Thousands of Towns in 88 Countries Turn Out Lights for Earth Hour; But Most of US Senate (including 15 "Democrats") Prepare to Tune Out Reason

United States of Climate Change, Sightline


Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries dimmed nonessential lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. WWF called the event, which began in Australia in 2007 and grew last year to 400 cities worldwide, "the world's first-ever global vote about the future of our planet." Associated Press, 3-29-09

Barack Obama may be forced to delay signing up to a new international agreement on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of the year because of the scale of opposition in the US Congress ... Guardian, 3-26-09

Climate Crisis: Thousands of Towns in 88 Countries Turn Out Lights for Earth Hour; But Most of US Senate (including 15 "Democrats") Prepare to Tune Out Reason

By Richard Power

The good news is that almost 4,000 cities, towns and villages in 88 countries participated in Earth Hour by turning off the lights for Saturday night.

The bad news is that the Obama administration is letting it be known that it is going to need more time on climate change. Why? Because of many in the US Senate are not willing to stop lying to themselves and their constituencies. (Well, that is my characterization not the Obama administration's.)

The problem is there is no more time left for this sort of nonsense.

In particular, 15 "Democratic" Senators are said to be not on board. Bayh's lobby loyalists.

Almost all of them (who were in the Senate at the time) were also among the overwhelming majorities who voted for both the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the repeal of Glass-Steagall. Both were disastrous decisions, and we will be dealing with their consequences for a very long time. And yet, when the great debate on the Climate Crisis finally comes (it is already eight years too late), the Senators who voted for both disastrous decisions will be trotted out in the US mainstream news media and framed as the voices of "moderation." Embarrassing.

But if the US Senate blocks meaningful Copenhagen-related climate crisis legislation the disastrous decisions about Iraq and Glass-Steagall will likely become irrelevant. Why? Because we will all be engulfed in something much worse, something irreversible, something impacting everyone everywhere for as long as anyone keeps track of time.

"The world said yes to climate action, now governments must follow," the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said Sunday, a day after hundreds of millions of people worldwide followed its call to turn off lights for a full hour. Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries dimmed nonessential lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. WWF called the event, which began in Australia in 2007 and grew last year to 400 cities worldwide, "the world's first-ever global vote about the future of our planet." Associated Press, 3-29-09

Barack Obama may be forced to delay signing up to a new international agreement on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of the year because of the scale of opposition in the US Congress, it emerged today.
Senior figures in the Obama administration have been warning Labour counterparts that the president may need at least another six months to win domestic support for any proposal.
Such a delay could derail the securing of a tough global agreement in time for countries and markets to adopt it before the Kyoto treaty runs out in 2012.
American officials would prefer to have the approval of Congress for any international agreement and fear that if the US signed up without it there would be a serious domestic backlash. ...
The British government view, including that of the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, is that the Obama administration can and will strike a deal at Copenhagen, but officials in Washington fear America may be running out of time. They have even been looking at whether an agreement would be seen as an international treaty requiring a two-thirds majority in Congress, or whether it could be forced through as a presidential executive order.
But the opposition within America is potentially substantial, and might be hardened if Obama looks like he is presenting Congress with a fait accompli.
There are thought to be as many as 15 Democratic senators who represent "rust-belt" states dependent on coal mining, steel production and heavy manufacturing, all big emitters of carbon. Guardian, 3-26-09

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Beyond the Swells of Geithner's Credibility & the AIG Bonus Babies, There is a Global Storm Moving in Fast, Do Not Be Distracted

Image: Salvador Dali, Geopoliticus child watching the birth of the new man

PAUL KRUGMAN: I think, in the end, we’re going to have to go back to something that is kind of like the system that emerged from the New Deal, which was tightly regulated banks and financial institutions, limits on risk taking, fairly high taxes for high earners, which—it turns out that, you know, low tax rates create incentives, but the incentives are actually to play dangerous games with other people’s money. Democracy Now!, 3-23-09

In a visit on March 12 to the Evening Standard newsroom in London, [Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev] stood on a box and addressed a farewell to unfettered capitalism. "We need to find a new model of capitalism, taking the best of the old model and the best of socialism," he said. Der Spiegel, 3-23-09

Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said. James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working," he said. Guardian, 3-18-09

JONATHON PORRITT, one of Gordon Brown’s leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society. ... The trust will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to 30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably. Times Online, 3-22-09

Beyond the Swells of Geithner's Credibility & the AIG Bonus Babies, There is a Global Storm Moving in Fast, Do Not Be Distracted

By Richard Power

The issue of whether Tim Geithner is too much a part of the problem to oversee the solution is a distraction. The issue of the AIG bonus babies and the warped corporate kulchur they personify is also a distraction. These are tempests in a tea pot. Meanwhile, the tea pot, the table it rests on, and the house the table sits in, have been swept up in a storm that most people in the US mainstream news media and political establishment are not coming to grips with. Either they refuse to come clean with you about it, or they refuse to allow themselves to face it even in their own psyches. Yes, they know that a storm is upon us, but hardly any of them are acting as if they have looked at the satellite images to see just how big this storm really is.

