It's that time of year again. Let's make a gratitude list. We can be grateful for our health, for a roof over our heads and food in the kitchen, family, friends, neighbors. The simple things in life can see us through, right? Even in hard times.
Nonsense. That's middle-American pap generated by the PR machines to keep the natives down on the farm while the country is being looted by the politicians and the Wall Street Boys. While we're counting our blessings of the non-monetary form, they're finishing the looting of this country which has been the primary goal of the Bush administration.
Exactly what have the Wall Street Boys and the politicians they own done to our country? They've looted it. They've stolen grandma and grandpa's meager savings by hacking interest rates to below 1%, forcing seniors to give their houses away to the predators who sell reverse mortgages -- at a hefty price. They've manipulated the stock market to run it up, get your average person to invest, then the big boys sell quick and the average American loses half of their money. They've done that several times. They don't pay taxes, hiding their money in private equity funds off-shore. They bribe politicians to make laws that allow businesses to take all our jobs to third world countries to be done by child, prison, and slave labor. They manipulate the currency, holding down interest rates to create a bubble in the stock market, then one in real estate, and they steal many people's life savings.
Our economy is either teetering on the edge of a depression or maybe we're already there, and the Republicans are having fits about the fact that unionized auto workers with 30 years' on the job earn $60,000 plus medical and a pension. Which is what every American should be earning to have a decent life. But these people think all the wealth should go to the upper class, the top 5%, the insider, and working people should work for nothing.
Back to the gratitude list: It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year. Christmas lights and trees, colored paper, presents, cards, carolling, holiday parties and cheer, cookies and fudge and turkeys and excited laughing children. That's for the working people. But for the richest people in the country, it's even more exciting and lucrative, because: It's Holiday Bonus Time On Wall Street!!
I'm thinking that so many Americans are broke and can't really afford the Christmas lights, or they've lost their home so have nowhere to put them. Can't afford a Christmas tree. No presents. No parties. No cheer. Unemployment, maybe absolute paralyzing terror at what lies ahead. So maybe we should go to Wall Street and stand outside, in the street, and give a shout out to the Wall Street Boys who will be getting so much money in the next few weeks as a special reward for -- Best Looter? Best cheat, thief, liar. Best traitor. Best house-stealer. Best stock manipulator. Best performance of a criminal stealing everything that's not nailed down? Best politician-briber? The possible awards are endless. Maybe they'll throw us a few pennies as they dash from their high-rises to their chauffered limousines which will take them to the heliport so they can quickly get to their private jet at the airport and arrive just in time for the party in their own villa at Lake Como. Maybe they'll throw us a few pennies on their way out the door.
Did anyone think that there would be no bonuses for the Wall Street Boys? Don't be silly. Why else did they send the Secretary of Goldman Sachs, formerly known as the U.S. Treasury, to Congress with that ransom note -- the one that said "Give me $700 Billion Or We'll Blow The Whole Place Up?" Why is it Paulson refuses to tell the country what he did with the $300 Billion that our corrupt politicians just handed over to him like he was a trick or treater and they were giving him a bag of Good 'N Plenty? Paulson refuses -- refuses to tell Congress, or tell the public, who he gave that $300 Billion of taxpayer money to. How is this even possible? How much of taxpayers' money is going directly into the pockets of Paulson's friends on Wall Street? And why did Congress turn over that money without so much as a peep of protest? Are they getting kick-backs? Is everyone who's running our country corrupt?
"Some observers, such as financial expert and reporter Stephen Gandel, say bonuses are expected to be down, but not as much as they might have been without the bailout. Gandel, who's a Money magazine senior writer and contributor to Time.com says, 'Compensation should be down 70 percent but, because all this new money is coming from the government, the firms are now saying they can pay more, and so they're only going to cut bonuses by 40 percent.'"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/12/earlyshow/main4595179.shtml
We learn that John Thain, the CEO of Merrill Lynch, has just demanded a $10 Million Holiday Bonus for himself. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122870455251587405.html?mod=testMod For what? Most efficient at destroying a company? Merrill Lynch was rumored to be on the edge of failure just a few months ago, and was only "saved" by being bought out by Bank of America. Good job John Thain. How much of the $300 Billion goes into your pocket John?
