays its debts in its own currency and has large foreign exchange reserves of over $1 trillion) The attacks on Toyota are a way of showing Tokyo what happens to countries that fail to obey Washington's orders.

Here's a clip from the New York Times which sums up the problem in a nutshell:

The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has "bolstered spending on social programs aimed at helping households......The powerful lower house of parliament approved a supplementary budget for the fiscal year that ends in March worth ¥7.2 trillion, or $80.3 billion, to help shore up the economy...And next year, government spending will grow further with a record trillion-dollar budget including ambitious welfare outlays.

Western elites will not tolerate economic policies which raise the standard of living for the average working slob. "Social programs" or "welfare outlays" are anathema to their trickle down, Voodoo capitalist orthodoxy. What they want is upward redistribution and class warfare. Regrettably, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has put himself at odds with US powerbrokers and is feeling the full measure of their wrath. His public approval ratings have plummeted to 37 percent and are headed downward still. The message is simple: Cross Washington and you're a goner.

Zombie Summit

The reps at Obama's "health care summit":

5 Dumbo Senators, all of whom did such a great job on health care in 2009
4 Repug Senators, all of whom were front-and-center in stopping reform in 2009
7 Dumbo Congresspeople, all of whom did such a great job on health care in 2009
5 Repub Congresspeople, all of whom were front-and-center in stopping reform in 2009

Supporters of Single-Payer (something Obama proposed as candidate): ZERO
Supporters of a Public Option (something Obama later proposed as candidate): ZERO
Supporters of universal Medicare (something Obama proposed even later as candidate): ZERO
Humans who've never taken money from the Pharm/Insurance/Hospital Crime Combine: ZERO
Members of labor unions: ZERO
Representatives of bankrupt states: ZERO
Humans without health insurance: ZERO

Wise Words

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country. That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.

Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

R.I.P. Joe Stack (1956 - 2010)

Getting Ready

Iran Got Next

A powerful essay by Peter Casey.

Lock Up All the White People

The always necessary Chris Floyd.

This week, an angry white man of European heritage flew an airplane into a building in protest against American political policies.

I urge the Department of Homeland Security to immediately institute stringent new visa requirements for all white people of European heritage who come from countries where there is likely to be anger about American policies. We cannot afford to let people like that into this country -- and if they are already here, we must remove them.

Of course, most angry white people of European heritage will not go so far as to commit acts of terrorism. And it is indeed unfortunate that some innocent white people of European heritage might be caught up in the security net. But as long as there is even a one percent chance that someone like that might commit an act of terrorism, we must make the tough choices and act decisively, without worrying about "political correctness."

Or do you want to wake up tomorrow and see the smoking gun of a mushroom cloud in your child's cereal bowl?

For as a wise man once said: "Those who sacrifice liberty for security make the world safe for democracy." Or something like that.

Operation New Dawn

It just gets worse and worse, doesn't it?

Absolute insanity.

What is now daily is what would've made people throw-up only a couple decades back. The United States of America is now being run along the lines of the Manson Family.

New dawn?

A million Iraqi casualties minimum.
Five million displaced from their own nation.
Complete destruction of Iraq's infrastructure: roads, bridges, telephone systems, oil refineries, gasoline storage tanks, power plants, water-pumping stations and sewage treatment plants, even village water tanks.
Total destruction of what was once among the best education systems in the world, targeting in particular the university system and university professors. (Over 300 professors have been murdered by US sanctioned death-squads.)
Extermination of the oldest culture in the world, beginning with the mass theft of some of the most precious artistic treasures in world history.
The targeting and assassination of archaeologists, writers, painters, calligraphers, and singers. (100 singers have been murdered to date!)
Per the World Health Organization, 70% of Iraqi children have suffered nervous breakdowns. . .

"Vengeance is mine; I will repay." -- Romans 12:19

How Many Times Can You Kill a Man?

New color footage showing JFK’s arrival in Dallas was put on display Monday at the thoroughly corrupt Sixth Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza. The short clip, shot on eight-millimeter film by a 15-year-old student, provides a color close-up of Kennedy and his wife as they arrived at Love Field. 45 minutes later, the President would be executed by his own national security state.



