Free At Last!!! oh sweet life...

Post-election bliss and endorphin crash
Current mood: luminous
Category: freeeeeeeeee News and Politics

So strange and euphoric still...in my lifetime, never would have bellieved this America could have come so far! Think the absolute failure of Bush and his New World Order crew, un-regulated, unabashedly greedy, unscrupulous, shit helped the population see past skin color?!!??

whatever...it took a disaster for us, as a nation to appreciate intelligence and a calm demeanor in a leader. Finally.
Now, all the hard work begins. Call your congressmen and senators, starting today, to push change and say NO MORE to the last push by Bush as he tries to pass 300 evil, greedy bills...pay attention, folks.

Oh, and think of me this friday! At freakin last, I'll be signing my divorce decree and will be celebrating like a mad single woman at the Bee! Come BEE happy for me!

We will toast to the future, to freedom, to happiness and to prosperity, for al!l
Slante! Slante! Slante!!!!!

I am currently listening to :
La Vie en Rose
By Edith Piaf ...it is beautiful and amazing....
Release date: 1999-02-09

Promised land.....

Promised land..The Angels of our better nature
Current mood: contemplative
Category: melancholy News and Politics

Last night we elected an intelligent and honorable man to be our 44th president.
A black man raised by a single mother and his grandparents, a man who wihile growing up learned that to be accepted in a color coded country, that he'd have to be smarter, nicer, socially wiser...a man hand made by society and family to be able to reach out, to find common ground...a man who could reach out and say i might not have had your vote, but I will hear you and work..I will be your President too...

Rep. John Lewis sat for an interview after the election had been callled for Obama, and to look at his face was to see the track of racial intolerance and the civil rights stuggle worn like a tattoo over his cheeks and eyes...the pride, the dis-belief, the hope the bittersweet memories about those killed over color in his lifetime, trying to bring equality to this country.

I read that FDR thought it was not the specific programs he gave this country after the depression, but instead the gift of hope...of faith in our ability to re-0build our economy, our infrastructure, our core american values...Faith reflected, was his talent and gift to a wounded America.

Obama has that gift, that talent. . He has vision and conscience and values..

I hope the great greed, concentrated wealth, lack of constitutional and legal restrictions that the Reagan/Bush neocon's have spewed can be cleaned up. That we can rebuild our jobs base, our education systems, take care of our sick and less fortunate...value art and ideas, create peace and end two new world order wars...

No one man can do that. It is President Obama, the House, the Senate...
but MOSTLY IT IS US!!! WE will need to be vigilant. We will need to get off our asses and lobby, debate, hold people accountable...we will need to be engaged in our own destiny. We will use the gift of FAITH that Obama has, to our greater good. We will be a democracy again. We will be good, honorable citizens who no longer follow like sheep.

We will honor the memory of all of the great men and women who got us to this day, the day a wise man, who also happens to be black, is our 44th President.

Soujourner Truth, Rosa Parks, MLK, Robert Kennedy, Toussaint, the many slain civil rights workers, freedom bus tiders, lunch-counter protestors, sweet Rep.John Lewis..... They saw the promised land from a great distance....some, many, died trying to get us all to that promised land...Last night in America, we got to the promised land.
Let us not waste it.

Currently listening :
'His Eye Is on the Sparrow'
By ETHEL WATERS

I voted, I cried, I believe!!!

I voted, I cried, I believe!. Now, I'm gonna dtrink a toast
Never for one minute of my youth, did I ever dream I would live long enough to see a blackman run for prez and actually WIN!

Goodness, intelligence, measured -responses do matter after all! Are we finally smart enough collectively to get past the trite and false sound bites offered in place of real plans for change? Real thoughtfull strategy matters!!!

FOR FUCKSAKE, I SAID IT.... OUT-LOUD . I SAID W I N ...! I doubledared myself to believe Iit would happen and I do believe it will!

Tonight I'm gonna put on my sassiest election day duds and some high heels and eyeliner and go out with my democratic, leftist , maybe even socialist...oh dear...friends and celebrate the hell out of the taking back of Democracy, the restoration of the Constitution, the resurgence of altruism instead of greed, of hope, of jobs, of unions, fof air wages,of education, of healthcare, of a women's right over her own body, and , well, of pure and simple JOY.


I will drink to all of these things. And when my head hits my pillow, I will cry myself to sleep out of happiness ...pure hope and happiness...instead of fear.


Slante, Barak, Slante

America, be color-blind!