In the second, prime-time news conference of his Presidency, Barack Hussein Obama reminded the US populace that it had elected a calm, strong, clear-minded and articulate man. The President came across as engaged in the right ways, and detached in the right ways. He communicated confidence, inclusiveness and maturity.

Yes, I know there are some aspects of our current circumstances that many people (perhaps most) are not ready to hear. But tell me, if something that someone is not ready to hear is already upon them does it do any good to try to break it to them gently or in small increments?

Of course, I want President Obama to succeed; and, of course, I want him to be correct in the ways I cannot help but think that he is incorrect. The alternatives are unthinkable. And in spite of my frustrations (e.g., with the lack of insistence on accountability for the Bush-Cheney regime) and my discomfort (e.g., with appointment of men like Larry Summers, who should have been disqualified by his treatment of Cornel West if nothing else), I still feel Obama is the right man in the right place at the right time. I extend the benefit of my doubts to him, for as long as he does not break the trust, and so far he has not.

But some of us, as Kierkegaard wrote long ago, have discovered ourselves to be "stormy petrels" (i.e., those birds of the Danish coast that foretold of imminent rain and wind); and we have a different mission.

President Obama's mission is to lead, and our mission is to tell him what lies ahead.

Here are four important pieces, each contains some vital insights into the extraordinary, global challenges ahead from some other stormy petrels:

AMY GOODMAN: Paul Krugman, what would a new system look like? What would you advocate?
PAUL KRUGMAN: I think, in the end, we’re going to have to go back to something that is kind of like the system that emerged from the New Deal, which was tightly regulated banks and financial institutions, limits on risk taking, fairly high taxes for high earners, which—it turns out that, you know, low tax rates create incentives, but the incentives are actually to play dangerous games with other people’s money. A lot of things need to be updated for the twenty-first century and information technology and so on, but basically, our grandfathers got this thing right. Our grandfathers understood that finance is useful but dangerous and needs to be very tightly hedged about with regulations.
AMY GOODMAN: You write, “The Obama administration has apparently made the judgment that there would be a public outcry if it announced a straightforward plan along these lines,” which is, you know, government buying up the troubled assets, “so it has produced what Yves Smith calls ‘a lot of bells and whistles to finesse the fact that the government will wind up paying well above market [value] for”—and you can’t say the rest.
PAUL KRUGMAN: Yeah, I still can’t say the rest, which was not Times style. But yeah, ultimately, when you get the—when you get through the complexities and the salesmanship, this is just a complicated way of having the government pay, having you and me pay, for buying these assets at more than any private investor is willing to pay for them.
AMY GOODMAN: You talk about why you’re so vehement about this right now, why you see this is the critical moment.
PAUL KRUGMAN: I think—this is a political judgment. We can argue this back and forth. But I think that Obama doesn’t get many shots at this, maybe just one. There’s already a huge public outcry, which doesn’t distinguish between the things we need to do and the things that were just mistakes. And for Obama to go and do this plan and put a lot of taxpayer money on the line and for it not to work, which I’m almost certain is what would happen, I don’t think he can come back to Congress for a plan that might actually work. I think that there’s a real—the stimulus is something of the same thing. You have to do this right, right away, because the political mood is getting ugly, for good reason, and there’s not a lot of patience with failed approaches, especially failed approaches that seem like your administration is just too close to Wall Street. Democracy Now!, 3-23-09

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says the U.S. is getting a double dose of comeuppance with the swirling financial crisis and escalating violence in Afghanistan. ... In a visit on March 12 to the Evening Standard newsroom in London, Gorbachev stood on a box and addressed a farewell to unfettered capitalism. "We need to find a new model of capitalism, taking the best of the old model and the best of socialism," he said. He followed with an op-ed on March 17 in the International Herald Tribune, writing: "The so-called Washington Consensus…was force-fed to the world."
In the March 20 interview with BusinessWeek, Gorbachev continued to explore the theme of an evolving hybrid global economic system. When asked if the financial crisis was a comeuppance to the U.S., he said simply: "I believe so." Questioned further, he said, "There is no doubt that we need a new type of economic governance in the world. They have been working on the basis of principles developed almost a century ago. I think there will no longer be one country like the United States or a group of countries, as it has been, taking all the decisions. There can be no Politburo in the world now."
Gorbachev said, "You have to account for the differences between countries based not only on their economies, but on their cultures, on their different levels of development." Der Spiegel, 3-23-09

Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said.
James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working," he said.
Speaking on the eve of joining a protest against the headquarters of power firm E.ON in Coventry, Hansen said: "The first action that people should take is to use the democratic process. What is frustrating people, me included, is that democratic action affects elections but what we get then from political leaders is greenwash.
"The democratic process is supposed to be one person one vote, but it turns out that money is talking louder than the votes. So, I'm not surprised that people are getting frustrated. I think that peaceful demonstration is not out of order, because we're running out of time."
Hansen said he was taking part in the Coventry demonstration tomorrow because he wants a worldwide moratorium on new coal power stations. E.ON wants to build such a station at Kingsnorth in Kent, an application that energy and the climate change minister Ed Miliband recently delayed. "I think that peaceful actions that attempt to draw society's attention to the issue are not inappropriate," Hansen said. Guardian, 3-18-09

JONATHON PORRITT, one of Gordon Brown’s leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society.
Porritt’s call will come at this week’s annual conference of the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which he is patron.
The trust will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to 30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably.
Porritt said: “Population growth, plus economic growth, is putting the world under terrible pressure.
“Each person in Britain has far more impact on the environment than those in developing countries so cutting our population is one way to reduce that impact.”
Population growth is one of the most politically sensitive environmental problems. The issues it raises, including religion, culture and immigration policy, have proved too toxic for most green groups.
However, Porritt is winning scientific backing. Professor Chris Rapley, director of the Science Museum, will use the OPT conference, to be held at the Royal Statistical Society, to warn that population growth could help derail attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Times Online, 3-22-09

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Hard Rain Late Night: Emmylou Harris -- The Boxer (Stuttgart, 1994)

Hard Rain Late Night: Emmylou Harris -- -- The Boxer (Stuttgart, 1994)



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Darfur Crisis: While the West Dithers, & the Arab League Swaddles Itself in Hypocrisy, an ICC Prosecutor & a Cartoonist Lead

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The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court has accused Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir of "exterminating" refugees by expelling international aid agencies. ... He called for President Bashir to be arrested as soon as he leaves Sudan. The president is due to attend this month's Arab League summit in Qatar. Speaking to the BBC's Network Africa, Mr Moreno-Ocampo said that by expelling the international aid agencies the president was "confirming that he is exterminating his people". BBC, 3-21-09

Darfur Crisis: While the West Dithers, & the Arab League Swaddles Itself in Hypocrisy, an ICC Prosecutor & a Cartoonist Lead

By Richard Power

A humanitarian crisis is a humanitarian crisis whether it is in Iraq or Gaza or Darfur. Likewise, a crime against humanity is a crime against humanity whether it is committed in Iraq or Gaza or Darfur. Human misery generated by one's own government is no different than human misery generated by a foreign government. The hypocrisy of one nation does not cancel out the hypocrisy of any other nation. If Qatar and the Arab Summit allow Bashir to come and go freely, they forfeit credibility.

Even though, as Eric Reeves remarks, the ICC process has been flawed, it is of vital importance that the West led by the Obama administration takes action to insist on enforcement of the indictment:

ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, made a serious strategic error in charging Bashir individually, rather than as part of a "Joint Criminal Enterprise" (a legal concept that emerged into international law during the Balkan conflicts and prosecutions). ... Certainly genocide in Darfur has been a collaborative matter, which makes the indictment of only Bashir seem a distortion. The best account of the more comprehensive guilt on the part of the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party (NIF/NCP) regime was offered by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its lengthy December 2005 report, "Entrenching Impunity: Government Responsibility for International Crimes in Darfur."

Unfortunately, as Reeves also notes, the Obama administration's so far "tepid response" is neither encouraging nor helpful:

The Obama administration should support the court and its decision, despite intense political pressures to do otherwise. If the work of the court is constrained or defined by political considerations, its independence will be hopelessly compromised, and the prospects of international justice will dim dramatically. The U.N. Security Council referred atrocity crimes in Darfur to the ICC in March 2005; it is long past time that the pursuit of justice began in earnest, and the U.S. must unambiguously lead the way. Tepid comments from the Obama administration are not encouraging. Eric Reeves, The New Republic, 3-10-09

In the struggle to save the people of Darfur, both Moreno-Ocampo and Reeves are outperforming the leadership of both the West and the Muslim world, but they are not alone.