The office of Goldman Sachs located on Wall Street -- as opposed to the office located in the U.S. Government and formerly known as the Treasury Department -- has reportedly set aside $6.8 billion dollars to be paid out to its insiders in bonuses. That's Billion -- with a B. Morgan Stanley, another Wall Street firm, has apparently decided to cut back, and they only have set aside $6.5 Billion -- with a B -- for Holiday Bonuses for the Wall Street Boys. The average investment employee is already earning $400,000 per year in regular compensation, ten times more than the average American working person earns.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/12/earlyshow/main4595179.shtml
Apparently the billions in bonuses to be paid out in the next few weeks to the Wall Street Boys, possibly coming from the $300 Billion of Taxpayer money handed to Paulson, may not be as exciting as the $60,000/year the unionized auto workers make, which we've been hearing the Republicans scream about for weeks now. You can barely turn on a news program without hearing some right-winger screaming about the auto workers. Particularly the old ones and the sick ones who worked 45 years at a plant doing tough physical work and now get healthcare and a pension, which really outrages the right-wing. They hate old people. They really hate old sick people because they're bad for the bottom line. And hate the children of union workers, hate paying for them to get an operation if they're sick. I wonder if the auto workers get a frozen turkey as their bonus? More likely, they get nothing.
If the Republicans have their way, the union workers will all be thrown out of work and cars will only be made in third world countries by slave labor. But the Wall Street Boys will keep their jobs right here in the good old U.S.A. I can't imagine another country in the world that has such corrupt politicians that they would allow this type of theft.
How could Congress stop this looting of our businesses and our treasury, this destruction of our economy, the theft of the meager assets and savings of the majority of the people? A lot of these Wall Street insiders structure their compensation in such a way that they can claim it as capital gains instead of ordinary income. That means they pay a maximum tax rate of 15% of the money they earn from their job. Congress does nothing to stop this. Actually some Democrats tried to change the law to close that loophole, but Chuck Schumer, another huge recipient of money from Wall Street, worked with the Republicans to make sure his "generous" friends on Wall Street didn't have to pay taxes like the auto workers do. That's right. Chuck Schumer -- a Democrat. A Democrat who gets lots of money from Wall Street.
Congress could also cap how much compensation can be a tax write-off for a business. They've done that for business meals. Some little salesperson on the road is scrutinized by the IRS to make sure he's not claiming too much on his lunch write-offs -- can't get the turkey and cheese, just the turkey by itself. But for the Wall Street Boys, who give so much money to Congress, no cap. If a business could not write off any compensation in excess of $250,000, for example -- meaning income, benefits, retirement, stock options, the whole bit -- then pursuant to basic corporate laws, these businesses could not pay these obscene levels of compensation. Or, if they did, then the business would be taxed on let's say Mr. Thain's $10 million bonus first, and then Mr. Thain would be taxed on it too. It would eliminate the practice of corporate looting. Which is one of the reasons we've got the Wall Street Bailout -- the insiders looted their companies.
And finally, of course, Congress could reinstate a progressive tax system to end the practice of insiders looting their companies, stealing the wealth from our nation, then hiding it in overseas private equity funds. We're being looted just like third world nations were looted by the European colonial powers. If we reinstate a progressive tax system, we could end this.
For example, $250,000-$500,000 should be taxed at 50%; $500,000 - $750,000 should be taxed at 70%; $750,000 - $1.0 million 80%; everything above that 85%. That would accomplish so many things. The tax burden has been shifted more and more over to working people and away from the rich, with many corporations paying no taxes, and the wealthy often paying lower tax rates than does the modest-income working person. This would allow real tax relief to your average working person, since the rich would have to pick up a bigger share of the nation's taxes.
This would also allow the country to pay down the enormous debt run up by the Bush regime. It would allow us to fund the services we need, including free national healthcare and dental care for all citizens. It would probably eliminate this obscene corporate looting which has characterized the Bush regime years. It would also eliminate so much of the corruption in business and finance which has plunged our country into a recession or depression, take your pick. People don't spend as much time and effort coming up with fraudulent schemes when they know the profits of the schemes will mostly go to pay taxes. It might eliminate much of the corruption in Congress because the people paying the bribes wouldn't have the money to pay the bribes.
Most of the top people on Wall Street should have been indicted already, assets seized, possibly sitting in Attica because they can't make bail. Instead Congress has handed them $300 Billion (with an additional $400 Billion promised). What a bitter loss for the American people.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out - Performed by Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (1892 - 1937 - died following a car accident), considered one of the greatest American blues singers ever.
More Americans Thrown Out Of Work Because Of The "Free" Trade Policies.
The "free" trade policies begun by Bill Clinton with Nafta, and continuing through the Bush regime, which allowed foreign countries to dump cheap products inside the U.S. and put Americans out of work, and allowed U.S. companies to take their manufacturing overseas, and throw more Americans out of work, have finally begun to work their magic on the American labor force. Just as planned, Americans have been forced down, crushed economically by almost two decades of the "free" trade policies, and now it's really beginning to hurt. Even the tiny increases in wages received by those who are still employed do not keep up with inflation, so Americans sink further into debt every day, with no realistic way out.