Meanwhile, Hearstian pimp station The History Channel announced plans to air an 8-hour hit job on the last democratic dynasty -- a family that gave the lives of three brothers and one sister in service to their country, brought to us by Joel "24" Surnow, fresh from sucking out Dick Cheney's colon.

Valentine

To Saya-chan.

Herbie Nichols understands.

"Many waters cannot quench love;

Neither can the floods drown it."

The Purpose of a System is What It Does

As Barack Obama murders Afghan children on a daily and nightly basis, Dwight Eisenhower -- top general in mankind's most destructive war -- turns slowly in his grave.

What can the world, or any nation in it, hope for if no turning is found on this dread road?

The worst to be feared and the best to be expected can be simply stated.

The worst is nuclear war.

The best would be this: a life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or any system to achieve true abundance and happiness for the peoples of this earth.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms in not spending money alone.

It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.

It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.

It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.

It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.

We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.

We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Murder Inc.

Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Congressman Dennis Kucinich discuss Uncle O's new assassination policy.

Hatoyama in 2012

Over the past 15 months, both the American and Japanese peoples voted for massive, structural change at the national level of their politics, economics, and foreign affairs. While Barack Obama has proven to be little more than a Wall Street fifth-columnist, the US version of Vidkun Quisling, Prime Minster Hatoyama Yukio can increasingly be seen as the Japanese Mikhail Gorbachev -- a revolutionary force working within the confines of establishment power. Upon his election -- the first defeat of the gangster Liberal Democratic Party since the end of the Pacific War -- he announced his main goal as the restructuring of Japanese society along more "horizontal lines" -- a final break with the "vertical" Reaganoid lies which crushed Japan under the likes of Koizumi and his zaibatsu-sucking criminals.

How can we put an end to unrestrained market fundamentalism and financial capitalism, that are void of morals or moderation, in order to protect the finances and livelihoods of our citizens? That is the issue we are now facing.

In these times, we must return to the idea of fraternity — as in the French slogan “liberté, égalité, fraternité” — as a force for moderating the danger inherent within freedom.

Fraternity as I mean it can be described as a principle that aims to adjust to the excesses of the current globalized brand of capitalism and accommodate the local economic practices that have been fostered through our traditions.

The recent economic crisis resulted from a way of thinking based on the idea that American-style free-market economics represents a universal and ideal economic order, and that all countries should modify the traditions and regulations governing their economies in line with global (or rather American) standards.

Globalism has progressed without any regard for non-economic values, or for environmental issues or problems of resource restriction. If we look back on the changes in Japanese society since the end of the Cold War, I believe it is no exaggeration to say that the global economy has damaged traditional economic activities and destroyed local communities.

In terms of market theory, people are simply personnel expenses. But in the real world people support the fabric of the local community and are the physical embodiment of its lifestyle, traditions and culture. An individual gains respect as a person by acquiring a job and a role within the local community and being able to maintain his family’s livelihood.

Under the principle of fraternity, we would not implement policies that leave areas relating to human lives and safety — such as agriculture, the environment and medicine — to the mercy of globalism.

Our responsibility as politicians is to refocus our attention on those non-economic values that have been thrown aside by the march of globalism. We must work on policies that regenerate the ties that bring people together, that take greater account of nature and the environment, that rebuild welfare and medical systems, that provide better education and child-rearing support, and that address wealth disparities.

Unlike Obama, who is all mouth, Hatoyama is actually doing what he promised. And Uncle Sam doesn't like it one bit.

When the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took office last year, they ended nearly a half century of unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, and also broke the unwritten rule of Japanese politics: not to question America. [US bases (red) on Okinawa]

The DPJ instantly started a clash with the US over deals made by the previous government on US military bases. The US, unused to being questioned on its policy in Japan, has flat out refused to negotiate going forward.

But while it is unclear how much the DPJ can really do about the base deals, it is proving increasingly reluctant to accept the “kindness budget,” a euphemism for the annual outlay (currently at about $2 billion) of Japanese government funds to subsidize the US forces in Okinawa.

With US bases eating up a good chunk of Okinawa and the US demanding $6 billion in “relocation costs” from Japan to move 8,000 of those troops to Guam, the DPJ is increasingly seeing these expenses, particularly during the economic crisis, as something they can do without.

