| Progressive Calendar 07.03.09 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 02:45:29 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 07.03.09 1. Satchel/KFAI 7.03 11am 2. Lordy it's FFUNCH 7.03 11:30am 3. Palestine vigil 7.03 4:15pm 4. Moyers/Chny/crisis 7.03 9pm 5. Rosemary/sale 7.03-05 6. Peace walk 7.04 9am Cambridge MN 7. Northtown vigil 7.04 2pm 8. Jeanine Estime 7.04 3pm 9. Ralph Nader - Ignoring propethic predictors 10. Chalmers Johnson - How to deal with America's empire of bases 11. Nikolas Kozloff - Spinning the Honduran coup 12. Andrew Cockburn - The Wall Street White House 13. ed - Too good for the rich (bumpersticker) --------1 of 13-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Satchel/KFAI 7.03 11am Fri.July 3, 11am on CATALYST/KFAI Radio Hear an interview with author LARRY TYE talking about his new history-through-biography SATCHEL, about Negro Leagues and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher SATCHEL PAIGE. A look at Jim Crow segregation in the South (and the North and the Midwest) from the 1920s through the life of the baseball palyer that many think SHOULD have cracked the major leagues, instead of Jackie Robinson. Tye's previous book RISING FROM THE RAILS was the history of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African-American labor union. He makes histgory come alive! CATALYST:politics & culture,hosted by LYDIA HOWELL who will also be guest hosting KFAI's ART MATTERS,Thursdays, 7pm in JULY. KFAI Radio 90.3fm Mpls 106.7fm St.Paul LIVE-STE+REAMING.archived or 2 weeks after broadcaSt on the CATALYST page at: http://www.kfai.org --------2 of 13-------- From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu> Subject: Lordy it's FFUNCH 7.03 11:30am YES we';re meeting even tho the Big Blank Weekend looms ahead, the weekend everyone is SomeWhere Else (god knows or cares where). But this Friday a few of the Stalwart Regulars (no sunshine eaters/talkers they) will assemble at Day By Day! Not even The Fourth can stop us! Upward! Onward! Join us. Ffunch 7.03 11:30am Meet the FFUNCH BUNCH! First Friday Lunch (FFUNCH) for progressives. Informal political talk and hanging out. Day By Day Cafe 477 W 7th Av St Paul. Meet on the far south side. Day By Day has soups, salads, sandwiches, and dangerous apple pie; is close to downtown St Paul & on major bus lines --------3 of 13--------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Palestine vigil 7.03 4:15pm the weekly vigil for the liberation of Palestine continues at the intersection of Snelling and Summit Aves in St. Paul. the Friday demo starts at 4:15 and ends around 5:30. there are usually extra signs available. --------4 of 13-------- From: t r u t h o u t <messenger [at] truthout.org> Subject: Moyers/Chny/crisis 7.03 9pm Bill Moyers Journal | Faith and Social Justice http://www.truthout.org/070109U?n Bill Moyers Journal: "This week, 'Bill Moyers Journal' gets insight from three leading public thinkers who taught a unique course - 'Christianity and the U.S. Crisis' - at Union Theological Seminary, the oldest nondenominational seminary in the country." --------5 of 13-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: Rosemary/sale 7.03-05 People's Bailout: Estate/Moving Sale for Rosemary Williams July 3, 4 and 5 3138 Clinton Avenue South, Minneapolis. Minneapolis resident Rosemary Williams, who has lived in the same house for 26 years, is the standard bearer for home foreclosures and has been at the center of the struggle. NEWS ON HER CASE: Rosemary did not receive an eviction notice this week. GMAC has temporarily backed off from the eviction and offered to significantly lower the price to $90,000.00 for which they will sell Rosemary her home (GMAC bought her home at a sheriff's sale). However, they will not finance the mortgage. They have given her until July 10 to produce documentation showing she has secured financing. If she is not able to do so by the 10th, they have said they will give her additional time to vacate her home. We're glad that Rosemary has more time in her home and a chance to keep it. However, there will still be an estate sale. Items include: children^Òs clothing, shoes, jewelry, furniture (petal style kitchen table, sofa, shelves, dressers, grandfather clock), books, electronics, vases, and more. Sponsored by: the Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout. WAMM is a member of the Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout. FFI and Updates: Call 612-822-8020 or visit www.mn-peoples-bailout.org. --------6 of 13-------- From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Peace walk 7.04 9am Cambridge MN every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street --------7 of 13-------- From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 7.04 2pm Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm --------8 of 13--------- From: farheen [at] farheenhakeem.org Subject: Jeanine Estime 7.04 3pm 4th of July Green Party Candidate Afternoon fundraiser! Jeanine Estime is a wonderful Green Party candidate running for city council in Minneapolis! On Saturday 7/4/09 starting at 3:00 in the afternoon until 6:00 in the afternoon there will be a fundraiser for Jeanine at the home of Paul Busch and Claire Welter, 