Revolution continues; greed gets bad name

Notes 48

If you feel helpless, promise for an active outlet coming

We’re proud to announce the formation of a new action-oriented group which shares Truthout’s values: RootsAction.
Our readers often ask, “How can I make a difference?” It’s a question we all grapple with daily in this new age of instant communication, corporate dominance and global tumult. RootsAction is a new online initiative dedicated to galvanizing millions of Americans who are committed to economic fairness, equal rights, civil liberties, environmental protection - and defunding endless wars.
Working in tandem with Truthout's efforts to expose wrongdoing, investigate injustice and shed light on crucial issues, RootsAction will speak out against the untenable status quo, demand progressive change and stand up to the powerful forces which influence both major political parties in the United States.
RootsAction is the project of dedicated progressive activists and media critics Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen. Their introductory essay, “A Time for Action, Not Servility,” can be read here.
Their initial campaigns center around a call from Daniel Ellsberg for a definitive opposition to the continued occupation and war in Afghanistan and a demand for a full withdrawal of US troops; a White House call-in day to insist that accused leaker Bradley Manning be treated humanely during his detention; and a push to demand a formal apology to the people of Egypt for the United States’ role in supporting the dictatorial regime of Hosni Mubarak.
Please click through to the action pages above or visit RootsAction.org to find out more. We’re hoping to help RootsAction mobilize a thriving community of progressives dedicated to standing up for change. Only together can we force the political and corporate elite to listen and respond to our demands for justice, accountability, democracy and peace.
You can also connect with RootsAction on Facebook.

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Leadership of Egypt's ruling party resigns

Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press – 24 mins ago
CAIRO
The ruling party leaders who resigned included the country's most powerful political figures — and its most unpopular among many Egyptians. The move may have been aimed at convincing protesters in the streets that the regime is sincere in implementing democratic reforms they demand.
But State TV, announcing the resignations, still identified head of state Mubarak as president of the ruling party in a sign he would remain in authority
At a press conference aired on state TV, Shafiq suggested the government hopes to convince enough factions to enter talks that the others will be forced to join in. Asked whether the Muslim Brotherhood, for example, will enter talks, Shafiq said, "Once they find the others are negotiation, for sure they will or they will be left alone ... The level of aspirations is going down day by day."
The government and military have promised not to try to clear protesters from Tahrir, and soldiers guarding the square continued to let people enter to join the growing rally.
But there were signs of tension Saturday. At one point, army tanks tried to brought out tanks to try to bulldoze away several burned out vehicles that protesters used in barricades during fighting this week with pro-regime attackers. The proteters say they want the gutted chassis in place in case of a new attack. Protesters clambered onto the vehicles and lay down in front of them to prevent soldiers from removing them, and only after heated arguments did the troops agree.
Also, there were reports for the first time of attempts by troops guarding the square's entrances to prevent those entering from bringing food for protesters, thousands of whom have camped out for days and need a constant flow of supplies.
Protesters distrust a process conducted by the current government, given the regime's overwhelming domination of the playing field, including a grip on security services and the media, a vast patronage system, a constitution that effectively enshrines its monopoly and a history of rigging elections.
ElBaradei has argued that the current leadership be replaced by a presidential council of several figures — including a military representative — to oversee the daunting process of loosening that grip, which he says will take a year.

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PIMCO billionaire a heretic. Hits nail on the head. Enough is enough

PIMCO's Bill Gross blasts U.S. culture of money and greed
Wed Feb 2
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Billionaire bond maven Bill Gross says financiers have lost the high ground and the list of financial blow-ups -- from the S&L debacle, the Asian crisis and the demise of Long Term Capital Management and Lehman Brothers to the dot-com bubble and subprime mortgage mess are major sins for the money-changers of Wall Street.
In a February report, he says America needs new priorities and blasts a culture that worships money and greed.
Gross, in remarks called "Devil's Bargain", blames money managers for failing to allocate capital wisely.
He criticizes a culture that lives off ill-advised financial innovation such as securitization.
"I know one thing for sure. This is not God's work -- it has the unmistakable odor of Mammon," says Gross, a founder and co-chief investment officer at PIMCO in Newport Beach, California, where he helps oversee about $1.1 trillion in assets.

