Rev. Wright, Obama's pastor accused of "racism", BLASTS THE NEW YORK TIMES for "SENSATIONALISM"

The New York Times sought to SENSATIONALIZE and TRIVIALIZE Barak Obama's long record of faith...in favor of SENSATIONALIST 'sound-byte' reporting, and a relentless effort to turn the story of Obama's attending the Trinity United Church of Christ into some mud or tar that they could throw at the candidate.

ONCE AGAIN! (Wen Ho Lee false "spying" accusations; an entire half-decade of "Whitewater" half truths and breathless reporting of leaked Grand Jury testimony from a hyper-partisan prosecutor, Ken Starr; failure to adequately investigate the stolen election of 2000 or the massive security failures leading up to 9-11; and of course the RELENTLESS NEW YORK TIMES LIES leading up to the bombing and invasion of Iraq - Times 'reporter' ("PROPAGANDIST" is the more appropriate term) JUDITH MILLER at the heart of Vice President Dick Cheney's dog-and-pony show to legitimize false intelligence to drum up support for the invasion of Iraq - AT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, the PAST DECADE of the NEW YORK TIMES is marked by LIES and NEO-CON, PRO-WAR, "tax-cuts-for-millionaires in time of war" right-wing PROPAGANDA.

<< As I was just starting to say a moment ago, Jodi, out of two hours of conversation I spent approximately five to seven minutes on Barack's taking advice from one of his trusted campaign people and deeming it unwise to make me the media spotlight on the day of his announcing his candidacy for the Presidency and what do you print? You and your editor proceeded to present to the general public a snippet, a printed "sound byte" and a titillating and tantalizing article about his disinviting me to the Invocation on the day of his announcing his candidacy.

I have never been exposed to that kind of duplicitous behavior before, and I want to write you publicly to let you know that I do not approve of it and will not be party to any further smearing of the name, the reputation, the integrity or the character of perhaps this nation's first (and maybe even only) honest candidate offering himself for public service as the person to occupy the Oval Office.

Your editor is a sensationalist. For you to even mention that makes me doubt your credibility, and I am looking forward to see how you are going to butcher what else I had to say concerning Senator Obama's "Spiritual Biography." Our Conference Minister, the Reverend Jane Fisler Hoffman, a white woman who belongs to a Black church that Hannity of "Hannity and Colmes" is trying to trash, set the record straight for you in terms of who I am and in terms of who we are as the church to which Barack has belonged for over twenty years. >>

====================================


Flashback: Wright's Letter To NYT About Obama
March 27, 2008 10
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/27/flashback-wrights-lette_n_93820.html

In March 2007, New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor published a brief story about how Rev. Jeremiah Wright had been uninvited from delivering the invocation before Barack Obama's official presidential announcement.

Wright responded by writing the following letter:

March 11, 2007

Jodi Kantor
The New York Times
9 West 43rd Street
New York,
New York 10036-3959

Dear Jodi:

Thank you for engaging in one of the biggest misrepresentations of the truth I have ever seen in sixty-five years. You sat and shared with me for two hours. You told me you were doing a "Spiritual Biography" of Senator Barack Obama. For two hours, I shared with you how I thought he was the most principled individual in public service that I have ever met.

For two hours, I talked with you about how idealistic he was. For two hours I shared with you what a genuine human being he was. I told you how incredible he was as a man who was an African American in public service, and as a man who refused to announce his candidacy for President until Carol Moseley Braun indicated one way or the other whether or not she was going to run.

I told you what a dreamer he was. I told you how idealistic he was. We talked about how refreshing it would be for someone who knew about Islam to be in the Oval Office. Your own question to me was, Didn't I think it would be incredible to have somebody in the Oval Office who not only knew about Muslims, but had living and breathing Muslims in his own family? I told you how important it would be to have a man who not only knew the difference between Shiites and Sunnis prior to 9/11/01 in the Oval Office, but also how important it would be to have a man who knew what Sufism was; a man who understood that there were different branches of Judaism; a man who knew the difference between Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews and Reformed Jews; and a man who was a devout Christian, but who did not prejudge others because they believed something other than what he believed.

I talked about how rare it was to meet a man whose Christianity was not just "in word only." I talked about Barack being a person who lived his faith and did not argue his faith. I talked about Barack as a person who did not draw doctrinal lines in the sand nor consign other people to hell if they did not believe what he believed.

Out of a two-hour conversation with you about Barack's spiritual journey and my protesting to you that I had not shaped him nor formed him, that I had not mentored him or made him the man he was, even though I would love to take that credit, you did not print any of that. When I told you, using one of your own Jewish stories from the Hebrew Bible as to how God asked Moses, "What is that in your hand?," that Barack was like that when I met him. Barack had it "in his hand." Barack had in his grasp a uniqueness in terms of his spiritual development that one is hard put to find in the 21st century, and you did not print that.

As I was just starting to say a moment ago, Jodi, out of two hours of conversation I spent approximately five to seven minutes on Barack's taking advice from one of his trusted campaign people and deeming it unwise to make me the media spotlight on the day of his announcing his candidacy for the Presidency and what do you print? You and your editor proceeded to present to the general public a snippet, a printed "sound byte" and a titillating and tantalizing article about his disinviting me to the Invocation on the day of his announcing his candidacy.

I have never been exposed to that kind of duplicitous behavior before, and I want to write you publicly to let you know that I do not approve of it and will not be party to any further smearing of the name, the reputation, the integrity or the character of perhaps this nation's first (and maybe even only) honest candidate offering himself for public service as the person to occupy the Oval Office.

Your editor is a sensationalist. For you to even mention that makes me doubt your credibility, and I am looking forward to see how you are going to butcher what else I had to say concerning Senator Obama's "Spiritual Biography." Our Conference Minister, the Reverend Jane Fisler Hoffman, a white woman who belongs to a Black church that Hannity of "Hannity and Colmes" is trying to trash, set the record straight for you in terms of who I am and in terms of who we are as the church to which Barack has belonged for over twenty years.