1523 Laurel Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104. There will be: * Masseuse (the wonderful Andrea Sullivan) * Violin music (the wonderful Mary) * Great Vegan and Vegetarian food Come and have a soothing afternoon before the fireworks! Come and here Jeanine Estime talk about her Green vision for Minneapolis. Jeanine's main issues are: * Cooperative solutions for the foreclosure crisis * Protecting our civil rights * Enhancing the potential of youth programs See everyone 7/4/09 at Paul and Claire's house! Let's turn the twin cities Green! Check out Jeanine's website www.jeanineestime.org --------9 of 13-------- Ignoring Propethic Predictors by Ralph Nader Thursday, July 2, 2009 CommonDreams.org I've wondered often why people who go to "town meetings" held by campaigning politicians rarely ask fundamental questions. Here is one that should have been asked of presidential candidate Barack Obama: "If you get to the White House, will you appoint to top positions Americans who have a track record of making the right decisions in their respective fields?" "Of course, I will," Obama would have undoubtedly replied. Of course, he did not when it came to the collapse of the corrupt Wall Street casinos and the bailout of these gamblers by the American people. Obama chose the very Wall Streeters and Wall Street servants who were involved in, condoned, or profited from the speculative binges that led to the biggest government bailout scheme in world history. The President's explanation is that he wants experienced people who know how Wall Street works. Yeah, right! In reality, he wanted political cover. Something very important is missing when even people who are part of the ruling establishment are ignored, marginalized, or ridiculed even though their detailed, public warnings prove to be all too accurate. Consider billionaire, Ross Perot. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Ross, as everyone calls him, was right on General Motors, right on NAFTA trade, and right on the federal deficits. In 1984, he joined the Board of Directors of GM after selling his successful company, EDS, to the auto giant. He could scarcely believe how stodgy, bureaucratic, and insensitive GM executives were in running the company. He tried to shake up the boys at the top to meet the fast-growing competition from Asia and Europe. The GM brass couldn't stand Ross "at large" probing up and down the company, so in 1986 they bought out his shares in return for him leaving the Board. Two years later, reflecting on his experience at GM with a reporter from Fortune, Perot called the "General Motors system a blanket of fog that keeps people from doing what they know needs to be done." Warming up, Perot continued: "One day I made a speech to some senior executives. I said, "Okay, guys, I'm going to give you the whole code on what's wrong. You don't like your customers. You don't like your dealers. You don't like the people who make your cars. You don't like your stockholders. And, to a large extent, you don't like one another. For this company to win, we're going to have to love our customers. We're going to have to stop fretting about dealers who make too much money and hope they make $1 billion a year though us. The guys on the factory floor are the salt of the earth - not mad-dog, rabid, burn-the-plant-down radicals. And all this sniping at one another - the financial guys vs. the cars guys - is terribly destructive.'" GM didn't listen to Ross. Now, after a long, relentless slide, GM is bankrupt, abandoning their workers, two thousand of their dealers, and their customers' grievances. Moreover, GM is into the U.S. taxpayer for over $70 billion. Perot devoted much of his 1993 published book Save Your Job, Save Our Country to NAFTA and trade. Looking back, he was right most of the time. NAFTA cost more U.S. jobs than it created, generated a huge U.S. trade deficit with Mexico, and mainly benefited the "36 businessmen who own Mexico's 39 largest conglomerates or over half of Mexico's Gross National Product." The border-located maquiladora factories have high worker turnover and squeeze the laborers in often unsafe conditions for little pay. Here is how Perot described the scene behind the boasting of Washington, DC, and corporations about the large increase in trade after NAFTA: "Most of the goods produced in the maquiladoras are shipped into the U.S. market. Consequently, most of the so-called trade between the U.S. and Mexico is not trade as trade is commonly understood. Rather, it is primarily U.S. companies shipping their own machinery, components, and raw materials across the border into their Mexican factories and then shipping their finished or semi-finished goods back over the border into the U.S." A good deal of the U.S. auto industry went south after NAFTA, leaving workers and communities stranded in Michigan and other states. Bankrupt Chrysler is planning to move a modern, award-winning engine plant in Wisconsin to Mexico after receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts. On Perot's nationally-televised deficit warnings (with charts), what more need be said? Even he did not envision what would pile up after his clarion calls. The burden on the next generation and the tax dollars diverted from our country's needs to pay the interest on these trillions of dollars of debt were pointed out again and again nearly twenty years ago by the Texas entrepreneur. He even has a website (perotcharts.com) updating the red ink. In Bush's and Obama's Washington, there is no room for Perot to gain visibility and recognition. It is one thing for the Washington politicians to ignore prescient progressive commentators, like William Grieder, who have been prophetically right on. It is quite another escape from reality to turn their backs on leaders within the business establishment itself. There are many like Perot who must be watching the day's news and saying "we told you so, but you didn't listen then and you are not listening now." Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His most recent book is The Seventeen Traditions. --------10 of 13-------- How to Deal with America's Empire of Bases A Modest Proposal for Garrisoned Lands by Chalmers Johnson Thursday, July 2, 2009 TomDispatch.com Common Dreams The U.S. Empire of Bases - at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise - just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new "embassy" in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur, than the Vatican-City-sized one the Bush administration put up in Baghdad. The State Department was also reportedly planning to buy the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel (complete with pool) in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, to use as a consulate and living quarters for its staff there. Unfortunately for such plans, on June 9th Pakistani militants rammed a truck filled with explosives into the hotel, killing 18 occupants, wounding at least 55, and collapsing one entire wing of the structure. There has been no news since about whether the State Department is still going ahead with the purchase. Whatever the costs turn out to be, they will not be included in our already bloated military budget, even though none of these structures is designed to be a true embassy - a place, that is, where local people come for visas and American officials represent the commercial and diplomatic interests of their country. Instead these so-called embassies will actually be walled compounds, akin to medieval fortresses, where American spies, soldiers, intelligence officials, and diplomats try to keep an eye on hostile populations in a region at war. One can predict with certainty that they will house a large contingent of Marines and include roof-top helicopter pads for quick get-aways. While it may be comforting for State Department employees working in dangerous places to know that they have some physical protection, it must also be obvious to them, as well as the people in the countries where they serve, that they will now be visibly part of an in-your-face American imperial presence. We shouldn't be surprised when militants attacking the U.S. find one of our base-like embassies, however heavily guarded, an easier target than a large military base. And what is being done about those military bases anyway - now close to 800 of them dotted across the globe in other people's countries? Even as Congress and the Obama administration wrangle over the cost of bank bailouts, a new health plan, pollution controls, and other much needed domestic expenditures, no one suggests that closing some of these unpopular, expensive imperial enclaves might be a good way to save some money. Instead, they are evidently about to become even more expensive. On June 23rd, we learned that Kyrgyzstan, the former Central Asian Soviet Republic which, back in February 2009, announced that it was going to kick the U.S. military out of Manas Air Base (used since 2001 as a staging area for the Afghan War), has been persuaded to let us stay. But here's the catch: In return for doing us that favor, the annual rent Washington pays for use of the base will more than triple from $17.4 million to $60 million, with millions more to go into promised improvements in airport facilities and other financial sweeteners. All this because the Obama administration, having committed itself to a widening war in the region, is convinced it needs this base to store and trans-ship supplies to Afghanistan. I suspect this development will not go unnoticed in other countries where Americans are also unpopular occupiers. For example, the Ecuadorians have told us to leave Manta Air Base by this November. Of course, they have their pride to consider, not to speak of the fact that they don't like American soldiers mucking about in Colombia and Peru. Nonetheless, they could probably use a spot more money. And what about the Japanese who, for more than 57 years, have been paying big bucks to host American bases on their soil? Recently, they reached a deal with Washington to move some American Marines from bases on Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam. In the process, however, they were forced to shell out not only for the cost of the Marines' removal, but also to build new facilities on Guam for their arrival. Is it possible that they will now take a cue from the government of Kyrgyzstan and just tell the Americans to get out and pay for it themselves? Or might they at least stop