Of course manufacturing has been steadily moving overseas. U.S. companies have shut down their U.S. factories and opened new factories in China, or "invested" in new factories in China, where 8 year old girls are taken from their families, put to work in the factories for 12 or 14 hour days at 50 cents per day, live in company-owned dormatories, and maybe get a few days off every year. Slave labor, in other words. It should simply be illegal for any U.S. company to use foreign manufacturing facilities. If they want to take jobs to China, they should lose their U.S. corporate charter and lose their right to do business inside the U.S. You like China so much? Go live there. When their CEOs screw up like ours do every day, the government takes them out in public and shoots them.
The U.S. government also has encouraged U.S. businesses to fire American workers and replace them with foreign workers brought in under H1b visas and allowed to work here for 6-year stretches and then, when their usefulness has been exhausted, they are sent away. For Microsoft, for example, Bill Gates hired Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition guy, the Abramoff friend, and lobbied Congress to let Microsoft bring in more software engineers and technical workers from India and Pakistan so they could throw even more Americans out of work. The imported workers are paid, on average, $11,000/year less than an American worker. And the immigrant workforce also has limited freedom because if they are fired, they have a very short amount of time -- say 30 days -- to find another job or they are deported. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/12/gates-seeks-more-hightech_n_91188.html U.S. businesses should never be allowed to import workers. Period. No exceptions. Hire Americans or get out of the country. The H1b visa system must be eliminated. Next time you see Bill Gates looking all sincere about what a charitable guy he is, keep in mind that not only has his company grossly overcharged the American public for a crappy operating system, and created a near-monopoly which prevents competition, but he also has given a raw deal to a lot of American working people.
The Wachovia Economics Group has on-line a "Special Commentary," titled "Employment Chartbook: November 2008," dated November 24, 2008. Their projections may be more or less accurate than anyone else's, but provide ample cause for concern. They note that 1.2 million Americans have been thrown out of work in ten months in 2008 alone. But the big news is their opinion that by the end of 2009, the U.S. unemployment will reach 3.2 million. That means we're only 40% of the way into this mess. http://www.Wachovia.com/ws/econ/view/0,,4535,00.pdf What happens when all those people are out of work and their unemployment compensation runs out?
Speaking of which, among the many despicable tactics adopted by employers during the Bush years is the automatic practice of denying unemployment compensation to every single worker who is fired. Most people in management are now trained to invent stories to justify the employer denying unemployment. Here's how it works. The unemployment compensation system is designed to provide workers who lose their jobs with some income for their support until they can find a new job. The money is supposed to be available to most of the people who lose their jobs. The only exception is for an employee who did something truly horrible -- robbed the store, shot the boss, lit the place on fire on purpose. Short of extreme misconduct, unemployment compensation has always been routinely awarded.
Not anymore. Now most labor lawyers who represent employers counsel their clients to always deny unemployment. File a claim saying that the employee did some wrongful act. Use language that makes it sound really bad. One particularly large retailer regularly accuses employees of "theft." Sounds bad, right? Until you learn that an employee who comes back 1 minute late from a coffee break is written up for "theft" of company time. Same for an employee who stops to chat with another employee: "theft" of company time. Of course most employees do not know anything about the system. When the employer accuses the employee of theft, many employees simply say "gosh, I don't get unemployment, how horrible," and they do not have the confidence to go in to a special hearing in front of a hearing officer and try to defend themselves.
Among the many things to be corrected by the Obama administration, I hope they will pass a law to make it illegal for any company to routinely deny unemployment compensation unless supported by serious and significant wrongdoing -- not somebody coming back a minute late from a coffee break. Of course from the company's perspective, they can't wait to fire all the Americans and replace them 8 year old Chinese girls who will work a 14-hour day and sleep in the stock room, and do it all without complaint.
And for more discussion of the jobs problems:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/08/jobs.html
Of course manufacturing has been steadily moving overseas. U.S. companies have shut down their U.S. factories and opened new factories in China, or "invested" in new factories in China, where 8 year old girls are taken from their families, put to work in the factories for 12 or 14 hour days at 50 cents per day, live in company-owned dormatories, and maybe get a few days off every year. Slave labor, in other words. It should simply be illegal for any U.S. company to use foreign manufacturing facilities. If they want to take jobs to China, they should lose their U.S. corporate charter and lose their right to do business inside the U.S. You like China so much? Go live there. When their CEOs screw up like ours do every day, the government takes them out in public and shoots them.