The president of our denomination, the Reverend John Thomas, has offered to try to help you clarify in your confused head what Trinity Church is even though you spent the entire weekend with us setting me up to interview me for what turned out to be a smear of the Senator; and yet The New York Times continues to roll on making the truth what it wants to be the truth. I do not remember reading in your article that Barack had apologized for listening to that bad information and bad advice. Did I miss it? Or did your editor cut it out? Either way, you do not have to worry about hearing anything else from me for you to edit or "spin" because you are more interested in journalism than in truth.

Forgive me for having a momentary lapse. I forgot that The New York Times was leading the bandwagon in trumpeting why it is we should have gone into an illegal war. The New York Times became George Bush and the Republican Party's national "blog." The New York Times played a role in the outing of Valerie Plame. I do not know why I thought The New York Times had actually repented and was going to exhibit a different kind of behavior.

Maybe it was my faith in the Jewish Holy Day of Roshashana. Maybe it was my being caught up in the euphoria of the Season of Lent; but whatever it is or was, I was sadly mistaken. There is no repentance on the part of The New York Times. There is no integrity when it comes to The Times. You should do well with that paper, Jodi. You looked me straight in my face and told me a lie!

Sincerely and respectfully yours,

Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Senior Pastor
Trinity United Church of Christ

Fox 'news' airheads SET THE AGENDA for the rest of the US "major media"....

<< Going on Fox is like going on pretend TV, but the problem is that Fox viewers seem to mistake Fox News for reality. This wouldn't matter, except for the fact that FOX NEWS and THEIR COHORTS ON RIGHT-WING TALK RADIO and blogs MANAGES TO SET THE AGENDA FOR THE REST of the 'NEWS' MEDIA. For instance, borrowing "facts" direct from the a right wing hate blog, Fox commentator WILLIAM KRISTOL goofed in his NY Times column about Obama attending the infamous Rev. Wright church service -- Obama had told the truth, he hadn't been there -- then Kristol had to take it all back when corrected by actual real live journalists. But of course by that time the lie had done the rounds and become another "fact." >>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/4000-dead-fox-news-em_b_93208.html

My publisher's publicist kept putting me on Fox. The Fox people consistently stood out as the worst prepared, shockingly dumb "TV hairdos" (as John called them) I've ever encountered. Note to authors: When on Fox make sure you use the precious seconds between being ushered into the studio and air time. Prep your interviewers but prepare to more or less interview yourself. Try to distract them from their last minute makeup touchups. Try to get them to focus -- even briefly -- on what you've come to talk about so that their dumbest remarks are off air.

"META-NARRATIVE" - how the Corporate Media gets Americans to forget 100 years of democratic/liberal/Progressive progress, and VOTE AGAINST THEIR OWN B

"META-NARRATIVE" - how the Corporate Media gets Americans to forget 100 years of democratic/liberal/Progressive progress, and VOTE AGAINST THEIR OWN BEST INTERESTS.

Or, to put it in far simpler terms, given only technocratic career politician/bureaucrats to vote for, American citizens and voters dumbed-down by years worth of vapid TV will only vote according to what they see and hear on the FRONT PAGES (blaring headlines) and lede of the TOP OF HOUR 'news' cast.

Given this power over a mesmerized, couch potato nation, Republicans and their corporate media allies could even turn the Clinton's overnight guest list into the "LINCOLN BEDROOM SCANDAL!" and the even more mountains-out-of-nothing "WHITE HOUSE TRASHING SCANDAL!" into a multi-week media gab-fest... WITHOUT ONE PHOTOGRAPH to support those weeks worth of allegations!

(Meanwhile, in 2008, the press media won't even investigate just how much Vice President Cheney is PROFITING from his wars, via the increased value of his HALLIBURTON "defered compensation" and stock options.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/politics/main575356.shtml
Hey, if a guy starts a war that makes America the New Roman empire, he should at least be able to build himself a luxury bath house or two!

===================================================

Metanarratives and Hillary's Honesty Gap
by Greg Saunders
Posted March 24, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-saunders/metanarratives-and-hillar_b_93193.html

Do you want to know how McCain beats Hillary in November? In short, the same way George Bush beat Al Gore (minus the Supreme Court coup). As Rolling Stone explained in 2001 :

Last year, a review conducted by two nonpartisan groups, Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Research Center, found that a stunning seventy-six percent of the Gore campaign coverage in early 2000 centered around two negative themes: that he lies and exaggerates, and that he's tarred by scandal. "We call it the metanarrative," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of Project for Excellence in Journalism. "Journalists are looking for a story line, a narrative device, that plays out over weeks and months, and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is if they let the narrative overwhelm the facts, then it becomes a distorting lens. It can lead journalists to ignore and mischaracterize facts as they try to fit them into the story."
For those whose memories of Bush are cloudy pre-9/11 or forget how much the press despised Al Gore prior to his public resurrection as a party elder and environmental evangelist, Google the words "invented the internet" to get an idea of how the zombie lies of media narratives refuse to die. All it takes is a few quotes out of context and a few dashes of hyperbole to turn someone into a "serial fibber" with a "Pinocchio problem".


It's pretty clear that this is the same sort of tactic that would be used to defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall if she were to become the Democratic nominee. Over the past week, she's been contradicted on a number of claims that she uses to bolster her "experience" over her rival. The first being her Ohio primary-motivated insistence that she opposed NAFTA, which Jake Tapper has been debunking at length :

I have now talked to three former Clinton Administration officials whom I trust who tell me that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton opposed the idea of introducing NAFTA before health care, but expressed no reservations in public or private about the substance of NAFTA.


Yet the Clinton campaign continues to propagate this myth that she fought NAFTA tooth and nail because she opposed the substance of the bill.The campaign claims over and over that she did not support NAFTA. That may be emotionally and intellectually true -- but actions speak louder than misgivings.