November 05, 2008
Current mood: hopeful
Category: adament Dreams and the Supernatural

On Sunday, November 02nd, I'll go to sleep in a country that has legislatively lost it's way. All the past week, I've sadly, incredulously, listened to "educated", and yet incredibly ignorant white people talk out their fears...fears of being "enslaved," if a black man was elected President, a belief that a "muslim" in methodist's cloak, will lead us to hell, that we would be lead by a "terrorist" into a nightmare of wars and self-destruction...not one of these "intelligent" people talked about the issues: the inequitable distribution of power and wealth, or the lack of over-sight that led to the biggest financial crisis since the depression, about the undermining of the basis of our democracy-the Constitution--or the war, the deaths, the cutting of V A benefits, or the foreclosures, or the underfunding of education, or the job losses..instead of issues, they talked out of their own ignorance and bigotry:fear of color...lies lies lies, all paid for by the RNC ...hate ads everywhere...
Now, at bed time, I will light a candle and turn on Maria Callas...I"ll shut off the tv and pray to whatever collective goodness might exist, be cogent of our dire needs, hope that somewhere, out there in the cosmos, something listens...I will pray for a wake-up call for fearful, racvially divided America. I will pray for open confrontaion of and discusion about our history of hate and fear and violence against peopke of color fed by the white powers that be...I will say fuck racism...and hatred and fear about other Gods..
I predict that I will wake up Tuesday morning and go to vote, the lines will be wrapped around the park andf the school I vote at. The people will believe in change and hope.. young and middle age voters will let the old ladies and old men, the mom's with kids go to the head of the line. They will sit on the grass and talk to eachother, hopeful...white black, brown... All will sense that things must change. I will drive around the city...I will see lines full of young, old, people of all colors, all incomes, all religions, trying to create change one vote at a time...

This election, I know that no-one will sit quietly by, if anyone tries to steal this election a quiet assertion and promise to riot in the streets this time...I will take it to the streets myself if that happens...I see in the majority of voters, new and old, a determination to make sure that this historic election is played out fairly and openly...

On Wednesday, I will wake up to a new political world. It will be a hard slog, but the times and mindset of greed and self-centered interest will be replaced by the realization that it is how we share our prosperity and grow it through that sharing that makes us greater and a real world power..

I will drop to my knees and be thankful for Change and I will do everything I can to help our government make this a reality.

AMEN!

'Palin' comparison

Last night, for halloween, I dressed up as Sarah Palin to give out candy at my coffeeshop...perfect wig, red power blazer, black heels...wideleather belt. and, oh yes, the perfect glasses and lipstick...The creepy, too-perfect replica! My personal added embellishment was a baby-doll tucked, upside down, into the belt, and a seal-pup, dead and bloodied hanging from my hip...The parents laughed. The kids, age 5 and up, all knew who I was. now that says alot about how politicalthe world is even for five year olds!

After the shop closed, I thought it was too good a costume to just use at work so I went to little Grumps, my fave n.e. bar,with some friends to scare and amuse slightly inebriated adults...As I walked in, there were 5 other Palin;'s in the bat...all played straight, no dark humorous add-ons ...we all complimented eachother for being the scariest things in the bar and laughed...they all bowed in homage to the baby"Trig" doll and dead seal pup..We laughed and had a drink. and toasted to her political demise..

For the rest of the evening there were many political discussions, animated and hopeful. Amazing, I thought, the level of hope and the level of fear, in that neighborhood bar! We all worried that somehow , inexplicably, another election and real change could be stolen once again...the hope and the fear were equally palpable...

Saw many a customer and friend there, and we laughed and toasted to Obama and hope...After a while, I sat at the bar cuz my slutty highheels were killing my feet and then, an old customer/friend sat next to me, laughing at the Palin costume. Over a beer, he pulled out his iphone to show me all of the pictures of his beautiful new daughter and waxed stunningly poeticfor such a macho construction man, about how much he loved her...how they were perfect pals from the moment he looked at her face. He talked about how he was stunned by the immediate depth of his love for her. It made me want to cry in joy for that love. We talked about our shared St. John's college education...how lucky we were for it...About how, in this time,, we needed to believe that Obama could win and help steer this crazy wounded ship called America...We talked liberation theology, we talked poetry, we talked kids and work for over two hours...it was so nice to see him so full of life...

As the night passed, I kept thinking how strange and goofy, downright bizarre it would have been to walk into that bar on that halloween night and listen to and watch everybody....him dressed as a woodsman, me as Palin, surrounded by lucha libre masks, devils, Hillary Clintons, priests, Pinocchio, a guy dressed as an anal fissure, goblins, Michael Phelps, Witches, Gargoyles...all of us talking politics...all of us so so so wanting to believe that change will come...

Slante to us all, Slante to hope, Slante to a new kinder liberal order.

