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20:40:06 02/06/12
Tuidang Participates in Flushing's Lunar New Year Parade
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 20:40:06 02/06/12
Tuidang Participates in Flushing's Lunar New Year Parade
For more news and videos visit ☛ english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ☛ http Add us on Facebook ☛ on.fb.me In Flushing, New York on Saturday, volunteers of the Quit the Chinese Communist Party movement participated in the Lunar New Year Parade for the first time. Volunteers of the Global Quit CCP Service Center say this year they expect the world will see big changes taking place in China. Our New York correspondent brings us this report. Tuidang is a movement that could change the face of China. In mainland China, Tuidang or "Quit the Chinese Communist Party," is an underground movement, operated through word of mouth, phone calls and Internet posts that have not been censored. Here in New York, where the efforts are coordinated openly, the news is reaching millions of Chinese people. Global Quit the CCP Service Center President Rong Yi draws parallels between what is happening in China today and with what Eastern Europe experienced in the late 1980s. [Rong Yi, Global Quit the CCP Service Center President]: "I think in China right now, it's a very important year, this year of the dragon. Many Chinese are awakening, you can see the petitions, the fighting with the police, fighting with public security people, and it's almost everywhere, happening everyday in China." Tuidang supporters marched down Main Street in Flushing, Queens for the first time on Saturday, as part of the Chinese Lunar New Year parade. Inside China, this sort of activity would probably result in a ... From: NTDTV Views: 44 4 ratings Time: 03:24 More in News & Politics
1 Views
03:00:03 01/13/12
James O'Keefe's Voting Stunt Has State, Feds Investigating
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 03:00:03 01/13/12
Let's get this out of the way: James O'Keefe, the wannabe gotcha journalist who can't hide his punk stupidity , is a big, fat liar . If he directs his hidden camera at you, you can be sure that what turns up will be wildly edited and quickly discredited .
O'Keefe loves to go after liberal stalwarts: ACORN, NPR, voting and democracy. You know, basically things that aren't at all threats to anything other than the mindset that we're a center-right nation. In his latest stunt, he tried to "prove" that voting fraud was rampant, with dead people actually voting in the New Hampshire primary. Except.... >
With his last set of videos largely seen as meaningless and pathetic , his fundraising in shambles , and his allies leaving him in disgust , O'Keefe clearly hopes to press this non-issue to revive his standing in the conservative movement. As always , the Daily Caller is happy to help out, already trumpeting the "bombshell video" that they received "exclusively" from O'Keefe.
In the service of this aim, O'Keefe and associate Spencer Meads visited a number of polling locations during the January 10 New Hampshire primaries armed with hidden cameras. At each polling location, the videographer in question would approach a poll worker who was checking in voters and ask the poll worker if a recently deceased voter's name is on the rolls. When the poll worker, assuming that the right-wing operative is presenting themselves as that person, attempts to give them a ballot, the videographer says that they don't have their ID and leaves.[..]
But O'Keefe's claim [of rampant fraud] aside, there is simply no evidence that such fraud occurs more often then, say, community organizations are asked to help set up child sex rings. In a 2007 report , the Brennan Center for Justice reported that there are a "handful" of cases when votes have actually cast in the names of the deceased, compared to thousands of such allegations that ultimately proved fruitless .
Again, this whole conservative bugaboo demanding Voter ID to prevent voter fraud is a solution to a non-existent problem, and one that has been shown to actually prevent legitimate voting from taking place . But convicted parolee O'Keefe may have reached too far: >
[E]lection law experts tell TPM that O’Keefe’s allies could face criminal charges on both the federal and state level for procuring ballots under false names, and that his undercover sting doesn’t demonstrate a need for voter ID laws at all.
Federal law bans not only the casting of, but the “procurement” of ballots “that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held.”
Hamline University law professor David Schultz told TPM that there’s “no doubt” that O’Keefe’s investigators violated the law.
“In either case, if they were intentionally going in and trying to fraudulently obtain a ballot, they violated the law,” Schultz said. “So right off the bat, what they did violated the law.”
The NH Attorney General's office and the US Attorneys' office in NH have both issued statements that they are launching investigations. Unfortunately, it looks at first blush that the NH AG's office is focusing more on O'Keefe's allegation of the ease of voter fraud than the fraud that O'Keefe himself is committing.
And if that is the case, there needs to be pushback immediately. O'Keefe deserves no such legitimization of his work with his history. Luckily, there are some in NH that see that clearly : >
Officials in Nashua and Manchester said the filmmaker should be arrested.
“They should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. When I was in the Senate, I always heard, ‘This never happens.' This is proof this happens,” said Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas.
“People who pull stunts like this should be prosecuted,” Nashua City Clerk Paul Bergeron said.
Actually, it doesn't happen, Mayor Gatsas. The video shows no votes cast. But it sure shows O'Keefe and his helpers trying to interfere with the voting process, which is a Class D Felony. Not exactly something someone on parole would want to be charged with, is it? >
Actually, the would-be voter gets his hands on ballots only nine times in the 10-minute, seven-second Project Veritas video.
In one, the clerk directly asks the person if he is the man listed on the checklist.
At that point, the person said he was just checking to see if the checklist designates the voter as deceased.