For the Clinton campaign, we're not supposed to pay attention to what she did (which, according to her recently released schedules, included a handful of pro-NAFTA meetings) but what she said about NAFTA (but only privately, at least, until it was politically convenient).

The even bigger, and more embarrassing, fib is Clinton's fictional account of her dangerous flight into Tuzla, Boznia which is becoming her campaign-killing YouTube moment. (via nitpicker)






Clinton's foreign policy credentials have also been questioned recently in regards to her role (or lack therof) in the Northern Ireland peace process :
Mrs Clinton's version of events has been challenged by Peter King, an Ulster Unionist Party negotiator at the Good Friday talks in 1998, who said: "Hillary Clinton was totally invisible at the actual negotiations.


"As far as I am concerned, Mrs Clinton was as relevant to peace in Northern Ireland as Tony Blair's wife or the ex-wife of Bertie Ahern [the Irish prime minister]."

Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party in 1998, told The Daily Telegraph last week that Mrs Clinton's claims were a "wee bit silly".

This month, Terry McAuliffe, Mrs Clinton's campaign chairman, told CNN: "We would not have peace today had it not for Hillary's hard work in Northern Ireland."

Both Unionist and Nationalist negotiators told this newspaper that while Mrs Clinton's work with women's groups was positive her overall role was peripheral and she played no part in the gruelling negotiations that took years.

These incidents taken individually wouldn't necessarily be enough to derail a campaign, but how they play into the "metanarrative" speaks volumes about how her campaign might fare in the fall. For Gore in 2000, mentioning "Love Canal" and "invented the internet" were all it took to remind voters of the media storyline that Gore was a serial exaggerator. In the months between now and the general election, it's hard to imagine that the same wouldn't happen to Hillary Clinton, with scattered references to "Northern Ireland", "NAFTA", and "Tuzla" making their way into unrelated campaign coverage and subtly undermining her campaign.


In fact, that narrative is already being shaped to a lesser extent as the Obama campaign capitalizes on recent polls showing that a majority of Americans don't believe that Clinton is trustworthy :

This honesty gap that separates Clinton from her two opponents will ultimately end her campaign, either in the primary or general elections. Whether or not any subsequent claims about Clinton are valid would be irrelevant (as Gore could attest) as long as they play into the preconceived notions that people have about the candidate. With a public that already distrusts her, getting frequently caught misspeaking (to use the Clinton campaign's preferred euphemism) only reinforces the media narrative that Hillary Clinton is a liar who will say anything it takes to become president.

Washington Post "Fact Checker" catches Hillary in blatant lie... Now, why don't they use similar methods to detail and expose Bush-Cheney lies?

"A picture is worth a thousand words" department...
Then First Lady Hillary Clinton at Greeting ceremony, Tuzla military airport, Bosnia, March 25, 1996. This image completely belies her comments, from only 4 days ago, that she, as First Lady in 1996, was sent to Bosnia as a stand-in for her husband (then President Clinton), because the trip was too dangerous for him to make!
Click our link for perhaps the single best Washington Post article of the past decade... with photos!


Candidate Watch
Hillary's Balkan Adventures, Part II
17 March 2008
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/hillarys_balkan_adventures_par.html

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
--Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, March 17, 2008.

Hillary Clinton has been regaling supporters on the campaign trail with hair-raising tales of a trip she made to Bosnia in March 1996. In her retelling, she was sent to places that her husband, President Clinton, could not go because they were "too dangerous." When her account

SOCIALISM for "Conservatives" - One TRILLION dollar Fed BAILOUT of Wall St. Banks, = SOCIALISM for Wall St...

That red line going straight down is the evidence of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney LOOTING the US Treasury, almost from the moment that they stole the White House after stolen election (Florida) November-December 2000. The one brief, blue upswing, 2004-2007, was billions of investor dollars fleeing Wall St. and pouring into real estate, homes, and construction projects. That real-estate boom cycle briefly fueled a stock market boom, as well, but now, in the first three months of 2008, the Dow Jones average (one of many averages, but a good typical indicator) is down from over 14,000 to low 12,000 range, shedding almost 20% of value in only several months... and the real estate market is now in even worse shape.
-----------------------------------

WHEN do lying Right-Wingers in the press, public, and media LOVE SOCIALISM ??

- answer: WHEN IT BAILS OUT their beloved "investor" class, Wall St. bankers, and ruling class hedge-funds operators.... all of whom would have MELTED DOWN by now if not for fed intervention - BIG SPENDING, TAX-and-SPEND, US government TREASURY intervention!

EVEN WORSE, the COWARDLY US media - even the ostensibly "technically competent" financial media - PRETENDS NOT TO NOTICE! ONE TRILLION DOLLARS spun off of Mr. Bush's government's printing presses over the past 9 months to Bail Out Wall Street.... and the STUPID, WHORE MEDIA PRETENDS NOT TO NOTICE!

NUMBERS, NUMBERS, NUMBERS EVERYWHERE on Wall St. and in the financial media... but no one understands or can grasp on to this nice, simple, round number, ONE TRILLION DOLLARS of US Treasury bailouts for Bush's economy, in past 9 months, alone?!!!

(with a due tip-o-hat to Mr. Aaron Task, for being the ONLY financial reporter we have seen, put THE most important financial news of the past year, into one simple story, where it belongs.)

======================================

Fed Heads Back to the Well, Will It Run Dry?
by Aaron Task in Investing,
Posted Mar 18, 2008
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/7483/Fed-Heads-Back-to-the-Well-Will-It-Run-Dry?tickers=BSC,JPM,TMA

Since September 2007, the Federal Reserve has cut the fed funds rate by 225 basis points and, in just the past 9 months, has injected approximately $1 trillion in the financial system via a combination of existing and newly created mechanisms.

Heck, just since Friday, the Fed has pledged to support a bailout of Bear Stearns, then backed JPMorgan's takeover by pledging to backstop $30 billion of Bears' "less liquid assets."

But, wait, there's more: The Fed also cut its discount rate (the rate at which it lends directly to financial institutions) and opened the discount window to brokerage firms (vs. just banks) for the first time since the 1930s.