I believe.

A New Deal/Real Deal...cycle, history... cycle

FDR Explains the Crisis

Why 2008 Feels Like 1932

By PAM MARTENS
The parallels with 1932 are breathtaking: billions in bonds defaulting; dysfunctional global credit markets; commodity prices crumbling; stocks in free fall; home foreclosures; rising unemployment; banks teetering; an angry populace; a Republican administration clinging to their discredited trickle down theory; a Democratic contender for President with charismatic oratory skills tapping into the public mood with a message of a New Deal, this time called “change we can believe in.”
To complete the similitude, we need only a landslide victory for the Democrats in the upcoming election with Obama carrying all but six states.
It is no coincidence that our problems today are a replay of those of 1932, albeit with a less rapid economic descent because of the safety nets like Social Security and bank deposit insurance put in place by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs of the 30s. Each and every form of securities and bank fraud that led to the conditions of 1932 have been perpetrated again today. The only differences are that this time the Wall Street leverage is larger and the fraud frequently began its life with a triple-A pedigree and a legal opinion from a top tier law firm registered as a lobbyist with the U.S. government.
To make the point that an unregulated Wall Street has looted our nation twice in an eighty year span and brought it to its knees using the same treachery, I’ve sought out the assistance of the man who previously saved capitalism from the crony capitalists. Following is my interview with FDR, using quotations from campaign speeches he gave in 1932.
Martens: I am struck by the historic concentrations of wealth and inequalities in income distribution that peaked just before the Great Depression of the 30s and are with us again today. Does our economic system require a certain equilibrium of wealth distribution in order that workers can afford to buy the goods and services produced by their employers? Or, to put it another way, is deflation and general wealth destruction the end game when wealth becomes overly concentrated?
FDR: “…our basic trouble was not an insufficiency of capital. It was an insufficient distribution of buying power coupled with an over-sufficient speculation in production. While wages rose in many of our industries, they did not as a whole rise proportionately to the reward to capital, and at the same time the purchasing power of other great groups of our population was permitted to shrink. We accumulated such a superabundance of capital that our great bankers were vying with each other, some of them employing questionable methods, in their efforts to lend this capital at home and abroad. I believe that we are at the threshold of a fundamental change in our popular economic thought, that in the future we are going to think less about the producer and more about the consumer. Do what we may have to do to inject life into our ailing economic order, we cannot make it endure for long unless we can bring about a wiser, more equitable distribution of the national income.”
Martens: Today, the Republicans call their economic model the “trickle down theory.” I think you called it “economic royalists.” It seems pretty clear that extreme wealth concentration is irrevocably linked with busts and depressions, so where did this dangerous theory originate?
FDR: “There are two ways of viewing the Government's duty in matters affecting economic and social life. The first sees to it that a favored few are helped and hopes that some of their prosperity will leak through, sift through, to labor, to the farmer, to the small business man. That theory belongs to the party of Toryism, and I had hoped that most of the Tories left this country in 1776. But it is not and never will be the theory of the Democratic Party… Yes, the people of this country want a genuine choice this year, not a choice between two names for the same reactionary doctrine. Ours must be a party of liberal thought, of planned action, of enlightened international outlook, and of the greatest good to the greatest number of our citizens.”
Martens: We’re just beginning to look upon our current era as two, interrelated, institutionalized wealth transfer mechanisms. One at the corporate level where the A+B theorem actually became the A+B+C theorem. That is, A was worker wages; B was raw material and all other production costs; and C was this obscene level of executive compensation which was frequently based on an earnings mirage crafted through secret off-balance-sheet debt concoctions, custom tailored by Wall Street firms. The worker had to pay for A+B+C when they bought the product or service of that company even though C was really just a wealth transfer with no value added to the product or service. Then we had Wall Street asset-stripping through excessive fees and commissions and churning everything else the worker owned from 401(k)s to bank deposits to home mortgages to annuities to their kids’ college tuition accounts; not to mention usury fees on credit cards. Going into debt on credit cards was often out of necessity to survive because wages, component A above, was not adequate to pay for components B+C. How does this compare to the late 20s and 30s?
FDR: “In the years before 1929 we know that this country had completed a vast cycle of building and inflation…Now it is worth remembering, and the cold figures of finance prove it, that during that time there was little or no drop in the prices that the consumer had to pay, although those same figures proved that the cost of production fell very greatly; corporate profit resulting from this period was enormous; at the same time little of that profit was devoted to the reduction of prices. The consumer was forgotten. Very little of it went into increased wages; the worker was forgotten, and by no means an adequate proportion was even paid out in dividends--the stockholder was forgotten. And, incidentally, very little of it was taken by taxation to the beneficent Government of those years. What was the result? Enormous corporate surpluses piled up-- the most stupendous in history. Where, under the spell of delirious speculation, did those surpluses go? Let us talk economics that the figures prove and that we can understand. Why, they went chiefly in two directions: first, into new and unnecessary plants which now stand stark and idle; and second, into the call-money market of Wall Street, either directly by the corporations, or indirectly through the banks. Those are the facts. Why blink at them? Then came the crash. You know the story. Surpluses invested in unnecessary plants became idle. Men lost their jobs; purchasing power dried up; banks became frightened and started calling loans. Those who had money were afraid to part with it. Credit contracted. Industry stopped. Commerce declined, and unemployment mounted. And there we are today.”
