The U.S. labor movement is itself greatly fragmented, with two competing houses of labor (the AFL-CIO and Change to Win) as well as divisions even within these two confederations. That the Solidarity Center would presume to be able to unite any union movement outside its borders is laughable. Indeed, only imagine the reception from the labor movement in this country if China’s labor confederation purported to intervene in the U.S. to help unite the labor movement here.

September 04, 2012

Diatribes and Curious Silences

Democrats and U.S. Labor Delusional About Latin America

by ALBERTO C. RUIZ

The Democrats just put out their platform on Latin America, and it demonstrates only the loosest connection to reality. Thus, while praising the “vibrant democracies in countries from Mexico to Brazil and Costa Rica to Chile,” as well as “historic peaceful transfers of power in places like El Salvador and Uruguay,” the Democrats continue to point to Cuba and Venezuela as outliers in the region in which the Democrats plan “to press for more transparent and accountable governance” and for “greater freedom.” Of course, it is their Platform’s deafening silence on critical developments in the region which says the most about their position vis a vis the Region.

Not surprising, the Democrats say nothing about the recent coups in Honduras and Paraguay (both taking place during Obama’s first term) which unseated popular and progressive governments. They also say nothing about the fact that President Obama, against the tide of the other democratic countries in Latin America, quickly recognized the coup governments in both of these countries. Also omitted from the platform is any discussion of the horrendous human rights situation in post-coup Honduras where journalists, human rights advocates and labor leaders have been threatened, harassed and even killed at alarming rates.

As Reporters Without Borders (RWR) explained on August 16, 25 journalists have been murdered in Honduras since the 2009 coup, making Honduras the journalist murder capital of the world. In this same story, RWR mentions Honduras in the same breath as Mexico (a country the Democrats hold out as one of the “vibrant democracies” in the region) when speaking of the oppression of journalists and social activists, as well as the general climate of violence which plagues both countries. As RWR stated, “Like their Mexican colleagues, Honduran journalists – along with human rights workers, civil society representatives, lawyers and academics who provide information – will not break free of the spiral of violent crime and censorship until the way the police and judicial apparatus functions is completely overhauled.” And indeed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992, and it has been confirmed in 27 of these cases that the journalists were killed precisely because they were journalists. Meanwhile, in Mexico, over 40,000 individuals have been killed due to the U.S.-sponsored drug war – hardly a laudable figure.

Of course, in the case of Honduras, and Paraguay as well, things are going fine for U.S. interests post-coup, with Honduras maintaining the U.S. military base which President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown in the coup, had threatened to close. Similarly, in Paraguay, one of the first acts of the new coup government was agreeing to open a new U.S. military base – a base opposed by Porfirio Lobos, the President (and former liberation Bishop) overthrown in the coup. The other act of the new coup government in Paraguay was its agreement to allow Rio Tinto to open a new mine in that country, again in contravention of the deposed President’s position. The Democrats simply do not speak of either Honduras or Paraguay in their Platform.

Instead, the Democrats mostly focus on their alleged desire to bring freedom to Cuba, saying nothing about the strides already made by Cuba itself where, according to a January 27, 2012 story in the Financial Times, entitled, “Freedom comes slowly to Cuba,” “there are currently no prisoners of conscience.” This is to be contrasted with Colombia, the chief U.S. ally in the region, which houses around 10,000 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. The Democrats, shy about such unpleasant facts, simply say nothing about Colombia – this despite the fact that Colombia just announced historic peace talks with the guerillas which have been engaged in a 50-year insurgency in that country. Apparently, this does not deserve a mention amongst the Democrats’ anti-Cuba diatribe.

Meanwhile, the Democrats also single out Venezuela as a country in which it is hoping to free from its alleged chains. What the Democrats fail to note is that Venezuela already has a popular, democratically President in Hugo Chavez who is making life better for the vast majority of Venezuelans, and who appears poised to receive the majority of the votes of the Venezuelan people in the upcoming October elections as a consequence. Thus, according to Oxfam, “Venezuela certainly seems to be getting something right on inequality. According to the highly reputable UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, it now has the most equal distribution of income in the region, and has improved rapidly since 1990.” Again, contrast this with the U.S.’s chief ally Colombia and with Mexico, the two countries with the worst problems of inequality in the region. As the Council on Hemispheric Affairs noted earlier this year, “both Colombia and Mexico suffer from some of the world’s most unequal distributions of wealth. In 1995, Colombia was ranked the fifth most unequal country (of those with available statistics), with a Gini coefficient of 0.57, while Mexico was ranked the eighth worst with a Gini coefficient of 0.52. Between 2006 and 2010, Colombia’s inequality ranked 0.58, while Mexico’s coefficient was 0.52, qualifying them as two of the lowest ranked countries in the world.” The Democrats, uninterested in such trivialities as social equality, simply ignore such inconvenient data.

For its part, U.S. labor, as represented (albeit very poorly) by the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, continue to march in step with the U.S. government and the Democrats in their imperial delusions about the Region. Thus, while for some time simply hiding the fact that it has been working in Venezuela at all, the Solidarity Center, in response to pressure about this issue, has recently admitted on its website that it has been continuously working in Venezuela these past 13 years – i.e., to and through the coup in 2002 which the Solidarity Center aided and abetted by funneling monies from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to the anti-Chavez CTV union which was a major player in the coup.

Stinging from the just criticism over this, the Solidarity Center now claims — reminiscent of George W. Bush who fancied himself a “uniter” as opposed to a “divider” – claims that it is in Venezuela to unite the divided labor movement. Thus, the Solidarity Center states: “[g]iven the political fragmentation and divisions between unions in Venezuela, Solidarity Center activities work to help unions from all political tendencies overcome their divisions in order to jointly advocate for and defend policies for increased protection of fundamental rights at the workplace and industry levels. The Solidarity Center currently supports efforts to unite unions from diverse political orientations (including chavista and non-chavista, left and center) to promote fundamental labor rights in the face of anti-labor actions that threaten both pro-government unions and traditionally independent unions.” In its statement, the Solidarity Center says nothing about the progressive labor law which President Chavez just recently signed into law without any help from U.S. labor. This law, among other things, outlaws outsourcing and subcontracting, shortens the work week, increases minimum vacation time, increases maternity leave and requires employers to provide retirement benefits.