After so much frenzied activity, you'd think the Fed would be due for a rest. Instead, Ben Bernanke & Co. are widely expected to further slash the fed funds rate at today's scheduled policy meeting.

The talk on Wall Street is anywhere from a 50 to a 125 basis point cut, with the fed funds futures market putting the highest odds on a full 1 point (or 100 basis point) cut to 2%.

The accompanying chatter on Wall Street is the Fed is pushing on the proverbial string, i.e. using the wrong tool (the fed funds rate) and using up its firepower and credibility in a futile attempt to fix a problem in the credit markets.

Worse, the "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" crowd believes the Fed is merely postponing and prolonging the pain by delaying the inevitable comeuppance for Wall Street's debt and derivatives binge. The Fed's goal, in this view, is to bailout fat-cat speculators at the expense of average, hard-working taxpayers, savers and the dollar generally.

While I certainly understand (and sympathize) with that sentiment I feel compelled to offer an alternative outlook, courtesy of Mark Dow of Pharo Management, an emerging-market-focused macro hedge fund with over $2 billion in assets.

Dow has the unique perspective of having worked at both the IMF and Treasury before heading to the buyside several years ago. From his perch (and knowledge of the institution) the Fed is "not trying to make people whole" but trying to prevent more "innocent bystanders" from becoming victims to others' mistakes. (A prime example being Thornburg Mortgage which wasn't exposed to subprime mortgages but was exposed to overnight lending markets, which have essentially frozen. Plus, the Fed didn't exactly rescue Bear Stearns' shareholders.)

"The Fed doesn't want to avoid a bad outcome – they want the unwind to occur in orderly fashion," Dow says, comparing the Fed's actions to the circuit breakers adopted by the NYSE in the wake of the 1987 market crash.

"In a panic, people make mistakes" and the Fed is trying to prevent the obvious distress in the financial markets from becoming a full-blown panic, he says. For academic types, Dow cites the economic theory of Path Dependency, which suggests the route a market or asset takes can greatly influence where it ends up.

In other words, a slow-motion train wreck that wears people down is preferable

New York Times confirms our previous post: Bush economic policies of fraud and raw greed have foisted an economic recession on America....

Oceans of RED INK.... almost from the day George W. Bush took office as President of the United State. (click here)

George W. Bush: The United States president is the CLOWN of TAX CUTS, DEFICITS, ECONOMIC RECESSION... and leaving American taxpayers holding the bag for his innate corruption and gross fiscal incompetence, an abject incompetence rising to the level of gross Dereliction of Fiscal duty.....

In an unsigned (Board of Editors) editorial in today's New York Times, Times editors blast President George W. Bush for "PAINT[ing] A FALSE PICTURE OF THE ECONOMY"... and for his "DENIAL OF THE ECONOMIC TRUTH"

Mr. Bush said he was optimistic because the economy’s “foundation is solid” as measured by employment, wages, productivity, exports and the federal deficit. HE WAS WRONG ON EVERY COUNT." On some, he has been wrong for quite a while.

Here is the New York Times editors' editorial, all but calling the President of the United States either a grossly incompetent economic fool, a liar, or both...

======================================

Through Bush-Colored Glasses
New York Times, Editors Board editorial
Published: March 16, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/opinion/16sun1.html

President Bush admitted on Friday that times are tough. So much for the straight talk.

Mr. Bush went on to paint a false picture of the economy. He dismissed virtually every proposal Congress is working on to alleviate the mortgage crisis, sticking to his administration’s inadequate ideas. And despite the rush of serious problems — frozen credit markets, millions of impending mortgage defaults, solvency issues at banks, a plunging dollar — he said that a major source of uncertainty today is whether his tax cuts, scheduled to expire in 2010, would be extended.

This was too far afield of reality to be dismissed as simple cheerleading. It points to the pressing need for a coherent plan to steer through what some economists are now predicting could be a severe downturn. Mr. Bush’s denial of the economic truth underscores the need for Congress to push forward with solutions to the mortgage crisis — especially bankruptcy reform to help defaulting homeowners. Lawmakers also must prepare to execute, in case it is needed, a government rescue of people whose homes are now worth less than they borrowed to buy them.

Mr. Bush said he was optimistic because the economy’s “foundation is solid” as measured by employment, wages, productivity, exports and the federal deficit. He was wrong on every count. On some, he has been wrong for quite a while.

Mr. Bush boasted about 52 consecutive months of job growth during his presidency. What matters is the magnitude of growth, not ticks on a calendar. The economic expansion under Mr. Bush — which it is safe to assume is now over — produced job growth of 4.2 percent. That is the worst performance over a business cycle since the government started keeping track in 1945.

Mr. Bush also talked approvingly of the recent unemployment rate of 4.8 percent. A low rate is good news when it indicates a robust job market. The unemployment rate ticked down last month because hundreds of thousands of people dropped out of the work force altogether. Worse, long-term unemployment, of six months or more, hit 17.5 percent. We’d expect that in the depths of a recession. It is unprecedented at the onset of one.

Mr. Bush was wrong to say wages are rising. On Friday morning, the day he spoke, the government reported that wages failed to outpace inflation in February, for the fifth straight month. Productivity growth has also weakened markedly in the past two years, a harbinger of a lower overall standard of living for Americans.

Exports have surged of late, but largely on the back of a falling dollar. The weaker dollar makes American exports cheaper, but it also pushes up oil prices. Potentially far more serious, a weakening dollar also reduces the Federal Reserve’s flexibility to steady the economy.

Finally, Mr. Bush’s focus on the size of the federal budget deficit ignores that annual government borrowing comes on top of existing debt. Publicly held federal debt will be up by a stunning 76 percent by the end of his presidency. Paying back the money means less to spend on everything else for a very long time.