Words of Power is grateful to Mia Farrow for drawing attention to "COPS Darfur," a great cartoon from Mark Fiore.

Of course, there is nothing funny about the crisis in Darfur, and using humor to expose the absurdity of the world community's position on Darfur is hard to imagine. But the power of political cartooning is an awesome resource for good or ill (depending upon the psyche of the cartoonist); and "COPS Darfur" holds a big, bright mirror up to the hypocrisy of the great nations, and offers a penetrating insight you won't hear issuing from the US mainstream news media or the corridors of US political power:

"COPS Darfur is filmed on location with the men and women of the international community. All murderous tyrants are moderately pursued until something else distracts us ... Unfortunately at this time, we will just have to keep monitoring, I just don't have the backup necessary for this kind of situation."

Click on this link to go to Fiore's site and view the video (and then share it with others to raise awareness): Mark Fiore's COPS Darfur

As always, I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Here are other sites of importance:

Dream for Darfur

Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Genocide Intervention Network

Divest for Darfur.

Save Darfur!

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

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Climate Crisis: Somewhere Between Al Gore's Optimism & George Monbiot's Pessimism is Where We Need to Be

Frida Kahlo's Roots


The more we know, the grimmer it gets. George Monbiot, Guardian, 3-13-09

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, delivers an upbeat assessment of the global response to climate change today, saying he believes a "political tipping point" has been reached which will enable leaders to avert environmental catastrophe. Guardian, 3-14-09

Climate Crisis: Somewhere Between Al Gore's Optimism & George Monbiot's Pessimism is Where We Need to Be

By Richard Power

I am a champion of Al Gore's visionary leadership on the Climate Crisis. But I also admire and respect the work of George Monbiot who writes on environmental issues for the Guardian. Monbiot is one of Al Gore's harshest critics.

Both Gore and Monbiot made important statements recently.

Gore surprised me with his optimism about the do or die conference in Copenhagen later this year:

"There is a very impressive consensus now emerging around the world that the solutions to the economic crisis are also the solutions to the climate crisis," he says. "I actually think we will get an agreement at Copenhagen."
While admitting there is a big challenge ahead, he says he is seeing signs of hope. "[Obama's election] is one of the main factors," he says. "But we also have a big ally in reality the planet is under assault. This collision with human civilisation ... is increasingly dire." World will agree new climate deal, says Al Gore
Guardian, 3-14-09

But responding to reports offering further evidence that scientists have seriously underestimated the impact of climate change, Monbiot laid down some even more inconvenient truths:

Apart from the sheer animal panic I felt on reading these reports, two things jumped out at me. The first is that governments are relying on IPCC assessments that are years out of date even before they are published, as a result of the IPCC's extremely careful and laborious review and consensus process. This lends its reports great scientific weight, but it also means that the politicians using them as a guide to the cuts in greenhouse gases required are always well behind the curve. There is surely a strong case for the IPCC to publish interim reports every year, consisting of a summary of the latest science and its implications for global policy.
The second is that we have to stop calling it climate change. ... It's a ridiculously neutral term for the biggest potential catastrophe humankind has ever encountered.
I think we should call it "climate breakdown". Does anyone out there have a better idea? George Monbiot, Climate Change? Try, Climate Breakdown: What's clear from Copenhagen is that policymakers have fallen behind the scientists: global warming is already catastrophic, Guardian, 3-13-09

Somewhere between Gore's optimism (i.e., his confidence that a global agreement is possible in Copenhagen) and Monbiot's pessimism (i.e., his conviction that even if there is agreement it to will not be adequate to the task at hand) is the reality of our circumstances.

We will continue to keep pushing for the best of both points of view to be heeded.

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Late Night Hard Rain: Sinead O'Connor w/ the Chieftains -- The Foggy Dew

Hard Rain Late Night: Sinead O'Connor -- Sinead O'Connor w/ the Chieftains -- The Foggy Dew

As down the glen one Easter morn
To a city fair rode I,
Their armed lines of marching men
In squadrons passed me by.
No pipe did hum, no battle drum
Did sound its loud tattoo
But the Angelus' bells o'er the Liffey swells
Rang out in the foggy dew.

Right proudly high in Dublin town
Hung they out a flag of war.
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky
Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.
And from the plains of Royal Meath
Strong men came hurrying through;
While Brittania's Huns with their long-range guns
Sailed in through the foggy dew.

