Misblog

Originally Published August 19, 2009; Last Updated March 15, 2010; Last Republished March 15, 2010:

Today the NYT is reporting that during King Bush the Idiot's reign our CIA hired the private security company Blackwater^1,4 to assassinate jihadists².

Guess King Bush the Idiot and his jesters didn't want the hassle of paperwork, torture, and indefinite detention that came with unilaterally designating them as an enemy combatant.

Web:

• UPDATED 03/15/2010 NYT, Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants.

• UPDATED 02/03/2010 Reuters, Spy agencies can target Americans: official. Blair's comments provide some clarification but more is necessary.

  "...whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American is a threat to other Americans, those are the factors involved,...We don't target people for free speech. We target them for taking action that threatens Americans,"--Director National Intelligence, Dennis Blair--

  A bank robber is taking actions that threaten Americans—surely we don't envision a CIA, JSOC, or Blackwater team listing for "capture or kill".

  There must be a hostile and subversive organizational element (e.g. member of al Qaida, or other organization that has declared war or hostilities) with the imminent ability to implement the war or hostilities.

  It must exclude the United States geography to prevent CIA, JSOC and Blackwater assassins roaming our streets.

• UPDATED 01/23/2010 BBC, Biden vows the US will appeal in Iraq Blackwater case.

• UPDATED 01/11/2010 ProPublica, Disposable Army: Civilian Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  ProPublica in cooperation with LA Times, ABC News, and Washington Post has begun an important series aimed at informing the current debate on privatizing war and related issues.

  Stated in the language used by those who argue privatization is a panacea for everything; is an "efficient war" a desire, delusion, or just damn dangerous?

  It should be noted that much of the asserted "efficiency" comes from front loaded cash payment while denying needed short and long-term care when the inevitable injuries associated with war occur.

  Many of those injured are foreigners whose environment and circumstances do not enable them to fully evaluate or assess the risks

  Wonder what steps companies like L3, Titan, Blackwater et al. take to ensure their educated, undereducated, and illiterate contractors correctly understand and evaluate the risks, assuming you think such is possible.

  Ultimately you have to ask whom are these people engaging in these "war efficiencies" for gain? Should any nation encourage such efficiencies much less engage in obtaining such efficiencies?

  Don't we want war to so inefficient that nations dare not engage in it? And any nation engaging in war becomes bankrupt, both economically and morally?

• UPDATED 01/07/2010 WP, Two defense contractors indicted in shooting of Afghan citizens.

  Ironically, the privatization of war is destructive of our democracy because it enables our leadership to war with little or no accountability.

  Our leadership can perpetually war simply by purchasing a private army that theoretically may be composed entirely of hapless under paid (relative to the risk) foreigners to fight as our proxies.

  For example a private contractor like Blackwater⁴ may implement a form of mercantile mercenary war by hiring hapless Chilean special forces for say $1,000 per month per soldier (an increase over what the Chilean government pays) and then bill our Pentagon $18,000 - 24,000 per month or more for each foreign soldier.

  The number of possible harmful outcomes from using a mercantile mercenary war strategy is numerous, but perhaps the most harmful outcome is that our nation may begin to imagine it can war with little or no costs.

  After all it’s the Chilean or Chinese or Australians or Russian mercenaries who are dying and if the revenue generated is greater than the costs then it’s a clever and viable enterprise to those who think privatization is a panacea! A valid and efficient economic welfare transaction, they'd assert.

• UPDATED 01/03/2010 Reuters, Iraq to support Blackwater lawsuit in U.S. courts.
• UPDATED 12/31/2009 Reuters, Judge [Ricardo Urbina] throws out Blackwater manslaughter charges.

• UPDATED 12/17/2009 Vanity Fair, Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy.

  Former Special Forces, soldier mercenary, and proprietor of Blackwater Erik Prince is coming in from the cold shadows with a message for his prior sponsors and others now investigating...I'm not going down alone or in silence.

• UPDATED 12/17/2009 NPR, Blackwater: Private Army In The News Again

  NPR, Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviews Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater's¹ CIA, JSOC, and Executive³ sponsored mercenary roles in the Iraq and Afghanistan debacles.

  When do these unaccountable "darkside" shadow operations (shadow finance, shadow military, and shadow executive) consume their sponsors?

• UPDATED 08/20/2009 WP, CIA Hired Firm for Assassin Program (no link has be provided because the Washington Post requires a no cost login):

  "But in 2004, after briefly terminating the program, agency officials decided to revive it under a different code name, using outside contractors, the officials said.

  "Outsourcing gave the agency more protection in case something went wrong," said a retired intelligence officer intimately familiar with the assassination program."--WP

  • UPDATED 01/27/2010 WP, Dana Priest article, U.S. military teams, intelligence deeply involved in aiding Yemen on strikes [The article has been clarified to say that the CIA "capture or kill" list does not include U.S. citizens.]

    The standard for listing on the High Value Target List remains unclear. It has been report as recently as January 27, 2010 as "a continuing and imminent threat to U.S. persons and interests," which seems incredibly broad and dangerous for designating to a "capture or kill" list.

    There must be a hostile and subversive organizational element (e.g. member of al Qaida, or other organization that has declared war or hostilities) with the imminent ability to implement the war or hostilities.

    It must exclude the United States geography to prevent CIA, JSOC and Blackwater assassins roaming our streets.

• UPDATED 08/20/2009 UPI, CIA, Blackwater planned assassination
• NYT, C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists

-----notes-----

1. Blackwater's lawless reputation is well known which likely factored into its decision to change its name to "Xe" (Zee). Different name same lawless assassins.

Blackwater has more aliases than a terrorist; the newest after Xe is U.S. Training Center, but there are many others.

It's unfortunate that so many of our Special Forces soldiers choose to work for Xe (aka Blackwater) after serving in our well respected Special Forces.

UPDATED 08/20/2009 Former CIA officials also work for the Xe.

2. Outsourcing to private contractors should not be used as a method of enabling our government to do what it could not or would not otherwise do.

The privatization of our government's exclusive war functions should cease immediately.

UPDATED 08/20/2009 It's difficult to imagine a more baleful combination than our government's secret budgets supporting the outsourcing of its war function to a group of exCIA and exSpecial Forces subcontractors. This is not a harmful revolving door it's an explosive mind field.

3. Unfortunately the Obama administration has chosen to continue the Afghanistan debacle and the usage of shadow operations—the Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal was previously the commander of JSOC.

4. UPDATED 01/07/2010 Blackwater and similar companies prefer the term private security company or private security contractor instead of mercenary for legal and moral reasons. The term mercenary implies you are simply killing for financial gain instead of say God or Seventy-Two Virgins or allegiance to country.

Here's how some protocols define mercenary—a mercenary is any person who:

• Is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict; and
• Does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities; and
• Is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain.

Now compare what Blackwater employees do or did in Iraq, Afghanistan, and worldwide and judge for yourself whether they are mercenary.

See also Congressional Research Service Report, Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: Legal Issues dated December 2009 (R40991) for a short discussion.

It appears the Republicans have added another "mission accomplished" to their inventory, a mission previously thought near impossible—uniting the Democrats on a strategy to move forward, notwithstanding select senator gridlock and special interest hurdles.

Finally, almost over a healthcare hurdle—on to the affordable world-class education for our children hurdle.

Web:

UPI, Obama to overhaul No Child Left Behind. "Our competitors understand that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow"--UPI quoting the President-- Some things have universal characteristics, not to mention universally adorable—her backpack is half her size.

Originally Published December 23, 2009; Last Updated March 11, 2010; Last Republished March 11, 2010:

Wonder when our cannibal capitalists and their patrons1 are going to acknowledge that an "invisible hand" does not mean "sleight of hand" and apologize for the harm they've caused? Fortunately, hubris and lack of humility are not weaponry—on the other hand weaponry's harm is relatively local. A "sleight of hand", in the absence of acknowledgment and apology generally invites a reactive "heavy hand".

Res:

• UPDATED 02/20/2010 FRB St. Louis, Financial Crisis Timeline

• UPDATED 01/13/2010 The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

  Hopefully, the FCIC will make collateral recommendations for mitigating or obviating each risk it recommends that our banks henceforth reject—the risks and collateral problems don't just disappear because we prohibit our banks from accepting or exploiting those risks.

Web:

• UPDATED 03/11/2010 Reuters, Big majority wants Wall Street regulation.

• UPDATED 02/06/2010 Reuters, G7 wants banks to pay for rescue, details pending

  What a wonderful idea—what could be more capitalist than saying to our financial institutions, if you recklessly or negligently send a defective or Trojan financial product into the global stream of commerce you will be held accountable.

  Not only for the direct bailout cost but also all the proximate costs of the entire global financial carnage!

  ...and rather than getting all “lawyered up” government’s on behalf of the citizens of each nation can just incrementally recoup the damages—a kind of lawyerless global product liability class action (ironically a judge might not permit such a lawsuit because the carnage is too speculative!).

