DAVOS: Pronouncements From the Sanatorium

Part of the big uncertainty is where the bodies are buried - R.G. Rajan, former chief economist of the IMF.

In Davos, the world’s elite are meeting in banquet rooms to discuss our fate. With celebrity appearances and all the usual scribes in attendance, they are making pronouncements from the sanatorium. And the reports so far are downright bizarre.

Talk on high of “Corporate Responsibility” and “Socially Conscious Capitalism”; Talk of “crisis sessions from the hotel suites”. Really? What is this, ANXIETY in the AGE OF GREAT MODERATION?

Bill Gates is slated to issue a call to arms: A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century. “People are asking themselves” said Klaus Schwab, host of the event “What are the boundaries of the capitalist system? They think that the market may not always be the best mechanism for providing solutions.” Has George Soros comandeered the control room with a pack of penitent philanthropists?

Man, this latest Market Crash has got people more than a little worked up? Could it be that the profit reports are finally reflecting what any Joe has been experiencing for years, if not generations? Sweet Jesus, will the lion really lie down with the lamb?

And Now, a song … a 1 and a 2 …

WHEN THE BIG BUCKS ARE WINNING
THEY SAY “HANDS OFF OUR MONEY…
STAY OUT OF OUR BIG PLANS, OUR SAILBOATS,
OUR IVY-LEAGUE EDUCATIONS AND WHATNOT.”

“JUST STAY ON THE PERIMETER
AND AWAIT OUR PRONOUNCEMENTS.”
AND THE PUBLIC, LIKE GOOD CHILDREN,
WILL BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD.

“OUT OF OUR WAY, COMMIE! WHINER!” THEY SAY,
WITH THE CREDULITY OF LOTTERY WINNERS THEY SAY,
“HANDS OFF, MINE MINE ALL MINE,
DADY’S MONEY, MY MONEY, KEEP AWAY!”

BUT WHEN THE HOUSE OF CARDS FALLS, OR THREATENS TO FALL,
THEY’LL WANT THE POLICE AROUND,
YEP, YOU BET THEY’LL WANT THE GOVERNMENTS TO TAKE ACTION.
THEY’LL WANT BAILOUTS FOR CERTAIN.
THEY’LL WANT PROMPT CHANGES TO THE PERCENTAGE POINTS.

“HOW ABOUT A MORATORIUM ON ALL ECONOMIC ACTIVITY” THEY’LL SAY,
“PLEASE,” THEY’LL SAY, SMUG AS A PACK OF SHOWDOGS, “ALLOW US
A MOMENT TO REINVESTIGATE THE ANGLES.”

WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN IS:
“STAY BEHIND THE FENCE WHILE WE CONSULT THE ORACLE.”

JUST LIKE SO,
THEY’LL RESHUFFLE ALL THE CARDS,
MAKE ALLIANCES ANEW AND
WRAP THE WORLD UP LIKE JUST SO MANY CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.

———PART 2———-

IT DOESN’T LOOK TOO GOOD, FOLKS.
JUST SO YOU KNOW, IN CASE YOU CARED.
WHEN YOU SWITCH YOUR POSITIONS
SOLELY BASED UPON YOUR OWN ADVANTAGE,
IT DOESN’T LOOK TOO GOOD.

THE PILLARS OF WESTERN CIV,
THE PRINCIPLES YOU PUT ON YOUR MANTLE,
THE MEDALS WORN PROUDLY ON YOUR LAPEL FROM SOME LONGDEAD UNCLE,
ALL THESE NOBLE, TIME-TESTED PRINCIPLES THAT YOU SUPPOSEDLY ADHERE TO …
THEY SPEAK OF TRUTH! THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH FROM ALL SIDES!

NOT THE MOST EXPEDIENT LIE AT THE TIME,
NOT OPTIMISM JUST TO KEEP THE COGS A-SPINNIN,
NOT REINFORCEMENTS TO FORTIFY THE PRIVILEGE OF YOUR POSITION.
IT DOESN’T LOOK TOO GOOD, FOLKS.
JUST SO YOU KNOW, IN CASE YOU CARED.

Super-Delegates: is it time to take away the Keys to the Oldsmobile?

Alright, alright. We were all hoping for another victory for Obama in New Hampshire. Now, it’s neck and neck right? Obama: 25 delegates, Clinton: 24. Fine, more work to do.

Click through and here’s the latest: Clinton 183, Obama 78.

Now, what kind of a message is that? 2 states have voted in record numbers. They’ve given Obama a modest lead. But, based upon calculations of a system of “super-delegates” - which few people seem to understand (I had to look it up) - the more popular candidate so far is still coming from way behind. The “frontrunner” we’ve been hearing about for so long is still way out in the lead.