The bravest fell, and the requiem bell
Rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Easter-tide
In the springing of the year.
While the world did gaze with deep amaze
At those fearless men but few
Who bore the fight that freedom's light
Might shine through the foggy dew.

And back through the glen I rode again
And my heart with grief was sore
For I parted then with valiant men
Whom I never shall see more
But to and fro
In my dreams I go
And I kneel and pray for you
For slavery fled
Oh, glorious dead
When you fell in the foggy dew



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Climate Crisis: Deaf to the Oceans & Rainforests, But Attuned to the Vapid Muttering of George Will? What has Happened to the US Body Politic?

Celtic Triple Spiral/Triple Goddess Symbol


The economic impact of global warming has been grossly underestimated and scientists must warn that inaction will spell disaster, top economist and climate change expert Nicholas Stern said on Thursday. Stern told 2,000 climate scientists meeting here that they had failed to clearly tell humanity what it faces if global temperatures reach the upper range of forecasts made by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Agence France Press, 3-12-09

Unfortunately, a new Gallup poll shows that while a majority of Americans still believe global warming is happening, a record number now say that it is “exaggerated” by the news media ... Considering the manner in which the media covers global warming, it’s not surprising that the public is confused. For instance, when conservative columnist George Will published demonstrably false claims about climate change in the Washington Post, the Post refused to run a correction. Editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, defended Will, claiming that he was simply “drawing inferences from data that most scientists reject” and that his critics were “irresponsible.” Think Progress, 3-11-09

Climate Crisis: Deaf to the Oceans & Rainforests, But Attuned to the Vapid Muttering of George Will? What has Happened to the US Body Politic?

Reading Think Progress's report on the new Gallup poll indicating "a record number" of people in the USA now feel that the threat from climate change is "exaggerated," I find myself almost speechless.

But apparently, even rendered almost speechless, I am among the fortunate, because an alarming number of my fellow citizens are deaf, dumb and blind to the fire which is already upon us.

Deaf?

Yes, deaf to the oceans and the rainforests --

The Amazonian rainforest is likely to suffer catastrophic damage even with the lowest temperature rises forecast under climate change, researchers have found.
Damage will be so severe that it will cause irreversible changes to the world's weather patterns, which would be expected to bring more storms, floods and heatwaves to Britain. Times Online, 3-11-09

The U.N.'s climate change panel may be severely underestimating the sea-level rise caused by global warming, climate scientists said on Monday, calling for swift cuts in greenhouse emissions. "The sea-level rise may well exceed one metre (3.28 feet) by 2100 if we continue on our path of increasing emissions," said Stefan Rahmstorf, professor at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Reuters, 3-10-9

Human pollution is turning the seas into acid so quickly that the coming decades will recreate conditions not seen on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs, scientists will warn today. The rapid acidification is caused by the massive amounts of carbon dioxide belched from chimneys and exhausts that dissolve in the ocean. The chemical change is placing "unprecedented" pressure on marine life such as shellfish and lobsters and could cause widespread extinctions, the experts say. Guardian, 3-10-09

Blind?

Yes, blind to the evidence produced by the most populous of the fifty United States and the most populous country on the planet --

California's interagency Climate Action Team on Wednesday issued the first of 40 reports on impacts and adaptation, outlining what the state's residents must do to deal with the floods, erosion and other effects expected from rising sea levels. Hundreds of thousands of people and billions of dollars of Golden State infrastructure and property would be at risk if ocean levels rose 55 inches by the end of the century, as computer models suggest, according to the report. LA Times, 3-12-09

Can a climate catastrophe still be averted? Scientists voice pessimism in a new study, which concludes that no matter what the Western industrialized nations do, China's greenhouse emissions will be hard to stop. ... "Many Western industrialized nations want China to commit to reducing its CO2 emissions," says Dabo Guan of the Electricity Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge in England. "But the country will not even be capable of doing so." Der Spiegel, 3-6-09

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Hard Rain Late Night: Mary Black -- Song for Ireland

Hard Rain Late Night: Mary Black -- Song for Ireland



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The Binge is Over. Self-Mugged, Santelli, Kudlow, Cramer, et al, Gibber Away. Meanwhile, Krugman Offers Tough Love & Jon Stewart Offers Hard News

Diogenes of Sinope Carried a Lamp thru the Streets of Athens in the Daylight, Some Legends say He was Looking for an Honest Man, Others say He was Looking for a Genuine Human Being.