In another, the dead person is not on the checklist, and the clerk encourages the person to register to vote.
Another time, the would-be voter left after poll workers started asking question about the name he gave, Manchester City Clerk Matt Normand said.
“It just so happens the ward moderator recognized the name as not being that person,” Normand said.
The moderator, Gloria Pilotte, asked to speak to the undercover voter to see if there was some mistake.
He left before they had a chance to speak.
“He never got a ballot,” Normand said.
That instance is not on the video.
0 Views
03:00:03 01/13/12
James O'Keefe's Voting Stunt Has State, Feds Investigating
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 03:00:03 01/13/12
Let's get this out of the way: James O'Keefe, the wannabe gotcha journalist who can't hide his punk stupidity , is a big, fat liar . If he directs his hidden camera at you, you can be sure that what turns up will be wildly edited and quickly discredited .
O'Keefe loves to go after liberal stalwarts: ACORN, NPR, voting and democracy. You know, basically things that aren't at all threats to anything other than the mindset that we're a center-right nation. In his latest stunt, he tried to "prove" that voting fraud was rampant, with dead people actually voting in the New Hampshire primary. Except.... >
With his last set of videos largely seen as meaningless and pathetic , his fundraising in shambles , and his allies leaving him in disgust , O'Keefe clearly hopes to press this non-issue to revive his standing in the conservative movement. As always , the Daily Caller is happy to help out, already trumpeting the "bombshell video" that they received "exclusively" from O'Keefe.
In the service of this aim, O'Keefe and associate Spencer Meads visited a number of polling locations during the January 10 New Hampshire primaries armed with hidden cameras. At each polling location, the videographer in question would approach a poll worker who was checking in voters and ask the poll worker if a recently deceased voter's name is on the rolls. When the poll worker, assuming that the right-wing operative is presenting themselves as that person, attempts to give them a ballot, the videographer says that they don't have their ID and leaves.[..]
But O'Keefe's claim [of rampant fraud] aside, there is simply no evidence that such fraud occurs more often then, say, community organizations are asked to help set up child sex rings. In a 2007 report , the Brennan Center for Justice reported that there are a "handful" of cases when votes have actually cast in the names of the deceased, compared to thousands of such allegations that ultimately proved fruitless .
Again, this whole conservative bugaboo demanding Voter ID to prevent voter fraud is a solution to a non-existent problem, and one that has been shown to actually prevent legitimate voting from taking place . But convicted parolee O'Keefe may have reached too far: >
[E]lection law experts tell TPM that O’Keefe’s allies could face criminal charges on both the federal and state level for procuring ballots under false names, and that his undercover sting doesn’t demonstrate a need for voter ID laws at all.
Federal law bans not only the casting of, but the “procurement” of ballots “that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held.”
Hamline University law professor David Schultz told TPM that there’s “no doubt” that O’Keefe’s investigators violated the law.
“In either case, if they were intentionally going in and trying to fraudulently obtain a ballot, they violated the law,” Schultz said. “So right off the bat, what they did violated the law.”
The NH Attorney General's office and the US Attorneys' office in NH have both issued statements that they are launching investigations. Unfortunately, it looks at first blush that the NH AG's office is focusing more on O'Keefe's allegation of the ease of voter fraud than the fraud that O'Keefe himself is committing.
And if that is the case, there needs to be pushback immediately. O'Keefe deserves no such legitimization of his work with his history. Luckily, there are some in NH that see that clearly : >
Officials in Nashua and Manchester said the filmmaker should be arrested.
“They should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. When I was in the Senate, I always heard, ‘This never happens.' This is proof this happens,” said Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas.
“People who pull stunts like this should be prosecuted,” Nashua City Clerk Paul Bergeron said.
Actually, it doesn't happen, Mayor Gatsas. The video shows no votes cast. But it sure shows O'Keefe and his helpers trying to interfere with the voting process, which is a Class D Felony. Not exactly something someone on parole would want to be charged with, is it? >
Actually, the would-be voter gets his hands on ballots only nine times in the 10-minute, seven-second Project Veritas video.
In one, the clerk directly asks the person if he is the man listed on the checklist.
At that point, the person said he was just checking to see if the checklist designates the voter as deceased.
In another, the dead person is not on the checklist, and the clerk encourages the person to register to vote.
Another time, the would-be voter left after poll workers started asking question about the name he gave, Manchester City Clerk Matt Normand said.
“It just so happens the ward moderator recognized the name as not being that person,” Normand said.
The moderator, Gloria Pilotte, asked to speak to the undercover voter to see if there was some mistake.
He left before they had a chance to speak.
“He never got a ballot,” Normand said.
That instance is not on the video.