  Is there difference if a business fails because it lacks liquidity or electricity? Is failure to modify a defective or Trojan financial product really a failure to mitigate damages for which punitive damages should be assessed and added to the other damages?

• UPDATED 02/03/2010 UPI, Obama to Democrats: 'Finish the job'

  "We've got to finish the job" on healthcare and financial regulatory reform, reducing the deficit and other tough issues,...We've got to finish the job even though it's hard."

  In another article the president went on to say:

  "If anybody is searching for a lesson from Massachusetts, I promise you the answer is not to do nothing,"

  We may just have a leader in our White House—go Mr. President.

  Put the cots, catering service, and senate physician on standby, there maybe a couple "real filibusters”!

• UPDATED 01/31/2010 NYT OpEd Paul Volcker, How to Reform Our Financial System . Former Federal Reserve Chairman supports urgent banking reforms consistent (or if you prefer not inconsistent) with the president's current proposal.

  The former chairman argues for spinning-off the bank's high-risk mega gambling operations (hedge funds, private equity funds, and proprietary trading) in to separate entities leaving our banks to focus on traditional banking operations.

  Basically returning to an updated version of the system as it was before McCain et al turned Adam Smith's invisible hand in to their sleight-of-hand. Not surprisingly some of our banks argue for continuing the current commingling or confusing internal walling operations as cover for their high-risk gambling operations.

  When the bank's high-risk gambling operations are untangled and spun-off it will be simpler to ensure the high risk gambling operations stand or fall on their own and do not hold our traditional banking or financial system at risk.

• UPDATED 01/13/2010 Reuters, Barons of Wall Street concede failures, defend pay.²

  Hopefully the FCIC will have access, voluntarily or via subpoena and legal process, to all relevant documents, testimony, and persons, notwithstanding any prior SEC or Treasury or other agency agreements.

• UPDATED 01/13/2010 CSM, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: Top bankers contrite, sort of.

  Commissioner Angelides on JP Morgan Chase et al.'s selling securitized tranches of high-risk mortgages and simultaneously hedging that those tranches will default:

  "It seems like you were selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on that car"--Angelides--

  Perhaps, but a car with faulty brakes can be turned off and steered to the roadside; or put it in reverse; or preventably crashed without paralyzing or destroying our entire national highway system.

• UPDATED 01/10/2010 NYT, Walk Away From Your Mortgage!.

  Instead of restructuring distorted (some might say fraudulent) primary residence mortgages our cannibal capitalists are telling our homeowners they have a responsibility to make good on their distorted mortgage.

  That's the same thing the cannibal capitalists has told our Treasury when the Treasury was forced to stabilize the financial system and bailout the bankrupt hedge funds—you have an obligation to pay 100% of our bet against homeowners' ability to pay and Treasury is so far doing it.

  How about instead if our cannibal capitalists apologize for their [insert your own words]; restructure (principle and interest) the distorted primary residence mortgages (perhaps all nonspeculative mortgages?) to reflect current economic conditions; and Not pay 100% on the dollar to the hedge funds (CDO) betting against our homeowners' ability to pay!

  Yes, it's "complex" and messy; Yes, our nation's international standing will suffer; Yes, it will take us years to recover; Yes, our free markets (financial or goods) are not always efficient; Yes, we must prohibit gambling with our nation's and children's future; Yes, we must restrain the insatiable cannibal capitalists (it's worth noting the cannibal capitalists' behavior risk taking or incentives for risk taking has changed little since the meltdown) lest they devour our nation, capitalists, others, and themselves.

• UPDATED 12/24/2009 Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won

  “The simultaneous selling of securities to customers and shorting them because they believed they were going to default is the most cynical use of credit information that I have ever seen,”--NYT quoting consultant Sylvain R. Raynes--

  Dig deep enough and you're likely to discover their mother or grandmother was a customer!

-----notes-----

1. In the case of congressional patrons they are also benefactors from those participating in the thinly disguise system of legal bribery called campaign finance.

In the case of the tinker think tanks the patrons on the government side of the revolving door are the benefactors on the tank side of the door.

It's useful to note that the patron-benefactor revolver incentivizes extreme policy by shielding its participants from the effects the extreme policy. Your next job is as a paid lobbyist for those extreme policies while you wait for the revolver to cycle.

2. UPDATED 01/13/2009 Focusing exclusively on bankers may cause you to miss other salaries like Christine M. Oliver, President and CEO of the non-profit Chicago Dwellings Association—compensation-salary in 2008 $685,000 (see Big Salary for Chicago Housing Nonprofit Exec).

Originally Published October 09, 2009; Last Updated March 11, 2010; Last Republished March 11, 2010:

Our high school principals (circus ringmaster is a more apropos title) have tough jobs and rarely will you discover one who does not genuinely care for their students. However, periodically our principals will disrupt the very diverse and dynamic learning environment they are responsible for developing, nurturing, and maintaining for the benefit of our sometimes not so grateful teens⁶.

Such is the case for North Cobb High School principal Phillip D. Page¹ when he offered assaulted⁴ student Jonathan Escobar the option of dressing more masculine or switching to a home school program.

An intolerant environment is never a learning environment—in fact intolerance by definition presumes there is nothing to learn. Exactly the opposite of the diverse and dynamic learning environment principals work so hard to develop, nurture, and maintain.

The reported facts are sketchy⁴. Apparently Jonathan is anatomically male but is more comfortable presenting as a female. Some of Jonathan's peers felt uncomfortable³ with Jonathan's feminine presentation and decided an assault⁴ was a proper remedy for their discomfort.

Principal Page instead of condemning the assault⁴ as an ineffective remedy for one's discomfort implicitly condemned Jonathan's feminine attire. Having condemned Jonathan's attire it logically followed, for Principal Page, that such attire is disruptive and must therefore be removed from North Cobb's environment.

By implicitly condemning Jonathan's attire, declaring it disruptive, and insisting on its removal Principal Page has himself disrupted North Cobb High School's learning environment.

Principal Page should immediately reverse his error by apologizing and inviting Jonathan back to North Cobb High School (assuming Jonathan wants to return⁵). Taking whatever steps are necessary to ensure Jonathan's safety while at school so that all students have an opportunity to learn and benefit from Jonathan's presence².

Web:

• Other Incidents of Gender Harassment:

  • UPDATED 03/11/2010 UPI, Prom canceled over same-sex date flap .

    Many of our schools, instead of teaching our children to master the concepts of tolerance are breeding pools for a harmful and virulent infectious intolerance—as with all harmful infectious vectors we must isolate and control or eliminate them.

    Additionally, we must do more to ensure all of our states achieve parity in providing our children continuous access to a quality education measured by rigorous national standards (UPI, Govs, educators propose common standards)—ensuring that tolerance replaces intolerance and high educational attainment replaces ignorance.

    Unfortunately, for awhile it may take lawsuits to guarantee our children are treated equally and with tolerance and treat others the same.

  • UPDATED 01/15/2010 NPR, Justice Department Intervenes In Gay Rights Suit.

  • UPDATED 12/23/2009 UPI, Santa costume gets student suspended.

    Imagine the self-discipline required of our principals who must sit across from a santa-suited student and say with a straight face: "there's nothing wrong with your santa-suit, you just can't wear it to class"!

    ...the santa-suit wearing student was sent home for the day...his comment..."there were elves and reindeer and they didn't get suspended..."

    What about that principal Phillip D. Page (not connected with Strath Haven High)...how come the elves and reindeer didn't get suspended...wouldn't it just be better if our schools focused on teaching our students how to learn instead of how to dress what to wear.

• UPDATED 11/10/2009 NYT, Can a Boy Wear a Skirt to School?.

  Eventually we'll learn that it's the dress codes and fashion police creating the problem not what our students wear or don't wear.

  Evidently it's going to take awhile, we've been working on it since 19^th century women (and some men) first cinched up their curvy corset.

• UPDATED 10/19/2009 SouthernVoice, Student who wore female attire to North Cobb school returning to Miami.

• UPDATED 10/16/2009 SouthernVoice, What not to wear to school?.

  Why do our educators, administrators, and teachers persist in focusing on the irrelevant topic of a person's clothes?

  What does it matter if a person sits in class wearing a "Go Warriors" jersey and football helmet; or a band uniform and band leader's hat; or a neon pink diva wig and woman's dress boater hat with satin bow; or ninja costume; or judogi or clown face or whatever?

  Why aren't our educators, administrators, and teachers praising Jonathan's individuality and expressiveness, not to mention courage in exploring and developing his own identity?

  Surely our educators, administrators, and teachers are too enlightened to think a person's identity is: discoverable by reading a birth certificate; or determined by the jocks on the football team; or derived by the process of assault and battery.

  Wonder if you learn better dressed in what makes you comfortable with yourself or what makes others comfortable with you?

• UPDATED 10/10/2009 AJC, Cobb teen told he can't dress like a female at school
• UPI, Student withdraws from school over dress

-----notes-----

1. North Cobb High School is located in Kennesaw, Georgia and has a Great Schools overall rating of 7 of 10.

2. Principal Page's actions deprive other students from benefiting by Jonathan's presence.

By what logic can one or a few assaulting students deprive the entire student body (≈ 2,608) of North Cobb High School of the benefits from Jonathan's presence?