And where was the corporate mainstream press -- which covers the financial industry with countless "reporters" -- while the walls of Wall Street were crumbling? They were pumping up the oligarchy and their own corporate stock with misleading information and dereliction of duty (with, again, some rare exceptions) in reporting the impending debacle. That's why America needs a new media, one responsive to the public, not the self-interest of the corporate ownership of the press. Mark Karlin, Buzzflash Editorial, In 8 1/2 Minutes, Jon Stewart Devastates CNBC and Its Destructive Boosterism of Failed Wall Street Scams

What happened on Wall Street was not due to poor people over reaching; it was the result of super-rich people gambling with the fate of our economy (as allowed by the systematic "Reagan Revolution" de-regulation), losing it all (as the mainstream financial media -- particularly television -- cheered them on), and then asking for a hundreds of billions of dollars in limousine welfare. Mark Karlin, Buzzflash Editorial, Wall Street on Welfare: The Tax Payers Pick Up the Trillion Dollar Tab for River Boat Gamblers on the Dole, 3-7-09

The Binge is Over. Self-Mugged, Santelli, Kudlow, Cramer, et al, Gibber Away. Meanwhile, Krugman Offers Tough Love & Jon Stewart Offers Hard News

By Richard Power

We have heard all of this before.

"No one could have foreseen terrorists flying planes into buildings," they said. And yet our intelligence professionals warned them in the months preceding 9/11.

"No one could have foreseen the ferocious insurgency in Iraq," they said. And yet our military professionals warned them before they even launched their foolish military adventure.

"No one could have foreseen the levees breaking in New Orleans," they said. And yet our emergency professionals warned them in the days before Katrina made land fall.

They act as if no one saw this crisis coming. They act as if there were no John the Baptists in the Wilderness beyond Wall Street. But they were all Herods who only had eyes and ears for Salome.

The global financial meltdown and the economic depression it has resulted in constitute a powerful rebuke not only of the laissez-faire cult of Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan, but also of the business news media that shilled for it over the last three decades.

I am not an economist, nor am I a businessman, but Words of Power, and others in the progressive blogosphere and on progressive talk radio, have done a better job of warning you about what was coming than the financial news channels on cable, and we did it simply by tracking the commentary of Krugman, Stiglitz, Galbraith, David Walker and others. (For corroboration, browse the Words of Power Economic Security Archive.)

And in this ongoing effort, I commend two vital communications to you:

First, Paul Krugman's latest tough love missive on the Obama administration's so far seemingly ineffectual approach to the banking crisis.

Second, Jon Stewart's shocking 8 and a half minute expose revealing the fraud that is the US business news media.

Yes, I am offering you a Nobel Prize winner in one hand, and brilliant, diamond-hard journalism from Comedy Central in the other. That is the best there is to offer, that is where we are in the USA today.

The reality is that when it comes to dealing with the banks, the Obama administration is dithering. Policy is stuck in a holding pattern. ...
The truth is that the Bernanke-Geithner plan - the plan the administration keeps floating, in slightly different versions - isn't going to fly. ...
So why has this zombie idea - it keeps being killed, but it keeps coming back - taken such a powerful grip?
The answer, I fear, is that officials still aren't willing to face the facts. They don't want to face up to the dire state of major financial institutions because it's very hard to rescue an essentially insolvent bank without, at least temporarily, taking it over. And temporary nationalization is still, apparently, considered unthinkable. Paul Krugman, International Herald Tribune, 3-6-09

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Jon Stewart Eviscerates CNBC and Rick Santelli

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

For an archive of Words of Power posts on Economic Insecurity, click here.

For Words of Power's archive of posts on Corporate News Media Complicity, Power of Alternative Media, Propaganda & Freedom, click here.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

economic security, Jon Stewart, Paul Krugman, News Media, Richard Power, Words of Power

Darfur Crisis: The Hague's Bashir Indictment Pressures Not Only the Thugocracy, But also the Great Nations of the West, & the Moslem World

For More Compelling Photos from Mia Farrow's Journeys, click here.

