Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:00:08 -0400
Politico....
Washington Post sells access, $25,000+
For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper
’s own reporters and editors.The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.".....
Katherine Graham is turning in her grave.
"Misogyny,..is bullet-proof. It’s not merely tolerated, it’s openly celebrated ...Except for a puny consortium of bruised and contused blamers ...even the victims of this oppression embrace it."
[...]
Frankly, this is simply incredible. Dana Milbank of the WaPo; he of the hissy fit over Nico Pitney asking a question at an Obama presser should have some comment on this.
From the WaPo offer:
"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate," says the one-page flier. "Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. ... Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders …Here is an important question - what "key Obama Administration and Congressional players" was WaPo offering? And what were these "players" getting in return? This is simply scandalous.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
But - the CEO and Chairman of WaPo, (Katherine's son Donald Graham) has been a regular Bilderberg attendee for oh so many years... ;)
UN official demands torture accountability
Ratner: Navi Pillay, UN human rights advocate says senior officials must be held accountable
Link goes directly to video which starts upon opening link. About 8 min.
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Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Each month, I receive from Leo Hindery an update on "America's effective unemployment rate" which includes not only the official unemployment figures but other data points showing off-the-books unemployed or underemployed people.
The numbers are staggering and are aggregates of official data. They matter because various Obama administration officials including the President himself started off calling for huge stimulus packages to help generate "jobs, jobs, jobs!"
But now, I have been hearing more and more from senior Obama economic team members about the jobs they hoped for coming at the very tail end of an economic recovery. Others are talking about a GDP recovery -- but not a jobs recovery. They are admitting as well that they underestimated the severity of this recession and its impact on unemployment levels.
And all this while Goldman Sachs and other financial houses have seen their balance sheets get cleaned up and bonuses surge.
Hindery writes:
Here is a June 2009 version of the summary that calculates the Effective Unemployment Rate, which is now 18.70%, and the Effective Number of Unemployed, which is now 30,172,000.There are currently 14,729,000 officially unemployed workers, as just announced. However, this figure does not include the combined 15,443,000 workers either (1) in the "labor force reserve" because they have abandoned their job searches (i.e., 4,278,000) or (2) underemployed because they are "part-time of necessity" (i.e., 8,989,000) or "otherwise marginally attached" (i.e., 2,176,000).
The effective unemployment rate is therefore 18.70%, instead of the official 9.51%.
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of workers who are officially unemployed has increased by 7,188,000, while almost twice as many workers - 13,290,000 - have become effectively unemployed. And all the while, we should have been creating around 2,250,000 new jobs (i.e., 18 months times 125,000 jobs per month) just to keep up with population growth.
In June, the number of workers officially unemployed increased 218,000, while the number of workers effectively unemployed actually decreased 35,000.
Who could have predicted?
Well except for Krugman, Selig, Dean and all the other economists who were not tied to Wall St....and therefore completely ignored by the administration.
"Misogyny,..is bullet-proof. It’s not merely tolerated, it’s openly celebrated ...Except for a puny consortium of bruised and contused blamers ...even the victims of this oppression embrace it."
I see two things that the "effective unemployment rate" does not account for. One is that unemployment is much worse in certain demographics and sectors. Minorities are an obvious example. But also young people, who in many cases need the money to continue their educations, which perpetuates the problem far into the future. Also certain industries or other economic sectors, and thus the cities and regions that rely upon them.
I wonder whether it would be too far fetched to say that unemployment may be effectively as high as 50% for certain groups of people. Maybe more? Sounds a lot more like the Great Depression II when considered in that light.
The second thing is not reflected in this statistic is the rate of underemployment. A lot of people who have lost their jobs have had to take new ones that don't really pay enough to live on. Many have lost their health insurance. Others are living without things they would normally consider essential, in hope it will only be temporary. Some of them are eating up their savings or going farther and farther into debt and the FACT is they just plain have no other choice (altho when they do go bankrupt or lose their homes, some people will say they were living beyond their means). And many who are "making it" live in constant fear of some big financial catastrophe (like a sick kid, or a car that needs a new engine) that will put them irretrievably in the hole.
A lot of historians attribute WWII directly to the first Great Depression, which was a lot worse overseas than it was in this country. Well, most wars have had the fight for resources at their root cause, and leaders are known to start conflicts to divert their people's attention from difficult times. Throw in the population pressures from rising sea levels and things could get real ugly real soon.
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1) TREAT OTHERS WITH RESPECT
2) TAKE SMALL PRACTICAL STEPS FORWARD
3) DON'T COMPROMISE YOUR PRINCIPLES
Feisty as ever.....thank the goddesses.