Friday, September 13, 2013

Larry Summers solicited Senator Warren to stop saying he wanted to deregulate banks. Amazing.


Oxfam International has something to say, 'Peace is the only way.'

Sign the Petition (click here) 

Chemical weapons and the killing of civilians (click here)

Oxfam condemns any use of chemical weapons in Syria, along with the continued indiscriminate killing of civilians in the country.  All parties to the conflict in Syria should respect international humanitarian law and at all times facilitate the work of UN teams investigating alleged chemical weapons attacks.
Ultimately, there needs to be a political solution to this crisis. The humanitarian suffering caused by the crisis is already staggering. More than 100,000 lives have been lost and nearly two million people have fled to neighboring countries. There is a clear risk that Western governments ratcheting up the rhetoric and preparing for military intervention will make the situation worse.
Instead of focusing on military options and arming parties to the conflict, President Obama, President Putin and other world leaders should put aside their differences and intensify peaceful efforts to stop the bloodshed, before Syria is destroyed and the region further destabilized.

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The Shi'ites have a very impressive leader.

6 August 2013 
Last updated at 17:25 BST 
  
Iran's new president Hassan Rouhani (click here) has called for "serious and substantive" negotiations with the international community about its nuclear programme.
At the first news conference since his inauguration on Sunday, Mr Rouhani said he was confident both sides' concerns could be resolved in a short time.
But a solution could be reached solely through "talks, not threats", he added.

Prime Minister Lavrov is a very powerful man, don't underestimate him. He can make or break a peace process. He deserves The West's respect. He smiled widely when Secretary Clinton put forward a Reset Button. He has a vision of peace.

New Iran president on first foreign trip (click here) 
43 minutes ago  
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has made his first foreign trip since taking office.
He joined leaders from Russia, China and Central Asian states in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek. 
James Reynolds reports.

You see, how terrible the world was under extremists. It takes two to tango. The Axis of Evil speech was the worst thing that ever happened to the USA's reputation. It pegged the USA as an extremist and one that other nations had to protect from. 

This is huge. I think President Rouhani will move the Shi'tie nation eons toward peace and progress for their children to compete in the real world. I have great hope for his presidency.

And yes, I am willing to believe in this change in leadership. How can on reciprocate good will unless it is first extended in great anticipation of peace.


Iran has recently converted more than 40% (click here) of its stockpile of enriched uranium to fuel rods for use in a civilian reactor and is in the process of converting the rest, the country's nuclear chief has announced on state television.
The claim aired by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was the latest signal from newly inaugurated President Hassan Rouhani's government that Tehran is working to allay Western fears about its nuclear programs.
Rouhani last week moved to transfer authority from Iran's religious hierarchy to his elected government for nuclear programs and international negotiations on their scope and transparency. The move was hailed by both the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and the six world powers that have been at work for the last two years trying to ensure that Iran isn't preparing to build nuclear weapons.
“Although we know the nuclear case against us is fabricated, we are ready to relieve the other side’s concern,” Salehi said in the televised Thursday night interview, reported by the semiofficial Fars News Agency on Friday....

The First Lady is a winner. Don't underestimate her. It started with a garden.


CREATED Sep. 12, 2013
UPDATED: Sep. 12, 2013
WATERTOWN - It was all about water in Watertown on Thursday. (click here) The first lady paid a special visit to the high school to launch her new Drink Up campaign.
Michelle Obama is trying to sell a generation hooked on soda or energy drinks that water is not only cool - it's the original energy drink.
"I just want us to make a little toast," said Mrs.Obama as she addressed a huge crowd of students. "I know you guys have been practicing this. We've got our Drink Up water bottles." 
The first lady was the toast of the town as she kicked off her nationwide Drink Up campaign to get kids and everyone else to drink more water. 
"You can choose anything in the world to drink, but when you choose water, you truly are choosing the best thing you can for yourself," said Mrs. Obama. 
Mrs. Obama picked Watertown, also home to a couple of companies that produce soft drinks, to promote the healthier H-2-O choice....

Coca-cola is missing the boat on water preference. There are flavor options without artificial sweetening or sugar. 

There is no reason why Coca-Cola can't market their 'alternative' choices in the form pocket sized flavors.

