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Wall Street: From Too Big to Fail to Too Big to Jail

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After the financial meltdown of 2008, the Bush administration shoveled tons of money into Wall Street as did the Federal Reserve. TARP, the Troubed Asset Relief Program, was a $700 billion carte blanche gift to Wall Street to prevent an imminent meltdown. This was engineered by Henry Paulson, Bush’s Treasury Secretary.

But that was miniscule compared to what the Fed ponied up. A lawsuit by Bloomberg News forced the Fed to reveal that it had given $7.7 trillion to banks all over the world to prevent the looming crisis. And the Fed is still at it with its policy of Quantitative Easing (QE).

But while the banks have been bailed out and are still being given monthly money cards, they have not been held to account for the behavior that caused the financial crisis in the first place. No banker has gone to jail despite the massive fraud and corruption that they perpetrated and in fact are still perpetrating.   [Read more…]

Republican Says GOP Should Stop Being Stupid — GOP Keeps Being Stupid

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By Adele M. Stan / Alternet

Among the ambitious youngish men vying for the 2016 presidential of the Grand Old Party is Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana. And so it was that Jindal took the occasion of his keynote address at the Republican National Committee meeting on Thursday to offer a prescriptive list of what the G.O.P. must do in order to start winning national elections again. Ranking halfway through his seven-point list was an item that some might urge him to list at number one: stop acting like idiots.

“The fourth thing we’ve got to do, we’ve got to stop being the stupid party,” Jindal said. “And I’m serious; it’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults. It’s time for us to articulate our plans and our vision in real terms. It’s no secret that we had a number of Republicans that damaged the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I’m here to say, we’ve had enough of that.”

Don’t worry; they’ll make more.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Immigration Reform Rises to the Top of the Congressional (And Local) Do List

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Spurred on by President Obama’s inaugural promises and by GOP fears that the changing make up of the electorate will doom the party’s future, immigration reform legislation is likely to take a high profile in the coming weeks. The President is pushing for a comprehensive plan; Republicans want piecemeal reform.

Here in San Diego, the immigration issue has moved to center stage this week. A group calling itself the San Diego Table on Immigration Policy staged a press conference this week featuring local activist groups along with high profile local leaders, including Mayor Filner, City Councilman David Alvarez and labor leader Lorena Gonzalez. They’re promoting pathways to citizenship, a safer border and opportunities to allow legal migration into the U.S. and calling for legislative action to fix the current immigration system.

Meanwhile, the rightist gang that’s thus far blocked action on this issue is rallying its troops.

More Inside: GOP Voting Plans, Obamacare Scares, Bikers’ Plans and I Say Something Nice About a Republican…   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Desperation on the Right: Where is All This Extreme Rhetoric Going?

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Having lost the November elections and (for the time being) the vaunted fiscal cliff budget/debt ceiling showdown, GOP politicians are acting increasingly frantic.  Polls show that public support for the party and its policies is continuing to drop.

Is this behavior simply irrational venting or is it a desperate attempt to stir up acts outside the normal bounds of the political process?

Exhibit A today is House Speaker John Boehner, who told a group of Republicans on Tuesday he believes the primary goal of President Obama’s second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party.” From The Hill:

“Given what we heard yesterday about the president’s vision for his second term, it’s pretty clear to me that he knows he can’t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans,” Boehner said in a speech Tuesday to The Ripon Society. “So we’re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party.

“And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal — to just shove us into the dustbin of history.”

  [Read more…]

Shout-out at the PB Corral – Residents Fight for Conditional Booze Permits

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By sub-committee

The corral for easy police DUI checkpoints, and multi-other crime/infractions, from public urination and vandalism, to armed robberies and violence, (sponsored the city penal industry) due to the alcohol party ambiance that been the sustained reputation of Pacific Beach for the past 20+ years , has become the focus for a grassroots citizen protest in the form of, yes, a good old PUBLIC PETITION to request/demand the city and the state to establish local control of alcohol licensing, in the form of the “C.U.P.” (Conditional Use Permit).

“After years of protest to the officials in both state and local agencies, including our own judicial forum, and getting no responsible answers from them to a problem that was getting worse and worse, we have decided to organize THE PEOPLE,” said Scott Chipman, one of the chief organizers of this grassroots endeavor.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – California Tobacco Taxes on the Agenda for 2014

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A group that includes Ca. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom is backing an initiative for the mid-term elections to add $1 per pack to the state tobacco tax, and use the money for college scholarships and financial aid.

An early version of the initiative filed last month indicates revenues with be directed exclusively through the California Student Aid Commission. Monies, as much a $750 in its first year, would be kept separate from the state’s general fund.

Supporters of the tax are optimistic about their chances, pointing out the relatively low level of the existing tax, the narrow margin of the vote on Proposition 29 in 2012, and the fact this measure will avoid a fight not over bureaucracy and research by channeling the proceeds to college tuitions.

