Republicans Playing on People’s Fears (Officially)?
Ben Smith writes on the Politico:
The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to “save the country from trending toward socialism.”
The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes.”
The presentation was delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Florida on February 18, a source at the gathering said.
In neat PowerPoint pages, it lifts the curtain on the often-cynical terms of political marketing, displaying an air of disdain for the party’s donors that is usually confined to the barroom conversations of political operatives.
The presentation explains the Republican fundraising in simple terms.
Stock Market Slows as Tiger Woods Apologizes
So for thirteen minutes on Friday, the world’s biggest casino came to a crawl while Tiger Woods made his “apology” speech. (One can argue that the apology was more for Nike’s benefit than his wife’s.) As financial blog Zerohedge puts it:
When Tiger’s speech causes a more dramatic volume impact than the FOMC you know this market is all sorts of perfectly efficient. Bloomberg’s chart of the day below shows the total NYSE volume change in-between when Tiger started his convoluted and meandering mea culpa, and when he ended.
FOMC stands for Federal Open Market Committee, a.k.a. “The Fed” that many disinfo.com visitors have plenty to say about. So Tiger had more impact than a Fed Discount Rate hike announcement that day, good to know for the next time I talk to some finance guy who cold calls me about getting into the market…
Seems like just more proof that, as the Onion recently put it (brilliantly), money is a “symbolic, mutually shared illusion.”
Justice for Sale: What Can ‘The People’ Bid to Have Democracy in America?
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship writes on Huffington Post:
That famous definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything — and the value of nothing — has come to define this present moment of American politics.
No wonder people have lost faith in politicians, parties and in our leadership. The power of money drives cynicism deep into the heart of every level of government. Everything, and everyone, comes with a price tag attached: from a seat at the table in the White House to a seat in Congress, to the fate of health care reform, our environment, and efforts to restrain Wall Street’s greed and prevent another financial catastrophe.
Our government is not broken; it’s been bought out from under us, and on the right and the left and…
U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion
Via the Onion:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy ceased to function this week after unexpected existential remarks by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke shocked Americans into realizing that money is, in fact, just a meaningless and intangible social construct.
Calling it “basically no more than five rectangular strips of paper,” Fed chairman Ben Bernanke illustrates how much “$200″ is actually worth.
What began as a routine report before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday ended with Bernanke passionately disavowing the entire concept of currency, and negating in an instant the very foundation of the world’s largest economy.
“Though raising interest rates is unlikely at the moment, the Fed will of course act appropriately if we … if we …” said Bernanke, who then paused for a moment, looked down at his prepared statement, and shook his…
Bill Maher: ‘Corporatist’ Evan Bayh Is What’s Wrong With Senate (Video)
Reports Huffington Post on a Bill Maher interview with Anderson Cooper:
Evan Bayh is not a centrist, he’s a corporatist, according to Bill Maher.
Maher appeared on “Anderson Cooper 360″ Tuesday night to comment on the state of affairs in Washington, D.C. He argued that Evan Bayh, the retiring Senator from Indiana, is what’s wrong with Congress. The Senate is “where legislation goes to die,” Maher says, because “corporatist Democrats” like Bayh act like Republicans.
Maher told Cooper that politics are not polarized enough and that the U.S. lacks a real progressive party.
The Top 5 Health Insurers Had A 56% Profit Gain in 2009
John Byrne writes on RAW Story:
If no health care overhaul passes Congress, health insurers may be in for a windfall — and one far larger that most Americans probably realize.
According to a study by a pro-health reform group published Thursday, the nation’s largest five health insurance companies posted a 56 percent gain in 2009 profits over 2008. The insurers including Wellpoint, UnitedHealth, Cigna, Aetna and Humana, which cover the majority of Americans with insurance.
The insurers’ hefty profit gains came even as 2.7 million more Americans lost their insurance coverage due to the declining economy.
A lobbyist for American’s Health Insurance Plans, the trade group that represents insurers in Washington, D.C., attributed the gain in 2009 profits to a poor performance in 2008. In 2008, insurers were forced to write down their…
Corporation Says It Will Run for Congress
CATHERINE RAMPELL writes on the NY Times’ Economix:
Following the Supreme Court decision implicitly granting corporations the right to free speech (by determining that political spending is a kind of speech), a corporation has decided to take what it believes to be “democracy’s next step”: It is running for Congress.
With more than a twinge of irony, Murray Hill Incorporated, a liberal public relations firm, recently announced that it planned to run in the Republican primary in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.
Here is the company’s first “campaign” ad:
John Stewart: ‘Corporations Now Have More Rights Than Gay People.’
Congress needs to challenge this ruling now. It seems like the most important things that presidents have done for the last forty-five years is appoint Supreme Court judges (notwithstanding declaring unlawful wars). Via the Daily Show:
Keith Olbermann: Supreme Court Ruling Makes Every Politician ‘A Prostitute’
This may be the one time I can say I don’t think Olbermann is guilty of bombast. He recently abandoned the long, special comment format on his show and instead makes two nightly “quick comments” (because I think even his core audience was getting tired of the long-winded tirades) but if there’s a reason to get worked up, it’s this. I know disinfo.com visitors have plenty to say and I’m curious to hear your thoughts on KO’s special comment “U.S. Government for Sale”:
A New Myth of Money (Video)
Can we heal the wounds at the heart of our economic system? At the new, expanded Reality Sandwich writer Charles Eisenstein and currency specialist Chris Lindstrom talk with Daniel Pinchbeck about introducing a new story of money:
Subversive Iranian Banknotes
For anti-government protesters in Iran, it can hard to get one’s message out when the media and internet are censored. So activists have turned to a far older high circulation mass-medium, banknotes, to spread their message and let people know that the spirit of resistance has not been crushed. The Central Bank of Iran has tried to take politically branded banknotes out of circulation, but there are too many of them. Green ink is typically used. Take a look.
Lessons From the Japanese: Time to Stop Borrowing Money and Start Printing It
From Truthout:
Miners used to keep canaries in coal mines as an early warning device. If the air was so bad that it killed the canary, the miners would soon be next. Japan may be the canary for the out-of-control deficit spending policies now being pursued in the United States and the United Kingdom. In a November 1 article in the Daily Telegraph called “It Is Japan We Should Be Worrying About, Not America,” international business editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote:
“Japan is drifting helplessly towards a dramatic fiscal crisis. For 20 years the world’s second-largest economy has been … feeding its addiction to Keynesian deficit spending – and allowing it to push public debt beyond the point of no return. The rocketing cost of insuring against the bankruptcy of the Japanese state…