The Solidarity Center statement about Venezuela is laden with irony as well as hubris. The U.S. labor movement is itself greatly fragmented, with two competing houses of labor (the AFL-CIO and Change to Win) as well as divisions even within these two confederations. That the Solidarity Center would presume to be able to unite any union movement outside its borders is laughable. Indeed, only imagine the reception from the labor movement in this country if China’s labor confederation purported to intervene in the U.S. to help unite the labor movement here. Aside from wondering how exactly the Chinese unionists planned to do this, many would wonder about the ends to which such unity, once miraculously created, would be applied. And, one must wonder the very same about this in regard to the Solidarity Center’s role in Venezuela. First of all, the so-called “chavista” unions want nothing to do with the Solidarity Center, funded as it is by the NED and U.S.-AID, especially after the 2002 coup. Again, they would have to question what the Solidarity Center, which just received a massive grant of $3 million for its work in Venezuela and Colombia, would want to “unify” the Venezuelan union movement to do. The question appears to answer itself, and it is not a pretty one.

A modest proposal for the AFL-CIO and its Solidarity Center is to focus on uniting the labor movement at home in the U.S. to challenge the power that capital has on our political system; pressing for better U.S. labor law (on this score it could learn a lot from Venezuela and its labor movement); abandoning its labor paternalism (if not imperialism) and leaving it to the Venezuelans to unite their own labor movement. Similarly, the Democrats, instead of worrying about ostensibly bringing U.S.-style democracy (more like social inequality and militarism) to other countries in the Region, should spend more time trying to make this country less beholden to corporate and monied interests, and thereby more democratic in the process. But again, this is not what the Democrats are about. What the AFL-CIO is about, aside from blindly supporting the Democrats, is anyone’s guess.

Alberto C. Ruiz is a long-time labor and peace activist.

Obama’s Secret Plan to Prop Up Housing Prices - Surprise U.S. tax payers get screwed!

September 04, 2012

Discounts for Speculators,

Foreclosures for Mom and Pop!

Obama’s Secret Plan to Prop Up Housing Prices

by MIKE WHITNEY

Private Equity firms are piling in to the housing market to take advantage of bargain basement prices on distressed inventory. The Obama administration is stealthily selling homes to big investors who are required to sign non-disclosure agreements to ensure that the public remains in the dark as to the magnitude of the giveaway. Aside from the steep discounts on the homes themselves, the government is also providing “synthetic financing to reduce the up-front capital required if they agree to form a joint venture with Fannie Mae and share proceeds from the rental or sale of properties.” (Businessweek)

In other words, US-taxpayers are providing extravagant financing for deep-pocket speculators who want to reduce their risk while maximizing their profits via additional leverage. The plan resembles Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s Public-Private Partnership Investment Program, (PPIP) which Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz denounced in an op-ed in the New York Times. Here’s what he said:

“The Obama administration’s $500 billion or more proposal to deal with America’s ailing banks has been described by some in the financial markets as a win-win-win proposal. Actually, it is a win-win-lose proposal: the banks win, investors win — and taxpayers lose.”

The same rule applies here. Speculators are getting lavish incentives (gov financing, low rates, and severe discounts) in secret deals to buy distressed inventory which should be available to the public at market prices. If that’s not a ripoff, then what is?

Now take a look at this clip from an article in Nuwire Investor:

“Single-family homes are on the radar with private equity investors for good reason. There is a robust pipeline of distressed properties that is allowing owners to buy property at a steep discount—typically 30 percent to 50 percent of replacement cost.

The volume of foreclosure filings in the U.S. totaled more than 2.8 million per year in both 2009 and 2010. Although the volume of home foreclosures dropped to 1.9 million in 2011, there were approximately 1.5 million active home foreclosure filings recorded during the first six months of 2012, according to data from RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based listing service. The current volume is about five times higher than the rate of foreclosures that were occurring prior to the housing bust. In 2005, for example, home foreclosure filings reached just 532,833, according to RealtyTrac.

That inventory includes an ample supply of quality middle-class homes in good neighborhoods. Investors are finding that they can buy three-bedroom, two-bath homes, many of which were built in 2005 or later. At the peak of the market, these homes were selling for about $250,000, and now investors are able to buy them at prices averaging between $100,000 and $130,000.” (“Private Equity Funds Prey On Distressed Housing”, NuWire Investor)

Read that again. Obama’s preferred customers are getting discounts of up-to 60 percent of the home’s peak value and generous gov-backed financing to boot! Where can Mom and Pop get a deal like that?

Nowhere.

As we have noted in previous articles, housing prices are going up for two reasons. First, because the banks are withholding their distressed inventory (delaying foreclosures) to keep prices artificially high. And, second, because of Private Equity firms are buying up the available stock of distressed homes in special “bulk sales” deals that are pushing up prices on lower-end homes. Housing analyst Michael Olenick sheds a bit of light on these secret transactions in a recent post on Naked Capitalism. Here’s a clip:

“Besides lower foreclosure activity, the government is going all out to give away houses to private equity firms. Recently Fannie Mae sold 275 properties across metro Phoenix in one sale to a mystery buyer, according to a report by Catherine Reagor of the Arizon Republic. All Fannie disclosed is the buyer is an LLC, which Fannie apparently helped create, based at 135 N. Los Robles Ave., in Pasadena, CA. Google shows that is the US address of EastWest Bank, a bank whose tagline is “Your Financial Bridge,” presumably between Asian money and Phoenix real estate. Fannie’s decision to sell Phoenix to Asian investors keeps 275 houses off the local market, which drives up prices for Phoenix homes people intend to actually live in, rather than flip. (Update: Nick Timiraos points out by e-mail that Fannie’s address in Pasadena is the same as EastWest’s, and Bloomberg has reported that Colony is the buyer. But this still raises the question of why Fannie cooperate with what appears to be an effort to hide the identity of the buyer.) (“Still Looking for a Housing Bottom”, Michael Olenick, naked capitalism)

So, why all the cloak and dagger? Why is the public being kept in the dark? And, most importantly, why are taxpayers providing financing for moneybags PE firms on discounted homes that would sell on Day 1 if they offered to the general public? This whole operation stinks to high-heaven.