Martens: While most attention today is focused on fraud in the issuance of debt securities, another problem impacting job creation is that the investment banks that are responsible for identifying and bringing to public market the innovative businesses that will lead our country forward, create new jobs and higher standards of living, are so riddled with conflicts that we have witnessed trillions of dollars of the country’s savings vanish in flim-flam stock offerings. The NASDAQ market has lost 67 percent of its value from its peak in 2000 and hundreds of NASDAQ companies that should have never been sold to the public have seen their stocks declared worthless. How does this compare with the events leading up to the 1929 collapse and the Great Depression?
FDR: “…we cannot review carefully the history of our industrial advance without being struck with its haphazardness, the gigantic waste with which it has been accomplished, the superfluous duplication of productive facilities, the continual scrapping of still useful equipment, the tremendous mortality in industrial and commercial undertakings, the thousands of dead-end trails into which enterprise has been lured, the profligate waste of natural resources...Such controlling and directive forces as have been developed in recent years reside to a dangerous degree in groups having special interests in our economic order, interests which do not coincide with the interests of the Nation as a whole. I believe that the recent course of our history has demonstrated that, while we may utilize their expert knowledge of certain problems and the special facilities with which they are familiar, we cannot allow our economic life to be controlled by that small group of men whose chief outlook upon the social welfare is tinctured by the fact that they can make huge profits from the lending of money and the marketing of securities--an outlook which deserves the adjectives ‘selfish’ and ‘opportunist.’ ”
Martens: Today our Congress, Treasury and Federal Reserve have provided over $1.7 trillion of taxpayer money to shore up the very financial institutions whose lending and trading practices have brought the country to the brink of economic collapse. Most of these firms are the very ones that created complex securities that bundled together thousands of residential mortgages, leveraged the investment, and then sold it in tranches (pieces) to investors. These are the instruments that are blowing up like land mines all around the globe (Collateralized Debt Obligations/CDOs). But because these mortgages are bundled together and contractually linked as a group investment, our government appears reticent to interfere with private contracts or the rights of the investors who either bought these investments or made contrary bets against them (Credit Default Swaps/CDS). As a result, millions of Americans are seeing their homes foreclosed on because they can’t obtain mortgage relief. What would be your thoughts in this regard?
FDR: “Never in history have the interests of all the people been so united in a single economic problem. Picture to yourself, for instance, the great groups of property owned by millions of our citizens, represented by credits issued in the form of bonds and mortgages--Government bonds of all kinds, Federal, State, county, municipal; bonds of industrial companies, of utility companies; mortgages on real estate in farms and cities, and finally the vast investments of the Nation in the railroads. What is the measure of the security of each of those groups? We know well that in our complicated, interrelated credit structure if any one of these credit groups collapses they may all collapse. Danger to one is danger to all.”
Martens: We spoke earlier about concentrated wealth and income inequality. But we also have the same concentrated industrial power that you had in the late 20s and 30s. Can you speak to that?
FDR: “Appraising the situation in the bitter dawn of a cold morning after, what do we find? We find two-thirds of American industry concentrated in a few hundred corporations…We find more than half of the savings of the country invested in corporate stocks and bonds, and made the sport of the American stock market. We find fewer than three dozen private banking houses, and stock-selling adjuncts of commercial banks, directing the flow of American capital. In other words, we find concentrated economic power in a few hands…We find a great part of our working population with no chance of earning a living except by grace of this concentrated industrial machine; and we find that millions and millions of Americans are out of work, throwing upon the already burdened Government the necessity of relief…We find the Republican leaders proposing no solution except more debts, more conferences under the same bewildered leadership, more Government money in business but no Government attempt to wrestle with basic problems…I believe that our industrial and economic system is made for individual men and women, and not individual men and women for the benefit of the system.”
Martens: Thank you Mr. President.
Pam Martens worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no security position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this article. She writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can be reached at pamk741@aol.com