Okinawans are irked by the amount of land the bases take up, and the excessive opulence of the bases, which come complete with their own golf courses on the crowded island. The US State Department insists that the golf courses aren't any different from anywhere else in the world.

Keep your head down, Hatoyama-san.

Your Tax Dollars at Work, Part MCMXII

The CIA sat by as the Peruvian air force shot down a plane carrying a family of American missionaries, according to surveillance footage obtained by ABC News. (More Bush/Cheney war crimes to be ignored by Obama, Holder und volken.)

Don't Go

As the USA enters its late Weimar Period, with our own Barack von Obama leading us into the pre-Nazi dark, what seems to be more and more exposed is the narcissism, ineffectuality, and just plain dumbness of what the Mainstream Media deigns to call the "left" -- such he-men and he-women as Olbermann, Maddow, Hamsher, Markos deDoofus, the car-alarm known as Joan Walsh, Krugman, the always precious Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Vanden Heuvel and the rest of the The Nation and MSNBC gang. Perhaps the best current proof of this absolute irrelevance is the chortling over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": while the US is in the midst of five (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, and covertly Iran) aggressive wars across the globe, these Starbucks Sandinistas whine and whine about Lifestyle Choice.

Justin Raimondo:

"Don't ask, don't tell" is an appalling policy, one that has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with the most primitive prejudice. But what else can one expect of an institution such as the military, particularly the US military in the Age of Empire?

Also, the idea that the concept of equality means that everyone should have the "right" to join an institution that is currently rampaging over the earth, invading countries hither and yon, and causing in incalculable amount of human suffering and material destruction would be laughable if Americans -- particularly gay Americans -- didn't take it so seriously.

No one should join the military -- not gay people, not straight people, not any people. In a free society, the military would be just another job -- working to ensure the defense of the country. In today's America, however, that is most definitely not the function of the military, which has been turned into an instrument of oppression and worse. To say, therefore, that everyone has the "right" to participate in, say, what went on at Abu Graib -- in the name of "justice" -- is self-evidently absurd.

The mobilization of liberals behind a crusade to make the world safe for the American empire is a key goal of the War Party, and one way to accomplish it is to market the conflict as a war to rid the world of political incorrectness. That fits in rather nicely with this “gays in the military” campaign, which is being brought up at a pivotal point in the life of the Empire: the transition from the conservative Bush regime to an administration much more conducive to the left-liberal imagination. Obama is having increasing problems with the “progressive” wing of his party, and throwing them this sop will help inoculate him against criticism of his foreign policy from the left.

For years, the US military has proscribed, tracked down, harassed, prosecuted, and imprisoned lesbians and gay men, entrapping them, depriving them of their pensions, and disrespecting them as people – and now that they’re desperate, and backed up against a wall, with an unpopular couple of wars to fight, suddenly they need them, they want them, and, by the way, they’re oh-so-sorry about the past.

Anyone who agrees to such a deal — far from being noble, or even patriotic — must be suffering from an enormous lack of self-esteem. We hear so much about “gay pride,” these days – so what kind of “pride” is that?

Finally, to any gay person contemplating a military career at this point, I have to ask: are you ready to not ask and not tell about the atrocities you could well be ordered to commit? If not, then my advice to you is simple: forget “don’t ask, don’t tell” – and just don’t go.

Occupied Territory

The Zelig of American politics must have been hanging around the ghosts of Williams Calley and Westmoreland these past few days.

-- In a laughable "up yours" to the Chinese -- our bankers -- the Obama Administration sold $7 billion of military hardware to Taiwan. China responded by canceling talks with the US on issues of strategic security, arms control, and nuclear non-proliferation. And now the Dalai Lama will have an honored seat at the White House.

-- Asked Congress to increase funding for the American nuclear arsenal to the tune of $5 billion. This after the LA Times reported over Christmas that the Pentagon pushed back hard against Obama's idea of a nuclear freeze. Pushed back hard? Blowing on the guy would do it.

-- 123 dead civilians in Pakistan, courtesy of the President's drone program: the perfect embodiment of the Gang of Obama-ism: dead bodies, clean hands.