3. Education by definition is a diverse dynamic process. Stated differently what would a biologist learn by viewing the same cell, on the same slide, at the same magnification, with the same stain day after day?

Education (aka dynamic diversity) can be a painful process for our teens (particularly if they are taught or think it’s a static process). Just when a teen is confident they've worked out the whole penis-vagina thing, a Jonathan strolls past.

Damn...what the hell was that, they say to themselves? Some will begin the process of updating their learning (gender identity)—others will begin the process of updating their learning (civil society and assault).

So,...when does dynamic diversity (aka education) become disruptive? Your response is more important to the future of our nation than may be apparent on first thought.

Unfortunately Principal Page’s preference is for students updating their civil society and assault learning over those updating their gender identity learning (i.e. he removes Jonathan from North Cobb High School).

4. UPDATED 10/10/2009 It's unclear whether Jonathan was fearful or in apprehension of imminent harmful contact.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) reported (see "Web:" section above) that Jonathan said "Everybody was surrounding me [in the lunchroom]". The AJC also reported that police pulled Jonathan from class to express concern for his safety.

Jonathan has said in an interview with local media that a verbal altercation about him turned into a fight (i.e. battery) between other students.

5. UPDATED 10/25/2009 Jonathan has permanently withdrawn from the hostile and intolerant environment at North Cobb High School. (see Student who wore female attire to North Cobb school returning to Miami)

Notwithstanding there exist zero data supporting any notion that a student's clothing is in anyway positively correlated with education (unless indoctrination or dogma is a proxy for education).

The notion that education is a place or location where you are indoctrinated or learn dogma is oxymoronic. Our children are correct to reject such a notion and our educators, teachers, and administrators must do the same (also our School Boards, Legislatures, and Supreme Court).

School is a dynamic and diverse environment where our children learn to learn, not where they are indoctrinated and recite dogma. School is not just a three-ring circus—in the case of North Cobb High School it's a two-thousand-six-hundred-eight-ring circus. One less now that Jonathan has permanently withdrawn. Not a comfortable environment for a dogmatist.

The risk of confusing education with indoctrination or dogmatic learning is that you produce dynamically illiterate individuals. The impacts of dynamic illiteracy are at this very moment negatively impacting a significant portion of our globe as populations struggle against a fast changing world.

Stated differently their dogma is obsolete and they cannot dynamically adapt—they only know how to wear one set of clothing in a clothing optional world. Increasingly their one set of clothing includes a suicide vest—each detonation is a poignant declaration against teaching or learning dogma. (see NYT Breaking News October 25, 2009; 0841am EST, Iraq Ministries Targeted in Car Bombings; Over 130 Dead)

6. UPDATED 10/26/2009 Many times it's the dynamically illiterate parents imposing their dogma on a principal.

Our school boards, legislatures, and Supreme Court can help immensely in this regard by protecting our principals from dogmatic parents. Occasionally it’s the school boards and legislatures imposing the dogma, which is where our Supreme Court can help.

Originally Published January 12, 2010; Last Updated March 10, 2010; Last Republished February 10, 2010:

Google is no longer willing to serve the China market while aiding and abetting the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) censorship of the Internet.

Discussions are ongoing, but given the CCP's recent efforts to tighten its grip on the Internet, it's likely Google will be leaving China, if temporarily.

Some in China have begun to debate whether China wants a civil society with universal characteristics or a CCP dictatorship with Chinese characteristics.

The recently increased Internet restrictions by the CCP are its initial efforts to gain an advantage and control that debate.

If the CCP thought their restrictive efforts would succeed there'd be no need to hack and attack Google or target Chinese human rights activists' accounts.

Res:

• Google, A new approach to China.

Blog:

• UPDATED 01/15/2010 ChinaScope, ChinaScope 39: Google's fight in China. Adds some context and perspective.

• UPDATED 01/14/2010 CDT, “It’s Not Google that’s Withdrawing from China; It’s China that’s Withdrawing from the World” (Updated with Photos).

  Unfortunately, the posting title maybe all too prescient. The community of nations must do everything possible to convince China that hiding behind walls is no longer an option.

Web:

• UPDATED 03/05/2010 Reuters, Beijing says working with Google to resolve dispute.

  • UPDATED 03/10/2010LAT, Google wants U.S. to include Internet freedom in trade agreements

    Google's Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong urges (pdf) lawmakers (House Committee Foreign Affairs Hearing) to incorporate free (frictionless) Internet information flows into our trade agreements—a most excellent idea.

• UPDATED 02/26/2010 NYT, Hacking Inquiry Puts China’s Elite in New Light.

• UPDATED 02/24/2010 Reuters, China says Google hacking claims "groundless".

  Hey Qin Gang, you'll want to at least make some pretense toward investigating the allegations before informing us China does everything by the law and chefs can't write software code.

• UPDATED 02/18/2010 NYT, Two Chinese Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks.

• UPDATED 02/12/2010 NYT, China Alarmed by Security Threat From Internet.

  One of the significant benefits of building and maintaining a civil society is that the nation gets methods for dealing with rumors, splits, and discord for free!

  Otherwise the nation must waste considerable resources building, maintaining, and managing the coercive, repressive, and corrupt machinery needed to control "rumors", "splits", and "discord" to impose a "harmonious" society.

  The resources are wasted because the oxymoronic and Sisyphean effort to impose harmony eventually fails, inflicting great harm in the process¹.

• UPDATED 02/04/2010 WP, Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks.

  It appears Google is in the process of finalizing a non-disclosure agreement with our spy agency (NSA) that will share the raw digital debris and system environment related to the recent China hacking of their system (Aurora cyber-attacks).

  The joint effort is likely aimed at developing a fingerprint of the attack, which can then be used in response to future cyber-threats.

  Needless to say the teaming arrangement raises may questions not the least of which is what digital forensic capabilities are found at the NSA that aren't better obtained elsewhere? Given Google’s dominant technical and market position it may be getting help from a competent benign partner (from Google’s perspective) than the best malignant one?

  Given Google’s hyper sensitivity to users and its motto "Don't be evil" we can expect a lot more explanation in the near future.

• UPDATED 02/03/2010 BBC, Net firms quizzed on China plans.

  Durbin sends letter to technology firms regarding Internet freedom in China.

• UPDATED 01/30/2010 USDoS, Remarks at the International Conference on Afghanistan [included a question on China-Google Internet].

  Our nation is very fortunate indeed to have this Secretary of State at this time in our short history.

  "...I [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] raised the issue, as you would have expected I did, on the Google and internet freedom front. China has its approach. Obviously, they feel strongly that they are much more open than perhaps they’re getting credit for. We expressed – I expressed my concerns that we don’t want to create a series of actions that in any way impinges on the freedom and utility of the internet. But it was a very open, candid conversation. We agreed we will continue to discuss this matter in the context of our ongoing dialogue...."--Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--

• UPDATED 01/23/2010 Reuters, Bill Gates says Internet needs to thrive in China.

  It's difficult to determine whether Microsoft's chairman is being disingenuous, opportunistic, or just censorship apologist for China's communist party.

  Hopefully Microsoft's chairman will provide his definition of limited in the coming days—many would not refer to China’s censorship as limited.

  It should also be pointed out that it is not just censorship that is at issue but illegal cyber-attacks and exploits involving Microsoft's Internet browser (see Microsoft tackles 17-year old bug; perhaps a warning label "use at your own risk" is in order).

  Most would not disagree that China (and all nations) must have a thriving Internet—preferably with zero to minimal content censorship.

• UPDATED 01/23/2010 Reuters, China says it needs no Internet lessons from U.S..

  ...well, Mr. Min Dahong with all due respect you do need lessons on not engaging in censorship of the global Internet.

  A country by connecting to the global Internet (as opposed to non-global intranets) incurs certain minimum obligations, among them, minimum friction on information flows and freedom of expression, not engaging in or sponsoring cyber-attacks or cyber-warfare....

• UPDATED 01/21/2010 Reuters, China downplays Internet feud with United States and United States Department of State, Internet Freedom, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

  One can certainly understand China's assertion that the "Google Incident" shouldn't be linked to our bilateral relationship.

  However, the international process of acquiring intellectual property and gaining access to frictionless information flows goes to the very heart of our bilateral relationship.

  "...And censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere. And in America, American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand. I’m confident that consumers worldwide will reward companies that follow those principles.....No nation, no group, no individual should stay buried in the rubble of oppression. We cannot stand by while people are separated from the human family by walls of censorship. And we cannot be silent about these issues simply because we cannot hear the cries...."--Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--

• UPDATED 01/20/2010 Reuters, U.S. has met with China on Internet freedom: official.
• UPDATED 01/17/2010 NYT, After Google’s Stand on China, U.S. Treads Lightly.

• UPDATED 01/16/2010 Reuters, Yahoo pulled into Google fracas, Alibaba reacts.