What is all this?

I think it may be time to start learning who the “superdelegates” are in your neighborhood. I think we should send them a clear message: If the people nominate Obama and the Democratic Leadership tip the scales toward the establishment candidate, we will not sit idly by. If these old-school party hacks that drive the Democratic Party are willing to risk America’s future like that, than it may time to take away the keys to the Oldsmobile.

If a Clinton nomination came only at the aid of the 40% that comes from superdelegates and not from the popular vote, then notion of change and hope - the notion that everyone’s hoping on like Beatlemania - is going to wither and die.

The results of this could be very dangerous, indeed. 1) the wrong candidate for change would be nominated. 2) the candidate most capable of winning the general election and coalescing a new majority in America would no longer be in the race. That would be most unfortunate.

I’ve already said I’d support the democratic nominee. The preceding 8 years have been brutal and punishing. I just hope that the party establishment doesn’t miss the cue and fail to activate the real hope and change that Obama is offering - not in rhetoric but in every aspect of who he is.

I’ll tell you now: if the popular vote goes one way and the “safety valve” of superdelegates threatens to be employed, I will be coming to the convention in Denver with as many friends as I can muster to impress upon the Party that “a change gonna come”.

Please see the Jan. 4 lowdown on the “antiquated” system by Katrina Vanden Heuvel in The Nation.

A brief summary from CNN: • Superdelegates in the Democratic Party are typically members of the Democratic National Committee, elected officials like senators or governors, or party leaders. They do not have to indicate a candidate preference and do not have to compete for their position. If a superdelegate dies or is unable to participate at the convention, alternates do not replace that delegate, which would reduce the total delegates number and the “magic number” needed to clinch the nomination.

Surveillance: of the People by the People

In the coming months I’ll be looking into the notion of surveillance and it’s role in the unfortunately named “war on terror”.

To pique your interest you may want to cruise over to the Freedom of Information Act site (FOIA) hosted by the FBI, where you can peruse Dr. King’s file or spend some leisure time learning more about the “enemy of the state” of your choice.

Or click on through and see what the Electronic Frontier Foundation is doing to protect our rights and maybe get your eyes on more of these sort of de-classified documents.

Obama Watch

This week, Barack Obama came out ahead in the polls in Iowa - see below - the “all important” first stop in the up-coming Democratic primary. Now, I’m not a stickler for polls, but I found it interesting that most of the news reports announced that the Dems — Obama, Clinton and Edwards - were in a statistical tie in Iowa. (This, after months of hearing Clinton was the obvious front-runner, the one to beat.)

Perhaps the more interesting info was that Clinton received very few second-choice votes from people who favored Edwards or Obama (the second-choice is actually a factor that gets consideration in the Iowa caucuses). Basically, if she doesn’t come in first in Iowa, she probably won’t be in the top 2. Not the kind of start a front-runner hopes for.

So, out on the offensive, Hillary Clinton called into question Barack Obama’s ability to lead at this complicated time in the nation’s history, citing of all things Obama’s globe-hopping as a youngster. “Voters will have to judge,” said Clinton, “if living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face.”

This statement seems so ripe with irony that I first thought I was reading it grossly out of context. Is Clinton really suggesting that the early experience of living abroad (in the largest Muslim nation on the planet, no less) and attending schools alongside South-East Asian Muslims - in conjunction with a Harvard degree and pivotal years spent in the U.S. Senate - may in fact make Obama less equipped to “face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face”?

One may as well ask: Can a person of mixed ethnicity truly face the challenges of leadership in a multi-cultural society? What are the chances that a bilingual person could really be capable of leading a nation that is increasingly bilingual? Can a person younger than 50 possibly be expected to relate to people his own age and younger who are increasingly called upon to fuel the new economy, even while prospects of job security and health care for themselves and their families are diminishing?

I don’t know. Perhaps Hilary Clinton was merely trying to differentiate herself from a candidate she feels has less experience. In which case, I think I’ll defer to the candidate with the experience and judgement that told him the current war was ill advised from the get go, rather than the candidate that authorized the war without reading the available intelligence and later plead she was misinformed.

… please discuss ….

ABC News/Washington Post Poll 11/16/2007
In Iowa
Barack Obama 30%
Hillary Clinton 26%
John Edwards 22%

iViva Joybubbles!

How To Help Hal (Part 1)

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Hal is a marketing executive from Silicon Valley. Hal is age 51. Pictured here in a modest blue collar dress shirt, in front of a suburban looking backyard fence, Hal is the exemplar of a recent New York Times front-page story chronicling the woes of a new class of American society: the middle class rich.