0 Views
09:46:26 01/09/12
EU Says China Airlines Must Comply With New Aviation Tax
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 09:46:26 01/09/12
EU Says China Airlines Must Comply With New Aviation Tax
For more news and videos visit ☛ english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ☛ http Add us on Facebook ☛ on.fb.me Top airlines in China say they won't comply with a new European Union aviation tax set up to curb carbon emissions. But the European Commission Spokesperson for Climate Action says the EU is not backing down. Member airlines of the China Air Transport Association are refusing to comply with a new European Union law that imposes a carbon emission tax on air carriers operating in EU airspace. But the European Commission Spokesperson for Climate Action said in a statement on January 5th that Chinese airlines have to comply with the EU law despite their objections. [Isaac Valero-Ladron, European Commission Spokesperson]: "If the Chinese want to do business in Europe, like open a restaurant or something, they have to comply with the health and the safety requirement. This is not that different. This is just that if you want to operate in Europe, you have to respect the law." The EU brought airlines under its Emissions Trading Scheme on January 1, which aims at curbing emissions of climate-changing gases. Airlines that do not comply with the new EU tax can be fined. Chai Haibo of the China Air Transport Association said on Thursday that its members would not cooperate with the ETS. According to some estimates, extra annual costs for Chinese airlines could reach upwards of $120 million US dollars. [Isaac Valero-Ladron, European Commission Spokesperson]: "The costs that ... From: NTDTV Views: 80 5 ratings Time: 02:10 More in News & Politics
0 Views
13:23:03 12/30/11
Crown Equity Holdings Inc.(CRWE) Company Update
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 13:23:03 12/30/11
Welcome and thank you for joining me. I'm your host Christina Collins --- After becoming a publishing company Crown Equity Holdings, Incorporated - symbol CRWE - has been evolving into a worldwide online multimedia advertising publisher --- The company's focus is on the distribution of current information to a target audience which advertisers want to reach --- For growth CRWE must diversify, which is why the Crown Equity family is continuing to expand ---The Crown family consist of CRWE Domains, CRWE Real Estate, CRWE Tube, CRWE Newswire, Crown Teleservices, CRWE Direct, CRWE AD Services, CRWE Finance and CRWE Press Release --- The company's endeavor through Crown Tele Services is to provide Telecom infrastructure in Las Vegas for Residential, small, and medium businesses, Enterprise and call centers --- Crown Equity Holdings' CRWE AD Services is a full service multimedia advertising company specializing in internet marketing and the company's latest addition, CRWE Tube a video sharing site, allows billions of people around the world to upload, watch and share original videos --- Crown Equity Holdings is paving the way worldwide in how they communicate --- From buying and selling goods to how people receive news and by uniting our world through global communications --- Today, Crown Equity Holdings, vision is clear, their mission is profound and they believe the future is endless --- I'm Christina Collins and thank you for joining me ********************************* THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY SECURITY! Disclaimer: Never invest in any stock featured on our site or emails unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. crwenewswire.com publisher and its affiliates and contractors are not registered investment advisers or broker/dealers.Our disclaimer (Read more at http://www.crwenewswire.com/disclaimer) is to be read and fully understood before using our site, reading our newsletter or joining our email list. Release of Liability: Through use of this website viewing or using, you agree to hold crwenewswire.com report and Crown Equity Holdings Inc. CRWE, its operators, shareholders, employees and/or contractors harmless and to completely release them from any and all liability due to any and all loss (monetary or otherwise), damages (monetary or otherwise) that you may occur. Rule 17B requires disclosure of payment for investor relations. Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB) is a media-advertisement and newswire company. Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB), in some cases, provides media advertising and public awareness for both public and private companies, as well as disseminating news. As such, in some cases, when Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB) advertises for a particular client, Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB) charges an advertising fee which it must disclose under 17B. The fee may be in cash, in free trading stock or in restricted stock. Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB), if paid in stock, can and may sell those securities during the advertising period.
5 Views
19:00:30 12/28/11
Notable Death of the Year: RIP Austerity Economics, 1921-2011
[LESS INFO] 5 VIEWS | ADDED 19:00:30 12/28/11
"Smokestack Lightnin'," with Hubert Sumlin backing Howlin' Wolf in 1964
This is the time of year when we're reminded of all the famous people who died over the last twelve months, a list which includes two of my favorite guitar players ( Hubert Sumlin and Cornell Dupree ). But there were also some notable non-human deaths in 2011, especially in the world of economic policy.
One of those deaths should have completely altered the political debate in Washington. The name of the deceased was "Austerity Economics," and it was first glimpsed in a 1921 paper by conservative economist Frank Wright. Austerity died of natural causes brought on by prolonged exposure to reality.
But the debate in Washington didn't change nearly enough after its passing. In the nation's capital, dead things still rule the night.
Why Austerity?
"Austerity economics" backers claim that today's economic woes can only be fixed by dramatic reductions in government spending, which will lead to increased private-sector confidence and therefore to greater investment and growth.
But it's never worked. And if investors have lost confidence in the U.S. government's fiscal stability, they're sure not acting that way. There hasn't been this much demand for Treasury bonds since the government began tracking it twenty years ago, and they haven't performed as well since the go-go 1990s.
It's easy to understand austerity's attraction for power elites inside and outside of government. The people who suffer from austerity budgets aren't the kinds of people they know personally, since they're typically public employees like teachers, police, firefighters and the administrators of social programs; people who need government assistance, like the poor; and middle-class people with the temerity to either grow old or become disabled.
Austerity's attraction became even greater in the U.S. because once it became conventional wisdom that tax increases on the wealthy was "politically infeasible." That made it a program whose sole purpose was to cut government spending, lowering the pressure to increase taxes on the wealthy from today's historically low levels.