  Why isn't every American and democratic based company speaking out on behalf of Google—it's not like we do not know how unconstrained authoritarian-totalitarian leaning regimes end.

  Do theses companies suppose in an era of the Internet and Wikileaks they can secretly aid and abet China's authoritarian regime for gain?

• UPDATED 01/15/2010 Reuters, U.S. to send formal message [demarche] to China on Google case.

  Formally puts frictionless information flow (hacking is one form of friction), and Internet on China-U.S. track I radar.

• UPDATED 01/14/2010 Reuters, U.S. backs Google in China spat, seeks explanation.
• Reuters, Google says may pull out of China after Web attacks.

-----notes-----

1. Of course civil society leadership can also inflict great harm on a nation—witness the great harm inflicted on our nation by its previous leadership (two disastrous conflicts and an economic meltdown).

However, in a civil society leadership replacement and corrective action is relatively immediate and swift, thereby mitigating and containing the harm.

Originally Published February 16, 2008; Last Updated March 10, 2010; Last Republished March 10, 2010:

Danish newspapers should continue publishing the cartoons parodying the violence advocated in the name of the prophet Mohammad until Danish authorities have locked up all those using violence to suppress ideas they find offensive.

Muslim clerics and followers of the prophet Mohammad, in Denmark and elsewhere need a different message. Advocating or using violence on behalf of the prophet Mohammad is a brain-dead message and strategy—whether to suppress speech, cartoons or the film Submission.

Not everybody thinks that rocking, reciting, and chanting the Koran until you're brain dead is a good idea!

The controversial cartoons that were published and republished by Danish newspapers (and others) can be viewed by clicking on the below published cartoon:

Web:

• UPDATED 03/10/2010 NYT, Pennsylvania Woman Tied to Plot on Cartoonist.
• UPDATED 10/28/2009 CSM, FBI arrests two Chicago men for Danish terror plot.

• UPDATED 10/27/2009 CSM, Islamic countries push a global 'blasphemy' law.

  It might not be obvious to some followers of Islam but the world in general and America in particular has had quite a bit of experience with "blasphemy laws" to nefarious affect and effect.

  Stated differently, if Islam is beneficial to people it will not need blasphemy laws, promises of seventy-two virgins in heaven, suicide-bombers, jihadists, jihad wars, suppression of critical speech, physical violence, censorship, filters, repression, coercion, or ignorance¹ to protect and perpetuate it.

  If on the other hand Islam (or other religions) proves not to be beneficial to people it will need all of the above and more to protect and perpetuate it.

• UPDATED 02/19/2008 CSM, Republished Danish cartoon of prophet Muhammad ignites tensions

• UPDATED 02/17/2008 BBC, Danish MPs refuse cartoon apology Danes tell the Iranians to fuck off, diplomatically of course: "If anyone needs to apologise for freedom of speech, human rights, imprisonments, executions and lack of democracy, it is the Iranians."--Villy Soevndal--

  Kudos to the Danes!

• UPI, Muslim clerics upset about cartoon revival

-----notes-----

1. Lacking access to education and uncensored and unfiltered ideas—inhibited or impeded in freedom of thought, judgment, and decision.

Originally Published January 24, 2009; Last Updated March 15, 2010; Last Republished March 09, 2010:

China and United States begin the delicate domestic dance of figuring out how to synergistically propel each country's economic growth without alienating one another. On one level this is a "problem" all nations should have—mutual economic interdependence such that neither nation can effectively afford to alienate the other. Each must work with the other or both nations will suffer. Economists for both China and the United States are excellent, but this is not fundamentally an economist's problem nor can they do little more than crunch the data, develop and run the models, and provide economic forecasts.

This is about the kind of relationship China and the United States expect to develop and maintain over the next century. Get it right and each country will gloriously benefit—get it wrong and the result will be anything but harmonious.

It’s not the time for trite and trivial accusations and counter-accusations about currency manipulation. It's a time for candid, frank, transparent, honest, and broad ranging discussions about what each country requires from the other to ensure and assure our mutually beneficial friendship extends through the next half century and beyond.

Economists will play a role. Skilled leadership, politicians, and negotiators each capable of assuming nothing, exploring everything, and making tough transformational decisions will play an even greater role.

Treat it as a short term rhetorical game for gain verses a long term candid, honest, frank, and transparent discussion between mutually respectful friends at your nation's own risk!

Blog:

• UPDATED 02/26/2010 CFR, Reality Bites. A short light-hearted assessment of the current China-U.S. relationship that's maybe too close to the truth.
• UPDATED 06/02/2009

  WSJ, Full Text of Geithner’s Speech at Peking University. Geithner's former Mandarin teacher has a laugh at his expense. Presenting him with an earlier picture while hinting that more than learning Mandarin was afoot.

• UPDATED 05/30/2009 ChinaDigitalTimes, All Eyes on U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner’s First Trip to China.

  Our young (47) Secretary of Treasury, a Mandarin speaker, heads to China for economic talks—be bold—the prescient vision of our first Secretary of Treasury, 34 years-old New Yorker Alexander Hamilton still awes modern minds.

Web:

• UPDATED 03/15/2010 CFR, Confronting the China-U.S. Economic Imbalance.
• UPDATED 03/09/2010 CFR, China's Exchange Rate Policy: The Heat Is On.

• UPDATED 02/05/2010 Economist, By fits and starts. Mostly fits right now.

  Unfortunately China leaders like our leaders will tend toward stoking the nationalism rhetoric. The rhetoric can be dangerous because it substitutes emotional appeasement for doing the heavy lifting required for long-term sustainable solutions.

  Many times leaders of a nation cynically use nationalism believing they can control the passions. But such passions are difficult to control once stoked.

  Citizens in both China and America must condemn any effort by our leaders to substitute nationalism for the hard work of ensuring sustainable global growth.

  Protectionism or terminating dialogue or inflammatory rhetoric regardless of the differences or disagreements are nationalistic and impede sustainable global growth.

• UPDATED 02/04/2010 BBC, China hits back at US over trade

  More imbalances left behind by the previous administration. A policy of creating growth using the mantra "markets clear everything" has created titanic imbalances and disasters.

  Balanced growth is preferred growth because it's sustainable growth.

  

  Caution: How will our current administration determine and communicate that it is: ensuring a level playing field for fair trade; and not protecting inefficient domestic industries lacking innovation?

  Our president has signaled he will oppose protectionism while ensuring a level playing field for competition, but data and information must accompany the words.

  Understandably China is left to assert subjective statements like "At the moment...the level of the yuan [sic] is close to reasonable and balanced."

  The reply is simple and direct...well then let's float your currency and more objectively test your statement. Many think the Yuan is still 30-40 percent undervalued making our goods relatively more expensive for the Chinese consumer, among other things.

• UPDATED 01/15/2009 NYT, Murray: US Senators Urge China Action on Currency.

  A nation shifting from an export to import model must lawfully or unlawfully build its intellectual property assets—unfortunately most nations, and China is no exception, engage both lawful and unlawful channels (the recent Google-China incident is about this in spades) for increasing their intellectual property assets.

  Authoritarian regimes will tend toward unlawful channels simply because their governing model is in conflict with the freedoms necessary for lawful generation of cutting-edge intellectual property assets.

  However our leader are shortsighted not to recognize the untenability (from China's perspective) of asserting that China floats its currency and abandon its efforts to lawfully increase its intellectual property assets.

  Our leaders are also shortsighted to place all their focus on the necessity of prying open China's markets to the exclusion of developing, protecting, and securing our next generation intellectual property assets.

  We simply do not want to be in the position of competing with an authoritarian China using an export model to exploit an infinite supply of low-cost labor!

  Hopefully, our forthcoming Google incident demarche will implicitly (if not explicitly) make clear to China and other American companies we have no such intention of doing so.

• UPDATED 07/26/2009

  UPI, Chinese delegation in Washington for talks. UPDATED 07/27/2009 Reuters, Obama calls for deeper U.S.-Chinese ties. Vice Premier Wang, Secretary of State Clinton, and Treasury Secretary Geithner at U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington July 27, 2009.

  "...The relationship between the United States and China will shape the 21st century, which makes it as important as any bilateral relationship in the world,..."--President Obama--

• UPDATED 07/21/2009 Time, China's Plans for Replacing the Dollar.
• UPDATED 06/02/2009 Xinhua, U.S. treasury chief embarks on China visit, shaping ties in Obama era
• UPDATED 06/02/2009 NYT, In China, Geithner Backs Cooperation.
• UPDATED 05/22/2009 UPI, China fails to win status from EU.
  • China still striving for "market economy" status from EU

  This is a huge issue and one not easily solved by China's leaders.

  China's leaders would like to achieve market status because it eliminates "price imputation" on a host of trade related issues

  In a "planned economy" (as opposed to market economy) prices are not objectively and reliably determined (central planning sets prices)—so in some trade related circumstances market economies will calculate an approximate market price and impute it to China's goods.