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Getting the war machine under control

A Marine Remembers: Learning to Kill, Learning Not to Kill
David Lindorff, This Can't Be Happening: "One of my grandsons recently asked me, 'What is wisdom?' After some discussion, we together concluded that wisdom comes only with experience. When it comes to war, though, living in a country that has not experienced a war on its own soil since 1865, Americans, other than those veterans who have actually fought abroad, have no such experience to draw on. Perhaps this is why so many Americans easily accept, and even cheer the nation's militarism, and why most of us accept our government's reflexive resort to military action to settle international disputes."
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The first rule for communicating with short attention span. Keep it simple, stupid

"Anchor Babies": No Getting Around the Constitution
TIME
By Reynolds Holding – Fri Feb 4,
The Fourteenth Amendment says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
America's birthright citizenship derives from the 1608 English case of Robert Calvin, who was born in Scotland just after the Scottish King James VI also became the King of England. Calvin wanted to own land in England, but couldn't, unless he was a subject of England as well as Scotland. The court ruled that he was, because he and Englishmen owed allegiance to the same king.
English and then American courts consistently followed that rule over the centuries. Still, Britain began saying in 1981 that people born there could not automatically become citizens unless at least one parent was already a citizen or permanent resident, and the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1857 that slaves could not be citizens, even when born here. The infamous Dred Scott decision rested in part on the idea that the framers of the Constitution had chosen not to make slaves citizens. This idea of choice was clearly contrary to the rule of birthright citizenship, and Congress essentially rejected it through the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and, more definitively, the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.
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Let’s use the tea baggers playbook and take back our Constitution. Let the Patriot Act DIE

Patrick Leahy Introduces Bipartisan PATRIOT Act Reforms, but Civil Rights Groups Unsatisfied
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: "Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced a reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act last week that would extend and reform some provisions set to expire on February 28. Leahy's reforms, known as the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011, would limit the government's power in gathering intelligence on individuals in the United States. But many civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Library Association (ALA) and the Campaign for Reader Privacy say the reforms do not go far enough to reduce the PATRIOT Act's impact, which the ACLU calls unconstitutional."

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The bastards should all be put in jail, not given the right to review the language of their incrimination

Government in new dispute with tobacco companies

WASHINGTON – .
The government has prepared corrective statements it wants the companies to be forced to make about the health hazards from smoking. But the tobacco companies don't want those proposed statements put in the public record before they get a chance to review them.
The department asked the federal judge in the case, Gladys Kessler, to say whether she intends to prohibit the government from filing its proposed corrective statements publicly.
In 2006, Kessler ruled that the tobacco industry had concealed the dangers of smoking for decades. The proposed statements by the companies would be the remedy for that violation.
On Friday, the industry told the court that it wants the proposed corrective statements to be filed with the companies so that both sides can minimize if not eliminate any disagreements in advance of a March 3.

EDITOR’S Note--My 54 year old wife, after two years of struggling with cigarette induced lung cancer, is in her final few weeks.
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Those rascal bankers wouldn’t do us that courtesy

JPMorgan Hid Doubts on Madoff, Documents Suggest
Diana B. Henriques, The New York Times News Service: "Senior executives at JPMorgan Chase expressed serious doubts about the legitimacy of Bernard L. Madoff's investment business more than 18 months before his Ponzi scheme collapsed but continued to do business with him, according to internal bank documents made public in a lawsuit unsealed on Thursday. On June 15, 2007, an obviously high-level risk management officer for Chase's investment bank sent a lunchtime e-mail to colleagues to report that another bank executive 'just told me that there is a well-known cloud over the head of Madoff and that his returns are speculated to be part of a ponzi scheme.'"
The trustee working on behalf of the victims of Bernie Madoff's huge ponzi scheme has sued JP Morgan for a startling $6.4 billion.
The bank was "thoroughly complicit" in the fraud, says the trustee, Irving Picard, and he cites some emails from JP Morgan executives to prove it.


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More of the same. Bush used same tactic to starve SEC oversight of examiners and make the financial collapse of 2008 possible

Outgunned by Wall St, SEC warns of fraud

By Sarah N. Lynch and Dave Clarke Sarah N. Lynch And Dave Clarke –
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tighter budgets at the Securities and Exchange Commission could mean killing vital technology upgrades needed to catch swindlers, the agency's chief said on Friday in a blunt appeal for more funding.
With Republicans in Congress threatening to restrain her budget, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said the agency faces severe challenges in doing its existing job and in taking on new duties mandated under 2010's Dodd-Frank market reform law.

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Well damn, contrary to public opinion, nothing to cut at Post Office. Guess we’ll have to blame somebody else for deficits. Maybe ourselves?
Things Your Mail Carrier Won’t Tell You

by Reader's Digest Magazine, on Wed Jan 26, 2011 8:12am PST
We don’t get a penny of your tax dollars. Really. The sale of postage, products, and services at our 36,000 retail locations, and on our website, covers all of the post office's operating expenses.