The U.S. government also has encouraged U.S. businesses to fire American workers and replace them with foreign workers brought in under H1b visas and allowed to work here for 6-year stretches and then, when their usefulness has been exhausted, they are sent away. For Microsoft, for example, Bill Gates hired Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition guy, the Abramoff friend, and lobbied Congress to let Microsoft bring in more software engineers and technical workers from India and Pakistan so they could throw even more Americans out of work. The imported workers are paid, on average, $11,000/year less than an American worker. And the immigrant workforce also has limited freedom because if they are fired, they have a very short amount of time -- say 30 days -- to find another job or they are deported. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/12/gates-seeks-more-hightech_n_91188.html U.S. businesses should never be allowed to import workers. Period. No exceptions. Hire Americans or get out of the country. The H1b visa system must be eliminated. Next time you see Bill Gates looking all sincere about what a charitable guy he is, keep in mind that not only has his company grossly overcharged the American public for a crappy operating system, and created a near-monopoly which prevents competition, but he also has given a raw deal to a lot of American working people.
The Wachovia Economics Group has on-line a "Special Commentary," titled "Employment Chartbook: November 2008," dated November 24, 2008. Their projections may be more or less accurate than anyone else's, but provide ample cause for concern. They note that 1.2 million Americans have been thrown out of work in ten months in 2008 alone. But the big news is their opinion that by the end of 2009, the U.S. unemployment will reach 3.2 million. That means we're only 40% of the way into this mess. http://www.Wachovia.com/ws/econ/view/0,,4535,00.pdf What happens when all those people are out of work and their unemployment compensation runs out?
Speaking of which, among the many despicable tactics adopted by employers during the Bush years is the automatic practice of denying unemployment compensation to every single worker who is fired. Most people in management are now trained to invent stories to justify the employer denying unemployment. Here's how it works. The unemployment compensation system is designed to provide workers who lose their jobs with some income for their support until they can find a new job. The money is supposed to be available to most of the people who lose their jobs. The only exception is for an employee who did something truly horrible -- robbed the store, shot the boss, lit the place on fire on purpose. Short of extreme misconduct, unemployment compensation has always been routinely awarded.
Not anymore. Now most labor lawyers who represent employers counsel their clients to always deny unemployment. File a claim saying that the employee did some wrongful act. Use language that makes it sound really bad. One particularly large retailer regularly accuses employees of "theft." Sounds bad, right? Until you learn that an employee who comes back 1 minute late from a coffee break is written up for "theft" of company time. Same for an employee who stops to chat with another employee: "theft" of company time. Of course most employees do not know anything about the system. When the employer accuses the employee of theft, many employees simply say "gosh, I don't get unemployment, how horrible," and they do not have the confidence to go in to a special hearing in front of a hearing officer and try to defend themselves.
Among the many things to be corrected by the Obama administration, I hope they will pass a law to make it illegal for any company to routinely deny unemployment compensation unless supported by serious and significant wrongdoing -- not somebody coming back a minute late from a coffee break. Of course from the company's perspective, they can't wait to fire all the Americans and replace them 8 year old Chinese girls who will work a 14-hour day and sleep in the stock room, and do it all without complaint.
And for more discussion of the jobs problems:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/08/jobs.html
Thursday, December 4, 2008
"I Hate The Company Bosses."
Below is music ("Come On All You Coal Miners") by Sarah Ogan Gunning, 1910 - 1983, daughter of the Kentucky coal mines, who lost two children to starvation and her husband to TB. She began singing and writing songs to try to help organize her neighbors to join the union and stand up to the oppression of the coal miners.
Listen to this music after you watch today's Company Bosses/CEOs whining in front of Congress ("Please sir -- could I have more") for more money to be stolen from already-desperate and impoverished workers and given to the bosses. Making their request to the same politicians they have so handsomely "supported" by contributions, corruption, back-room deals and bribes. Promising Congress that if they're given the money, they'll throw thousands more Americans out of work and bust the unions. "We promise."
Does anyone remember Congress ever holding a hearing to invite normal people -- those of who do not have wheelbarrows full of money to tithe to the Lords of the Senate -- to ask us what we need, or what our problems and concerns might be? Of course not. We're the audience, the suckers. This whole thing is a charade. It has been true for decades that the U.S. auto industry is taking jobs to third world countries so they can use slave labor, throwing Americans out of work and paying millions to the insiders. The billions they now seek will just let them keep doing more of the same. Eventually, when enough Americans are out of work, we'll all work for pennies and be glad for the job.