The fiscal stimulus passed by Congress, and touted by Mr. Bush on Friday, could juice growth for a quarter or two later this year. But the economy’s fundamental weaknesses indicate that Americans are ill-prepared for hard times. That makes the need for clear-eyed policies all the more urgent. We need them from the president, Congress and the contenders for the White House.

Media Whores REFUSE to CONNECT THE DOTS on Bush-Cheney LOOTING OF AMERICA of BILLIONS and TRILLIONS...

US STOCK MARKET PLUNGES, as investors react to the TRILLION DOLLAR TAXPAYER BAILOUT of Wall St. Investment Banks and Executives.
Where do we start? We start with the natural consequences of the Bush-Cheney administration's LOOTING OF AMERICA:

#1. U.S. stocks plunge on Bear Stearns bailout; wipe out week's gains
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-stocks-plunge-bear-stearns/story.aspx?guid=%7BDC2496D4-EC6C-43F7-B5D3-B8BE5B0E4540%7D

A slightly more informative article, "Bear Stearns Baile Out by Fed, JP Morgan" explains that

The Fed has slashed interest rates and central banks have injected roughly $1 trillion into the banking system since then, but the crunch continues.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid={FB1471C5-8532-4893-B2A6-4869733CCD98} THIS IS BUREAUCTRIC SPEECH, for saying "The Federal Reserve Has PRINTED ONE TRILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF BILLS, TO 'INJECT' INTO THE MARKET"... i.e. into the BANK VAULTS of the MEMBER FED BANKS! PRIVATE BANKS!

The US press/media REFUSES TO EXPLAIN to its readers and the American public, that the FEDERAL RESERVE is a consortium of PRIVATELY HELD BANKS, that act as bankers, accountants, and paymasters for the federal government (the US Treasury), and that when the Treasury PRINTS UP ANOTHER TRILLION DOLLAR in bills (actually, ones and zeroes in the cyber accounts of member fed banks out there in cyberspace, but those accounts -those cyber ones and zeroes - can be redeemed for the real, actual bills and currency that the Treasury is spinning off its presses at any time) THEY ARE DEVALUING the DOLLAR BILLS THAT YOU HOLD in your wallet, pocketbook, bank account, or mortgage account.

THE ONLY SILVER LINING to this pending HYPER-INFLATION/STAGFLATION NIGHTMARE that the Bush-Cheney administration is creating, is that as commodities and assets gain in INFLATED value, at some point it will balance out the decreasing price of properties and commodity stocks from the homeowner mortgage/loan/banking/stock-market crisis.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Bush, Cheney, the US Treasury, the Fed, Wall St. and the press/media ARE ALL PARTNERS to MASSIVE, TRILLION DOLLAR _SOCIALISM_ for the wealthy, WELFARE BAILOUTS in $200 billion dollar chunks for the executives, big investors and bankers who would be GOING BUST were it not for that massive GOVERNMENT SOCIALISM. (To some extent, little investors are also beneficiaries of these massive government bailouts for investment banks and wealthy executives, but since little investors are actually getting creamed by the market, it is not so much "welfare socialism" for them.)

Greg Palast documents some of these hard truths about the Bush-Cheney banking/fiscal/treasury nightmare far better than his fellow writers in the "major media" do, if you can wade through his muckraking writing style:
http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/

And of course their is the obligatory Presidente Bush stating "THE DOLLAR and US economy ARE STRONG!" even as major investment bank Bear Stearns sheds HALF of its value overnight, THREATENING TO DRAG THE ENTIRE US STOCK MARKET DOWN WITH IT, propped up from losing the other 50% of its value ONLY by the Fed SOCIALISM FOR PREDATORY BANKERS and BUSH CRONY EXECUTIVES BAILOUTS.

Bush: "THE FOUNDATION" of his crumbling economy "IS SOLID"
[IF, that is, you pump in enough taxpayer subsidy Welfare Socialism for Big Bankers "liquidity" BAILOUTS for his corrupt, lying cronies.]
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid={3ADBA892-9214-4ED8-940B-548926D1AE86}

Here is a back-handed, poorly written (gossipy) column by Wall St. market-watcher David Callaway, that (cut through his gossipy BS) states that former New York Attorney General ELIOT SPITZER was one of the VERY FEW individuals who actually has the power and ability to REIGN IN THE MASSIVE PENCHANT of Wall St. Investment banks to ENGAGE IN MASSIVE FRAUD and gold-plate worthless paper fakery. http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid={D74A985B-FE85-4DB3-BF02-9885DFB76D6C}
In this excerpt from his column, Greg Palast spells the process out. THIS IS INFORMATION that America's MAJOR MEDIA whores are either GROSSLY IGNORANT OFF (in which they are overpaid, incompetent FRAUDS), or purposely NOT TELLING AMERICANS ABOUT - in which case they are PARTY TO, COMPLICIT IN that massive investment banking frauds.
http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/

Instead of regulating the banks that had run amok, Bush’s regulators went on the warpath against Spitzer and states attempting to stop predatory practices. Making an unprecedented use of the legal power of “federal pre-emption,” Bush-bots ordered the states to NOT enforce their consumer protection laws.

Indeed, the feds actually filed a lawsuit to block Spitzer’s investigation of ugly racial mortgage steering. Bush’s banking buddies were especially steamed that Spitzer hammered bank practices across the nation using New York State laws.

Spitzer not only took on Countrywide, he took on their predatory enablers in the investment banking community. Behind Countrywide was the Mother Shark, its funder and now owner, Bank of America. Others joined the sharkfest: Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup’s Citibank made mortgage usury their major profit centers. They did this through a bit of financial legerdemain called “securitization.”

What that means is that they took a bunch of junk mortgages, like the Grinning’s, loans about to go down the toilet and re-packaged them into “tranches” of bonds which were stamped “AAA” - top grade - by bond rating agencies. These gold-painted turds were sold as sparkling safe investments to US school district pension funds and town governments in Finland (really).

When the housing bubble burst and the paint flaked off, investors were left with the poop and the bankers were left with bonuses. Countrywide’s top man, Angelo Mozilo, will ‘earn’ a $77 million buy-out bonus this year on top of the $656 million - over half a billion dollars – he pulled in from 1998 through 2007.