For a one-percenter, what's not to love?
Austerity Comes of Age
The idea's been around in one form or another since that 1921 paper, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been imposing it on Third World nations for decades.
But 2009 was the year that austerity really came of age. That was the year that a wealthy stockbroker's son named David Cameron began campaigning for Prime Minister of Great Britain on an explicitly pro-austerity platform.
It was also the year that Cameron helped to form a group named European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) dedicated to electing like-minded politicians across Europe and helping them collaborate on ways to slash government spending. It was also the year that right-leaning Angela Merkel won reelection as the Chancellor of Germany with a stronger mandate than she'd been given in her first term.
With Nicolas Sarkozy as President of France, Great Britain was the only major European power not yet in the hands of the corporate-backed austerity crowd.
The Global Sado-Erotic Thrill Machine
That changed with Cameron's election as Prime Minister in May 2010, an event that threw pro-austerity Americans into throes of near-erotic ecstasy. And if that sounds like hyperbole, consider conservative Anne Appelbaum's reaction to Cameron's budget in September of 2010: >
Vicious cuts." "Savage cuts." "Swingeing (sic) cuts." The language that the British use to describe their new government's spending-reduction policy is apocalyptic in the extreme. The ministers in charge of the country's finances are known as "axe-wielders" who will be "hacking" away at the budget. Articles about the nation's finances are filled with talk of blood, knives, and amputation.
And the British love it.
What can I say? There are people who collect serial-killer memorabilia, too. But Appelbaum wasn't just speaking for herself. It became unacceptable for any politician in Washington, Democrat or Republican, to advocate anything other than an austerity budget for the United States.
And it was more than an economic strategy to its backers. Austerity became a way to demonize those who had suffered most from the banking abuses and self-indulgences of the wealthy, a totemic "blame the victim" response that turned the political debate into a grotesque inversion of morality. Again, Appelbaum: >
"Not only is austerity being touted as the solution to Britain's economic woes; it is also being described as the answer to the country's moral failings."
Bad Metaphors vs. Good Economists
The Democratic President of the United States, Barack Obama, jumped onto the bandwagon with both feet by repeatedly lecturing Americans on the need for government to stop "spending beyond its means." Obama recycled the popular conservative metaphor of a family that has to sit around the kitchen table and decide how much money it has to spend.
That's one of the worst metaphors in modern politics. Does a family establish its own currency -- especially one that has the unique position of the dollar? Can a family borrow money at rates so low they're effectively less than zero? Would a family let Grandma go hungry because Junior bought too many Porsches out of the family kitty and then gambled it away on lousy mortgage investments?
The world's top economists, those who had successfully predicted the crisis of 2008, tried telling the rest of the world what was wrong with the idea: Joblessness and consumer fears were killing any chance of real recovery. More short-term spending was needed to get the economy moving again. Austerity would make things worse, not better.
But nobody listened. Austerity's S%M-like attraction had the world's elites in its grip.
Death of a Delusion
And then something else came into the picture: Reality.
Cameron's austerity budget had a shattering effect on the already-struggling British economy. His government's financial stability was downgraded five times during his first year in power and retail sales had fallen 2.5 percent. Household income was projected to fall an additional 2 percent if his austerity plans were carried forward. Britain's modest employment gains were reversed, youth unemployment reached record levels, and income inequality was the worst it had been in more than half a century.
Anne Appelbaum's erotic dreams had become Great Britain's nightmare.
As Europe's ruling austerity class pushed forward with their plans, even the IMF tried to dissuade them. It was clear to anyone who wasn't blinded by ideology or political cynicism that austerity economics was a failed program. Even in countries like Greece, where government was far graver than elsewhere, the austerity programs imposed from outside threatened to destabilize society while other reasonable measures like improved tax collection were still not taken seriously enough.
And now the entire Eurozone hangs in the balance. Bankers became wealthy by treating governments as if they were mortgages, lending recklessly and pocketing their fees without considering the long-term reliability of their loans. European leaders insisted for months they were take the kind of sensible steps that should've been taken in the United States by requiring bankers to accept at least part of the losses for the bad loans they had issed.
That plan was quietly dropped last month. "Austerity economics" never calls for austerity from those who have gotten rich by being irresponsible, only from those who didn't benefit from it at all.
The Afterlife
President Obama has dropped his austerity rhetoric, at least for the time being, but the Republicans have not. Listening to Mitt Romney discuss economics is like having a doctor wave a dead chicken over your head and saying he's decided to cast a spell on you rather than operate on that thing they found in your X-rays.
Aside from the bill introduced this month by the House Progressive Caucus to almost no media attention, there's no comprehensive plan for dropping this country's ineffective austerity strategy and replacing it with an agenda that works.
Rational solutions to our economic problems are being ignored. There won't be a real debate about alternatives to austerity until an entire political party, not just part of it, adopts this kind of program. Until then there will be chaos. And where there is chaos, austerity's powerful advocates can step in and take charge.
Austerity economics died in 2011 and is survived by the British, German, and French governments as well as the GOP and large portions of the Democratic Party. Instead of sending flowers, the family has asked the public to abandon all hopes of future economic growth.
