Hitting bottom at the top - White House forgets to lead on Haiti
Michael Collins
People are dying in Haiti because they can’t get out, Dr. Green said. Shala Dewan, New York Times, January 29
Many of us wanted to think that the dreadful behavior during the Bush administration was some sort of aberration. We had a relatively clean election and ended up with a more intelligent and compassionate president who would reflect our views. There would be no more foreign invasions (wrong); we'd take care of the people before the Wall Street failures (wrong); and there would be no more Katrinas, without any doubt!
MIAMI — The United States has suspended its medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims until a dispute over who will pay for their care is settled, military officials said Friday. NYT
Why are "military officials" saying anything in a situation where the lives of people are involved and the reputation of the United States is on the line. Where's the White House?
PermalinkJPMorgan vs. Goldman Sachs: Why the Market Was Down 7 Days in a Row
Ellen Brown
We are witnessing an epic battle between two banking giants, JPMorgan Chase (Paul Volcker) and Goldman Sachs (Rubin/Geithner). The bodies left strewn on the battleground could include your pension fund and 401K.
The late Libertarian economist Murray Rothbard wrote that U.S. politics since 1900, when William Jennings Bryan narrowly lost the presidency, has been a struggle between two competing banking giants, the Morgans and the Rockefellers. The parties would sometimes change hands, but the puppeteers pulling the strings were always one of these two big-money players. No popular third party candidate had a real chance at winning, because the bankers had the exclusive power to create the national money supply and therefore held the winning cards.
Mel Gibson on "The Edge of Darkness"
Edge of Darkness is worth seeing for Gibson's performance and the eerily realistic and supremely vile basis of the plot. Unfortunately, the film narrative is like the old “Highway Patrol” series with Broderick Crawford, linear and mundane.
It seems Gibson is destined for themes concerning death. Hero of democracy, William Wallace, was drawn and quartered at the end of Braveheart. Apocalypto showed the extraordinary efforts that a father would take to protect his wife and child in the midst of relentless violence.
In Edge, Gibson conveys the most feared and tragic form of mourning – the parental loss of a child. There are few events more tragic and heart rending. The loss of a child can end a parent's life, both figuratively and literally.
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