As the article above indicates, there’s no shortage of delinquent homes that will eventually be foreclosed. That means the process is being dragged out so the banks don’t have to fess-up to the losses on their fetid pile of nonperforming loans Here’s a little more background from an article in Businessweek:

“About 6 million U.S. borrowers will lose their homes in the next five years because of inability to pay their mortgages, creating demand for as many as 4 million new rental households, according to Scott Simon, head of mortgage bonds at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California….

Single-family rentals are priced to deliver unlevered total returns in the range of 7.5 percent to 8 percent, or about 0.5 percentage point to 1 percentage point higher than institutional-quality apartments, according to a June 8 report by Ray Huang, senior associate at Green Street Advisors in Newport Beach, California. (“Colony Said to Win Foreclosed Homes Sold by Fannie Mae”, Businessweek)

If “6 million homeowners” will lose their homes in the next five years, then why are clownshoes media dupes touting a “bottom” in prices and a “market rebound”?

It’s all hype. And look at how calculatingly fiendish Obama’s foreclosure-to-rental program really is. The big boys have figured out the nearest penny how much they can make by throwing people out of their homes. (7.5 percent to 8 percent) Talk about heartless. And, of course, this whole process is being orchestrated by President Fairydust and his Wall Street Pranksters to keep prices artificially high and preserve the illusion that the banks are solvent.

It’s infuriating!

MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

My dear friend Tom Rehwald recommended this recent David Brooks column in re: The Real Romney to me.

August 27, 2012

The Real Romney

By DAVID BROOKS

The purpose of the Republican convention is to introduce America to the real Mitt Romney. Fortunately, I have spent hours researching this subject. I can provide you with the definitive biography and a unique look into the Byronic soul of the Republican nominee:

Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man.

Romney was a precocious and gifted child. He uttered his first words (“I like to fire people”) at age 14 months, made his first gaffe at 15 months and purchased his first nursery school at 24 months. The school, highly leveraged, went under, but Romney made 24 million Jujubes on the deal.

Mitt grew up in a modest family. His father had an auto body shop called the American Motors Corporation, and his mother owned a small piece of land, Brazil. He had several boyhood friends, many of whom owned Nascar franchises, and excelled at school, where his fourth-grade project, “Inspiring Actuaries I Have Known,” was widely admired.

The Romneys had a special family tradition. The most cherished member got to spend road trips on the roof of the car. Mitt spent many happy hours up there, applying face lotion to combat windburn.

The teenage years were more turbulent. He was sent to a private school, where he was saddened to find there are people in America who summer where they winter. He developed a lifelong concern for the second homeless, and organized bake sales with proceeds going to the moderately rich.

Some people say he retreated into himself during these years. He had a pet rock, which ran away from home because it was starved of affection. He bought a mood ring, but it remained permanently transparent. His ability to turn wine into water detracted from his popularity at parties.

There was, frankly, a period of wandering. After hearing Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” Romney decided to leave Mormonism and become Amish. He left the Amish faith because of its ban on hair product, and bounced around before settling back in college. There, he majored in music, rendering Mozart’s entire oeuvre in PowerPoint.

His love affair with Ann Davies, the most impressive part of his life, restored his equilibrium. Always respectful, Mitt and Ann decided to elope with their parents. They went on a trip to Israel, where they tried and failed to introduce the concept of reticence. Romney also went on a mission to France. He spent two years knocking on doors, failing to win a single convert. This was a feat he would replicate during his 2008 presidential bid.

After his mission, he attended Harvard, studying business, law, classics and philosophy, though intellectually his first love was always tax avoidance. After Harvard, he took his jawline to Bain Consulting, a firm with very smart people with excessive personal hygiene. While at Bain, he helped rescue many outstanding companies, like Pan Am, Eastern Airlines, Atari and DeLorean.

Romney was extremely detail oriented in his business life. He once canceled a corporate retreat at which Abba had been hired to play, saying he found the band’s music “too angry.”

Romney is also a passionately devoted family man. After streamlining his wife’s pregnancies down to six months each, Mitt helped Ann raise five perfect sons — Bip, Chip, Rip, Skip and Dip — who married identically tanned wives. Some have said that Romney’s lifestyle is overly privileged, pointing to the fact that he has an elevator for his cars in the garage of his San Diego home. This is not entirely fair. Romney owns many homes without garage elevators and the cars have to take the stairs.

After a successful stint at Bain, Romney was lured away to run the Winter Olympics, the second most Caucasian institution on earth, after the G.O.P. He then decided to run for governor of Massachusetts. His campaign slogan, “Vote Romney: More Impressive Than You’ll Ever Be,” was not a hit, but Romney won the race anyway on an environmental platform, promising to make the state safe for steeplechase.

After his governorship, Romney suffered through a midlife crisis, during which he became a social conservative. This prepared the way for his presidential run. He barely won the 2012 Republican primaries after a grueling nine-month campaign, running unopposed. At the convention, where his Secret Service nickname is Mannequin, Romney will talk about his real-life record: successful business leader, superb family man, effective governor, devoted community leader and prudent decision-maker. If elected, he promises to bring all Americans together and make them feel inferior.

Let us join one another to do good in the world. To have our brothers back. To assure that our sisters are cared for and revered. To be stewards of the earth. To tend to earth's animals. To make earth, and the lives of earth's creatures BETTER.