1 Views
19:00:30 12/28/11
Notable Death of the Year: RIP Austerity Economics, 1921-2011
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 19:00:30 12/28/11
"Smokestack Lightnin'," with Hubert Sumlin backing Howlin' Wolf in 1964
This is the time of year when we're reminded of all the famous people who died over the last twelve months, a list which includes two of my favorite guitar players ( Hubert Sumlin and Cornell Dupree ). But there were also some notable non-human deaths in 2011, especially in the world of economic policy.
One of those deaths should have completely altered the political debate in Washington. The name of the deceased was "Austerity Economics," and it was first glimpsed in a 1921 paper by conservative economist Frank Wright. Austerity died of natural causes brought on by prolonged exposure to reality.
But the debate in Washington didn't change nearly enough after its passing. In the nation's capital, dead things still rule the night.
Why Austerity?
"Austerity economics" backers claim that today's economic woes can only be fixed by dramatic reductions in government spending, which will lead to increased private-sector confidence and therefore to greater investment and growth.
But it's never worked. And if investors have lost confidence in the U.S. government's fiscal stability, they're sure not acting that way. There hasn't been this much demand for Treasury bonds since the government began tracking it twenty years ago, and they haven't performed as well since the go-go 1990s.
It's easy to understand austerity's attraction for power elites inside and outside of government. The people who suffer from austerity budgets aren't the kinds of people they know personally, since they're typically public employees like teachers, police, firefighters and the administrators of social programs; people who need government assistance, like the poor; and middle-class people with the temerity to either grow old or become disabled.
Austerity's attraction became even greater in the U.S. because once it became conventional wisdom that tax increases on the wealthy was "politically infeasible." That made it a program whose sole purpose was to cut government spending, lowering the pressure to increase taxes on the wealthy from today's historically low levels.
For a one-percenter, what's not to love?
Austerity Comes of Age
The idea's been around in one form or another since that 1921 paper, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been imposing it on Third World nations for decades.
But 2009 was the year that austerity really came of age. That was the year that a wealthy stockbroker's son named David Cameron began campaigning for Prime Minister of Great Britain on an explicitly pro-austerity platform.
It was also the year that Cameron helped to form a group named European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) dedicated to electing like-minded politicians across Europe and helping them collaborate on ways to slash government spending. It was also the year that right-leaning Angela Merkel won reelection as the Chancellor of Germany with a stronger mandate than she'd been given in her first term.
With Nicolas Sarkozy as President of France, Great Britain was the only major European power not yet in the hands of the corporate-backed austerity crowd.
The Global Sado-Erotic Thrill Machine
That changed with Cameron's election as Prime Minister in May 2010, an event that threw pro-austerity Americans into throes of near-erotic ecstasy. And if that sounds like hyperbole, consider conservative Anne Appelbaum's reaction to Cameron's budget in September of 2010: >
Vicious cuts." "Savage cuts." "Swingeing (sic) cuts." The language that the British use to describe their new government's spending-reduction policy is apocalyptic in the extreme. The ministers in charge of the country's finances are known as "axe-wielders" who will be "hacking" away at the budget. Articles about the nation's finances are filled with talk of blood, knives, and amputation.
And the British love it.
What can I say? There are people who collect serial-killer memorabilia, too. But Appelbaum wasn't just speaking for herself. It became unacceptable for any politician in Washington, Democrat or Republican, to advocate anything other than an austerity budget for the United States.
And it was more than an economic strategy to its backers. Austerity became a way to demonize those who had suffered most from the banking abuses and self-indulgences of the wealthy, a totemic "blame the victim" response that turned the political debate into a grotesque inversion of morality. Again, Appelbaum: >
"Not only is austerity being touted as the solution to Britain's economic woes; it is also being described as the answer to the country's moral failings."
Bad Metaphors vs. Good Economists
The Democratic President of the United States, Barack Obama, jumped onto the bandwagon with both feet by repeatedly lecturing Americans on the need for government to stop "spending beyond its means." Obama recycled the popular conservative metaphor of a family that has to sit around the kitchen table and decide how much money it has to spend.
That's one of the worst metaphors in modern politics. Does a family establish its own currency -- especially one that has the unique position of the dollar? Can a family borrow money at rates so low they're effectively less than zero? Would a family let Grandma go hungry because Junior bought too many Porsches out of the family kitty and then gambled it away on lousy mortgage investments?
The world's top economists, those who had successfully predicted the crisis of 2008, tried telling the rest of the world what was wrong with the idea: Joblessness and consumer fears were killing any chance of real recovery. More short-term spending was needed to get the economy moving again. Austerity would make things worse, not better.
But nobody listened. Austerity's S%M-like attraction had the world's elites in its grip.
Death of a Delusion
And then something else came into the picture: Reality.
Cameron's austerity budget had a shattering effect on the already-struggling British economy. His government's financial stability was downgraded five times during his first year in power and retail sales had fallen 2.5 percent. Household income was projected to fall an additional 2 percent if his austerity plans were carried forward. Britain's modest employment gains were reversed, youth unemployment reached record levels, and income inequality was the worst it had been in more than half a century.
Anne Appelbaum's erotic dreams had become Great Britain's nightmare.