funding the same American military personnel who regularly rape Japanese women (at the rate of about two per month) and make life miserable for whoever lives near the 38 U.S. bases on Okinawa. This is certainly what the Okinawans have been hoping and praying for ever since we arrived in 1945. In fact, I have a suggestion for other countries that are getting a bit weary of the American military presence on their soil: cash in now, before it's too late. Either up the ante or tell the Americans to go home. I encourage this behavior because I'm convinced that the U.S. Empire of Bases will soon enough bankrupt our country, and so - on the analogy of a financial bubble or a pyramid scheme - if you're an investor, it's better to get your money out while you still can. This is, of course, something that has occurred to the Chinese and other financiers of the American national debt. Only they're cashing in quietly and slowly in order not to tank the dollar while they're still holding onto such a bundle of them. Make no mistake, though: whether we're being bled rapidly or slowly, we are bleeding; and hanging onto our military empire and all the bases that go with it will ultimately spell the end of the United States as we know it. Count on this, future generations of Americans traveling abroad decades from now won't find the landscape dotted with near-billion-dollar "embassies." 2009 TomDispatch.com Chalmers Johnson is the author of three linked books on the crises of American imperialism and militarism. They are Blowback (2000), The Sorrows of Empire (2004), and Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (Metropolitan Books, 2006). All are available in paperback from Metropolitan Books. A retired professor of international relations from the University of California (Berkeley and San Diego campuses) and the author of some seventeen books primarily on the politics and economics of East Asia, Johnson is president of the Japan Policy Research Institute. To listen to a TomDispatch audio interview with Johnson on the Pentagon's potential economic death spiral, click here. --------11 of 13-------- Spinning the Honduran Coup Latin America Media Battle Continues By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF July 2, 2009 CounterPunch Read or listen to the mainstream media these days and you get the impression that Sunday's coup in Honduras was all about a simple disagreement over the constitutionality of presidential term limits. But as the coup unfolds it's becoming clear that the authorities want something more: the restoration of Honduras's conservative political order and an end to President Manuel Zelaya's independent foreign policy which had reached out to leftist countries like Cuba and Venezuela. As part of their effort to consolidate power officials have moved quickly to restrain the free flow of information, in particular by cracking down on progressive leaning media. Only TV stations sympathetic to the newly installed coup regime have been left alone while others have been shut down. The climate of repression is similar to what we have seen elsewhere in Latin America in recent years. Specifically, there are eerie parallels to the April, 2002 coup in Venezuela when the briefly installed right wing government imposed a media blackout to further its own political ends. Perhaps somewhat tellingly, the Honduran army cut off local broadcasts of the Telesur news network which is sponsored by leftist governments including Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina and Cuba. Adriana Sivori, Telesur's correspondent in Tegucigalpa, was in her hotel room speaking on the telephone to her network when ten soldiers arrived with rifles drawn. The men unplugged Telesur's editing equipment in an effort to halt the network's coverage of protests in support of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. When a soldier lightly slapped Sivori's hand so she would hang up, the journalist grew alarmed. "They're taking us prisoner at gunpoint," she remarked. Sivori along with producer Mara Jos Daz and cameraman Larry Snchez were taken to an immigration office in a military caravan. There, the authorities beat them and demanded to see their Honduran visas. Shortly later, the journalists were released. However, the authorities have warned Telesur journalists to cease transmitting images in support of Zelaya or face further detention. What is so important about Telesur in particular? In my latest book, Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave, 2008) I devote considerable attention to the rise of the new station, itself a product of South America's stormy political battles and contested media landscape. First launched in 2005, Telesur represents Venezuela's effort to counteract the power of the right wing media establishment which played a role in the short-lived April coup of 2002 against the Chavez government. Seen as South Ameica's answer to Al Jazeera and CNN, the station has been spearheaded by Andrs Izarra, up until recently the station's president. A rising star in the Chavez administration, Izarra got his start as a journalist at NBC and CNN. Disgusted by right wing media coverage of the 2002 coup, he started to work for Telesur. Since its launch, Telesur has given