I've recently devoted what might seem to many to be an inordinate amount of time blogging about Joe Walsh's idiot comments and tirades against Muslims and their Islamic faith.

Joe's is the politics of fear - fear-mongering, prejudice, and ignorance.  Which, in his former district (IL-08) was plenty good enough for him to get elected, unseating an unpopular three-term incumbent who pissed off the teamsters, ran and hid from her constituents, and ran a tepid campaign, based, basically, upon having not very much to show for her terms in office.

But Joe's comments, and his steadfast refusal to back away from them, have opened up LARGE segments of the voting population to consider politicians, and a political party, who at least speak kinder, gentler, non-offesive words.

Joe picked on Muslims because of the fear that still radiates from the 9-11 attacks, planned by Osama Biin Laden, over a lenghly perioed of years; planned in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Germany.  Planned by a very small group of radicalized (not in a good sense) fundamentalists (again, not in a good sense) who happened to have been born into the Islamic faith. 

Biin Laden WARNED the American people of his intentions to retaliate for the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia, for the U.S. support of the cowardly nation of Israel, and for the U.S. war crimes wreaked upon the Iraqi children and innocent civilians, with no-fly zones, with embargoes.  The 9-11 attacks were a direct consequence of U.S. government policy and U.S. military actions.  Nothing happens in a vacuum.  There are consequences.  It was a horrifying awakening for the American people, most of whom didn't quite get the message:  There WILL be consequences to your inhuman, criminal actions; for your exploitations of Islamic peoples (and the Christians and Jews among them, living in overwhelmingly majority Muslilm nations).

But Joe Walsh also made other remarks, which are clearly racist, and indicate his mindset (his core beliefs, which are not based in any facts or realities; but, rather in the "conventional wisdom" which in reality is conventional ignoranced, of the community into which he was born - well-off, white, Christian, patriarchal, corporate welfare cheerleaders.  He told Hispanics of how the U.S. government is attempting to make them dependent upon it (the government), just like the government did to the African-American community.

This, of course, is palpable, and utter nonsense, BUT, it feeds into some cherished, strongly held beliefs of white folks who really are very much afraid of non-white folks (starting with the indigenous peoples, whom George Washington HATED - afrter all, they were red, after all, they fought to keep the lands they had hunted, fished, trapped, and lived on - lands that WHITE FOLKS could better expolit), BLACK people (them uppity slaves, who were too dumb to learn to read or write, which is entirely why laws were passed making it ILLEGAL to teach them how to read or write; OF COURSE we needed to have laws prohibiting people who were too dumb to learn to read or write in the first place, lest they learn to read and write, and then have the means to create their own written histories, to share across great distances, and down through the ages.  YELLOW people, brought in to work the railroads, demonized, abused, murdered, marginalized, white people were terrified that yellow men would seduce white women (who really have learned over the years, that their white lovers are quite a bit more interested in getting their rocks off and QUCKLY than in making love slowly and languidly, actually CARING about a woman bold enough to make love with one of them).  BROWN people, from whom we stole TEX-ASS, CALIFRONICATION, and several states in between, primarily because Mexico (of which Texas was a part) was going to outlaw slavery, the Mexicans ALWA"YS having been far more humane than the 'Muricans, who, for the most part have been cruel, murdering, maurading, exploiters, who believe that because of their technological advancements in the field of murder, death, and destruction, they are favored by and of the god unto whom they worship (the almighty BIG BUCKS $$$$$$), that white makes right, just as might makes right.

So, what an opportunity the Democratic party has.  Think of it, just last year, for the first time, the number of caucasian children born in the U.S. was LESS than the number of non-caucasians.  Of such trends will (we - yes, sadly, I'm one of them, say it loud, I'm white and profoundly unimpressed with my whiteness - it's just an accident of birth, indicative of those ancestors of mine with the mutation that led them to seek ever cooler climates to save their pale faces from burning in the African deserts, forcintg them always to migrate North, where food was much less abundant, where many more resources were required to make shelter, and because of the relative scarceness of resources, did those migrators learn to band together and to pillage and plunder (they might also have learned how to band together, do outreach, and try to solve the mutual problems of food and shelter, fresh air, and fresh water being in much greater relative abundance, back in the day, and all that, but, something about pillaging and plundering has always agreed with "my people" - we call it THE WARRIOR ETHOS.  Hell, just speak the truth, rape, murder, pillaging, and plundering, drinking, and being crude and rude is what GUYS DO!!  Check out most fraternities (not the music fraternities).

Soon enough, the United States of America will be a white-minority majority nation - more whites than any other race, but more non-whites than whites.  WHAT IF ... the folks of the other races were to get together and say, HEY, why don't we form our own political party?  Then, we can take the power, we can redistribute the loot!  Sounds like a plan, one that I will recommend to all my friends of color.

But, to the democratic party (hell, the Republican party too, if they are smart enough to pull it off, although, considering the only reason they get the votes they get is by appealing to people's baser and prejudicial natures) this IS the moment, to actually form a RAINBOW COALITION (yep, it done been tried before, now be the time to try again), and, good heavens, DO NOT FORGET single, working women, especially the ones with children and their issues.

Surely there must be enough common ground between peoples of the great faith traditions - Islam for Arabs, middle-Eastern people, Hindus from India, Roman Catholics from Mexico, Central, and South America, Black protestants, typically Baptist and Methodist, Koreans and Chinese (Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals), gay people (especially United Church of Christ and Unitarian Universalists), even Lutherans (ELCA is relatively "lilberal') to form coalitions around the country, to meet REGULARLY with politicians (away from the churches, the church and state seperation thing is still important to keep - DESPITE what the fundamentalists are preaching from the pulpit to rev up their base) - surely their must be enough common ground to elect to office women and men of integrity and charactger who will SERVE THEIR VOTING CONSTITUENTS rather than the international and national corporations who pay a very small tribute in order to gain access to, and to WRITE LEGISLATION FOR these officials which, we the people, are foced to elect.

