Is This America?

Posted by acheslow on Oct 2nd, 2008
2008
Oct 2

Yesterday, our Senate voted for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, aka the Big Bank Bailout. In light of what our leaders have been saying, consider the following quotes:

“[It] was a necessary ‘evil’ that averted disaster.”

“I constantly state that [this] saved [us] from looming catastrophe. [It] was evil, but it was a far lesser evil than what would have happened without it.”

“It is important that history doesn’t continue to divide [us] for ever… History and the question of who is right are complicated and cannot be seen in terms of black and white.”

Are these the words of our leaders speaking about our economy and this legislation that is supposedly going to fix it? Well, in essence yes, but in fact these quotes come from Poland’s last communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who spoke in a Reuters report today about his decision to declare martial law in 1981.

How much longer will we allow our country, our freedoms, and our prosperity to be taken from us in the name of “dire emergencies” that the government itself creates?

Who’s Who Behind The Economic Collapse

Posted by acheslow on Sep 25th, 2008
2008
Sep 25

Out of curiousity, I started playing with a concept mapping tool tonight and began plotting the corporate and political relationships between the players behind the recent economic collapse.

You can view the full map here.

Some interesting connections:

  • Henry M. Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury is the former CEO of Goldman Sachs
  • Geoffrey T. Boisi was a Senior General Partner at Goldman Sachs and is a member of the board of Freddie Mac
  • James A. Johnson is a member of the board of Goldman Sachs and was the CEO of Fannie Mae and Managing Director of Lehman Brothers
  • Robert Zoellick, the President of the World Bank, was both a Vice Chairman for Goldman Sachs and an Executive Vice President of Fannie Mae
  • Stephen Friedman was both a General Partner at Goldman Sachs and a member of the board of Fannie Mae
  • Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve), Gary L. Seevers (VP and Partner of Goldman Sachs), and Martin Feldstein (Board member of AIG) all served as Chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers.
  • Anastasia D. Kelly served as both VP of Fannie Mae and General Counsel of AIG

That’s some club, huh? And this doesn’t even count the multitude of other connections that arise when you include organizations like the Bilderberg Group, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and Group of 30.

How to embed your FriendFeed discussions on your website

Posted by acheslow on Jun 1st, 2008
2008
Jun 1

I have been spending more and more time on FriendFeed, to the point that I’ve centered my entire personal website around my FriendFeed stream. The homepage of my site makes use of an unpublished feature that allows me to embed my main FriendFeed page on my own website. You can find directions for doing this at http://friendfeed.com/embed. I took this one step farther by customizing the javascript query string and CSS to produce a format that works better on my site.

However, I also wanted a sidebar widget that only displays my FriendFeed discussions (likes and comments), similar to the widgets that Twitter offers. Through the following alchemy I was able to achieve this goal:

  1. From within FriendFeed I found the URL for the Atom feed of my discussions - http://friendfeed.com/acheslow/discussion?format=atom
  2. Because this feed uses relative URIs for the HREFs and images I had to transform the XML into absolute URIs so the images and links would not be broken (I’ve posted this as a bug to FF). To do this I fired up Yahoo Pipes and created a simple regex transformation that replaced the item.content and item.description objects from href=”/ to href=”http://friendfeed.com/ and from src=”/ to src=”http://friendfeed.com/
  3. I could have used the output of this pipe directly but prefer the formatting that Feedburner provides with its BuzzBoost feature, so I took the RSS-formatted output of my Yahoo Pipe and burned it using Feedburner.
  4. Finally, using BuzzBoost I generated the javascript code to re-create the feed as HTML and embedded this script on my website using a Wordpress text widget.

You can see the results on the right-hand side of this website under “Recent Discussions”.

Lies, Damn Lies, and the Right Wing…

Posted by acheslow on Apr 21st, 2008
2008
Apr 21

This is my response to the political ”statistics” that have been floating around the Internet recently:

 

From: Alan Cheslow
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 1:59 PM
To: xxxxx
Subject: RE: Interesting Facts !!

 

A few quick thoughts…

 

Part 1) I haven’t seen anything that would attribute changes in consumer confidence, unemployment, home values, etc to any laws that Congress passed. If anything, much of these macroeconomic factors are driven by central policies from organizations like the Federal Reserve which is governed by a board that is appointed by the president. The last three points about home equity can be pretty closely tied to the Fed’s manipulation of interest rates under Bush.