Hal works 12 hours a day, arriving at work at 7am most mornings. He works an average of 10 hours on the weekend. He has a $1.2 million home that is paid off and he and his spouse are worth an estimated $3.5 million. Good job, Hal.

Hal says “a few million doesn’t go as far as it used to.” For fun, let’s see what Hal might be able to do if he liquidated a mere 1/2 of his assets. $3.5 mill / 2 = $1.75 mill. Say the feds were to take almost half. Hal would be left with about $1 million to play around with while the other $1.75 mill would continue to mature in the diversified investments of his choice.

With roughly $1 million - free and clear - Hal and his family may choose to: Purchase a seaside villa on the South Coast of Jamaica. 8 bed, 8 bath w/ “beautiful ocean and mountain views”… more details

At a mere $675,000 (he could probably do better with a little leg-work) minus $25,000 to grease some local wheels, Hal & Co could settle down w/ roughly $350,000. According to the World Bank, an average Jamaican family subsists on under $4000 a year. If they could squeeze by on merely 3Xs the local average - $12,000/year - Hal & Co should be able to make it until Old Hal turns 80. That’s 3 years past the average life expectancy for an American and 5 years past that of a Jamaican. Not bad, Hal.

Do you have any other thoughts of how to help Hal?

Arms For Oil Ain’t No Joke

An Excerpt from the NYT, June 7, 2007:

LONDON (AP) — A Saudi prince received millions of dollars for his own use as part of Britain’s largest arms deal, the British Broadcasting Corp. said.

In upcoming report from its ”Panorama” program, the BBC says that the payments went to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who negotiated the $80 billion Al-Yamamah arms deal to sell 100 warplanes in 1985.

BAE Systems, the prime contractor, has denied that it ever violated British law in relation to the contract. Prince Bandar refused to comment, the BBC said in a statement Wednesday.

Al-Yamamah, meaning ”the dove,” was the name given to an agreement under which BAE supplied Tornado fighter jets and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia, which paid the British government with oil. The full extent of the deal was never revealed but it was widely believed to be Britain’s largest-ever export agreement.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan ///
Would Somebody Please buy this Dude a Plane?

Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken responsibility for calling off an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into allegations that BAE Systems ran a $120 million ‘’slush fund” offering sweeteners to Saudi officials in return for contracts as part of the Al-Yamamah deal.

”This investigation, if it had gone ahead, would have involved the most serious allegations in investigations being made into the Saudi royal family and my job is to give advice as to whether that is a sensible thing in circumstances where I don’t believe the investigation incidentally would have led anywhere except to the complete wreckage of a vital strategic relationship for our country,” Blair said. ”Quite apart from the fact that we would have lost thousands, thousands of British jobs.”

Bush + Abdullah = Forever

Miss Shock & Awe: What Else You Got?

What Wonderful * ECommerce Create:

told you about him is only a half-penny worth of them. I suppose it
Curiouser and curiouser. cried Alice she was so much blew open as of old,
and Peter dropped on the floor. unhappy spot. No blight had fallen on
old Essex; all was prosperity

Valued customer, It’s Summertime! Time to look nice on the sandy beach.
Now You Too Can Lqse 10 To 25 Pounds Quickly And Safely In Lezs Than 30 Days
Get your free bottles of * while supplies last

Do come back time; the one blood-thirsty man, in whom were concentrated those taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on a pair of the gloves, and
was just going to leave the room, when it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like become wholly the property of one, unless by the extinction of the hateful sympathy in our secret souls. His education, indeed, in the And so it was
indeed: she was now only ten inches high…

Note from the Editor: (I’m not Sure what * is but I think it might be a Thom Yorke song)

Missiaen, the filmmaker…

…not the famous composer nor the notorious skate-punk turned attorney-at-law…

He’s a filmmaker specializing in Super 8–yes he’s also the subject of the cult-hop classic “Mike Missiaen” by Mix Master Mitch, possibly the most jewish of the non-jewish rappers–and he’s also a budding linguist…

MM says of his curious last name: “It’s pronounced “mĭ·shôn” or “mɪ·ʃɔn”. I’m pretty sure it’s Flemish. That means it comes from Flanders, which is the northern part of Belgium. I’m 1/8 Flemish. Some in my family believe the name must have come from France originally. One data point to support this is that the composer and synesthete Olivier Messiaen is French.”

Check out his Joint, it’s casual arty: MM

To My First Reader:

Yah Mon, thanks for checkin it… I’m really just trying to develop my skills w/ the dudernet. But I’m stoked, it fits in perfectly w/ my already manic, haphazard journalistic tendencies… it just allows me to keep a notebook wherever I go. Amazing! The Internet, it Works!

My response to some recent feedback from: kenny bloggins

Bonus: a rad pic from a Mexican Gal’s myspace.