  ...Of course if you are trying to build confidence in your currency it is helpful to subject that currency to market forces ("float"). If over time the currency maintains its value investors gain confidence. If on the other hand you peg your currency at a predetermined value and intervene in the currency markets to maintain that value investors have no simple way of objectively determining if the currency value reflects its true value or a "manipulated value”.

  But if China "floats" its currency its true market value may cause unintended or undesirable (from the perspective of China's leadership) consequences. For example it may cause an outflow of currency from China's banks; it may cause export prices to rise making them less competitive internationally; it may increase the cost of vital infrastructure projects; etc.

  It's no easy task to float your currency while simultaneously avoiding all undesirable consequences—just ask our secretary of Treasury, Timothy Geithner!

  In case you think its simple or black-white consider whether it's better to have hedge fund managers and currency speculators manipulating your currency or your nation's central bankers?

• UPDATED 05/22/2009 UPI, Pelosi, U.S. delegation to visit China [May 24-31, 2009].

  Whether you agree or disagree with China's leaders many most acknowledge and credit their Herculean efforts to transform China; reduce its crippling poverty; and place it on a path of global participation (sometimes it's easy to forget China is a developing nation).

  Our leaders will do well to assume China's leaders have objectively studied and thoroughly understand most of the critical problems confronting China—demonstrating that same understanding and communicating how America can play a constructive and accommodating role in solving those problems will be most welcomed.

  ...And who knows what together we can accomplish?

• UPDATED 05/17/2009 NYT, The China Puzzle. It is not often we read an article, even in the NYT, that aims at educating the reader—David Leonhard has accomplished this in a infinitesimal incremental way—kudos!

  It's not that our trade imbalance with China is per se the problem—it's what our policymakers for the previous eight years did with China's loaned foreign exchange surplus that is an enormous problem—they consumed it instead of investing and now have nothing to show for it, except rusting military hardware, scrap metal, and a cheap DVD player with a MTBF of 200 to 400 hours!

  Competing with China in the low to medium skilled labor market is not something America wants to accomplish—whether and why we need to are different and most unfortunate questions our policymakers are currently asking and debating among themselves and others?

  Ironically, China, a communist country with socialist and egalitarian aspirations currently has one of the world’s most unequal income distributions.

  China has annual average urban income of ¥3,411 and rural income of ¥1,244² (note the imbalance between rural and urban).

• UPDATED 04/25/2009 Reuters, Geithner urges global effort to tamp crisis

  "We must set ourselves on a path so that one country, or group of countries, does not consume in excess while another set of countries produces in excess,"--Reuters, quoting Geithner--

• UPDATED 04/18/2009 BBC, China looks to its own consumers and VOA, China Announces $10 Billion Asian Infrastructure Investment. Global demand is insufficient to support China's export model forcing it to look to domestic demand.

  Switching from an export model, if that's what China's fourth and fifth generation leadership plan, will be as challenging as it is potentially beneficial.

  "But Mr. Wen stressed the importance of confidence among world leaders, calling it "more valuable than gold" and said that hope was also important, like a "beacon.""--VOA quoting China's Premier at Boao Forum--

  Confidence in world leadership is even more important—leadership capable of credible, continuous interaction for shared sustainable global growth—not princes, oligarchs and cowboys who stand on the sidelines issuing threats, preconditions, and demands—substituting militarization, belligerence, and bullying for credible confident leadership.

• UPDATED 04/01/2009 Xinhua, China, U.S. to build positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship in 21st century.

• UPDATED 03/13/2009 Reuters, China expresses worry over its U.S. assets.

  "I would like, through you, to once again request America to maintain their creditworthiness, keep their promise and guarantee the safety of Chinese assets,"--China's Premier Wen Jiabao--

  We're a little concerned too—but, our Secretary of State likely has it about right—thanks for your directness—if there's anything Paul Volcker has demonstrated a dislike for it's inflation.

• UPDATED 03/05/2009 NYT, China Outlines Ambitious Plan for Stimulus

  The parallel economic efforts of both nations has been impressive—wonder what could be achieved with transparent cooperative and coordinated economic efforts?

  • China starts parliament session amid global crisis, calls for confidence to combat downturn
  • Reuters, China silent on extra stimulus, stands by growth aim

• UPDATED 03/01/2009 Xinhuanet En, Premier: Regression in Sino-U.S. relations not in line with historical tide. China's Premier Wen Jiabao conducts a two hour intra-China online chat.

  "He [Wen] said it has been proved by 30 years of Sino-U.S. relations that both will benefit from cooperation and both will be hurt by bitter fights."--Xinhua, reporting chat--

  
  Hopefully, soon both Chinese and American leaders will be conducting unrestricted, uncensored routine reciprocal cross-culture online chats with the netizens of the others nation.

• UPDATED 01/30/2009 AP, Obama addresses global trade imbalances with Hu

  • Xinhuanet En, China's Hu holds phone talks with Obama over ties

• UPDATED 01/28/2009 UK Guardian, China pins blame for financial crisis on America

  [America enabled] "...an excessive expansion of financial institutions in blind pursuit of profit, lack of self discipline among financial institutions and ratings agencies..."--China's Politburo, Wen Jiabao--

  Point taken—perhaps the illusion of profits is a better descriptor—the net profits and wealth remain to be studied and determined.

  Only the speculators (cowboys) benefit from engaging in the harmful practices aimed at creating and profiting from artificial differential swings in the market, most recently from 12,000 to 8,000.

  The rest of us benefit from sustainable stable linear growth, but then most of us aren't walking the halls of Congress purchasing the enabling "cowboy policies" from members of Congress (it’s called corruption in China and everywhere else, we call it campaign contributions).

  In fact if or when we all begin acting like the "cowboys" our system will no longer function and will collapse—in just eight years the "cowboys" have produced a warning disaster!

  Hopefully, together we’ll study and learn from this warning and avoid triggering another.

• UPDATED 01/24/2009 AP, Under Obama, US-China ties may face shaky start

• WP, Geithner Says China Manipulates Its Currency

  • AP, China dismisses US remark on currency manipulation

-----notes-----

1. China's Yuan is pegged against a weighted composite of international currencies, but China's domestic currency is the Renminbi (see Wikipedia, Currency Signs for other country's currency symbols).

2. Loren Brandt and Thomas Rawski, China's Great Economic Transformation, 2008 page 729 et seq. (Dwayne Benjamin, Loren Brandt et al. Income Inequality during China's Economic Transition)—published in Loren Brandt and Thomas Rawski, China's Economic Transformation, 2008

Figures are for 2001 data.

China's 2008 HDI PPP GDP per capita based on 2006 U.S. dollars is $4,682.

Originally Published April 16, 2009; Last Updated March 09, 2010; Last Republished March 09, 2010:

Year on Year foreclosure activity is up a whopping and distorting 46%—these distortions hurt Americans¹ twice—once when they participate in the market distorting "wind-up" and once when they participate in the market distorting "wind-down"²!

Then there are the massive, harmful, and hurtful effects of the indirect costs—in March the economy shed minus 663,000 jobs—in March unemployment increased by 694,000—cumulative unemployed is 13.2 million Americans¹ (which understates true unemployment). Five-point-three million occurred within the prior 12 months!

Our bankers and their patron politicians³ alternate between touting and lamenting multi-million dollar incomes incentives⁴.

How else, they rhetorically ask, will they attract the "talent" required to continue: distorting and destabilizing markets; creating Trojan horse mortgages; fraudulent demand; non-transparent, over-leveraged, and bankrupt hedge funds; and non-transparent and fraudulent financial Ponzi schemes...

...then they abandon the capital markets saying they're just too distorted and destabilized without taxpayer bailouts (direct dollar and capital guarantees) to mitigate the risk and ensure the returns needed to pay the multi-million dollar incomes incentives to attract the "talent" to...

...repeat cycle boldly and brazenly until your big brass titanium balls go bankrupt and are again bailed out...

How about a blow-torched instead of a bailout?

Res:

• UPDATED 05/06/2009 Senate votes on Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.

  Only one problem—the legislation does minimal to help families save their home! (There may be some rule that the legislation does the opposite of its caption?)

  Instead of enabling families to write-down their mortgages in bankruptcy the legislation steers them to a program that has been all but useless and thus little used to date called "Hope for Homeowners". The senate, continuing to tinker around the margins loosened the qualifying criteria hoping the program will be less than useless to already debt comatose homeowners.

  Instead of offering "hope" to homeowners how about restoring (in conference) the provision rejected by the senate that offered primary residence homeowners the ability to write-down their mortgage in bankruptcy—give the "hope" to the hedge funds, banks, mortgage companies, banking lobbyists, senators voting to deregulated, etcetera.

  After restoring the above mortgage write-down provision Congress must enable credit-card debt to be written-off. The recently passed legislation (H.R.627) prohibiting the credit-card lenders from arbitrarily raising interest rates and canceling credit is necessary but not sufficient.

Web:

• UPDATED 03/09/2010 ProPublica, Eye on Loan Modifications.

  ProPublica has consolidated their great coverage on the snail's pace (there's also a great picture of a snail) of loan modification into one location.