They have failed to invest in R&D, failed to even try to be competitive, increased the already grossly unfair salaries of upper management while bitterly complaining that they have to pay healthcare and pensions for the retirees -- which, as an aside, should have been funded separately throughout each retired person's working career. They build big, crappy defective vehicles that break down, run poorly, and fall apart in years, and then complain that some foreign auto-maker gets more sales and has a better reputation. Of course they'll get the money, just like the Company Bosses from Wall Street did.
For anyone who supports this insipid propaganda by the Milton Friedman crowd, the neocons, the "free trade" folks who claim that there is no greater good on earth than for capital to roam freely from nation to nation with no restraints or restrictions -- move the plant, shut it down, throw people out of work, dump the poison into the air and water then move on -- that there is heavenly good that comes from this rapacious swarm of the elite, the spread of this infection of greed to all corners -- maybe we need to remember that things used to be exactly that way in this country. Exactly. No restrictions on the industrialists, no protections or rights for the workers. And the industrialists got obscenely wealthy while the workers starved and died.
Not so long ago, we had most working people in this country living like dogs, with the wealthy stealing every penny they had, leaving them to rot, starve, and die young, as long as the Company Bosses kept getting more money. The neocons want to return to those long-ago days. They're working hard to accomplish that. Looting the treasury is part of the plan, because when the government has decades of debt and no money, it will never be able to stand up to the international business syndicates regardless of who is in the white house.
This is Sarah Ogan Gunning, "Come All You Coal Miners":
Here are lyrics to another one of Sarah Ogan Gunning's songs, "I Hate The Company Bosses."
"I Hate The Company Bosses"
I hate the company bosses, I'll tell you the reason why
They cause me so much suffering And my dearest friends to die.
Oh yes, I guess you wonder What they have done to me.
I'm goin' to tell you, Mister, My husband had TB.
Brought on by hard work and low wages, An' not enough to eat,
Goin' naked an' hungry No shoes on his feet.
I guess you'll say he's lazy, An' did not want to work.
But I must say you're crazy, For work he did not shirk.
My husband was a coal miner, He worked an' risked his life,
To try to support three children, Himself, his mother and wife.
I had a blue-eyed baby, The darlin' of my heart.
But from my little darlin' Her mother had to part.
These mighty company bosses, They dress in jewels an' silk.
But my darlin' blue-eyed baby, She starved to death for milk.
I had a darlin' mother, For her I often cry.
But with them rotten conditions My mother had to die.
Well, what killed your mother? I hear these bosses say.
Dead of hard work an' starvation, My mother had to pay.
Well, what killed your mother? Oh tell us if you please.
Excuse me, it was pellagry, That starvation disease.
They call this the land of plenty, To them I guess it's true.
But that's to the company bosses, Not workers like me an' you.
Well, what can I do about it To these men of power an' might?
I tell you company bosses I'm goin' to fight, fight, fight.
What can we do about it To right this dreadful wrong?
We're all goin' to join the union, For the union makes us strong.
For more about the life and music of Sarah Ogan Gunning, see http://www.folkstreams.net/context,284
Listen to this music after you watch today's Company Bosses/CEOs whining in front of Congress ("Please sir -- could I have more") for more money to be stolen from already-desperate and impoverished workers and given to the bosses. Making their request to the same politicians they have so handsomely "supported" by contributions, corruption, back-room deals and bribes. Promising Congress that if they're given the money, they'll throw thousands more Americans out of work and bust the unions. "We promise."
Does anyone remember Congress ever holding a hearing to invite normal people -- those of who do not have wheelbarrows full of money to tithe to the Lords of the Senate -- to ask us what we need, or what our problems and concerns might be? Of course not. We're the audience, the suckers. This whole thing is a charade. It has been true for decades that the U.S. auto industry is taking jobs to third world countries so they can use slave labor, throwing Americans out of work and paying millions to the insiders. The billions they now seek will just let them keep doing more of the same. Eventually, when enough Americans are out of work, we'll all work for pennies and be glad for the job.
They have failed to invest in R&D, failed to even try to be competitive, increased the already grossly unfair salaries of upper management while bitterly complaining that they have to pay healthcare and pensions for the retirees -- which, as an aside, should have been funded separately throughout each retired person's working career. They build big, crappy defective vehicles that break down, run poorly, and fall apart in years, and then complain that some foreign auto-maker gets more sales and has a better reputation. Of course they'll get the money, just like the Company Bosses from Wall Street did.