What I am really suggesting here is an entirely new political alighnment, among and between peoples of faith, who are compelled by their ethical and religious teachings to

(a) feed the hungry

(b) shelter the homeless

(c) clothe those in thread bare clothing

(d) visit the prisoner

(e) visit the sick

(f) take care of the widows and orphans

YES, ALL of those "liberal things."

Because, at the heart, doing those things is what the great religions are about.

We forget this, by selectively picking random passages from their holy texts and using them to condemn "the infidels," to prove our point as to their inherent inhumanty.

This is wrong.

There is but one God

Creator of the heavens and the earth

Creator of All the Worlds

Creator of us, in his image, perfectly formed; we are beloved by and of God.

And we are were intended to be GOOD!

Let us join one another to do good in the world.

To have our brothers back.

To assure that our sisters are cared for and revered.

To be stewards of the earth.

To tend to earth's animals.

To make earth, and the lives of earth's creatures BETTER.

Grant this, Dear Lord, if it be Thy will.

AMEN.

Being Joe Walsh means NEVER having to say "I'm sorry." (Who's sorry now? Too soon to tell - come November, we'll know better.)

Local Muslims spar with Walsh in Lombard

By Eric Peterson

A meeting between Republican Congressman Joe Walsh and members of the local Muslim community in Lombard Friday evening — intended as a forum for mutual understanding — remained an emotional debate throughout (Given the Nature of Joe Walsh, this was entirely predictable).

The gathering of more than 50 members of the Muslim-American community in the backyard of local Republican official and former York Township Trustee Moon Khan was organized at Walsh’s request (Interesting - Joe invites himself over to a Muslims house in order that he might further insult Muslims - that boy gots CHUTZPAH!) after many expressed outrage over recent remarks he’d made about America being threatened by a radical strain of Islam.

Those who attended the meeting hoped for a retraction from Walsh and a promise to refrain from his using such language in the future (I hope and pray for peace on earth and good will towards all; at this moment in time, however, it appears that my hopes and prayers are going unanswered). They were obviously unsatisfied by Walsh’s repeated efforts to clarify his former words (I don't think his words needed any clarification; he was QUITE clear - (1) there is an existential threat, right here in the suburban Chicago area, in Elk Grove Village, in Elgin, in Addison  (2) the threat takes the form of a stream,  (3) a stream not of water but a stream of Radical Islam - which is interesting; Islam is a religion, consisting of it's holy writings, ethical practices, etc, etc - perhaps Joe should have spoken of radical Muslims - that would put the issue on a rather small cohort rather than smearing and slandering an entire religion and by extension, ALL of its practitioners; Islam means "to surrender (one's will to the will of God")  without regretting them.

“There is a threat (Joe makes this statement with SUCH certitude). We cannot let political correctness (as used in this context, I assume Joe i using the expression "political correctness to mean 'we must not speak this great truth, lest we hurt the feelins of some too small to matter group of people who might get pissed and hire the ACLU or something and get their commie legistlators to approve some legislation what makes it legal to put white people in jail for speaking the god's honest truth which has to be spoke, otherwise the terra-ists win!"  get in the way of that threat,” Walsh said to one speaker. “If you don’t believe the threat exists, I respect your opinion (JOE, you idiot - when a person disagreess with you, it's because he BELIEVES what he believes, and finds your position disagreeable - but, Joe is very good with weasel words here .. so, it is not the gentleman's OPINION that Joe respects, it ought to be the gentleman's BELIEFS that you respect), but you and I will never agree (cuz Joe ain't changin his mind any too soon!.”

The point Walsh, a McHenry Tea Partyer, kept repeating was that while the vast majority (care to quntify that a little more Joe?of Muslim-Americans are (good, patriotic, God-fearing people, their religion is being usurped by a small group of radicals (of course, such a thing could NEVER happen in America, where the Xtian Fundies siezed control of the Southern Baptist leadership, and radicalized that Church, and in so doing, also took over the Texas Republican Party - they did it using the 7 1/2% solution) trying to recruit individuals to their cause throughout the country.

But the words he seemed to feel were making his point understandable to the attendees (At the risk of being rude, I will suggest that Joe intended his remarks to feed his x-tian, war-mongering, fear-mongering base red-meat devouring raw base - the kind that likes to brutalize people who aren't white, and aren't Christian) were obviously stinging them.

Oak Brook Trustee Asif Yusuf said Walsh’s words could create a reality in which all Muslim-Americans remain under some suspicion (But, my brother Asif, the reality IS that all Muslim-Americans remain and will always, at least to some remain undersome suspicion).

Feroz Ahmed, a financial adviser from Glendale Heights, said an extremist by definition cannot be considered a true Muslim any more than a true Christian (No, we Christians LUVS US our extremist Christians, say, the likes of General Boynkin, who, in full general's regalia explained to the assembled throngs, our God's stronger than their God!).

And Aamir Safdar, a psychiatrist from Lombard, said that as an elected congressman, Walsh has a higher responsibility to avoid language that could make him sound extremist himself (BUT JOE IS an extremist himself - ignorant, poor abused white kid who is forever getting shot down by pariahs who want to render his voice mute)).

“As a representative of the people, you have to be very mindful of what’s coming out of your mouth,” Safdar said.

But Walsh said his belief in a radical strain of Islam is based on the same belief of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (so, they too have their beliefs ... now, are these beliefs grounded in anything factual? another entirely different question).

“You don’t know more than Janet Napolitano, do you (Janet Napolitano - fount of every blessing)?” Walsh asked one speaker.

But Khan, the host of the event, quoted Napolitano as saying that there are no radical Islamic cells in Elgin, Elk Grove Village and Addison — contrary to Walsh’s claims earlier this month (nonetheless, it is still possible that Napolitan and Walsh sit on the same congress critters councils and get fed the same information).