• UPDATED 02/19/2010 ProPublica, The State of the Government's Loan Modification Program.

  • Very few of the 3.4 million mortgages eligible for restructure or modification are being modified or restructured.
  • Those mortgages that are being modified or restructured are not systematically progressing through modification and restructure.
  • The exisiting restructure and modification program(s) is(are) producing mixed results.

  Once again it is worth noting that all mortgages at all times must automatically fluctuate based on macro economic growth and other indices, including a mortgagor's income.

• UPDATED 02/05/2010 ProPublica, Chase Denied Loan Mods for Now Forbidden Reason—Homeowners in Limbo. The decades of debris continue even as the macro economic data show a relatively less imbalanced, unhealthy, and unsustainable economy.

  Mortgage restructures for those wanting to retain their primary residence mortgages must continue over those decades—a mortgage that constantly fluctuates in response to the macro and mortgagor's economic conditions.

  • UPDATED 02/16/2010 UPI, Study says 5 million foreclosures imminent.
  • UPDATED 02/06/2010 NYT, This Crisis Won’t Stop Moving. Article supposes housing prices will continue declining another 10-15 percent—which of course may cause more mortgagors to walk away from unmodified or underwater mortgages.

  • Reuters, Fewer homeowners see home values falling. Some caution is required when reading this article and underlying survey. Most current homeowners, who have been recklessly subjected to record equity losses, will likely be biased toward hoping their losses stop.

    It may be worth the time and effort required to be sure you have some idea where the increased demand for housing will come from to support a homeowner's understandable hope.

    It may be preferable to demand from our policymakers mortgages (and mortgage modifications) that fluctuate based on macro and mortgagor's economic conditions. Then if housing supply and demand does not behave as expected the mortgage will reflect those conditions.

    As an added benefit it reduces the reckless (some might say criminal) speculation that have so harmed homeowners.

• UPDATED 01/14/2010 ProPublica, Homeowners Say Banks Not Following Rules for Loan Modifications.
• UPDATED 01/14/2010 Reuters, U.S. 2009 foreclosures shatter record despite aid.

• UPDATED 01/10/2010 NYT, Walk Away From Your Mortgage!.

  Instead of restructuring distorted (some might say fraudulent) primary residence mortgages our cannibal capitalists are telling our homeowners they have a responsibility to make good on their distorted mortgage.

  That's the same thing the cannibal capitalists has told our Treasury when the Treasury was forced to stabilize the financial system and bailout the bankrupt hedge funds—you have an obligation to pay 100% of our bet against homeowners' ability to pay and Treasury is so far doing it.

  How about instead if our cannibal capitalists apologize for their [insert your own words]; restructure (principle and interest) the distorted primary residence mortgages (perhaps all nonspeculative mortgages?) to reflect current economic conditions; and Not pay 100% on the dollar to the hedge funds (CDO) betting against our homeowners' ability to pay!

  Yes, it's "complex" and messy; Yes, our nation's international standing will suffer; Yes, it will take us years to recover; Yes, our free markets (financial or goods) are not always efficient; Yes, we must prohibit gambling with our nation's and children's future; Yes, we must restrain the insatiable cannibal capitalists (it's worth noting the cannibal capitalists' behavior risk taking or incentives for risk taking has changed little since the meltdown) lest they devour our nation, capitalists, others, and themselves.

• UPDATED 01/08/2010 ProPublica, With Bank Money Returning, Bailout Burden Shifts Toward Housing.

• UPDATED 12/23/2009 ProPublica, Loan Mod Program Delays Even Worse for Those Struggling Not to Fall Behind.

  • UPDATED 12/23/2009 CSM, Home mortgage foreclosures rise in third quarter.
• UPDATED 12/09/2009 Reuters, U.S. bailout fund left many problems unsolved: watchdog

• UPDATED 10/15/2009 Department of Labor Unemployment Figure and RealtyTrac Third Quarter 2009 Foreclosures

  Unemployment—initial, seasonally adjusted—claims for the week ending October 10, 2009 are slightly down at 514K and foreclosures are in record territory. Increasing a whopping five percent over the second quarter and 23% increase over third quarter 2008.

  Wonder why the increase if the Treasury and the Federal Reserve are implementing effective bailout efforts to restructure and write-down mortgages?

• UPDATED 10/08/2009 Reuters, Foreclosures mark pace of enduring U.S. housing crisis.

  These are mind-boggling numbers to consider as Congress begins debate on the Morton's Fork of whether to continue the $8K first-time home buyers program.

  The program may lessen the rate and magnitude of short-term housing asset value loss, at the expense of a weaker dollar. Further weakening the dollar may temporarily prop up house prices, but likely is not the best investment to ensure a long term recovery of our housing markets or ensure a growing future economy.

• UPDATED 09/09/2009 NYT, Treasury Says Millions More Foreclosures Coming.

  Loan servicers have done next to nothing to meaningfully restructure mortgages—claw-back's must be extended from compensation to gains on foreclosed primary resident mortgage resale proceeds.

  A lopsided structure is temporarily justified as prophylactic against secondary fraud occurring for rationalized toxic assets.

  The claw-back proceeds, if any, can accrue to the original mortgagors or Treasury as a bailout off-set.

  "He noted that analysts anticipate more than six million Americans could lose their homes in the next three years.

  'Much more remains to be done and we will continue to work with other agencies, regulators and the private sector to reach as many families as possible,' Barr said.

  The Treasury report showed that some lenders had not helped any of their borrowers who were eligible for loan modifications. Others had helped varying numbers of those who were 60 or more days delinquent on their mortgages, ranging up to 100 percent for one bank that only had one eligible borrower." --NYT quoting Reuters--

• UPDATED 08/18/2009 UPI, Sacramento plans homeless tent city.

  Kudos to Sacramento for their proposed responsive solution—hopefully on-site security is planned in addition to the water and trash service listed in the UPI article.

• UPDATED 07/30/2009 Reuters, Unemployment spreads distress in U.S. home loans.

• UPDATED 07/29/2009 ProPublica, Why Isn’t the Gov’t Mortgage Program Working?.

  Officials are likely slow walking the mortgage modification programs hoping for a "recovery" (Reuters, U.S. housing recovery seen possible now: Shiller; after declining 32% trend may be slowing⁵) in the housing market—the alternative is for officials to level with the American people that many of our banks (and remember that "banks" since our cannibal capitalists deregulated is a very broad term) are simply bankrupt (see ProPublica, Some Banks in Govt’s ‘Healthy Bank’ Bailout Are Struggling).

  More will be bankrupt as the housing prices normalize at sustainable levels. A strong case can be made that the mortgage modification programs should be aggressively pursued to enable a quicker normalization at sustainable prices. Of course that is exactly what officials, banks, and cannibal capitalists are hoping to avoid.

  "The new standard for mortgages should be a continuous work-out mortgage,...if home prices fall then your mortgage payments will go down,"--Reuters quoting Robert Shiller--

  What is a sustainable price? Well in the "old days", before our cannibal capitalists stop verifying job income it was a price the person could afford based on job income—the problem was|is that all the McDonald's jobs⁶ were|are holding down demand and thus price.

  The solution our policymakers in conjunction with our cannibal capitalists hatched —ignore job income, regulation, and completely unbound credit—demand and thus prices went sky high.

  At some point our policymakers and capitalists (the cannibals will have eaten each other, figuratively) will have to either await normalization or use the mortgage modification programs to normalize the housing market. Concurrently, enacting the policies to create the jobs that will enable sustainable growth of both the normalized prices and our economy.

• UPDATED 07/16/2009 Reuters, Foreclosures at record high in first half 2009 despite aid.
• UPDATED 06/16/2009 Reuters, Florida tent city offers hope to homeless.

• UPDATED 05/15/2009 SeattleTimes, New programs help homeowners, but are too late for some.

  It's too late because Geithner et al. are tinkering around the edges, trying everything to avoid enabling primary homeowners to write-down their mortgage(s) in bankruptcy.

  Reports say 55,000 offers for modification have been made—this is a joke when there are millions of mortgages that require immediate modification! The benefit of using bankruptcy is that millions of mortgages can be modified en masse whether or not an "offer" to modify is made by the lender(s).

  While some of the items in the "Making Home Affordable" program will be helpful it's not near enough to ensure a smooth, equitable, and quick rationalization of a very (intentionally?) manipulated and distorted housing market—much more transition and stabilization assistance must be provided for the "too late” primary residence homeowners, including sharing in all realized gains, if any, on the arms length resale of their foreclosed property.

  It is useful to point out that the purpose of these efforts is aimed at restoring a housing market to the state that existed before it was so egregiously manipulated and distorted—a derivative of those efforts is to remove as many incentives as possible resulting from that manipulation and distortion. Most, if not all, efforts to date have focused on and benefited the banks transition and stabilization to the gross detriment of the homeowner.

• UPDATED 05/13/2009 RealtyTrac, FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY REMAINS AT RECORD LEVELS IN APRIL. While our senators tinker April foreclosures climb, 1% over last month and a whopping 32% increase year on year.

  One in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in April.