CNN en Espaol a run for its money and now has slick production values. Station Director Aram Aharonian says the news industry has gone through a dumbing down since the Gulf War. Journalism, Aharonian remarked to me during our interview in Caracas, had become instantaneous but also devoid of any investigation, analysis or debate. Telesur, by contrast, was "rescuing" journalistic ethics by providing context and opinions about goings-on. While you can expect to see more critical coverage of the Iraq War on Telesur than most mainstream U.S. media outlets, Aharonian says Telesur is independent and doesn't have any particular political axe to grind. Such assurances aside, the conservative establishment views Telesur as a threat. When the station announced a content-sharing agreement with Al Jazeera in 2006, Connie Mack, a right-wing Republican congressman from Florida, remarked that the decision was designed to create a "global television network for terrorists". In light of Sivori's recent detention, one may surmise that the Honduran coup regime agrees with Mack's hysterical views. In Latin America, media has become a crucial fault line in the battle between the pro-U.S. elite and the incipient left "Pink Tide" which has been sweeping into power. In Honduras, the coup regime has not only gone after Telesur but also Channel 8, the official broadcaster of the Zelaya government. The moves prompted Venezuela's official Bolivarian News Agency as well as Cuba's Granma newspaper to issue formal letters of protest. Meanwhile a climate of fear and intimidation reigns throughout the capital, with networks providing scant coverage of political protest. Soldiers are reportedly guarding local television and radio stations. In recent years Zelaya had been embroiled in a war with the conservative private media in the country. Now that the President is gone, these outlets have rallied in defense of the coup regime. Honduras' two leading radio networks, Radio America and Radio HRN, have urged Hondurans to resume their normal routine and not to protest. Even as hundreds of protesters rallied at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa to demand Zelaya's reinstatement, radio and TV stations made little reference to the demonstrations. Instead of reporting on political goings-on, the Honduran media outlets played tropical music or aired soap operas and cooking shows. It's reminiscent of the April, 2002 coup against Chavez when conservative media station Venevisin refused to cover pro-Chavez demonstrations and preempted its normal news coverage with a day-long marathon of American films such as Lorenzo.s Oil, Nell, and Pretty Woman. Venevisin, which substituted nonstop vitriolic anti-Chavez propaganda for its regular programming in the days leading up to the coup, was owned by billionaire media magnate Gustavo Cisneros, himself a leading figure in the Chavez opposition who reportedly bankrolled the opposition.s takeover of government. In Venezuela, conservative coup leaders misjudged the popular mood. Amidst street protests, Chavez was reinstated in two days. In the wake of the coup Venevision began to moderate its strident tone and the Venezuelan President went on the political offensive by spurring the creation of Telesur as well as other media outlets. If you flip the TV dial today you can still watch rabidly anti-Chavez stations like Globovisin, though the playing field has been leveled considerably. In addition to Telesur Venezuelans can also watch Venezolana de Televisin, a government channel, as well as state sponsored Vive which provides discussion on Venezuelan culture and politics. Chavez has his own TV talk show, Al, Presidente, and there are dozens of pro-government papers including a tabloid called VEA. The antagonistic media environment in Venezuela is echoed in other left-leaning countries in South America. Indeed, the newly elected Pink Tide regimes have taken on the private media with a vengeance: in Ecuador, President Rafael Correa has proposed that the constitution disallow bankers from financing media outlets. According to him, Ecuadoran television is controlled by powerful interests and the Association of Television Channels is nothing more than a "bankers club". In Bolivia, indigenous President Evo Morales launched a weekly radio show called The People Are News. The show airs for two hours each week on the Patria Nueva (New Fatherland) state network. If Zelaya returns to power in Honduras, which seems likely, then we could see the government take on the power of private TV, radio and the like more significantly, perhaps by emphasizing more state media. It will be merely the latest chapter in the ongoing information war between the conservative, globalizing elite and more left-leaning leaders who are coming to power throughout the region. Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008) Visit his blog at http://www.senorchichero.blogspot.com/ --------12 of 13-------- How Goldman Sachs and Citi Run the Show The Wall Street White House By ANDREW COCKBURN CounterPunch July 2, 2009 Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, is to be installed as Under Secretary of Economics, Business, and Agricultural Affairs. This comes as one more, probably unnecessary reminder of the total control exercised by Wall Street over the Obama administration's economic and financial policy. True, Hormats is "a talker rather than a decider" according to one former White House official, but he will find plenty of old friends used to making decisions, almost all of them uniformly disastrous for the U.S. and global economy. Among the familiar Wall Street faces that Hormats will encounter in his new post will that of Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew, lately Chief Financial Officer of Citigroup Alternative Investments Group which lost $509 million in the first quarter of 2008 alone. On visits to the White House he is sure to bump into Michael Froman, who also tore a swath through the Citi balance sheet at the alternative investments shop (they specialized in "esoteric" investments such as private highways) but is now Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs. If Froman is otherwise engaged, Hormats can interface with Froman's deputy, David Lipton, who was until recently running Citi's global country risk management effort. Citigroup is also well represented at Treasury, in the form of Lewis Alexander, formerly the bank's chief economist and now Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Given the role played by all of the above in bankrupting us all, Alexander's 2007 verdict on the onset of the mortgage crash, "I think that's not going to spill more broadly into the economy and so I think we're going to have a normal kind of housing cycle though the middle of this year," can only have been a recommendation in the eyes of his current employer. Alexander's function at Citi may have been merely to endorse the financial depredations of colleagues with economic blather, rather than exercise loss-making functions personally. Not so Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, who has moved over to the number two job at the department from the Hartford Insurance Company, where he served as president and chief operating officer of the Property and Casualty Group. Hartford was one of the insurance companies that got suckered by the banks into backing their ruinous investments in real estate and other esoterica, but Wolin's Treasury has just handed Hartford $3.4 billion of our money in the form of TARP funds. Hormats' agricultural responsibilities will of necessity bring him into frequent contact with the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler - a former Goldman partner. As Assistant Secretary of Treasury in the Clinton Adminsitration Gensler played a key role in greasing the skids for the notorious Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which set the stage for the great credit default swaps scam that underpinned the recent bubble and subsequent collapse. News of the appointment did generate threats of obstruction in the Senate - any one of the senators could have blocked the appointment had they really wished to do so - but such threats proved predictably hollow. Had they been otherwise, Treasury Chief of Staff Mark Patterson could of course have lent the expertise he gained as Goldman's lobbyist to overcome the obstacle. For sheer gall it would be hard to equal the appointment of Gensler, one of the engineers of this catastrophe, but the administration has managed it with the selection of Linda Robertson, formerly a key Enron lobbyist and intimately involved in pushing through the commodity futures act as chief flack for the Federal Reserve. Prior to joining the crooked energy-trading firm, Robertson was an important figure in the Clinton Treasury Department, latterly serving her friend Larry Summers and before him Robert Rubin during their terms as Treasury Secretaries. Such connection to the key enablers of our bankrupt casino helps explain many of the other hires listed above. Michael Froman was Chief of Staff to Robert Rubin at Treasury before following Rubin to his reward at Citigroup. Most significantly, it was Froman who first introduced Rubin to his Harvard classmate Barack Obama. David Lipton also served in the Rubin Treasury, as deputy under secretary for international affairs. Neal Wolin, on the other hand, appears to have more an acolyte of Summers, who cherished him as Treasury General Counsel from '99 to '01. Summers and Robertson were similarly close, and certainly he raised no objection to her fatal submissions on behalf of her paymasters at Enron. Recent reports suggest that financial industry lobbying in Washington, at $104.7 million for the first three months of 2009, is 8% down on last year. But that is to be expected - why should Wall Street continue paying top dollar for a wholly owned subsidiary? Andrew Cockburn writes about national security and related matters. His most recent book is Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy. He is the co-producer of American Casino, the feature documentary on the ongoing financial collapse. He can be reached at amcockburn [at] gmail.com. --------13 of 13-------- ----------------- NOTHING is TOO GOOD for the rich ----------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments vote third party for president for congress now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8
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