As Europe's ruling austerity class pushed forward with their plans, even the IMF tried to dissuade them. It was clear to anyone who wasn't blinded by ideology or political cynicism that austerity economics was a failed program. Even in countries like Greece, where government was far graver than elsewhere, the austerity programs imposed from outside threatened to destabilize society while other reasonable measures like improved tax collection were still not taken seriously enough.
And now the entire Eurozone hangs in the balance. Bankers became wealthy by treating governments as if they were mortgages, lending recklessly and pocketing their fees without considering the long-term reliability of their loans. European leaders insisted for months they were take the kind of sensible steps that should've been taken in the United States by requiring bankers to accept at least part of the losses for the bad loans they had issed.
That plan was quietly dropped last month. "Austerity economics" never calls for austerity from those who have gotten rich by being irresponsible, only from those who didn't benefit from it at all.
The Afterlife
President Obama has dropped his austerity rhetoric, at least for the time being, but the Republicans have not. Listening to Mitt Romney discuss economics is like having a doctor wave a dead chicken over your head and saying he's decided to cast a spell on you rather than operate on that thing they found in your X-rays.
Aside from the bill introduced this month by the House Progressive Caucus to almost no media attention, there's no comprehensive plan for dropping this country's ineffective austerity strategy and replacing it with an agenda that works.
Rational solutions to our economic problems are being ignored. There won't be a real debate about alternatives to austerity until an entire political party, not just part of it, adopts this kind of program. Until then there will be chaos. And where there is chaos, austerity's powerful advocates can step in and take charge.
Austerity economics died in 2011 and is survived by the British, German, and French governments as well as the GOP and large portions of the Democratic Party. Instead of sending flowers, the family has asked the public to abandon all hopes of future economic growth.
0 Views
20:24:50 12/27/11
China's Beidou Satellite Navigation System Operational
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 20:24:50 12/27/11
China's Beidou Satellite Navigation System Operational
For more news and videos visit ➡ english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ➡ http Add us on Facebook ➡ on.fb.me For more than a decade, China has been creating its own version of the Global Positioning System, or GPS. Well now the basic system is up and running, providing navigation for people in China and neighboring countries. China's indigenous satellite navigation system called Beidou is up and running for people in and around China. It started providing initial operational services, including positioning, navigation and timing Tuesday. The 10th satellite of the network was launched back on December 2nd, putting the finishing touches on the basic structure of the system. Tests were carried out for the past six months. [Yang Qiangwen, China Satellite Navigation System Management Office]: "Firstly we carried out comprehensive tests on all the satellites, including all key machines and equipment, to ensure they can provide continuous service. Secondly, we optimized the positions of all the satellites to ensure the best conditions for operation." Six more satellites will be launched in 2012 to further expand the service area of the Beidou system to most parts of the Asia-Pacific region. [Ran Chengqi, Management Office, China Satellite Navigation System]: "Preliminary tests show that the basic positioning and navigation system of Beidou has reached the set standards and we have officially moved from the test system to the working system. This step marks the transition ... From: NTDTV Views: 3049 2 ratings Time: 01:52 More in Science & Technology
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08:47:46 12/22/11
(AONE, TIBX, RAM) CRWENewswire Stocks In Action
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 08:47:46 12/22/11
Good Morning, It's Thursday December 22nd, 2011, I'm Christina Collins with CRWENewswire Stocks In Action. A123 Systems Incorporated - symbol AONE - reported that it will supply an 11 megawatt Grid Battery System to Sempra Generation for the Auwahi Wind project in Maui, Hawaii; For the Full Year Fiscal 2011, TIBCO Software Incorporated - symbol TIBX - posted Record total revenue of $920.2 million and Record non-GAAP Earnings Per Share of $1.01, a 33% increase compared to non-GAAP EPS in fiscal 2010; and lastly, RAM Energy Resources Incorporated - symbol RAM - reported that it has reached agreement with Halcon Resources, LLC for a transformational capital investment in RAM. The investment is comprised of $275 million in new common stock, a $275 million five-year convertible note, and warrants for the purchase of an additional 110 million shares of common stock. Thank you for joining me and have a great day! For CRWE Newswire, Stocks In Action, I'm Christina Collins. ********************************* THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY SECURITY! Disclaimer: Never invest in any stock featured on our site or emails unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. crwenewswire.com publisher and its affiliates and contractors are not registered investment advisers or broker/dealers.Our disclaimer (Read more at http://www.crwenewswire.com/disclaimer) is to be read and fully understood before using our site, reading our newsletter or joining our email list. Release of Liability: Through use of this website viewing or using, you agree to hold crwenewswire.com report and Crown Equity Holdings Inc. CRWE, its operators, shareholders, employees and/or contractors harmless and to completely release them from any and all liability due to any and all loss (monetary or otherwise), damages (monetary or otherwise) that you may occur. Rule 17B requires disclosure of payment for investor relations. Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB) is a media-advertisement and newswire company. Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB), in some cases, provides media advertising and public awareness for both public and private companies, as well as disseminating news. As such, in some cases, when Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB) advertises for a particular client, Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB) charges an advertising fee which it must disclose under 17B. The fee may be in cash, in free trading stock or in restricted stock. Crown Equity Holdings Inc. (CRWE.OB), if paid in stock, can and may sell those securities during the advertising period.