 

Part 2) Yes Bush cut taxes (not as much as the email says though if you click thru to http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/22958.html), but at the expense of raising the national debt (robbing Peter to pay Paul). Take a look at the national debt under Reagan, Bush, and Clinton: http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm. Between 1978-2005  Republicans increased federal spending 12.1% and federal debt 36.4% while Democrats increased federal spending only 9.9% and federal debt only 4.2%. During the same period Republicans increased GDP only 10.7% while Democrats grew GDP 12.6% (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf)

 

Part 3) I don’t disagree with some of this underlying point, but I don’t trust much of the “statistics”. For example, the biggest component – “$200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages” – is attributed to a statement Lou Dobbs made about immigration (“both LEGAL and illegal” by the way) – and his statement is not attributed to any real data or report. Who knows where this number really comes from and what’s behind it (probably just racism in many cases)? A few years ago Lou Dobbs implied that immigrants brought 7,000 cases of leprosy into the US but got his data entirely wrong (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonhardt.html ). Anyway, much of this problem should be blamed on the big corporations that profit from employing illegal aliens in the first place. And finally, no matter what immigration does or does not cost, it has no effect on the more than $500B that the Iraq war has cost us so far (not to mention more than 4K dead US soldiers — not including “contractors” — and almost 100K civilian deaths). And by the way, guess who the guys at Halliburton, KBR, and Blackwater who profit from the Iraq war are voting for, contributing to, and meeting with?

 

Not that I’m a huge fan of Democrats – just another shade of the same color – but if this email is trying to make the point that Americans enjoy more prosperity under Republicans than Democrats, then it is just plain wrong, according to Forbes Magazine, the Washington Post, and the Center for American Progress - http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2004/prospertity_presidents.html

 

So there.

 

Alan

 

From: xxxxx
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 10:57 AM
To: xxxxx
Subject: FW: Interesting Facts !!

 

XXX received this email from a co-worker. What is your take on this?
XXX> Subject: Fw: Interesting Facts !!
> Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:20:40 -0700
> From: xxxxx
> To: xxxxx
>
> SCARY email
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: xxxxx
> To: +Sales
> Cc: xxxxx
> Sent: Mon Apr 21 08:58:57 2008
> Subject: Interesting Facts !!
>
> Interesting Facts for consideration…….
>
>
> Vote for Change? Okay, but please do it responsibly. Please research your candidates first, no matter which party you belong to.
>
>
> This email comes in three parts:
>
>
> Part 1:
> Remember the mid-term (congressional) election in 2006?
> Thought you might like to read the following:
> A little over one year ago:
>
> 1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
> 2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
> 3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
>
> Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
>
> 1) Consumer confidence plummet;
> 2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
> 3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
> 4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
> 5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
> 6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
>
> America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
>
> Remember: it’s Congress that makes laws, not the President.
>
>
> Part 2:
>
> Taxes…Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.
> www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html>
>
> Taxes under Clinton 1999
>
> Taxes under Bush 2008
>
>
> Single making 30K: tax $8,400
>
> Single making 30K: tax $4,500
>
>
> Single making 50K: tax $14,000
>
> Single making 50K: tax $12,500
>
>
> Single making 75K: tax $23,250
>
> Single making 75K: tax $18,750
>
>
> Married making 60K: tax $16,800
>
> Married making 60K: tax $9,000
>
>
> Married making 75K: tax $21,000
>
> Married making 75K: tax $18,750
>
>
> Married making 125K: tax $38,750
>
> Married making 125K: tax $31,250
>
>
>
>
> Both Candidates Clinton and Obama have promised to return to the higher tax rates. I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider a married couple that makes a combined income of 125K rich. Doing well, yes, but not rich…..
>
>
>
>
> PART 3:
> You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much?
> Read the numbers on the cost to support illegal aliens:
>
> I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL’s for verification of all the following facts.
>
> 1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments. Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77 <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://tinyurl.com/zob77>
>
> 2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html>
>
> 3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html>
>
> 4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html>
>
> 5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
> Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html>
>
> 9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. Verify at:
> http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html>
>
> 11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our southern border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from terrorist countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the southern border.
> Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://tinyurl.com/t9sht>
>
> 12. The National Policy Institute “estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”
> Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf>
>
> 13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
> Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm>
>
> 14. “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million
> Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.”
> Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml>
>
> The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
>
>
> Now, vote using your brain!