The First Lady gets incredible results. The obesity epidemic is starting to be reversed and she is directly responsible for that. If I were a beverage marketer I would not miss out on "The Healthy Water Craze" in the country.



By Monica Matheny
Say goodbye to soda, juice, and bottled water (click here) with these refreshing, healthy flavors! I'm keeping 2-3 flavors of this "spa water" in my fridge now, so I have a variety to motivate me to drink more water....
...Subtle flavor without sweetness
These aren't sweet waters, so they'll be disappointing if that's what you're expecting. This is water with subtle flavors infused into it. Water with a little something extra. A touch of flavor--not an explosion of flavor--with little or no sweetness. You've probably had pitchers of ice water with lemon served at restaurants. This is the same idea, but with more variety. Many spas serve fancy waters like these, and it turns out that they couldn't be simpler to make. And, they are oh-so-refreshing....


Coca-Cola is a good partner with Americans, but, they have to move up in morality and bring along a good, healthy flavor for water that comes along in a lunch box. For the investment Coca-Cola makes in the people of the USA I would think they would put their 'full moral game' on and not just go halfway.

In this June 7, 2012 file photo, Steve Cahillane, president of Coca-Cola Americas, makes a point during an interview with the Associated Press while attending the Clinton Global Initiative America gathering in Chicago. Cahillane is scheduled to be at at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 13, 2013, to sign a five-year partnership with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to restore watersheds that have been damaged or altered by development, wildfires and agriculture. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, September 13, 3:20 PM
 
CHICAGO — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (click here) and Coca-Cola signed a five-year agreement Friday to restore watersheds that have been damaged or altered by development, wildfires and agriculture as part of an initiative to slow runoff and replenish groundwater on federal lands.Such efforts are increasingly important to corporations and farmers who rely on water and to tens of millions of people whose drinking water originates in the national forest system, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. But federal budget cuts and the wide scope of the problem have the USDA turning to partnerships with nonprofit groups and corporations for help....

What Judd Gregg does not understand is that actions speak far louder than words

Paulson left with the goods. He took his wad of cash and went to China. And like a cursed idol he then saw devaluing economic trends in China. Now he wants to make Goldman Sachs 2 - China an American liability when he does the same stupid stuff he did before, but, without Chinese regulation. Then China will have to bail him out, but, what he forgets is that the Chinese sentenced the "Baby Formula" and "Dog Chow" manufacturers to death.

If he is relying on the same compassion from the Chinese as from Americans he is barking up the wrong tree. He won't be met with anything, but, distain; unless George "W"'s brother has influence, then he might receive an exist visa and be grateful for it.

Quantitative Easing was to put 'liquid capital' in the hands of a recovering financial systems since it was believed the banks had no residual cash to lend Americans.

There was a cap on QE1 and QE2. There is still no cap on QE3 since it was designed to meet stubborn unemployment figures. The banks are simply feeding at the trough and have no intention of doing anything else with an infinite timeline. 

It has to end and stop the ideologies being toyed with by the financial sector. Americans need to build their OWN local economies, enjoy and make it their future and that of their children. 

"Wrap you mind around the idea that a well educated society rich with diversity and value of all that is possible is a great America. Economic growth comes out of ideas and not population. The greatest sin in pursing that path is the desire to be full of goodness and possibility. That is never a bad thing. Economies can be what a society makes it and not just based on fulfilling a need. Does the carnival ride fulfill a need? No, but, it sure is fun. AND SAFE." 

America's greatest need is disposable income. It builds rainy day funds, a down payment on a home and QUALITY OF LIFE. Where do Americans find disposable income? Unions and vibrant local economies. What happens with disposable income? Spending, a larger economy, more opportunity and a larger tax base leading to more police, firefighters, teachers and better educational opportunity infrastructure.

Judd Gregg is actually stating TARP was the savior of the Middle Class and the American economy?

Let's start with this. This is a joke. The Global Economic COLLAPSE was actually a collapse. I reality Paulson never felt it, but, it did destroy the global economy. It just didn't destroy the FEW banks left standing. And the truth is, the ONLY major bank still standing that should be still standing is JP Morgan.