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19:40:09 12/19/11
UK Approves 'Far-Reaching' Bank Reforms
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 19:40:09 12/19/11
It's Britain's biggest financial shake-up for years. The UK government has accepted a proposal to split UK-based banks in two - separating the retail operations from the riskier investment arms. The
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19:19:00 12/19/11
UK approves "far-reaching" bank reforms
[LESS INFO] 10 VIEWS | ADDED 19:19:00 12/19/11
Dec. 19 - The UK government has announced plans to make banks "ring-fence" their retail operations from risk-taking arms and to hold increased levels of capital to protect the UK from a repeat of the 2008 crisis.
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19:19:00 12/19/11
UK approves "far-reaching" bank reforms
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 19:19:00 12/19/11
Dec. 19 - The UK government has announced plans to make banks "ring-fence" their retail operations from risk-taking arms and to hold increased levels of capital to protect the UK from a repeat of the 2008 crisis.
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05:14:43 12/15/11
Enterprise Video Trends: A Real World Perspective - Nick Balletta, CEO, Talkpoint
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 05:14:43 12/15/11
Nick Balletta has been in the live webcasting business for a long time, and as CEO of Talkpoint, his company has helped shape the online video industry by providing clients, the technology and services to build scalable video communications. Talkpoint's predecessor – NextVenue – pioneered the live interactive webcasts since 1998, and its roots that go back to CNBC/Dow Jones desktop video. Talkpoint operates as a SaaS based model with overlay production services for large, live, interactive and secure video and audio webcasts. It facilitates more than 20,000 live webcasting events per year for the top Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. I caught up with Balletta again earlier this year to talk about the latest enterprise video trends. He shared the latest real world data his company had collected over the last two years, that showed a significant growth in both the adoption and expansion of video within enterprise communications. I first spoke with Balletta last year at Streaming Media East, where he told me that webcasting for enterprise communications may finally be reaching a tipping point. Anecdotes from TalkPoint..... • Self Service Video webcasting increasing • Automation (Saas) • Flexible Signal Acquisition • Ease of use • Flash viewership is on the rise • Live streaming • Not just progressive downloads • IT staffs adding support (Proxy servers, firewalls) • The battle for video standards creates opportunity • Adobe, Apple, Microsoft • Enterprise users don’t care about HTML5....yet • Even with video webcasting on the rise audio webcasting is here to stay
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23:00:00 11/30/11
(NXST, KKD, LAVA) CRWENewswire Stocks to Watch
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 23:00:00 11/30/11
Welcome to CRWENewswire, Stocks to Watch for Thursday December 1st, 2011. I am Shalika Jayasekera. Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc - NXST - reported that it has reached a new, multi-year retransmission consent agreement with DISH Network Corp, the third largest multichannel TV provider in the U.S. On its third quarter fiscal 2012 financial results, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc - KKD - posted revenues of $98.7 million, a 9.4% increase year over year and its operating income rose 36.2% to $5.6 million compared to the same period a year ago. The Company has raised its outlook for fiscal 2012. and finally; According to a merger agreement between the companies, Synopsys Inc. will acquire Magma Design Automation Inc - LAVA - for $7.35 per share in cash in a transaction value of approximately $507 million net of cash and debt acquired. Thanks for joining me and have a great day! For CRWE Newswire, Stocks to watch, Iâm Shalika Jayasekera
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23:00:00 11/18/11
Seeding machine for greening
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 23:00:00 11/18/11
Hydraulic hydroseeder machine, Hydraulic hydroseeder machine products, Hydraulic hydroseeder machine,hydraulic briquetting machine,hydraulic expansion machine
Website: http://www.drymortarmixer.com
Hydroseeding machine has wide usage, not only can be applied in spraying planting for rice, grass, tress, flowers, seeds and other crops.
Strong power, lift distance can be reached more than 45m, and equipped with two types of spraying guns: vertical and pipe, which extend the maximum operation scope from 200m to 300m; fan-shaped spray nozzle or mist spraying is more suitable for close-distance planting to meet various requirements.s
Seeding machine for greening has wide usage, not only can be applied in spraying planting for rice, grass, tress, flowers, seeds and other crops, but also in irrigation, fertilize, pesticide spraying and other daily care,
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22:00:00 11/17/11
Act Today To Save The Internet - Oppose SOPA
[LESS INFO] 10 VIEWS | ADDED 22:00:00 11/17/11
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing today on the "Stop Internet Piracy Act" (aka SOPA). In typical Republican fashion, it was not broadcast on CSPAN and many interested parties were excluded from the proceedings. In fact, the only technology company allowed to testify was Google , who opposes the proposed law along with a coalition of companies which includes Facebook, eBay and Zynga , along with others.
If ever there were a law designed to fatten the pockets of intellectual property attorneys, it is this proposed law. It has the potential to change the Internet, and not for the better. Written by and for large media companies like Comcast, it places full responsibility for intellectual property piracy on the shoulders of site owners rather than users.
As currently written, any website that quoted another site's content, or linked to a site that quoted another site's content could be declared a rogue site by the content owner, whether or not that content is subject to fair use rules. Once declared "rogue", companies like Paypal and Visa could then cut off payments immediately without the benefit of a hearing or due process of law. Fair use? Free speech? Forget about it. Here is the official summary from the House Judiciary Committee site. >
This bill focuses not on technology but on preventing those who engage in criminal behavior from reaching directly into the U.S. market to harm American consumers.