This week marks the 5th year, 4,000 Americans killed in action and thousands wounded later, of America's MEDIA WHORES SELLING the IRAQ WAR....

5 Years Ago: When Media 'Zombies' Helped Bush Go To War
by Greg Mitchell
Posted March 11, 2008
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/5-years-ago-when-media-_b_90947.html

Next week, we will mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Amazingly, at this late date, we still have 150,000 troops there, and nine U.S. troops were killed just yesterday. So it is vital to refresh our memories on how the American media helped grease the path to war.

On March 6, 2003, less than two weeks before he ordered the country to war, President Bush conducted a nationally televised press conference, stating in his intro, "We will not wait to see what terrorists or terrorist states could do with weapons of mass destruction."

Some of the questions from the press were sharp, many others weak, but one asking about his religious strength gave him an opportunity to say, "My faith sustains me because I pray daily. I pray for guidance and wisdom and strength.... But it's a humbling experience to think that people I will never have met have lifted me and my family up in prayer. And for that I'm grateful."

It was the mood of the affair that was most noteworthy. Bush smiled and made his usual quips, and many of the reporters played the game and did not press him hard. This was how these press gatherings had gone throughout the run-up to war. But this meeting was heavily scripted with Bush looking at a slip of paper and calling on reporters in a pre-arranged order. No one challenged him on this.

When it was over, I asked Ari Berman, then an intern with Editor & Publisher and now a talented veteran at The Nation, to come up with a few questions we wished reporters had asked that night. I added a few myself, and published them at our site, under the heading, "Questions We Wish They'd Asked."

Some of reporters at the press conference appeared to have some second thoughts themselves. ABC's Terry Moran said the president was not "sufficiently challenged" and that reporters ended up "looking like zombies."

Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times explained, "We were very deferential" because "it's very intense, it's frightening to stand up there...on prime-time live television asking the president of the United States a question when the country's about to go to war." She admitted that "no one wanted to get into an argument with the president at this very serious time."

Here are most of the unasked questions that Berman and I put together then (and included in my book So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq).

"Questions We Wish They'd Asked"

-- Why is the U.S. threatening an optional war if 59% of Americans do not support a U.S. invasion without the approval of the U.N. Security Council, according to a Feb. 24-26 USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll?

-- If our allies have the same information on WMD -- and the Iraqi threat is so real -- why do some of our friends refuse to take part in your coalition?

-- You praise the Iraqi people, say we have no quarrel with them, pledge to save them from the dictator and give them democracy. Would you tell us how many of them are likely to die in this war?

-- You say one major reason for taking this action is to protect Americans from terrorism. How do you respond to the warnings of CIA Director George Tenet and others that invading Iraq would in fact likely increase terrorism?

-- Rather than make us wait for a supplemental budget request -- after the war has been launched -- to tell us what it (and its aftermath) will cost, don't you think the American people, who will pay the bill, deserve to know the latest long-term estimates before the fact?

--You say Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and is evil enough to use them. If not during an American invasion of his country, then when? How many deaths on our side do you expect?

-- Why, if North Korea has the capability to produce six nuclear warheads by mid-summer, are you letting their very reluctant neighbors take the lead in deterring them while demanding that the U.S. take charge in confronting Saddam?

-- With the economy shaken and deficits climbing, how do you respond to critics who say you're ignoring domestic issues and the long-term economic security of this country by focusing so much of your time and resources on Iraq?

-- Why did the U.S. edit the 12,000 page Iraqi weapons report (as recently revealed) to the U.N. Security Council, removing all names of U.S. companies that sold weapons materials to the Iraqis in the past?

-- You claimed tonight that Iraq has started producing new missiles -- but are these nothing more than less capable versions (fully permitted by the U.N.) of the missiles being destroyed now?

-- How do you respond to radio commentator Daniel Schorr's statement that the "coalition of the willing" is actually a "coalition of the billing"?

Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is editor of Editor & Publisher and his new book is currently excerpted at Salon.

I blog at:

http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/

CNN airs RACIST McCain supporter KELLY ANNE CONWAY disparaging Obama with "go to the BACK OF THE BUS" comment

CNN airs racist Republican John McCain supporter KELLY ANNE CONWAY disparaging Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama with her "go to the BACK OF THE BUS" comment... that was only noticed by Larry King when Obama supporter and Democratic strategist Jamal Warner repeated Kelly Anne's comments to Larry.

The Obama campaign is going to bring the ENTITLED IGNORANCE of right-wingers and their hired-gun media whores out of the woodwork. Of course a HUGE ELEMENT of the Right-Wing's FEAR AND LOATHING of minorities in general... and Black Americans (African-Americans) in particular - IS FEAR. Not just the fear of Black criminals, gangsters, and bogeymen in the night (which was actually the subtext of HILLARY CLINTON's "red phone rings at 3 am" campaign TV ad) but the fear that MINORITIES WILL WIN SOCIAL and POLITICAL POWER in America... and "CROWD OUT" nativeist White Americans, as the movie "Gangs of New York" portrayed vast numbers of Irish immigrants crowding out the American, protestant gangs, and as vast neighborhoods ("barrios") around Los Angeles, Miami, and other American cities become Spanish dominated.
(Note: Despite hich some observers point out, when Al Qaida and terrorist groups strike, it is in public if not broad daylight, because they WANT the PUBLICITY public spectacles and terror attacks create... the (white) 'girl sleeping in bed' theme conjures up images of predatory rapists and street hoodlums)

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Racist McCain supporter and lawyer KellyAnne Conway Sends Obama "To The Back Of The Bus"
by Linda Milazzo
March 8, 2008 - 1:45pm
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/13312

On last night's Larry King Live show (Friday, March 7th), Republican strategist and owner of The Polling Company, KellyAnne Conway, stated that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were


"arguing about whether she should let him SIT ON THE BACK OF THE BUS of her presidential ticket."