  Our senators have recently voted (see above) to denied primary resident homeowners facing foreclosure the option of using bankruptcy to restructure their mortgage(s).

• UPDATED 05/09/2009 NYT, Obama Favors Limits on Credit Card Fees.

  “Americans know that they have a responsibility to live within their means and pay what they owe...But they also have a right to not get ripped off by the sudden rate hikes, unfair penalties and hidden fees that have become all too common to our credit card industry.”--NYT quoting President Obama--

  Our president neglected to mention "manipulated and distorted financial and mortgage markets", a significant factor in our comatose consumers' accumulated credit card debt load.

• UPDATED 05/02/2009 UPI, Cuomo: Kickback scandal may go beyond N.Y.. Unfortunately the fraud thread is likely to be very long?

• UPDATED 05/01/2009 NYT, Senate Refuses to Let Judges Fix Mortgages in Bankruptcy.

  Unbelievably, as foreclosures and unemployment skyrocket our senate votes to deny bankruptcy mortgage relief to millions of struggling Americans.

  Check-out if your senator voted to deny bankruptcy mortgage relief here. A "Nay" vote means they are denying bankruptcy mortgage relief to millions of struggling Americans.

  Not only must the senate pass legislation enabling bankruptcy write-down of mortgages on primary residences it must also enable consumers to write-off all credit card debt in bankruptcy.

  Primary residence homeowners and credit card consumers must not individually carry the debt load for those who bankrupted our economy with financial schemes and Trojan mortgages.

• UPDATED SFGate, Jobless claims top 6M; housing starts plummet.
• Reuters, U.S. foreclosure filings jump as moratoriums end
• US News&World, Foreclosures Hit New Record

-----notes-----

1. Of course non-Americans are included and get hurt too.

2. On the bright very dim side there are many economic dissertations (the plural of thesis, theses, is confusing) in this disastrous self-inflicted economic and financial train wreck.

It will be interesting and crucial to trace how the assets from the wreckage are distributed—with a lot of skill and some luck a rebuilt and very strong Middle America that depends on casinos for enjoyment, not growth will emerge?

3. Our politicians are codependent for huge campaign contribution required to run their exorbitant reelection campaigns.

4. It's useful to point out that our vice-president has reported a sensible household pre-tax 2008 income of $269,256 after years of providing beneficial public service to our nation (regardless of your politics you have to concede the vice president is plenty talented).

Just the person we need leading a task force aimed at rebuilding a strong Middle America. Perhaps he can look into and do something with the revolving door and revolving tinkle think tanks too?

These entities effectively insulate, immunize, and polarize our policymakers. When our policymakers (left and right) finish pursuing their extreme agendas they don't return to Middle America, they return to their respective tinkle "think tanks" or "revolving jobs". Where they retire or polish and plot their policy plans for the next revolution—rarely skipping a beat!

There's nothing more "intellectually stimulating" than to have a Middle American say to you "what the hell is the Chicago School of Economic...aren't they the assholes that created this disastrous mess"?

Of course if a conservative returns to Chicago University Graduate Economics Department, Hoover Institute, or the Milton Friedman Foundation after leaving a government policy making job they're unlikely to encounter such an "intellectually stimulating" conversation.

5. It matters who is doing the buying and with what money—if speculative buying, that's different from non-speculative buying. Speculative buying is not likely to lead to sustainable price equilibrium and market stabilization.

6. McDonald's jobs will be part of the mix just not dominate the mix.

As an aside the term McDonald's job is a euphemism referring to non-comparative advantage jobs. There is nothing wrong with a McDonald's job and those actually working at McDonald's should have access to the housing market, too.

Originally Published February 25, 2010; Last Updated March 09, 2010; Last Republished March 09, 2010:

An Italian court has convicted three Google executives for privacy violations because they failed to screen an offensive video¹ before a third party posted it.

Google is no more civilly or criminally liable for the posting of videos (expressions) by a third party than a Good Samaritan is liable for helping another². Contrary to the court's analogy Google is not making the expression itself, but facilitating the expression of a third party.

It would be like holding the manufacturer of a megaphone criminally liable because somebody used the megaphone to express encouragement to those picking on a person with Down’s syndrome. Surely an appellate court will quickly reverse the lower courts wrongful and imprudent action.

Web:

• UPDATED 03/09/2010 Reuters, Cyber-bullying cases put heat on Google, Facebook.

  Of course we wish and hope that all speakers or those refraining from speaking will engage in responsible speech but there is no requirement to engage in "responsible speech" as the director of the Annenberg Program on Online Communities at the University of Southern California seems to assume in her comments.

  A moment’s reflection reveals the futility and danger in trying to define or require "responsible speech"—at the very least a society stagnates...

  Every society believes their understanding and definition of "responsible speech" at any moment is entirely correct and worthy of enforcement...consider an 1850's slave posting to their version of a Facebook Page or Google Blog:

  "...my master is an inhuman and inhumane scumbag not worthy of living—he repeatedly raped my wife and beat me and my oldest child last night...I can't go on living like this"--1850 American Slave--

  Speech Responsible or Irresponsible? Then or Now? Slavery End Sooner or Last Longer? Today Different or Same? Terrorist or Patriot? Then or Now?

• NPR, Italy Convicts 3 Google Executives In Privacy Case

-----notes-----

1. The offensive video reportedly depicted several youth picking on a peer with Down’s syndrome.

2. Some have speculated that Google may be experiencing push back because of its success, size, and market dominance. We can only hope that all of our corporations are as successful at doing good while doing well.

It's more likely that governments are simply having a very difficult time envisioning a world without censorship and adapting to it.

It may be wise for Google to help nations begin to envision and adapt to this future—a future with infinitely more promise than peril.

Originally Published December 29, 2008; Last Updated March 10, 2010; Last Republished March 09, 2010:

Israel, suffering under the weight of Shoah Shock Syndrome launches another round of attacks on Gaza—instead of seeking treatment for its mental illness, Israel is infecting future generations with the mental illness. In between Gaza rocket fire and reciprocating bombings1, Israel's leadership and Israelis might want to read Avraham Burg's new book The Holocaust Is Over We Must Rise From Its Ashes, Palgrave MacMillan, 2008.

“Israel arms itself to the teeth like the weak boy who comes to class equipped with bat, a knife and a slingshot to overcome his real and imagined bullies. In our eyes, we are still partisan fighters, ghetto rebels, shadows in the camps, no matter the nation, state, armed forces, gross domestic product, or international standing. The Shoah is our life, and we will not forget it and will not let anyone forget us. We have pulled the Shoah out of its historic context and turned it into a plea and a generator for every deed. All is compared to the Shoah, dwarfed by the Shoah, and therefore all is allowed…”--Avraham Burg³, The Holocaust Is Over--

YouTube:

• Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell:

  "...Everyone has a responsibility to make clear their participation in and their support for a process that will produce the comprehensive peace we seek..."--George Mitchell, July 2009--

  Mitchell's public request is encouraging.

Web:

• UPDATED 03/09/2010 Haaretz, Biden: U.S. will always stand by those who take risks for peace .

  • UPDATED 03/10/2010 Reuters, Biden scolds Israel over settlement plan.

    Yesterday's diplomatic faux pas announcing additional East Jerusalem settlements is being blamed on Israel's religious fanatics (ultraorthodox Shas nationalists).

    It gave our Vice President Joseph Biden an opportunity to demonstrate and emphasize President Obama's current "no shit approach” to establishing Middle East peace.

    If Israel thought the current administration and its representatives would be bullied or accept a cheap shot they are now disabused of such a notion—additional opportunities will no doubt soon arise.

    Kudos to our President, Vice President, and Special Envoy George Mitchell!

• UPDATED 02/14/2010 Jerusalem Post, Olmert: We can stop Iran without strike. Nice words by the former Prime Minister of Israel—not only is peace possible, necessary, and urgent, but its sustainability requires no future regional country clashes.

  "Peace is not a pipe dream,...It is possible, necessary and urgent."--Ehud Olmert--

  And Olmert even thinks Israel is capable of pursuing parallel tracks for peace with Syria—say it isn't so; peaceful Jewish voices prevailing over the militant ones!

  One hesitates to add any negative words to such positive ones but it should be noted that Olmert recently left the prime minister’s office under a cloud of corruption.

• UPDATED 01/10/2010 Reuters, U.S. suggestion of sanctions causes stir in Israel.

  Kudos to Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell—our leadership must support the use of all available tools to ensure each nation (Israel and Palestine) reach a final settlement on the remaining issues, including but not limited to withholding of loan guarantees.

• UPDATED 01/03/2010 Reuters, Hamas in final stage of Fatah reconciliation.

• UPDATED 11/23/2009 UPI, Peres urges two-state solution.

  Finally, Shimon Peres urges Israel to accept a two state solution—but Israel's extremists vow to fight.

  That's the thing about using extremists when pursuing a solution to your problem—in the end and there is always an end, those extremists become the problem for your solution.

  I do believe that the "essence" of Avraham Burg's thesis is that Israel and Israelis need a "different essence"—those concerned about Israel and its future will carefully consider Burg's thesis.

