damn you obama

Above: 'Damn You Obama, You Pretty Motherfucker' - a brilliant poetic tribute to Barack Obama by Darian Dauchan performed at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York. Meanwhile at a very different venue, the US House of Congress, Barack Obama himself just finished giving a real rap to the American people and they loved it. During the president's speech, which was probably his best so far, MSNBC had an "audience reaction" meter for both McCain voters and Obama voters, represented by red and blue lines. Both lines were almost permanently pinned to the top approval mark, so the red and blue were almost purple! On CNN 82 per cent of viewers supported the speech. Bipartisanship was not so evident in the Congress chamber; shamefully the entire Republican side of the aisle sat on their hands while the Democrats cheered health insurance for children as Obama said "kids have [medical] insurance now". Seems the Republican children haters don't like that. Another memorable line was "For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price".

Opps ... Obama just seriously pissed off the military industrial complex. His list of dangerous and powerful enemies grows by the day.

• california considers $50 an oz tax on marijuana.

hopi elders speak

Hopi Elders Speak
by The Elders, Hopi Nation, Oraibi, Arizona

We have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour
Now we must go back and tell the people this is The Hour

And there are things to be considered:

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.

It is time to speak your truth.

Create your community.
Be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination.

The Elders say we must let go of the shore, and push off and into the river, keep our eyes open, and our head above the water.

See who is in there with you and Celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves.

For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over.

Gather yourselves!

Banish the word "struggle" from your attitude and your vocabulary.

All that you do now must be done in a sacred manner
And in celebration.
"We are the ones we have been waiting for...."

• This appeared on the net several years ago but still seems current.

how the (financial) world nearly ended at 2:00 p.m., sep18, 2008

Rep Paul Kanjorski;

"On Thursday 18th Sep [08] at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the United States to the tune of 550 billion dollars, which had been drawn out in a matter of an hour or two. The treasury opened up it's window to help, they pumped 105 billion dollars into the system, and quickly realised that they could not stem the tide, we were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close down the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of 250,000 dollars per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there, and that's what actually happened. If they had not done that, their estimation was that by 2pm that afternoon, five and a half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. We talked at that time about what would have happened if that happened. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.... This is a very difficult time; somebody threw us in the middle of the Atlantic ocean without a life raft, and we are trying to determine which is the closest shore, and whether there is any chance in the world to swim that far. We don't know."

One thing Kanjorski does not explain is; who was that "somebody" who "threw us in the middle of the Atlantic ocean without a life raft"?

• Kanjorski also describes how Britain got the hapless US Treasury Sec Paulson to change his bound to fail bank bailout tactics - so perhaps Gordon Brown did save the world after all.

• schmoo's credibility crunch package to restart britain

bankers in the red

thousands of credit crunch suicides feared

No doubt share values somewhere may be effected, up or down is not known, by the good news that Sir Peter Lampl, the missing tycoon, has been found alive, sitting on a bench at Victoria Station.

Sir Peter had been missing for two days after vanishing from his home in Wimbledon, London on Sunday. Earlier today [see photo], it seemed increasingly likely he was about to join the growing list [below] of desperate suicide banker credit crunch casualties; another needless sacrifice to the money gods.

In fact bankers are far less likely to kill themselves in a serious financial crisis than normal mortals. True to form, bankers are more likely to fake suicide.

However, if the experience of the Great Crash of 1929 is anything to go by, thousands of ordinary people could decide to kill themselves in the next year, and succeed. 23,000 Americans committed suicide in the year following the 1929 Crash, the highest number in a 12 month period on record. Hardly any were bankers; just ordinary working people who could not take it any more - farmers who lost their farms, individuals who lost their jobs or savings, and business people who lost their dreams.

Hollywood happily generated the myth of Wall Street bankers killing themselves after the crash, dramatically jumping off the top of New York skyscrapers, and landing on big bouncy cushions in a film studio. Less than 20 Wall Street bankers or speculators actually committed suicide.

If you believe the media today it seems like there is an open season on bankers, and they are finally getting the battering they deserve; but in the real world it is much more likely to be bank customer's blood that will be flowing.

money kills - credit crunch suicide bankers casualty list

23th May 08 - Barry Fox, a veteran Bear Stearns manager, took a drug overdose and then jumped from his 29th-floor apartment after he learned he wouldn't be hired by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., who were about to buy his firm.

29 Sep 08 - 47-year-old Kirk Stephenson, chief operating officer with the investment company Olivant Advisers, threw himself in front of a 100mph express train at a railway station in Berkshire.