Even by CNN standards, with its ample chicanery and spin, Conway's remark was brutal. Larry King's nightly program, usually more schmooze than news, was plunged to a Limbaugh-like low. Gratefully, Democratic strategist and Obama supporter, Jamal Simmons, was on hand to challenge Conway. Taking the high road, Simmons said:


"Larry, we have to address that. We have to address that. This BACK OF THE BUS comment is really beyond the pale. I think Senator Clinton, whatever our disagreements are between the two candidates, Senator Clinton has never done or said anything that would imply that she would rather have Barack Obama sit in the back of her campaign bus."

KellyAnne Conway, who holds a law degree from George Washington University and clearly understands the power of language, appeared surprised that her racist taunt wasn't jovially accepted by her host and fellow panelists. She was inordinately comfortable interjecting Jim Crow as a natural part of her dialogue. It was only after Jamal Simmons' immediate response that Conway knew she was in trouble. She countered unsuccessfully with:


"No, as V.P. As V.P. You're not paying attention. As V.P."

No amount of deflecting by Conway could detract from her callousness. Aside from radical conservative radio hosts like Ohio's Bill Cunningham, who recently incited an audience on behalf of John McCain, and bloated bigot, Rush Limbaugh, Conway's brand of hate speech has been kept pretty much out of the fray. Sadly, that all changed last evening. KellyAnne Conway lowered the bar on civility --even for corporate media.

Larry King was clearly disturbed by Conway's back of the bus assault. He asked her if she had actually used the term and what she had meant when she used it. But King's simple question was not a true rebuke. Conway's racism deserved a strong on air condemnation from the host -- not the off-camera chiding that was likely to come.

At 74 years old, Larry King should have witnessed the inhumanity and disgrace of Jim Crow throughout his youth and adult years. There was institutionalized racism in Larry King's native New York, and in Florida where he worked early on. White Americans weren't blind to the injustice. They just didn't suffer its pain -- at least not directly. The fact is, all members of an unjust society are affected by its injustice. Conway's reference to back of the bus should have inspired an instant reprimand from King, who holds an exalted position at CNN.

Over the past seven years, in the administration of George W. Bush, historical errors have been repeated. Among them are the erosion of civil liberty. The imbalance of Bush's Unitary Executive has skewed the remaining two Branches of Government -- in particular, the Legislative Branch, which continuously succumbs to the Executive. But while the Congress is caving, The People are not. The People want change. Yet change won't come if America permits the revival of degradation. Terms like back of the bus have no place in our civil discourse.

Two years ago, on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, I visited the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. At the Museum, I sat on a REAL Montgomery Bus. On that bus, in the very front row, sat a life size sculpture of the great Rosa Parks. Turned around in his seat to face Mrs. Parks was a life size version of the bus' white driver. Every few minutes, a booming voice filled the bus -- supposedly that of the driver -- commanding Mrs. Parks to get to the back of the bus. But the sculpture of Mrs. Parks sat regally, proudly and bravely in her seat, clutching the purse on her lap. It's an astonishing and overwhelming experience. The entire museum is breathtaking.

When I returned to Los Angeles, I shared my experience with a brilliant playwright friend, Joanne Morris -- a powerful African American woman who understood how deeply I was moved by my experience at the Museum. Joanne, an inspired, insightful artist, took my experience and created a theatrical rendition I was fortunate to perform this year for Dr. King's birthday.

The Civil Rights Museum should be required attendance for every American and every visitor to America. It should certainly be mandatory attendance for KellyAnne Conway. KellyAnne Conway should be forced to face the images of the tortures and the hangings and the beatings and the injustices that are vividly, painfully and necessarily displayed throughout this American historical treasure. KellyAnne Conway should sit on that same Montgomery bus in the presence of greatness and come to understand what a minor insignificance she is.

If you are disturbed and appalled by KellyAnne Conway's racist tactics, please let CNN know. Racism, particularly on the public airwaves, must not be permitted to occur.

Call the CNN comments line at: (404) 827-1500 or
Email the Larry King Live show at: http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?12

Neo-Con war pigs who promoted war, in press and media, SHOULD BE TRIED FOR TREASON!

A picture tells a thousand words: Iraqi PM, and US front man, Nouri al-Maliki's warm embrace of IRAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has America's "HATE IRAN!" neo-cons turning red in the face (and, no doubt, contemplating more assassinations, bombings, and invasions to come.) Being an American neo-con War-Mongering Media Whore means never having to say you are sorry, no matter how wrong you are, nor how awful the consequences of your repeated errors.

<< There can be no peace, whether in Lebanon, Gaza or Iraq, without the cooperation of the ayatollahs of Iran. If that was the intention of the neoconservative cabal that led Bush into this folly, its members should be tried for treason. >>

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080304_the_great_satan_strike_out/
For once, it is fun to post a tongue-in-cheek story here at MediaWhoresUSA.blogspot.com.... even if the Media Whores are THE most important element of the Bush-Cheney junta's attempts to DESTROY the American economy, if not the upwardly mobile, increasingly democratic American way of life.