By Michael O'Brien - 04/26/10 10:47 AM ET

Republicans went "too far" (click here) when they spearheaded the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, a top GOP lawmaker said Monday. 

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said that many of his current colleagues erred when they voted to repeal the 1932 act that mandated, among other things, the separation of commercial and investment banking.

"There's no question that, in 1999, when they 'deregulated' by getting rid of Glass-Steagall — something that was done with a Republican Congress and a Democratic president — I think we really went too far in saying there are banks and there are non-banks and they can own each other," Issa said Monday during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" on the Fox Business Network....


This bears the DEMAND that banks are not only best regulated, but, small enough to actually manage.

The reason Paulson is screaming there is going to be another collapse is because he is a Wealth Junkie and he has spent all the liquidity he gained with Quantitative Easing. The 'start up' in China was not cheap and I guarantee his creature comforts were and are plenty.

That is the huge folly and "Good Ole Boy's Club" of Bernanke. He kept padding the pockets of the wealthy because, "Well, we just aren't there yet, Ben." And of course, Gentle Ben wanted to create a more bearish economy that was stable and unshakable.  

What Bernanke created instead was so much liquidity it INHERITED disaster along with it. Why? Because all the same old players are in place STILL and no one learned anything, except, how to capitalize on failure. 

All the regulations have to go back in place, "Bank Fitness Tests" have to be chronic and Quantitative Easing has to stop, it is destroying the monetary systems of countries.

Paulson is a parasite, he needs to take his whining elsewhere. "It is for the record." Like hell, it is for the propaganda.

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Judd Gregg, CEO at Securities Industry & Financial Market Association, recalls his personal experience in meetings with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson about the TARP program and the public perception of the program. He speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg Surveillance."

No more cheap construction along the Jersey Shore.

Slate roofs and fire walls with sprinkler systems. Redundancy is a good thing. The reason construction is never that expensive is because of the possibility of hurricanes. The fire danger has to be mitigated to build better structures. The other possibility are concrete block walls. Whatever.

I can't believe how lame this is.

There are no 'gotcha questions' in diplomacy. It is about RELIABLE partners. A Top Secret mission to move munitions to undermine the diplomatic process and 'go to guns' is pure stupidity. People on the ground on both sides of the negotiations will be pulling all kinds of nonsense in order to undermine the diplomatic process. Some can be mitigated and some can't. But, this is similar to the end of a war. It is where the national leaders have signed the peace treaty, but, there are 'DEAD ENDERS' that just don't get it yet.

Evidently, The West's press 'just don't get it.' The media dead enders are everywhere.

Those are outrageous demands by the rebels. They aren't interested in keeping people alive so much as prosecute Assad.

These levels of resistance to progress of peace are unhelpful. They don't want to save their own people's lives? I doubt the top level movement of Syria's weapons are the Assad forces, so much as WHOM is moving what. 

Do I think the Wall Street journal has top secret attachments that the United Nations don't? No. Murdoch's empire is known to be liars and propagandists. Just because the USA is stuck with the Wall Street journal on this issue, it has to be validated in duplicity outside of the USA. There is too much political baggage in the USA to consider the media honest and forthright, especially when it comes to Murdoch.

Where is the OFFICIAL assessment? 

Murdoch is not a reliable source of anything. His media outlets only seek to inflame the circumstances. His organizations are Wall Street and support that point of view. In my opinion, their corporate model is so tainted it is completely invaluable. The only reason they are still in business is because Murdoch has created a local media monopoly. Most, if not all other news agencies in the USA are dependent on the local information and cover FOX provides. If 'citizen journalists' really want 'a place in it,' they need to provide the local coverage now provided by the national fleet of FOX media wagons.

CBS News/ September 12, 2013, 5:04 AM

...Late Wednesday, Gen. Salim Idriss, (click here) the head of the SNC's military council, said in a video posted online that he and his fellow rebel commanders "announce our definitive rejection of the Russian initiative to place chemical weapons under international custody."

"We ask that the international community not be content with withdrawing chemical weapons, which are a criminal instrument, but to hold the perpetrator accountable and prosecute him at the International Criminal Court," Idriss said, blaming Assad for an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburbs which the Obama administration says left at least 1,400 people dead....