For anyone who supports this insipid propaganda by the Milton Friedman crowd, the neocons, the "free trade" folks who claim that there is no greater good on earth than for capital to roam freely from nation to nation with no restraints or restrictions -- move the plant, shut it down, throw people out of work, dump the poison into the air and water then move on -- that there is heavenly good that comes from this rapacious swarm of the elite, the spread of this infection of greed to all corners -- maybe we need to remember that things used to be exactly that way in this country. Exactly. No restrictions on the industrialists, no protections or rights for the workers. And the industrialists got obscenely wealthy while the workers starved and died.
Not so long ago, we had most working people in this country living like dogs, with the wealthy stealing every penny they had, leaving them to rot, starve, and die young, as long as the Company Bosses kept getting more money. The neocons want to return to those long-ago days. They're working hard to accomplish that. Looting the treasury is part of the plan, because when the government has decades of debt and no money, it will never be able to stand up to the international business syndicates regardless of who is in the white house.
This is Sarah Ogan Gunning, "Come All You Coal Miners":
Here are lyrics to another one of Sarah Ogan Gunning's songs, "I Hate The Company Bosses."
"I Hate The Company Bosses"
I hate the company bosses, I'll tell you the reason why
They cause me so much suffering And my dearest friends to die.
Oh yes, I guess you wonder What they have done to me.
I'm goin' to tell you, Mister, My husband had TB.
Brought on by hard work and low wages, An' not enough to eat,
Goin' naked an' hungry No shoes on his feet.
I guess you'll say he's lazy, An' did not want to work.
But I must say you're crazy, For work he did not shirk.
My husband was a coal miner, He worked an' risked his life,
To try to support three children, Himself, his mother and wife.
I had a blue-eyed baby, The darlin' of my heart.
But from my little darlin' Her mother had to part.
These mighty company bosses, They dress in jewels an' silk.
But my darlin' blue-eyed baby, She starved to death for milk.
I had a darlin' mother, For her I often cry.
But with them rotten conditions My mother had to die.
Well, what killed your mother? I hear these bosses say.
Dead of hard work an' starvation, My mother had to pay.
Well, what killed your mother? Oh tell us if you please.
Excuse me, it was pellagry, That starvation disease.
They call this the land of plenty, To them I guess it's true.
But that's to the company bosses, Not workers like me an' you.
Well, what can I do about it To these men of power an' might?
I tell you company bosses I'm goin' to fight, fight, fight.
What can we do about it To right this dreadful wrong?
We're all goin' to join the union, For the union makes us strong.
For more about the life and music of Sarah Ogan Gunning, see http://www.folkstreams.net/context,284
Odetta (1930 - 12/2/08)
The legendary and much-honored folk and blues singer, civil rights supporter and social justice activist who went by the name Odetta (born Odetta Holmes in Alabama) died this week in New York City at the age of 77. She had a long and respected career, receiving the admiration of everyone from a teen-age Janis Joplin to Pete Seeger to Presidents. (And maybe kings). Many of the most famous folk, rock, and modern singers in recent years have cited Odetta as an influence and inspiration including Bob Dylan, who said Odetta was the first singer who turned him on to folk singing. Janis Joplin was a big fan, as were Harry Belafonte and Joan Baez.
"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time." (Maya Angelou)
"If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta's would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time." (Maya Angelou)
And here she sings a great song, "Another Man Done Gone," about an Alabama chain gang. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZE6HfWbg1E
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
January of 2001: Cheney's Task Force
One week after he took office, George W. Bush appointed Dick Cheney to be the head of a new Energy Task Force. Since this is pretty much the first thing he did after taking off his inaugural dancing shoes, it's probably fair to say it was the number one goal of his administration. Most of what happened in Cheney's Task Force has been concealed from public scrutiny by a variety of methods used by Bush and Cheney to hide the truth from the public. For example, they have claimed that almost everything either one of them did during their 8 years in control is classified, top secret, or privileged, so nobody can ever know the truth. Since they have packed the Supreme Court with ideologues and fanatics, it may be difficult to find the truth before they succeed in either destroying evidence or burying it. It has been well reported that Cheney met mostly with oil industry CEOs in his "Task Force." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/politics/documents/cheney_energy_task_force.html Cheney has refused to disclose to the public, to the citizens of this country, anything that was discussed, hiding the truth under bizarre claims of privilege and secrecy. Why can't we know what went on in the Task Force meetings between Cheney and the oil companies? Why is it the CEOs of the oil companies get to learn everything, but the public is kept in the dark?