Khan said he hosted the event because he felt Walsh’s words created as wrongful a portrait of Republicans as of Muslims (too bad he decided to invite Joe - yes, indeed Walsh's words DO CREATE a wrongful portrait of BOTH republicans and of Musilms)

Some Muslim officials and organizations avoided the event because they thought Khan might purport to grant forgiveness too easily to Walsh (They totally underestimated Joe's ability to reject forgiveness, or to even ask for it, certainly not in a matter where Joe does not know (and this is the shame of it all - he cannot even understand how insulting his remarks are - he writes it all of to "too much political correctness"( . But the event was hardly the warm bath for Walsh they suspected (Hopefully, it will be more like a blood bath - GO TAMMY!!!!) .

“I don’t think this event is about forgiving anyone,” said Shazia Sultan of Oak Brook just before it began. “It’s about opening up dialogue.”   (Point well taken - if the democrats are not sharp enough to leap on this right now, they deserve to never again be any more than an annoying irrelevancy, couteracting the party of NO, big money, big business, and self-serving hedonism)

Walsh said his belief in the goodness of the vast majority of Muslim-Americans was reinforced by the dialogue but that he couldn’t ignore that a threat from extremists exists (yes, like the extremeists who pass laws making it illegal to protest on public property at conventions, who cart away photographers and journalists from the 2010 Republican convention in Minneapolis-St Paul).

“Folks, I’m not going to back down from what I said because there’s nothing to apologize for in my heart (Oh, Joe, your heart is probably ok, (albeit, black) - it's your IQ and your mouth, and your brain that are under the most scrutinty you just gots to say what you gots to say - because you KNOW in your guts, you speak the truth - yes, indeed, the truth well-known by all the white, racist, lazy, ignorant slobs that you normally hang with) ,” he said.

Syed Ahmed, an oncologist who treats patients in Walsh’s 8th Congressional District, was among several who said they were leaving feeling disappointed.

“All he had to do is say, ‘I’m sorry,’” Ahmed said (Joe, being Joe, is probably too ignoarnt to do so, and Joe, being who what he is, is not gonna back track and say "I'm sorry" when a simple "I'm sorry" would have done).

Joe Walsh - Dumber than Dirt, and Damn Proud of it - play to your base, Joey Boy, feed 'em red MEAT! (A man's a man for all that)

DuPage Muslims invite Walsh for ‘enlightenment’

By Robert Sanchez

A Lombard Republican who became the first Muslim elected to a partisan office in DuPage County is hoping to “enlighten” Congressman Joe Walsh after his “radical Islam” comments (Muslims are very optimistic people - Joe, of course, and MOST politicians would be stunned to learn that there are Muslims in America who are VERY much involved with local politics - this, truly, has always been the immigrants way to power - cf - the Irish in NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc, etc, etc).

Moon Khan said that he and other area Muslims plan to meet Friday night with Walsh “to showcase the diversity of the Muslims that the congressman is certainly unfamiliar with (Joe always knows what he nose, so, please, don't confuse him wid duh fax) .”

Walsh, who says he plans to attend the meeting at Khan’s home (let's give Joe full credit here, he planned to attend and he attended), wants to hear from anyone who has questions or concerns about the remarks he made earlier this month (he's makin' a list, checkin' it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice).

“I want to explain what my thoughts are,” the McHenry Republican said. “We may get to the point where we agree to disagree (having met Joe, face to face, AND been kicked out of one of his local meetings - allegedly for being intoxicated, and THIS was a time when I really LIKED the guy, a whole hell of a lot better than Melissa (kissa duh assah duh corporations - whom she once advised, and whom were ass-toot enough to retain her husband when the Canadian Rail road was lobbying to run its trains through our fair (yet unbalanced), quaint (and yet blighted), little (albeit the zip code has a population in excess of 45,000) town (but, it's a village). But at least talking about it is helpful (Joe is doing this, I suggest, solely for the pub - the publicity with his most rabid, hard core right-wingnut jobs - the ones who characterized one of the finest civil servants our community ever had, the sadly too-soon departed Mark Beaubien, as a RINO - Republican In Name Only).”

The controversy started when Walsh, during a town-hall meeting in Elk Grove Village warned, “There is a radical stream of Islam in this country, not just over there, that are trying to kill Americans. It is a real threat. It’s in Elk Grove, it’s in Addison, it’s in Elgin. (Shiver me timbers, not since the days of Saint Joe (Tail-gunner) McCarthy have we heard such accusations!)”

On Thursday, Walsh said he has no intention of backtracking from those remarks (feeding the base red meat - REAL men, REAL republicans, NEVER back track from a "politically incorrect" point of view, bowing to mamby pamby liberal bleatings - REALL men say what they mean, mean what they say, and make sure they pay off their wife the back aliminoy and chlid support BEFORE the opposition party can get her to do TESTIMONIALS).

“There is a real threat in this country, and it does come from a radical strain of Islam,” said Walsh, who is a member of the Committee on Homeland Security. “Having said that, the vast, vast majority of Muslim Americans in this country are peace-loving, patriotic Americans (there must always exist, however, the likelihood that some of there relatives back in the middle east will be murdered by drone aircraft guided by 19-year old "warriors" in Nevada - perhpaps during a wedding celebration, or perhaps from collateral damage, or that a cousin will get raped by a U.S. troop, who will then decide he must murder her, murder her familiy, burn down the house, hopefully to burn up the bodies so they won't be able to report his war crime - this, of course, happens ... HELL, U.S. FEMALE troops are warned that they dare not go shower or to the toilet alone because this increases the likelihood of their being raped ... sometimes by a commanding officer ... war doth make animals of it participants, it has always been this; it will always be so). So both of those things need to be said Joe gonna try to have his cake and eat it too - eat excresence and die, mudder fudder Joe - you fear-mongering, smear-mongering, WORTHLESS piece of detritus).”