5th Dec 08 - Alex Widmer, 52, Chief Executive Officer of the Swiss Bank Julius Baer, dies unexpectedly as his company's share value drops 60 per cent. His family are reported to say he committed suicide, Julius Baer employees were told he died of an unspecified illness, while the Swiss police refuse to confirm anything. Julius Baer's hedge fund operations had 360 billion Swiss francs invested on behalf of some of the most powerful people, businesses and institutions in the world, including the shadowy Carlyle Group which has close links to President Bush, both junior and senior. Basically the Carlyle Group is a privatised mass murder, rape and pillage multinational conglomerate that specialises in huge government military projects worth billions, and arms trading worldwide. In February 09, Julius Baer unsuccessfully tried to sue Wikileaks over whistleblower revelations concerning Baer's internal tax avoidance plan in the Cayman Islands for companies such as the Carlyle Group, beloved by conspiracy freaks, US presidents, and other top politicians.

22 Dec 08 - Christen Schnor was the head of insurance for HSBC Europe's biggest bank, responsible for Britain and the Middle East. A hotel worker found Schnor naked and hanging by a belt in a closet at the exclusive Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel in Knightsbridge.

23 Dec 08 - Mr de la Villehuchet, co-founder of an investment management firm that lost $US1.4 billion ($2 billion) of other peoples money and his own personal fortune to Madoff's Fraud, was found dead in his Manhattan office, his arms and wrists slashed with a box cutter, and a rubbish bin positioned so as to catch the blood and not spoil the carpet.

5th Jan 09 -The body of Adolf Merckle, one of Germany's wealthiest men, was discovered near train tracks outside the southern German city of Ulm in what local police described as a "railway accident." There are no signs that anyone else was to blame, they added in a statement. His family later said Merckle committed suicide after his business empire began unraveling amid mounting debt.

5th Jan 09 - Chicago real estate mogul Steven L. Good was found dead in his Jaguar, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mr. Good wrote a book called "Churches, Jails and Gold Mines ... Mega-Deals from a Real Estate Maverick."

19th Jan 09 - Patrick Rocca, a leading Irish property investor and 'poster boy' for the 'Tiger' Irish economy, who lost millions when the real estate market bottomed out, waited until his wife took their children to school before he shot himself in the head.

• Don't Panic has an interesting list of 'suicide' bankers.

red alert: terrible tuesday could be today

Gold and silver are spiking, and some dude in the US called Denninger is freaking as a massive forced liquidation seems to be taking place.

It appears to be originating in Asia, possibly connected with the Woori Bank who just failed to pay a $400 million debt and asked for a $1.4 billion bail out from South Korea, whose government has just denied that it has a major foreign exchange [FX] crisis about to hit, but there could still be a domino effect on Eastern Europe, who owe everything to bankrupt banks in Western Europe, who are also heavily exposed in the United States where Kansas has just run out of money.

So ... we seem to be in a not-so-slow motion train crash, now teetering on the verge of a cascading wealth destruction event, very much like a collapsing house of cards, or possibly a nuclear explosion, or maybe a tsunami, which could happen at any time, like for example now at 4.29am, while most of Britain is fast asleep, possibly in rapid eye movement, dreaming about their debts, and their primeval desires, blissfully unaware that tomorrow they could wake up to a reality nightmare ... the cash machines may not work any more. Could be time to learn how to grow vegetables and make jam if you don't know.

• Fannie Mae 'logic bomb' plot foiled.

hey! obama! what about binyam mohamed?

At the beginning of the month, a US military lawyer, Yvonne Bradley, visited Binyam Mohamed in his cell at Guantánamo Bay and reported that he was just "skin and bones" and is close to death. She said if action is not taken quickly, it is likely that he will leave Guantánamo Bay "insane" or "in a coffin". It is now February 15th and the latest news is Valentines Day is over .... and Binyam Mohamed is still not free.

Binyam has been on hunger strike since the beginning of the year with several dozen other detainees and is currently being force fed. His situation is desperate. As diplomatic manoeuvres continue to return him to the UK (the UK having sought his return in August 2007), Binyam is deteriorating. Time is running out! After almost seven years of arbitrary detention on three continents, torture and abuse for crimes no one has been able to prove or provide evidence for (he does not even currently face charges).

Hey! President Obama! Please release Binyam Mohamed NOW and return him to the UK, LIKE YESTERDAY. Apparently if you don't do something before Tuesday 17 February at 1-2.30pm a load of people will turn up outside your place in London which will really annoy the neighbours. So get on that Blackberry now ... you got the free minutes deal didn't you? Just do it ... Yes you can.