Here are some of TODAY's headlines from around America, a DIRECT RESULT of the Neo-Con, war-mongering, cheerleading for the Bush-Cheney administration's abysmal policies over the past half-dozen years:
#1. US Troop Depression On Rise in Afghanistan... the 'forgotten' war that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz (et al) SHORTCHANGED in their mad lust to bomb, invade, occupy, and seize Iraq...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080306/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/troops_mental_health;_ylt=ApjRBFtCqLtksKClviGTJGms0NUE
#2. DOLLAR PLUMMETS TO RECORD LOWS, AP news
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080306/dollar.html?.v=11
WHAT THE MEDIA WHORES are NOT telling you, is that Bush & Cheney have the US Treasury PRINTING PRESSES SPINNING OVERTIME, as the US government prints tens of billions of dollars... making the dollars you and your family hold in your savings, checking, and pension accounts LESS VALUABLE. IT IS A BACK_DOOR_TAX on your earnings and savings! Those billions in freshly minted ten, twenty, and fifty dollar bills land in the vaults of the member Fed banks... who lend them out, seeking to make a profit on the interest. WHO "OWNS" those billions of freshly minted dollars??
- Why, the FED and its member banks, of course!
The MEDIA WHORES should be hung by their thumbs for being in on this LOOTING of American SAVINGS and PENSIONS, to keep the awful Bush-Cheney economy afloat...
#3. FORECLOSURES REACH an ALL TIME HIGH
Home-ownership is only the BEDROCK of the American dream, and the builders, lenders, and real-estate brokers hyped over-inflated home prices on their way up (just as hyped stocks have ridiculous P/E ratios, so too did home prices reach absurd levels vs buyers' annual income levels.)
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/06/real_estate/defaults_continue_climb/

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‘Great Satan’ Gets Struck Out
By Robert Scheer
Posted on Mar 4, 2008
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080304_the_great_satan_strike_out/

Are the media dumb or just out to lunch? Sorry to be intemperate, but how else can one explain the meager attention paid to the truly historic visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Iraq? Not only is he the first Mideast head of state to visit the country since its alleged liberation, but the very warm official welcome offered by the Iraqi government to the most vociferous critic of the United States speaks volumes to the abject failure of the Bush doctrine.

On Tuesday, Condoleezza Rice reiterated the administration’s position that Iran is behind the turmoil that has engulfed the Mideast from Beirut to Baghdad and, most recently, Israel, where what she claims are Iranian-supplied rockets have totally destroyed the belated Bush peace plan. There is also the matter of Iran’s nuclear program, which President Bush condemned once again over the weekend. But what leverage does the United States have over Iran when, as the image of Ahmadinejad holding hands with the top leaders of Iraq demonstrated to the world, we have put the disciples of the Iranian ayatollahs in power in Baghdad? There is no face-saving exit from Iraq without the cooperation of Tehran, and the folks who call America the “Great Satan” now hold the high cards.

How interesting that Ahmadinejad, unlike a U.S. president who has to be airlifted unannounced into ultra-secure bases, was able to convoy in from the airport in broad daylight on a road that U.S. dignitaries fear to travel. His love fest with Iraq President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who fought on Iran’s side against Iraq and who speaks Farsi, even took place outside of the safety of the Green Zone, adding emphasis to Ahmadinejad’s claim that while he is welcome in Iraq, the Americans are not.

Nor did the Iraqi leaders take exception to Ahmadinejad’s insistence that the U.S. has only brought terror to the region and that the continued American presence is the main obstacle to peace. On the contrary, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pronounced his talks with fellow Shiite Ahmadinejad “friendly, positive and full of trust.” Video of Talabani, who asked that Ahmadinejad call him “Uncle Jalal” after holding hands and exchanging kisses with the Iranian president, was broadcast throughout the region.

Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran, but George W. Bush has given his Iranian foes a Shiite-run ally. Iran is now a major trading partner of Iraq that has offered a $1 billion loan, the border is increasingly porous as religious pilgrimages have become the norm, and many investment projects supervised by Iranians are in the works. Instead of isolating the “rogue regime” of Iran, the Bush administration has catapulted the theocrats of Tehran into the center of Mideast political power. There can be no peace, whether in Lebanon, Gaza or Iraq, without the cooperation of the ayatollahs of Iran. If that was the intention of the neoconservative cabal that led Bush into this folly, its members should be tried for treason.

That was, however, obviously not what the neocons expected from the invasion of Iraq, which they engineered in the wake of 9/11 with a much rosier scenario in mind. The saying that there is no need to attribute to mendacity what can be explained by ordinary stupidity aptly defines the neoconservative folly. Clearly the neocons were conned by the likes of Ahmed Chalabi, the rogue banker accused by the CIA of slipping U.S. secrets to Tehran, into believing that a “liberated” Iraq would advance democracy in the region, not to mention the security of Israel. That the opposite has occurred is no big problem for them as they emerge with their careers intact.

The leading neocon publicist, William Kristol, has even been rewarded for never getting it right with a premier spot on the New York Times opinion pages, so yes, in the punditry business, one does fail upward.

But for Bush, his signature issue, the battle against terrorism, is a shambles. The terrorists are very much on the rise in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which Bush neglected for an Iraq sideshow that has cost over a trillion dollars and tens of thousands of lives. But the long-run price will be far higher, with the blowback from the massive instability that he has engendered in the region.

When Bush has finally retired to that ranch, cutting sagebrush to his heart’s content, his all-consuming smugness might ever so subtly be troubled by the memory of a father who knew best, and who warned against the terminal foolishness of seizing Baghdad.

Chicago Tribune FINALLY asks some TOUGH QUESTIONS about VAST war CONTRACTS FRAUD - THE VERY SIGNATURE of the Bush-Cheney wars, GRAFT & KICKBACKS

IT'S ABOUT TIME! FINALLY a major American newspaper starts to investigate THE SIGNATURE AGENDA of the Bush-Cheney administrations abysmal "leadership" of their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: MASSIVE, GROTESQUE, IN-YOUR-FACE CORRUPTION, no-bid contracts, KICKBACKS, SLUSH-FUNDS, SECRET BUDGETS, missing billions (NINE BILLION DOLLARS missing from Iraq government funds distributed by "Viceroy" L. Paul Bremer's people in first weeks of US occupation, 2003, alone), and even the VICE PRESIDENT HIMSELF, BEING FINANCIALLY REWARDED by his HALLIBURTON STOCK OPTIONS, as he personally directs BILLIONS of dollars to his "former" company.

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Inside the world of war profiteers
From prostitutes to Super bowl tickets, a federal probe reveals how contractors in Iraq cheated the U.S.
A Chicago TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION
By David Jackson and Jason Grotto | Tribune reporters
February 21, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-kbr-war-profiteers-feb21,0,195925,full.story

ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors' pockets, records show.