We cannot continue a system that allows criminals to disregard our laws and import counterfeit and pirated goods across our physical borders.
Nor can we fail to take effective and meaningful action when criminals misuse the Internet.
The problem of rogue websites is real, immediate and wide-spread. It harms all sectors of the economy.
And its scope is staggering. One recent survey found that nearly one quarter of global Internet traffic infringes on copyrights.
A second study found that 43 sites classified as ‘digital piracy’ generated 53 billion visits per year and that 26 sites selling just counterfeit prescription drugs generated 51 million hits annually.
Since the United States produces the most intellectual property, our country has the most to lose if we fail to address the problem of these rogue websites.
Responsible companies and public officials have taken note of the corrosive and damaging effects of rogue sites.
That last line is dripping with finger-pointing, as the announcement goes on to extol the virtuous Mastercard company while excoriating Google. Mastercard, of course, supports this wholeheartedly, while Google opposes it, along with Facebook and other websites. The Electronic Frontier Foundation points out that s ites like Vimeo, Flickr and Etsy would likely die as a result of this legislation.
Rebecca MacKinnon, former CNN reporter and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, had this to say : >
The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial. The House version goes further, allowing private companies to sue service providers for even briefly and unknowingly hosting content that infringes on copyright — a sharp change from current law, which protects the service providers from civil liability if they remove the problematic content immediately upon notification. The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar.
Abuses under existing American law serve as troubling predictors for the kinds of abuse by private actors that the House bill would make possible. Take, for example, the cease-and-desist letters that Diebold, a maker of voting machines, sent in 2003, demanding that Internet service providers shut down Web sites that had published internal company e-mails about problems with the company’s voting machines. The letter cited copyright violations, and most of the service providers took down the content without question, despite the strong case to be made that the material was speech protected under the First Amendment.
Indeed. MacKinnon goes on to point out that this bill goes far beyond intellectual property protection. In particular, the House bill is set up to hold companies liable for users' actions. That would kill YouTube forever, but more importantly, it sets up an environment where power is freely wielded by those with the resources to shut down those without resources. Imagine Fox News declaring this site "rogue", for example. Search engines would block all traffic and results, and our right to speak freely (and criticize them freely) would be infringed upon. The same is true of Media Matters. Those with the lawyers and the money would win by default.
The Occupy movement? Dead. They'd shut down the Facebook and Twitter accounts along with the live stream without cause. Simply call it "rogue" and be done. That's how totalitarian societies operate and it's anathema to anyone who understands the Internet.
BusinessWeek : >
As Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures says in a blog post, what these bills do is expose a fundamental disconnect between proponents of an open Internet and companies and legislators who would rather create their own kind of Internet: a version of the Web that’s less chaotic, more respectful, and most importantly, a lot easier to control. As Burnham notes, that kind of Internet would make things a lot easier for content producers and entertainment conglomerates, but it would remove or imperil a lot of the things that make the Internet so valuable:
“The Internet is not just a series of pipes. Its core architecture embeds an assumption about human nature.
> The Internet is designed to empower individuals, not control them. It assumes that the if individuals are empowered, they will do the right thing the vast majority of the time.
”
Over the past few days, I've seen reports that this bill is dead and other reports that it's alive and kicking. There are many who are raising their voices against it, including Oregon Senator Wyden, who has placed a hold on it. Unfortunately, it's a bipartisan bill. It shouldn't be. No Democrat should support this kind of suppression online. None. No conservative with true respect for the Constitution should support this kind of suppression, and indeed, one of those who oppose it is Ron Paul, to his credit.
As much as it pains me to admit this, I find myself on the same side as Darrell Issa. Via The Hill : >
Issa said the rush to hold the hearing was based on the flawed assumption that the bipartisan bill would quickly become law and said the sponsors didn’t want to hear from opponents, but must now accept that there is real opposition to their bill.
“What they’re realizing is there are so many unintended consequences that they can’t just use Google as a piñata and bash on it here,” he said, citing the broad coalition of opposition encompassing the tech industry, the left and the right.
“I don’t believe this bill has any chance on the House floor,” Issa added when asked about the odds of the bill moving forward after passing the Judiciary Committee. “I think it’s way too extreme, it infringes on too many areas that our leadership will know is simply too dangerous to do in its current form.”
The bottom line here? Many of these lawmakers don't know enough about the Internet to understand the issues at stake. Further, as companies like Amazon, Apple, Spotify, Hulu and others develop ways to stream their content at affordable prices to users, piracy will likely decline. Dropping a nuclear bomb on the Internet is unnecessary to prevent piracy. This is really about control. Comcast wants control of what users can see and stream on their pipes, something I predicted back when they first proposed merging with NBC-Universal.
This attempt by mega-corporations to take control of the Internet needs to be stopped cold. There has been a huge online response expressing opposition, but it needs to continue. Please sign the EFF petition here , or call your representatives to register your opposition to a law which is unnecessarily draconian and serves only the interests of corporations who do not serve yours.