What's the secret? Let's assume, for example, that a nation's energy task force would begin by projecting future needs, looking at resources, gathering information about alternative energy sources and energy-savings ideas, then putting together a blueprint for the future. So what's so secretive about that?Some have concluded that all this secrecy was just to cover up the fact that Bush and Cheney were first and foremost representing the oil industry, and they planned to eliminate all environmental and other restrictions that would prevent their oil friends from drilling anywhere they wanted anytime they wanted, environment be damned. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701987.html?nav=rss_politics Okay, maybe. But that's not really a secret -- that's part of the Republican Platform, to destroy the earth and everything on it.
Another possibility is that Bush and Cheney already had a "new" energy policy by the time of the inauguration, which was simply to invade Iraq and steal its oil. Was that the real purpose of these spring of 2001 meetings, the Cheney-Oil company meetings which took place long before the 9/11 attacks gave them an excuse to start a war of aggression against Iraq?
A group called Judicial Watch, not a liberal organization, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get copies of the documents from Cheney's Task Force meetings. Cheney and Bush refused to produce anything, and litigation was pursued, with the court eventually allowing Cheney and Bush to keep everything secret from the public. The Commerce Department did produce the documents that they had delivered to Cheney for use in his Task Force, documents Cheney had requested: maps of the Iraq oil fields. As well as oil fields in some other countries in the region. http://www.judicialwatch.org/iraqi-oil-maps.shtml Once you get to the Judicial Watch website, click on the link there for the Iraq oil map -- it's pretty bizarre how they had it all marked up. Was that the path for the troops, the tanks, the bombs, or some new oil pipelines? Or none of the above. And then click on the link of "Foreign Suitors for Iraq Oil Fields As Of March 5, 2001." A list of every foreign country that had made offers to Iraq, status of the negotiations, what was being discussed. What could possibly be the reason for this other than to fortify the decision that the U.S. better go in and grab the oil quickly before some other country negotiates a contract to buy it.
So the question is this: if Cheney was heading an Energy Task Force to create a "new" energy policy for the U.S., and was meeting with the heads of the U.S. oil companies for that purpose, then why is it that he was using maps of Iraq's oil fields in his meetings? Why was he so worried about the exact precise status as of March 5, 2001, of all countries in negotiations with Iraq to buy its oil? Why was that such a concern? Was there an understanding that the U.S. would have to find some excuse to attack Iraq before another (big) country signed contracts for the oil? What exactly did Cheney discuss with his oil corporation friends? Where the most oil is inside Iraq, how long would it take the U.S. oil corporations to build or renovate facilities and start sucking the oil out of that country? Where should the U.S. be careful not to bomb when we attack? Or did they discuss how much money the oil corporations would give to Republicans if Bush and Cheney sent the U.S. military in to occupy Iraq, and let the U.S. oil companies go in to steal its oil? Anyone talk about kick-backs in those meetings? Any deals along those lines? Why all the secrecy?
The right-wingers that Republicans have put onto our Supreme Court in large part have backed up Cheney and Bush in their claims that the public has no right to know what they have done. Which really means we should give a serious look to available methods to removing a Supreme Court Justice. For bias (against the public) and stupidity.
The public has every right to know what any politician has done in our name. Neither the President nor Vice President, nor any other politician, has any right to act independent of the authority we give to them. We only authorize them to act in a legal manner. If they have abused their office, if they have conspired to commit crimes, if they have committed crimes, possibly mass murder, there is no court in the world that would allow them to hide the truth based on some nonsensical claim that "It's a secret."
Within minutes of the plane striking the World Trade Center, the insiders in the Bush administration were insisting that we must attack Iraq (regardless of whether Iraq had anything to do with the attacks, which it didn't). It almost sounds like they had it planned already.
If we are to continue to be a nation of laws, we must enforce our laws against the rich and powerful. It doesn't take make courage (or compassion) to pick up a derelict from a subway grate and throw him into a drunk tank. Sometimes our leaders are called upon to exhibit courage, to do what is right, to stand up against powerful forces and speak the truth. Somebody needs to stand up for the people. They cannot allow Bush and Cheney to leave office and live out their lives without being held accountable -- brought to account for their actions -- before the U.S. public and before the world. When Bush took office as President, he was constitutionally required to give the following oath, under penalty of perjury: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Is that just a joke too? 
If Cheney and Bush conspired to start a war against Iraq on false grounds, and the Cheney Task Force includes communications about that subject matter, then everything -- all papers, documents, communications -- relating to that Task Force and its meetings should not be subject to any claim of privilege, since they may contain evidence of planned criminal activity. At a minimum, full disclosure should be compelled and the evidence weighed by an impartial tribunal to determine whether there is evidence of criminal intent and conspiracy. We need independent prosecutors, truth commissions, and public hearings.
Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues
Robert Johnson was a Mississippi blues singer and guitar player who lived a mere 27 years (1911-1938), and recorded only 42 songs. Not much has ever been established with certainty about his life. Only two photographs exist which supposedly are pictures of Johnson, yet the authenticity of at least one of those has been questioned.
People have spent years of their professional lives trying to find out the "truth" about Robert Johnson, his life, his work. There is a Robert Johnson Blues Foundation that tries to honor his work. http://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/ Yet the questions remain, the search continues, the disputes unresolved. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/11/johnson200811?currentPage=1 Popular belief in the Mississippi Delta area was that Johnson met the devil at a crossroads (or at a graveyard), and received his unearthly talent (his blues singing and guitar-playing) in exchange for his soul. Maybe so. Rolling Stone ranks him #5 in the 100 top guitarists.
Years after his death, his songs had a major influence on many of the top musicians in the world, although the facts and circumstances of his life remain shrouded. It appears likely that despite his remarkable talent, he simply was an itinerant musician, relatively unknown during his life, who traveled around the Mississippi area trying to earn a living playing music. It was only in the last years of his very short life that he recorded anything, and his records were released with the designation "Race Records," to make clear to the public that this was recorded by a black person to be sold to other black people.
How he died is also the subject of disagreement. The popular version is that this mystery man, the wandering musician, blues singer, got into a fight in a bar with another man over a woman, and the other man snuck poison into Johnson's bottle of booze. Others claim it could not possibly have happened that way. Where Johnson is buried is also disputed, with several different sites having headstones claiming to mark the place of burial of the "real" Robert Johnson.
James Lee Burke is an author who writes a popular series of mysteries with a protagonist named David Robicheaux ("Dave"). Dave lives in New Iberia Parish near New Orleans, an ex-cop and ex-drunk with some pretty crazy friends. I love the books. One of the books was named "Last Car To Elysian Fields." There were several stories playing out at the same time in that book. One of the stories kept going back to the 1930s, retracing the last days of an astonishingly talented itinerant blues musician who had "disappeared" after coming into contact with some ignorant cracker. The story made me think of Robert Johnson. Another version of "what might have happened" to this legendary bluesman.
Despite his brief life and limited recordings, and despite the fact that he died in 1938, "The Complete Recordings" of Robert Johnson won a Grammy in 1990.
Here's another song written by Robert Johnson, called "Love in Vain," recorded by him in 1937. Later recorded by the Rolling Stones and released as part of their "Let It Bleed" album in 1969.
People have spent years of their professional lives trying to find out the "truth" about Robert Johnson, his life, his work. There is a Robert Johnson Blues Foundation that tries to honor his work. http://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/ Yet the questions remain, the search continues, the disputes unresolved. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/11/johnson200811?currentPage=1 Popular belief in the Mississippi Delta area was that Johnson met the devil at a crossroads (or at a graveyard), and received his unearthly talent (his blues singing and guitar-playing) in exchange for his soul. Maybe so. Rolling Stone ranks him #5 in the 100 top guitarists.
Years after his death, his songs had a major influence on many of the top musicians in the world, although the facts and circumstances of his life remain shrouded. It appears likely that despite his remarkable talent, he simply was an itinerant musician, relatively unknown during his life, who traveled around the Mississippi area trying to earn a living playing music. It was only in the last years of his very short life that he recorded anything, and his records were released with the designation "Race Records," to make clear to the public that this was recorded by a black person to be sold to other black people.
How he died is also the subject of disagreement. The popular version is that this mystery man, the wandering musician, blues singer, got into a fight in a bar with another man over a woman, and the other man snuck poison into Johnson's bottle of booze. Others claim it could not possibly have happened that way. Where Johnson is buried is also disputed, with several different sites having headstones claiming to mark the place of burial of the "real" Robert Johnson.
James Lee Burke is an author who writes a popular series of mysteries with a protagonist named David Robicheaux ("Dave"). Dave lives in New Iberia Parish near New Orleans, an ex-cop and ex-drunk with some pretty crazy friends. I love the books. One of the books was named "Last Car To Elysian Fields." There were several stories playing out at the same time in that book. One of the stories kept going back to the 1930s, retracing the last days of an astonishingly talented itinerant blues musician who had "disappeared" after coming into contact with some ignorant cracker. The story made me think of Robert Johnson. Another version of "what might have happened" to this legendary bluesman.
Despite his brief life and limited recordings, and despite the fact that he died in 1938, "The Complete Recordings" of Robert Johnson won a Grammy in 1990.
Here's another song written by Robert Johnson, called "Love in Vain," recorded by him in 1937. Later recorded by the Rolling Stones and released as part of their "Let It Bleed" album in 1969.
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