Emergency Demonstration: Bring Binyam Back! Tues 17th Feb, US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair W1A 1AE (nearest tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch).

seven year plan to tap massive hydrogen deposits on dark side of the moon

Bill Stone has an amazing but technically feasible plan to go to the moon without enough fuel to get back. He also has the proven know how and experience to actually do it and survive. According to Stone an obscure Pentagon backed survey of the dark side of the moon in 1994 called Operation Clementine showed very large amounts [ten trillion tons] of concentrated hydrogen in ice around an area called Shackleton Crater on the dark side of the moon at the South Pole. This was backed up by another NASA mission in 1999 although it failed to get 100 per cent definite proof. Stone however still believes he can manufacture enough hydrogen fuel to propel himself and his team back to earth. If successful he then intends to put a hydrogen production plant on the moon and open the first gas station in space. This would transform humanities ability to travel in space. At the moment more than 90 per cent of a rocket is fuel and this would no longer be needed as they could fill up again in space and even get extra points, before the long haul to Mars. He thinks he could do this in seven years from now. All he needs is fifteen billion dollars, which apparently is what a big oil platform can cost. Of course the interesting comments on Bill Stone's Ted page include some from a number of negative Eco Luddites who must of course be listened to, and then ignored for the survival of humanity.

'hippy food' meal at the safehouse

Above and below: 'hippy food' meal at the safehouse - lightly steamed sweet potato, broccoli, and whole carrots with fresh raw radish sprinkled with tahineh [crushed sesame seeds, high in calcium], hemp oil [for the perfect balance of omega 3 and 6], tamari sauce and fresh lime juice, on a bed of brown rice with thin strips of Japanese style tempe, which is basically rotten soybeans, but very delicious and nutritious, fried in olive oil with sun flower seed, adzuki bean and red radish sprouts, fresh thyme, sea salt, and ginger. A light dusting with freshly crushed marijuana bud seasoning is optional for extra jest.

please mrs smith free mr biggs now please

Great Train Robber Mr Biggs is under guard in a Norwich hospital tonight suffering from pneumonia. Mr Biggs will be 80 this year and his son Michael Biggs has issued a plea for his release on compassionate grounds which anyone with half a heart should support, especially the current Home Secretary Mrs Jacqui Smith. After all it seems Mrs Smith, if that is her true name, may be in need of some compassion herself, or otherwise a jail cell, after it emerged recently that she has been robbing the tax payer in a Great Expenses Fraud.

• "The Queen wants my daddy, but I need Him" - Micheal Biggs aged six, speaking on Brazilian TV after his 'Great Train Robber' dad, Ronnie Biggs was kidnapped by MI6 in Brazil. The British were 'not amused' that Ronnie had escaped from one of Her Majesties Prisons in Britain and had found sanctuary and happiness in Brazil. After Micheal's TV appearance, Brazil erupted, and the British government was subsequently forced to order his release from a MI6 hideout in the Caribbean. The Brazilian government sent a Lear jet to pick him up and return him to Brazil and a true hero's welcome.

• Mr Biggs - better times in Brazil, schmoo poetry exclusive.

prayer for peace off to all religion

obama backs medical marijuana

Repeating a promise made during the presidential campaign, the Obama administration yesterday vowed to stop the federal government from interfering in states with medical marijuana laws as soon as they can appoint a new head of the DEA.

"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro told reporters.

Obama promised a hands-off policy on medical marijuana during his campaign, but since he took office the DEA, led by Bush appointed Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, has nonetheless raided at least three medical marijuana dispensaries in California, each time seizing money and medicine, but making no arrests.

The administration's renewed commitment to respecting states with medical marijuana laws follows thousands of phone calls to the White House, plus a flood of comments on change.gov, all calling for the President to make good on his campaign promise. Americans for Safe Access, the nation's largest medical cannabis advocacy organization, greeted the statement with strong approval.

"Americans for Safe Access acknowledges President Obama's continued pledge to end federal interference with state medical marijuana laws," commented Caren Woodson, Director of Government Affairs. "We look forward to working with the President and his Administration to enact long-term policies that support safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research."

Meanwhile, Sarah Pullen, a DEA spokeswoman refused to offer any explanation for the raids. "I can't get into details as to the probable cause behind the warrants," she said. "Except for the fact that they're dealing with marijuana, which is illegal under federal law."

Perhaps the DEA dead enders were trying to throw down a challenge to the incoming President, lest he get any ideas about actually reforming our disastrous war on drugs. Or perhaps it was just an easy payday.

An employee of Beach Center Collective in Playa del Rey told the Los Angeles Times that DEA officers confiscated so much property that the dispensary would not be able to reopen.

"They took everything," said the 32-year-old employee, who asked not to be named. "You name it, they took it - right down to the television. The computer, patient files, medicine, cash in the register - that's it, we're done. It's just too bad. [Our patients] have epilepsy, cancer, MS, diabetes - two of our patients have one leg. They're gonna have to travel a lot farther and go to places that aren't as safe for them."

• COOL COP DRUG TZAR - Apparently Obama is planning to appoint Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the next US 'Drugs Tsar'. Kerlikowske has a good reputation for being sensible and rational about drug policy and believes that arresting people for personal possession is a waste of national resources. Reacting to the news of the likely appointment, Joanna McKee, co-founder and director of Green Cross Patient Co-Op, a medical-marijuana patient-advocacy group said "What a blessing — the karma gods are smiling on the whole country, man".

• reefer madness to hit britain

the end of civilization