Khan, who describes himself as “a hard-core Republican (Practitioners of Islam tend to be VERY conservative, and come from patriarchal societies - it was always stunning to me, in the mosque, during a shared meal, to talk politics and find out how many hard core George W Bush fans there were among them - especially the muslims from India),” said Muslims in Illinois are upset about the “very intense remarks” made by Walsh, who is in a tight race for control of the 8th Congressional District against Democrat Tammy Duckworth (OH - calling Tammy Duckworth - here's a novel suggestion for you - why don't you GO TO MOSQUES throughout your district and visit during Sunday School hours (typically 11 am - 12:30 pm on SUNDAYS) and take the opportunity to MEET Muslims in their houses of worship, TALK with Muslims, LISTEN to their concerns, READ the posters on their wall, LEARN how PROUD they are to be American Citizens, and how proud they are that their faith is in consonance with the principles of DEMOCRACY (tragically, DEMOCRACY in the USA is not entirely a reality, especially not for poor people, especially not for the unemployed, for women, for people of color, etc etc etc, for political prisoners (yes, we have 'em)).

“It looks like he is not familiar with the Muslim community at all — definitely not the Muslim community of his district,” Khan said (LOOKS LIKE, I'd say it SOUNDS LIKE - Joe is not really familiar with too much at all, except how to ingratiate himself to you, initially, but then, successful used car salesmen and date rapists and child molesters have these skill sets too, although, PULL EASE - I am not accusing Joe of being any of these).

Walsh said he called Khan after learning the former York Township trustee was concerned. The congressman is the one who suggested that Friday’s meeting take place (I'm going to suggest that Joe already KNEW what he was going to say, already KNEW it would be controversial, and already had calculated that he needs to stir up his base, light that fire under the seat of their pants to get them to come out and vote - where, he is likely to miss the mark, I think, is that at least some of those who voted for him in 2010 (count me among their number) have looked closely at the Party of NO, and understand that they are not helping their fellow citizens who may not be able to afford to BE republicans in the first place!). He also plans to meet with other Muslim leaders in other suburbs.

By meeting with Walsh, area Muslims are trying “to gather stones that have been thrown at them by the congressman and turn them into milestones of tolerance,” (this is rather a lovely metaphor - Arabic is a language of great beauty and poetry, nowehre is this better exemplified than in the Koran:  you must take my word for this: Muslims are a very poetic people, of great gentleness, kindness, and forgiveness) Khan said.

Khan said he also wants to let residents know that local Republicans are “open minded, committed to diversity and do not harbor any animosity toward the Muslim Americans (In this hope, brother Khan may grow to be very disillusioned).”

Looking to expand beyond their traditional base of conservative whites, DuPage Republicans in 2005 recruited Khan to run for township trustee. He served in that elected position for about seven years. He also has been a Republican precinct committeeman for a decade (Joe didn't know this - I better not one Republican in 10 would have even suspected that a muslim had been elected AS A REPUBLICAN AND served his community for seven years AND was a precinct captain -- Republicans tend not to get out too much ... well, now, maybe they know ... they will still be VERY frightened of the Muslims that come into contact with, most likely, because, many Muslims in America have dark skin, and brown eyes, and sometimes speak with a British accent ... and, face it, many white people are basically TERRIFIED of brown, black, yellow, and red people -- SOMETIMES even terrified of OTH"ER white people, especially when they hold the opinions and attitudes that I hold!!!).

“I know firsthand that the local Republican Party leaders do not agree with him (Walsh) on this point,” Khan said. “I worked with all these people. They never showed any disrespect for the Muslim community of Illinois (because they are, thank the Lord, in general, MUCH smarter, and more sophisticated than Joe - but, JOE grew up in Barrington, Illinois, and, pretty much, "we knows what we knows, don't cornfuse us wid duh fax (as my original father figure mentor, Gene Mendoza, the Choctaw Indian caddie master and cart maintainer at Barrington Hills Country Club always used to say - to put down powerful white men).”

But Walsh, a Tea Partyer, stressed that he doesn’t believe his comments were controversial, adding that he’s made similar remarks “a number of times” since being elected (WELL JOE - they probably have not always been reported - now you know, and boy, you are in some kind of shit storm of an order and magnitude you can not even BEGIN to comprehend).

“There’s no effort to malign a religion or malign a people,” he said. “But this is a threat, and it’s real. And it needs to be dealt with (this threat, from Muslims in America Plotting to do us wrong, is all in Joe's feeble head - the threat is the ignorance of politicians, such as Joe Walsh, and other ignorant folks like him, who "know what dey know, and will not stand to be moved by the facts").”

At the time of Walsh’s initial remarks on radical Islam, a Duckworth spokesman said they “demonstrate yet again why he is not fit to hold public office (oh, hell, Tammy, he's PERFECTLY FIT to hold office, he managed to figure out a way to unseat a three-term US House member with a $1,000,000 treasure chest - he went out, shook hands, weasled his way into the hearts and minds of voters fully fed up with Melissa Bean - TAMMY - you damn near beat Peter Ros-Scam, which, I THINK COULD BE DONE by a sentient life form - BUT, sadly, the democratic party does not have many of these running, and the ones that DO run, well, they don't get the support of the party of corporate whores who are willing to toss SOME scaps off the table to feed the hungry, as opposed to the Republicans, who would rather let the hungry fight it out amongst them selves, possible even selling body parts for cash).” On Thursday, Walsh attributed the backlash to politics (Bull shit Joe - the backlash is entirely attributable to YOUR REMARKS which were published in a local paper that is delivered to and READ by Muslims - Joe, thank the Lord, you are your own worst enemy, and man, you are one formidable enemy!).