-- In a jaw-dropping announcement (and that's saying a lot for this tap-dancer), the Administration leaked news of the deployment of a Ronnie Raygun-type MISSILE SHIELD to protect the oil shieks of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain. (They'll slip in Saudi Arabia when no one's looking.)

-- New draconian sanctions on Iran, aimed chiefly at strangling Iranian access to gasoline, meaning the average Iranian will suffer lots, and the big bad Ayatollahs not at all.

 -- Regarding Saudi Arabia, announced "a speed-up of arms sales and rapid upgrading of defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a bid to thwart future military attacks by Iran," a nation which hasn't attacked another country in over 400 years.

--  US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said yesterday that federal agencies have a policy of assassinating Americans overseas as required by the “war on terror.” In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Blair said the assassinations would be justified if US citizens were “taking action that threatens Americans.” So I vote for Dennis Blair to be the next one murdered.

And this was the week Uncle O told us there would be no money for nothin' domestic ever again.

Perversion for Profit

In the wake of JFK's murder, the nomination of Barry Goldwater as Republican candidate for President, and the election of nitwit movie stooge Ronnie Raygun for Governor of California, the baboon Right was really feeling its oats in the middle-1960s. So Charles "provided John McCain with juicy hookers and he provided me with juicy legislation" Keating hired the immortal George Putnam to teach us all about the true core of the Worldwide Communist Conspiracy: pornography.

"Perversion for Profit" (1965) was produced by Citizens for Decent Literature, out of Cincinnati, and quite obviously had a hand in bringing down the Soviet Union and saving the world from Cummunism.

We Got Plenty of Nuthin' (Except Money for Murder)

Chris Floyd on Uncle O's new budget.

The Trojan Horse

If Barack Obama is not a Trojan Horse, given the keys to power in order to smash every progressive hope alive in these years, then what is he?

US Drone Attacks Killed 123 Civilians in January

The US is being accused of killing dozens of civilians in a record twelve drone attacks last month. The Pakistani newspaper The News is reporting the US botched ten of the attacks, killing 123 civilians and just three al-Qaeda leaders—a ratio of forty-one to one.

Huge Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power

By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years. In fact, in 2019 and 2020 — years after Mr. Obama has left the political scene, even if he serves two terms — they start rising again sharply, to more than 5 percent of gross domestic product. His budget draws a picture of a nation that like many American homeowners simply cannot get above water. For Mr. Obama and his successors, the effect of those projections is clear: Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors.

Jailed US Citizens Allege Torture in Pakistan

In Pakistan, five jailed US citizens say they’ve been tortured since their arrest on terror charges nearly two months ago. The five young men are accused of seeking to join militant groups to fight US troops in Afghanistan. They were arrested after their families reported them missing in northern Virginia. Earlier today, one of the five handed a note to reporters at a Pakistani court room. The note read, “Since our arrest, the US FBI and Pakistani police have tortured us. They are trying to set us up… Help us.” One defense lawyer said one of the prisoners had been given electric shocks and was told to keep silent about the abuse.

More on the torture of US citizens by US intelligence agents.

Backtracking on Earlier Findings, Justice Dept. Clears Bush Attorneys of Authorizing Torture

Newsweek has revealed that the Justice Department will soon issue a report clearing John Yoo and Jay Bybee of professional misconduct for crafting memos that justified waterboarding and other forms of torture. Senior Justice Department official David Margolis reportedly softened an earlier finding from the Office of Professional Responsibility. Previously, the report concluded that Jay Bybee and John Yoo had violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they wrote a crucial 2002 memo approving so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.

More on the Justice Department sell-out with Scott Horton.

One Small Step for Goldman Sachs. . .

Obama Grounding Plans To Return Man To Moon

US President Barack Obama has announced that he is grounding plans to return astronauts to the moon. The decision was revealed as part of Mr Obama's budget plan for 2011. It follows the recommendations of an independent commission set up to assess the future of human space flight. It is expected that Nasa will be given $6 billion extra funding over the next five years but told to take a new direction. The focus will be on encouraging commercial spaceship development, extending the life of the International Space Station and working on a "flexible path" for human space exploration.

Translation: the money will go to see just how fast we can arrange space vacations for Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon.

And now, a real President.