  Understandably those promising to cling to Israel's "existing essence" are not focusing on Israel's future or even Israel, but on the difficulty implicit in developing a different essence.

• UPDATED 10/08/2009 Reuters, Grim omens as U.S. envoy pursues Mideast relaunch.

  As interests shift in the Middle East its moniker will be, for some time, The Grim Middle East—just keep changing the street signs in Palestine from Hebrew to Arabic and accelerate development of alternative energy sources.

  Anybody tired of religious based regimes—whether Christian, Islamic, or Judaic based?

• UPDATED 09/14/2009 NYT, The New Israel Lobby.

  “We’re trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel. You don’t have to be noncritical. You don’t have to adopt the party line. It’s not, ‘Israel, right or wrong.’ ”--ED J-Street--

• UPDATED 06/08/2009 Reuters, Obama wants "immediate" Mideast talks: Mitchell.

  "It's important that there is a building of institutions and governmental capacity so that at an early time there can be an independent and viable Palestinian state,"--Reuters quoting George Michell--

  The sooner Israel and America can formally recognize an independent and viable Palestine the better—how about next week?

  Let us immediately invite the future leaders of Palestine to train at our colleges and universities.

• UPDATED 04/16/2009 Reuters, Obama envoy to Israel: U.S. wants Palestinian state and UPI, Mitchell stresses two-state solution.
• UPDATED 03/17/2009 Telegraph, Barack Obama adviser urges talks with Hamas. The text of the letter is expected to be released after the signatories meet with President Obama to discuss its contents.
  • U.S.-Middle East Project, Middle East Reality Check. OpEd by Roger Cohen.

• UPDATED 01/26/2009 VOA, Obama on Arab TV: Moment at Hand to Forge Middle East Peace Accord.

  • UPDATED 01/26/2009 AP, Obama gives first TV interview to Arabic network.

• UPDATED 01/25/2009 WP, Obama envoy expected in Middle East next week. Every great negotiator can tell stories.

  George Mitchell, America's new Middle East stuckee, special envoy tells of appearing before an audience and with some pride saying he was able to settle the 800 year-old Irish conflict euphemistically referred to as "The Troubles". Afterwards a slightly stooped Jewish elder approached asking him, "did you say 800 years"?, Yes replied Mitchell, by now beaming with pride, until the elder Jew replied "ah, such a recent conflict"!

• UPDATED 01/11/2009 UPI, Arabs, Jews join in rally for peace.

• UPDATED 01/03/2009 Xinhua, Special report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts.

  "On Saturday evening, the IDF began its ground incursion into Gaza," an IDF spokesman told Xinhua on the phone, saying that Cast Lead operation is now entering the second stage."

  China, along with most of the world's major powers (excluding America, AP,US blocks UN Security Council action on Gaza) has called for an immediate cease fire.

• UPDATED 01/03/2009 Al Jazeera, Palestine.
• UPDATED 01/03/2009 Haaretz, Special coverage: Warfare In Gaza.
• UPDATED 01/03/2009 AFP, Thousands in London condemn Israeli bombing of Gaza.

• UPDATED 01/03/2009 SFGate, Protesters in S.F. and Europe blast Israel.

  More protests are planned, including another in San Francisco at noon Sunday at Powell and Market streets. Next Saturday, there is an 11 a.m. event in San Francisco's Civic Center.

• UPDATED 01/03/2009 NYT, Times Square Rally Protests Fighting in Gaza Strip
• UPDATED 01/03/2009 BBC, Angry protests at Israeli embassy
• UPDATED 01/03/2009 NYT, Is the Real Target Hamas Rule?

• UPDATED 01/02/2009 AP, Rice vows hard work on arranging Gaza cease-fire.

  Rice's response to Israel's latest "Gaza Turkey Shoot" is pathetic, totally inadequate, imbalanced, biased, and a transparent subterfuge enabling Israel to continue its turkey shoot, using American made weaponry.

• Israel Mounts Third Day of Gaza Raids

Res:

• UPDATED 12/29/2008 NPR Transcript, Avraham Burg and Omer Bartov Interview
  • NPR Audio of above Interview. Includes an excerpt of The Holocaust Is Over, Chapter Four: Defeating Hitler

• UPDATED 12/29/2008 SSI², HAMAS and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics (Dec 2008) makes some interesting observations and timely recommendations (see above paper for complete list of recommendations):

  1. Let HAMAS fulfill its electoral promise to the Palestinians. The International Crisis Group recommended in the summer of 2006 that HAMAS be allowed to govern and should cease hostilities against Israel. Further, the boycott should end as it has caused terrible hardship for Palestinians.
  4. Israel and the United States need to abandon their policies of non-negotiation and non-communication with HAMAS. A new American President should initiate a much more vigorous and dedicated program in which parties will agree to a sustained process which may take several years to complete, but which is decidedly preferable to the enormous social and economic cost of militaristic group politics that have burdened the Middle East for 6 decades.
  5. U.S. policymakers and senior DoD leaders should heed certain lessons in the Palestinian-Israeli example as well as analytical failures of Israeli and Palestinian leadership. It is wrong to summarily replicate the Israeli strategy of seizing territories and enclaves and defending perimeters in other contexts, namely Iraq. Such “clear and hold” policies may appear to work in the short term, but will never produce the true security needed for nation-building. Just so Israel has asserted its authority over, and oppressed a people whose will to resist could not be quelled, no matter what military, counterterrorist, or collaborator-buying actions were pursued, as their effort lacked legitimacy. Chaim Herzog characterized Israel as having a “civilian army” with inspired leadership in its first two wars (David Ben Gurion, Moshe Dayan), which “outgeneraled” the Arabs, utilizing the indirect approach, improvisation and flexibility. He acknowledges the IDF’s resulting overconfidence, and Egypt’s brilliant use of deception in the 1973 War. But Herzog completely underestimates the Palestinian people in his summary of the insubstantial threat posed by the PLO in this same work, The Arab-Israeli Wars, missing the very lesson that was oblivious to the French in Algeria, and which another Israeli leader, Ariel Sharon, vowed to get right. Characterizing popular resistance merely as terrorism, or the “long war,” and facing it down with counterterrorist and barrier-based measures will not succeed in the long run. Locking up the Palestinians in their enclaves will only lead to another outburst of popular resistance, and has not protected the Israeli enclaves, just as no Green Zone, no cordon sanitaire can expect to be indefinitely secure.
  6. Thus, the EU, the United States, Russia, and the UN should aid the conflicting parties in devising a new approach to negotiations. This is important, for rather than standing shoulder-to-shoulder to the United States in postponing negotiations, the world’s diplomatic practice needs ample revision, so that the third Intifadha and the seventh Arab-Israeli War need never be fought. The benefits of abandoning silence, boycotts, and secret coups would extend beyond the Arab-Israeli conflict to the issue of nuclear weapons and Iran and other rapprochements necessary to win the war on terror.
  8. The parties could consider an internationalization of Jerusalem with specific reference to the holy places there. The Palestinian and Israeli positions are far apart on the issue, but it is worth noting that in terms of international law, East Jerusalem was a part of the West Bank until its conquest and occupation in June 1967 under the Regulations of the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907, Articles 42 and 43; the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, Articles 1 and 2 (which Israel ratified in 1951); the First Protocol of 1977, Part 1; and UN Resolutions 2253 and 2254 and Security Council Resolution 252, which treats Israel’s unification of Jerusalem as an illegal act. This is the reason that other nations do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and locate their embassies in Tel Aviv.
  9. Jerusalem may be a more emotional issue than the matter of Palestinian refugees—except to the Palestinians, their refugees, and their descendents. HAMAS’ position is that they must be considered and offered rights of return because those are the rights possessed by all Jews in the world today. HAMAS’ officials have added, as do others, that it is very likely that not many would return, and that a staged process granting a set number per year could be established, thereby alleviating certain other longstanding situations in Lebanon and Syria, for example. A related solution is reparations for refugees, or both. These issues cannot be dealt with immediately, but should not be put off as in the Oslo process, or ignored or denigrated by Israelis to the extent that Palestinians lose trust in the other side.
  10. Dismantling the settlements in the West Bank, and the corporate seizures and Israeli usage of land in the Jordan Valley which actually carves off a huge section of the West Bank, is essential to a resolution of the crisis.

-----notes-----

1. America must cease all non-humanitarian support for Israel and insist it seek treatment for its national mental illness.

Seeking treatment for Shoah Shock Syndrome in no way minimizes the tragedy of the Holocaust.

2. Strategic Studies Institute United States Army War College; Author Sherifa D. Zuhur.

3. The Holocaust Is Over is partially biographical and autobiographical. Burg is not examining the Holocaust as an academic exercise, but as part of a passionate plea for Israel to restructure its national identity and what it means to be Jewish, today.

Burg is not subtle, but when you're urging a national identity restructure or change, most, if not all subtlety would be missed anyways. What Burg lacks in subtlety he more than offsets with prescience.