“That’s just an effort to keep me silent,” Walsh said. “What’s irresponsible is for any member of the government to ignore a threat to the security of the American people.
(Actually, Joe, what's irresponsible is for you to make these remarks in front of witnesses that might take the time to put them into the news papers - AFTER ALL, it really IS news when a sitting member of Congress, who is on the homeland security council tells us that even as we sleep, terrified of losing our jobs, our insurance, or coming down with a grave illness, or the financial state of our parents, who ought to be in a nursing home, it IS news when said congress-critter alleges that there is an extant threat RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO US!)”

Copyright © 2012 Paddock

Joe Walsh - dummy or loose-lipped fool?

By JASON KEYSER - The Associated Press

Muslims denounce Rep. Walsh’s remarks

CHICAGO – Muslims in Chicago denounced Republican Congressman Joe Walsh’s comments to a town hall meeting that there are radical Muslims in this country who are “trying to kill Americans every week,” saying Friday that such remarks inspire hate crimes against minorities.

Walsh, a conservative tea party-backed politician from suburban Chicago, has acquired a reputation for contentious rhetoric during his first term and especially during his tough battle for re-election in November.

“One thing I’m sure of is that there are people here in this country – there is a radical strain of Islam in this country; it’s not just over there – trying to kill Americans every week,” Walsh told a meeting Wednesday in the suburb of Elk Grove. “It is a real threat. And it is a threat that is much more at home now than it was right after 9/11.”

He was responding to an audience member who said that he wanted to see members of Congress abandon political correctness and stand against what he called the “danger of Islam in America.”

Walsh thanked him for his comment and, raising his voice, shouted: “Enough with political correctness,” as the audience cheered.

The congressman said political correctness on the part of government allowed the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage to happen.

“Your government was so afraid of doing its job, so afraid of offending Islam that right in front of our noses we saw what was happening in Fort Hood,” he said. “And because your government was politically correct, Americans died.”

Walsh, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, (if Joe's so-called "knowledge" of these groups planning on American lands another attack on Americans comes from his position on the Homeland Security Committe, and Joe was quite specific about what towns they were in, then he has compromised the investigative and infiltration work done by Homeland Security, and probably firhgtened away the destruction planning terrorists -- in which case, he is MANIIFESTLY UNFIT to hold the office he holds and be privy to the secrets he is privy too)said he frequently talks with high school classes and warns students that “it’s not a matter of if another 9/11 happens ... it’s a matter of when.”(Virtually the entire Homeland Security aparatus believes this, that there WILL be another attack (other attacks) on American soil ... now, as to where they are being plotted, MOST people would suggest in places like, well, where 9-1-1 was plotted - in Germany, in Saudi Arabia, in PAkistan, in "Yemen)  Interestingly, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman ran a story recently about how the New York Police Department had been spying on Muslims for years, in their mosques, and work places, and in all that time had not found ONE actionable tip or clue to subversive planning - leading one to conclude either that the NYPD does not know how to do it's job, OR - more the likely, that there is none of this planning going on in the Mosques, places of work, etc, etc - which would be very consistent with my experiences, which include a conversation in the mosque, initiated by one of my muslim sisters, who flat-out stated, "The only reason we came to America was to make money" - ah, the great American dream - this sister was RIGHTFULLY concerned about the impact American Consumerist / War-mongering culture would have on Muslim children / grand children / school children, etc, and SO AM I.

The Chicago chapter of the Council on America-Islamic Relations said Walsh’s remarks point to an effort by some Republicans to make Americans fearful of fellow Americans.

The group’s director, Ahmed Rehab, said that such remarks encourage hate crimes and acts of vandalism.

“When elected officials, trusted by many, indicate that the enemy could be any Muslim living in your neighborhood, it gives rise to xenophobic vigilantism where fearful citizens target other Americans for simply looking different,” Rehab said.

It’s not the first time Walsh has stirred emotions with his public remarks since winning an upset victory (this was SO NOT an upset victory - it's just that I'm the onlly political analyst in the world who called the election for Joe in October, 2010, the day I met him - I get out of the house, and I talk with people, and on that day, when I met him, I met a man who could find common ground with ANYBODY - he has a real skill for that, it is very holpful to him as a politician - however, the way we judge (or the way we OUGHT to judge) our politicians is to LOOK AT THE RECORD, LOOK AT THE RECORD, LOOK AT THE RECORD - you will find that almost no "serious" mainstream media political analsysts EVER looks at the record, much less ever gets out to "the poorer quarters where the wretched people go" where there is an anger, a resentment, that is palpable - life long Republicans vowing up and down to never again vote for another Republican as long as this current crop of rancid, poisoness party of no-sayers is voted out of office - what these Lifer Republicans apparnetly have not get grasped, is that IN AMERICA, today, we have but one political party, although part of it dresses in "skins" and the other part dresses in "shirts" - both parties exist but to serve the international corporations which freely bribe these elected officials with "campaign contributions"  both parties (with damn few exceptions) bow down and pledge their fealty to international corporations (and thus, the war machine) - voters were SO distressed at Melissa Bean, that they shed her like a moth-eaten winter jacket worn in July - she was just another coporate whore - so is Joe) in his suburban Chicago district in 2010 as part of a Republican surge in Illinois.

In May, he told a crowd at a town hall meeting that the Democratic Party’s “game” is to make Latinos dependent on government just like “they got African-Americans dependent upon government.”

(Does anybody remember that the only way FDR could get the support in Congress he needed to pass Social Security legislation was to DENY SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO DOMESTICS (these would be blacks) and black share croppers - so, not exactly sure how THIS got African-Americans dependent upon government ... Christ on a Cross, the only things African Americans are dependent upon the government for is incarceration - fully one in three blacks between the agest oa 18 and 29 are incarceratred.

He also made headlines when he accused his election opponent, Tammy Duckworth, of talking too much about injuries the Democrat suffered as a pilot in the Iraq War. Duckworth lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down.

JOE WALSH - dumb as dirst

Blows smoke in your face

Fear mongering racist

Vote for him, if this is what makes your clock tick!

Copyright © 2012 Northwest Herald. All rights reserved.