Inside: More Gunnutia, Earth Day Update, Corruption on Wall Street….   [Read more…]

Obama’s Organizing for Action: A Boost for Progressives

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by Randy Shaw/BeyondChron

President Obama’s second inaugural address struck a populist tone, but the real news for progressives came last Friday when it was announced that Obama’s campaign organization would continue under a new name, Organizing for Action. Headed by Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina, the new organization will initially focus on three key progressive issues: gun control, immigration reform, and climate change. The decision to use the Obama campaign base to mobilize around issues reverses the mistake made after the 2008 victory, when the huge Obama for America grassroots base was cut adrift from mobilizing behind the President’s first term agenda.

  [Read more…]

I’m Supposed to Feel Sorry for Phil Mickelson?

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I think I must have arrived in “pity poor me” land without the benefit of a ticket. In channel surfing a few moments ago, I was appalled at all the people interviewed that are feeling sorry for Mr. Mickelson, a multi-millionaire that may have to leave California because he feels “targeted” by higher taxes being foisted on the 2% of Americans and he may have to change his life-style. Excuse me while I go puke. Is he saying that if he makes an endorsement for a product and is paid ten million dollars that he will only be able to keep $3.7 million? (I suspect that figure is incorrect but even so….how many people earn that amount of money in their life-time?)

According to Forbes, he is the 7th highest paid athlete in the world, with a salary topping $4.8 million dollars and winnings and endorsements totaling over $43 million.

What an obscene statement to make that he will have to change his life style. What? Will he have to start riding the bus?   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Looking Back on When San Diego Said ‘No’ to Honoring Martin Luther King

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The year was 1986, and San Diego, like much of the nation, was swept up in a national discussion about a new holiday commemorating MLK’s contribution to US history. Legislation (signed three years earlier) making Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday was going into effect, and many cities around the country were honoring the slain civil rights leader by naming streets and buildings after him.

It seemed like a no-brainer for the San Diego City Council, then led by Mayor Maureen O’Connor. After some deliberation they announced that Market Street would be renamed Martin Luther King Way.

The reaction of merchants along Market Street, spurred on by developers eyeing redevelopment possibilities, was strongly negative. Claiming that they’d been excluded from the decision making process, they organized the Keep Market Street Initiative Committee and delivered nearly eighty thousand signatures to the city clerk, a move that put the question, eventually known as Proposition F, on the November ballot.

Black community leaders felt that the impetus behind the campaign was racism, pure and simple.
  [Read more…]

Congressional Hypocrites Add $77 Billion of Pork to Deficit Reduction Bill

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The most important thing to Republicans is deficit reduction. It’s the chief thing they talk about. It’s their main concern, it’s their singular issue. Right?

Right…. Then why did they vote to add $77 billion in pork to the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ bill? But don’t get me wrong – Democrats not only voted for it but were instrumental in adding it to the bill as well. But why were the American people kept in the dark and not told that this bill like a lot of others was all about the pork?

It’s not that this bill was not discussed at great length by the punditry. Bloviators were bloviating non-stop for months. Pontificators were pontificating full time. Purveyors of bovine excrement were shoveling constantly. But no one saw it coming. Not David Gregory of Meet the Press, not Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation, not Ed Schultz or Rachel Maddow of msnbc. It’s not like pork is a recent phenomena. But it takes sheer gall to add $77 billion in tax break loopholes for the rich to a deficit reduction bill!   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: What does Martin Luther King mean to you?

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On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day [in 2013] I attended the All People Celebration that took place at the San Diego Public Market here in Barrio Logan. With the event taking place in my neighborhood I wanted to put together a column that somehow related to MLK. Since every news media outlet in San Diego was covering the event I knew I had to think up a different approach than the rest of them. So, as I walked the two blocks from my apartment to the location of the celebration I decided that I would ask as many people as I could recognize a single question: What does Martin Luther King represent to you? These are their thoughtful responses.

“Non violent change. We gotta be a better society.”
– Bob Filner, Mayor of San Diego

“To me it’s about service to others. How are you doing something to make the world better? How are you part of making the world better. You do that by being in service. In my case, as a public servant, days like this make you feel good. It’s what you work for. It’s what you strive for.”
David Alvarez, San Diego City Councilman District 8 

And more than a dozen other San Diegans chime in….come on inside!   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Obama’s Second Term: Will Reactionaries Turn the Dream into a Nightmare?

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It was a busy weekend, chock full of news. President Obama took the oath of office Sunday, as required (today’s festivities are merely a show), hundreds of thousands of American participated in Days of Service, tens of thousands of guns rights-types rallied for Guns Across America/Gun Appreciation Day, five people were killed in New Mexico by a teenager wielding a semi-automatic rifle and five gun enthusiasts were wounded by accidental discharges of firearms at guns shows around the country.   [Read more…]

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