In the six years since the outbreak of rebellion in Darfur, the Sudanese army and its militia allies have committed war crimes on a horrific scale. ... By issuing an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, who has presided over the carnage, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has sent a robust signal to would-be war criminals throughout Africa and the wider world. ... What happens next, however, is less clear cut. In the most optimistic scenario, Mr Bashir's indictment will act as a catalyst for change. Financial Times, 3-5-09

Colonel Samir Jaja's orders to the assembled soldiers before their dawn attack on the village were absolutely clear: "Don't leave anybody alive. If we leave these people in this place, they will support the rebels against the government. The area must be emptied so the rebels can't find any help and have to leave the country." ... "Rape the women, kill the children. Leave nothing," Jaja said. 'Rape the women, kill the children': ex-Sudanese soldier recalls Darfur raid Guardian, 3-4-09

Darfur Crisis: The Hague's Bashir Indictment Pressures Not Only the Thugocracy, But also the Great Nations of the West, & the Moslem World

By Richard Power

The World Court's indictment of the leader of the Sudanese Thugocracy (for war crimes and crimes against humanity) is welcome news. I experience a grim amusement in listening to the fretting of those who say this action will lead to chaos or bloodshed. Where have these weak-kneed people been living for the last several years? Certainly not in the Hell of Darfur. No, they live in distant cities amidst all of the comforts of civilization and they are disturbed that their busy schedules will be disrupted and their distractions will come to an end.

Yes, perhaps the moment of truth has come at last.

Mia Farrow reports: "The Government of Sudan has ordered the expulsion of six to ten humanitarian groups from Darfur, including Oxfam, Solidarities, MSF Holland, CARE, MSF France, ACF and Mercy Corps. Armed soldiers are going door to door seizing assets. Some are suggesting that Kalma camp will be stripped bare...90,000 people."

The World Court's correct and courageous decision to issue the first indictment of a sitting leader of a government will not only put pressure on the Sudanese Thugocracy.

The indictment will also put pressure on the great nations of the West -- with Bush-Cheney gone, and an indictment in hand, they no longer have any excuse not to act.

The looming confrontation will also put pressure on the Moslem world. The hypocrisy on human rights will be exposed for all to see. Will it continue to make the mistake of those it condemns, and only see the abominations it chooses to see?

In the six years since the outbreak of rebellion in Darfur, the Sudanese army and its militia allies have committed war crimes on a horrific scale. They have used rape systematically to dehumanise women from ethnic groups associated with the revolt. They have burnt thousands of villages, killed tens if not hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
By issuing an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, who has presided over the carnage, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has sent a robust signal to would-be war criminals throughout Africa and the wider world. This is the first time the court has indicted a sitting head of state. As such it shows that no office, however high, is beyond the reach of international law. Not surprisingly, human rights activists are celebrating what they hope is a seismic shift towards ending the impunity of war criminals.
What happens next, however, is less clear cut. In the most optimistic scenario, Mr Bashir's indictment will act as a catalyst for change. Financial Times, 3-5-09

The International Criminal Court sought the arrest Wednesday of Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir for war crimes in Darfur, issuing the first ever warrant against a sitting head of state.
"Today, pre-trial chamber one of the International Criminal Court ... issued a warrant for the president of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity," court spokeswoman Laurence Blairon said.
The 65-year-old Beshir will face five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes. However Beshir will not face charges of genocide as requested by the ICC's chief prosecutor, the spokeswoman added.
Speaking at a press conference, Blairon said Beshir bore responsibility for "exterminating, raping and forcibly transfferring a large numbers of civilians" from the western Sudanese region where a six-year conflict has cost several hundred thousand lives. Agence France Press, 3-4-09

I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Here are other sites of importance:

Dream for Darfur

Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Genocide Intervention Network

Divest for Darfur.

Save Darfur!

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Darfur, Divestment, Enough, UN, Genocide, Mia Farrow, Dream for Darfur, Sudan, Investors Against Genocide, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Mary Black -- Óró 'sé do bheatha 'bhaile (Highland Sessions - BBC 2005)

Hard Rain Late Night: Mary Black -- Óró 'sé do bheatha 'bhaile (Highland Sessions - BBC 2005)



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Mary Black, You Tube

The Year of Changing Dangerously: Krugman & Parry on the Danger to the Republic, Chomsky on the Threat to the Future of the Species

Image: Heronymus Bosch, Hell, Courtesy of Radio Netherlands

KRUGMAN: I‘ve got a bad feeling about this, as do a number of people.
I was just reading testimony from Adam Posen, who‘s our leading expert on Japan. He said, you know, we are—we‘re moving right in the track of the Japanese during the 1990s, propping up zombie banks, just not doing resolution. Keith Olbermann Interviews Paul Krugman, Countdown, 2-25-09

As Obama sets off on a hazardous political journey – seeking national health insurance, a “greener” economy, educational and infrastructure investments, and higher taxes on the rich – he can expect continued hostility from most of the American news media, both on the right and in the mainstream. That may be a structural problem that could prove fatal for the President’s goals.
Robert Parry, Consortium News, 2-28-09

The survival of the human species is by no means an obvious thing. There are very severe threats to survival. Noam Chomsky, Raw Story, 2-27-09

The Year of Changing Dangerously: Krugman & Parry on the Danger to the Republic, Chomsky on the Threat to the Future of the Species

By Richard Power

This year is a critical one, both for the republic and for the planet as a whole.

