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Taste in men -Placebo

You don't care about us- Placebo

Every me and Every you- Placebo

The. HELL????

Via: Daily Kos, whose got a LIST of media people and Obama adviser emails in the comments if you want to drop 'em a line and ask them if they are paying attention and have plans to combat this shit.


Listen. You REALLY NEED TO

Greg Palast, Guardian Reporter, is apparently going around with Robert Kennedy Jr. and found THIS

In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.

In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives – overwhelming Black voters.

In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.

In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.

My investigations partner spoke directly to Barack Obama about it. (When your partner is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., candidates take your phone call.) The cool, cool Senator Obama told Kennedy he was “concerned” about the integrity of the vote in the Southwest in particular.

He’s concerned. I’m sweating.

It’s time SOMEBODY raised the alarm about these missing voters; not to save Obama’s candidacy – journalists should stay the heck away from partisan endorsements - but raise the alarm to save our sick democracy.If you want to help?

EDIT: Cadged from the comments: You a law student or lawyer? Got some time on your hands?

You can offer your services and here and here's a sign up form. Other organsisations include here


Suggestions for voting

Sunday, September 7th: THINK STRATEGICALLY

If you have the means and the desire, vote absentee or, if your state has it, vote early and make your election day about getting others to the polls. As I live in a safe state I'm going somewhere else... either New Mexico or Colorado or Nevada, depending on how the polls shake out. My plan is to buy a plane ticket, rent a prius and drive people to their polling site. If you live in a battleground state, best to do your work close to home, because nothing is more effective that interfacing with people that you know.

Monday, September 8th: MAKE SURE YOU'RE REGISTERED AND ON THE ROLLS

Take a moment away from the DKOS or whatever else you're doing to avoid actual work and contact your local secretary of state office by phone or via website and make sure you're registered and eligible to vote.

It may be a long annoying, hold-music-laden phone call (or a few hundred clicks), but that beats being told you can't vote or having to vote provisionally (much more on that later).MORE

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Journalists and St. Paul citizens assembled outside St. Paul City Hall Friday to deliver more than 60,000 letters to Mayor Chris Coleman and prosecuting attorneys demanding that they immediately drop charges against all journalists arrested this week as they covered the Republican National Convention.

The government takeover of Fannie and Freddie Mae

The Frannie and Freddie Mae Bailout: A History and Overview

The Housing Crisis has claimed its two largest victims: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Plans have been announced to place these institutions into conservatorship (I'll get to that in a minute). What follows is

1.) A brief explanation of what Fannie and Freddie do and why they are so important

2.) Why they are in trouble, and

3.) And overview of the government's plan.

This will be a long article, so get ready to sit awhile.

A Brief Explanation of Fannie and Freddie
So, what do these two institutions do? Why are they so important?
Let me explain that by comparing the mortgage business of 100 years ago to the mortgage business of today. 100 years ago, a borrower would go to a bank and get a home loan. However, the bank would own the loan for the duration of the loan - that is, the bank that made the original loan would be the bank that sent out monthly statements and collected mortgage payments until the loan was paid off.
Let's compare that to the mortgage business of today. Today a borrower gets a loan from a lender. Once the loan closes, the lender sells the loan to a larger financial institution. Sometimes this is Fannie and Freddie, sometimes it's some other large financial institution (think Citigroup, JP Morgan or another large, money center bank). Fannie and Freddie stood atop the financial pyramid of buying, selling and pooling mortgages. They issue the largest amount of securitzed product. They touch about 70% of all US mortgages. Both institutions have (until now) an implied governmental guarantee. That gave both institutions an incredible advantage in the market by allowing them to borrow at slightly cheaper rates then their competitors. This is how they attained top dog status in the financial world.
As mortgages moves up the food chain to larger and larger institutions these institutions "securitize" the loans, which

is a structured finance process, which involves pooling and repackaging of cash-flow producing financial assets into securities that are then sold to investors. The name "securitization" is derived from the fact that the form of financial instruments used to obtain funds from the investors are securities.

The "pooling" occurs with mortgages that have similar characteristics. For example, Fannie, Freddie or one of the larger financial institutions will take $100 million dollars of 30 year 6% mortgages that are from a geographically diverse area and "carve them up." This means they create a group of different bonds that pay principle and interest at different times to attract different types of investors. The securitization process has been around for about 30 years or so and has been very successful
Let's review a bit. The primary difference between the old and new mortgage business is the number of financial players involved and what is eventually down with an individual loan. It use to be that a lender would hold a loan for the duration of the mortgage. Now, multiple financial players are involved and the loan is securitized, or made part of a larger pool of mortgages and then cut up into different cash flows or bonds.

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ONE NATION. UNDER STRESS. IN DEBT. I. O.U.S.A

Oil wealth Transfer and the Green Dividend

We transfer $700 billion dollars a year out of the country to people that don't like us. We're basically building subways and skyscrapers in Dubai while enabling dictators and tyrants in African countries. Far from being good policy, it is exactly why we should look to doing things differently, without the oil.

But its not a sacrifice as many on the other side screaming drill drill drill would have you believe. It's actually very good policy to go true green and push for alternative energy networks along side alternative transportation networks that include transit, walking.

The initial idea for the green dividend comes from a CEO's for Citiesreport that discusses the amount of money that stays in local hands instead of going to oil companies when alternative transportation networks allow people to go about their daily lives with less driving. Joe Cortright estimates that Portland pumps $2.6 billion dollars into the local economy every year that would usually go to the oil companies. Receiving this money are local restaurants, galleries, more money on recreational activity and other things that keep money local, instead of immediately exporting it out.
His calculations are based on reduction in vehicle miles traveled that happen due to better land use and transportation decisions. The number that makes the difference is just 4 miles a day. So imagine what would happen if all regions made the investments in transit, walking, biking, and smart land use policies that Portland does. Many center cities work this way as well and if the Portland story is any indication, there are a lot more savings to be made by investing in cities. MORE

Manufacturing Monday Part One

From Oil Shieks to Solar Shieks

When many think of Saudi Arabia, often oil comes into mind. Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia is the biggest player in petroleum holdings. Sure their wells are beginning to go, but they still export the hell out of what they got.
Well, it seems now they may be in position to do for solar energy what they did for oil. According Forbes magazine, it turns out that geography has given the region a second wack at eco-related wealth. Man, what luck, I say.

Sitting in the center of the so-called Sun Belt, the country is part of a vast, rainless region reaching from the western edge of North Africa to the eastern edge of Central Asia that boasts the best solar energy resources on Earth. With the cost of oil skyrocketing, this belt is attracting the attention of a growing number of European leaders, who are embracing an ambitious proposal to harvest this solar energy for their nations.
- excerpt from "The Saudi Arabia Of Solar Energy", Forbes.com, 2008.

Don't think this has escaped notice over there. There is already plans and designs to take advantage of this. Now I'm not sure what the state of transmission technology regarding solar energy is. But I'm sure with enough money, that something will be developed. here is already an organization being setup, as Forbes reports, called Trans-Mediterranian Renewable Energy Cooporation (TREC). These folks want to build solar energy farms across the desert and design and setup a souped up electrical grid to transmission the product across the region. And as technology improves, perhaps Europe, Africa and parts of Asia.More stories here

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