In recent days, three worthy men shared important insights on our present circumstances and the road ahead, since you may easily have missed them, and it is unlikely you will see them presented as of one cloth, and I have woven them together for you in this post.

Concerning our present circumstances, two issues of great concern are 1) whether or not the Obama-Biden administration has chosen the right approach to the insolvency of our financial institutions, and 2) the extent to which the US mainstream news media will continue to shill for narrow special interests rather than offering the views of leading economists, scientists and other subject matter experts on the economic crisis, the energy crisis, the healthcare crisis, and the climate crisis.

In regard to the financial crisis, the approach of the Obama-Biden administration seems, so far, to lack clarity and force, unlike both the stimulus package and the budget proposal which are bold steps forward.

As Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner, Princeton professor, and New York Times columnist, explained in a recent interview with Keith Olbermann:

OLBERMANN: . to TARP and the president last night, he said it‘s going to be administered differently going forward. Does that mean—is that code for nationalization of the banks eventually sooner or later?
KRUGMAN: Not if you listen to what Ben Bernanke said in his congressional testimony, not if you looked at the interview that Tim Geithner, the treasury secretary, just did. I‘ve got a bad feeling about this, as do a number of people.
I was just reading testimony from Adam Posen, who‘s our leading expert on Japan. He said, you know, we are—we‘re moving right in the track of the Japanese during the 1990s, propping up zombie banks, just not doing resolution.
There‘s a—I was very happy with the president‘s speech. The actual implementation on financial policy looks like the kind of failure of nerve.
OLBERMANN: Are you seeing a coordinated strategy in this on how to handle the economic crisis? Is there a grand plan at this point?
KRUGMAN: There is—no. I mean, there is good stuff. The stimulus is good, it should be bigger, but it‘s good. On the banks, I really can‘t see. There really seems to be, we are going to put in some more money, we‘re going to, you know, say stern things to the bankers about how they should behave better, but if there is a strategy there, it‘s continuing to be a mystery to me and to everybody I talk to. Keith Olbermann Interviews Paul Krugman, Countdown, 2-25-09

In regard to the role that the US mainstream news media will play in the great struggles throughout the rest of this year, Robert Parry of Consortiumnews frames the problem well:

In a startling ambitious budget message, President Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet to the American Right not only by tying the current economic crisis to the recklessness of the past eight years under George W. Bush but by tracing it back further to the anti-regulatory, anti-labor and anti-government policies of Ronald Reagan. ...
To the American Right, those are fighting words, and leading right-wingers have already trotted out their curious charge of “class warfare,” an ironic message given the fact that the growing disparity in American wealth reveals that “class warfare” has long been at the heart of Reagan-Bush policies – and the rich are winning.
Yet, while it may be audacious for the young President to take on the well-entrenched forces of reaction in Washington, there is another reason for Obama and his supporters to worry. The national news media remains largely enthralled by the pro-Republican rules of the past three decades. ...
As Obama sets off on a hazardous political journey – seeking national health insurance, a “greener” economy, educational and infrastructure investments, and higher taxes on the rich – he can expect continued hostility from most of the American news media, both on the right and in the mainstream.
That may be a structural problem that could prove fatal for the President’s goals.
Robert Parry, Consortium News, 2-28-09

(BTW, Parry, a great resource over the dark years (2001-2008) is doing a terrific job scouting ahead for ambushes, see also Obama's 'Seven Days in May' Moment)

In regard to the survivability of the species, the incomparable and indomitable Noam Chomsky, speaking in an extraordinary You Tube post from his office at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently articulated the big picture themes that have dominated Words of Power commentary over these last few years:

"What I mean by that is pretty straightforward," said Chomsky. "Survival is a word we all understand. I'd like to know whether there's going to be a world -- a decent world -- where, say, my grandchildren can live. That's the question of survival. The survival of the human species is by no means an obvious thing. There are very severe threats to survival. We learn about them all the time. The threat of environmental destruction is much too real to put to the side. The threat of destruction by weapons of mass destruction -- that has come very close many times. We just learned at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, a terminal nuclear war was averted by one word by one submarine commander who countermanded the order to send off nuclear missiles. ... "Across the board, the choice of hegemony or survival is one that we must face if we care about our grandchildren," he concludes. Raw Story, 2-27-09

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Noam Chomsky: Giving Up Hegemony for Lent



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