Financial Crisis 2008: Who is to blame? Whose fault was it?

The media, as always, will (and has) blame(d) Wall Street and greedy Republicans. But the facts are quite different. To better understand who is to blame for the crisis, we should listen to those who have a lot to lose in a financial crisis and those who were inside the banking industry. Hedge fund managers, whose financial well-being is directly proportional (or perhaps exponential might be a better word) to their performance, have a lot riding on guessing the performance of companies, commodities, and the financial system as a whole.

I found these two great insights into what happened, first by Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of hedge fund Blackstone Group, and Noel Sheppard, editor of NewsBusters who worked in the banking industry during and after the 1980s S&L crisis.

Schwarzman: "It’s a perfect storm. It started with Congress encouraging lending to lower-income people. You went from subprime loans being 2% of total loans in 2002 to 30% of total loans in 2006. That kind of enormous increase swept into the net people who shouldn’t have been borrowing.... Those loans were packaged into CDOs rated AAA [by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac], which led the investment-banking firms [buying them] to do little to no due diligence, and the securities were distributed throughout the world, where they started defaulting." [Read full article here]

Sheppard: He quotes the Investor's Business Daily, which pinpoints the start of the crisis to Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act, which forced banks to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, mostly in minority areas. Then, "Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans." [Read full article here]

So it wasn't too much regulation of the private market that caused the problem, it was too little regulation of the quasi-government entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and unsound laws passed in the name of equality for everyone.

Reasons for not reforming (expanding) the United Nations Security Council

The U.N. Security Council has 5 permanent members--essentially the victors of World War II: U.S., U.K., France, Russia and China. The geopolitical and economic landscape has changed dramatically since the end of WWII, and there are good reasons to reform (i.e., expansion) the U.N. Security Council. There are a number of proposals on the table, one of which is to expand the current five permanent seats to nine. These "G4" countries are Brazil, Germany, India and Japan.

Here are good reasons not to admit these four countries as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council ;-)


Brazil

Oi! Como vai? We are Brazil, the famous Portugese-speaking country located in the Spanish-infested speaking pool called South America. As you know, we have the #1 football (known to the stupid Americans as soccer) team in the world. We have a very good economy (sometimes subject to hyperinflation) right now, one of the fastest growing in the world! We also have a very large population, over 191 million as of last count, out of which only 60 million live below the poverty line!!!

You may also have heard of our great nation through the movie City of God, which was nominated for 4 Oscars. Let me be honest with you: the poverty, violence, drug addiction, and police corruption depicted in the movie are totally false. This was a fiction after all, and we don't trust the Americans to tell us which of our movies are good anyway.

Instead, let me tell you why Brazil will become the next superpower that will once and for all end American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere! Our secret weapon is a little plant called sugar cane. Already, unlike the greedy Americans, we are self-sufficient for all of our energy needs thanks to this green weapon (it is not true as widely reported in the media that the great rainforests of the Amazon are being cut down to make room for more agriculture). That's why we don't pay $5/gallon like the gringos and our economy is free to grow exponentially (subject to the occasional exponential inflation).

So as you can see, we are becoming a very powerful nation, better than all those stupid Spaniard nations next door. We will without doubt eventually even surpass the evil and greedy Americans! This is why we respectfully ask the U.N. Security Council to admit the great nation of Brazil as a permanent member.

Tchau!

P.S. We also have the hottest girls in the world who love to wear the Brazilian football t-shirts (often wet).

Signed:

President of Brazil (not a military dictator)
Brazil's Football team (#1 in the world)


Germany

Guten Tag!!! We are the great nation of Germany located in the heart of Europe. Did you know that our blond-haired nation has the #3 economy in the world? Das ist gut! Ja! I know that you may not find that believable because our beautiful nation was almost destroyed during World War II. So it is quite amazing that from the ruble we have once again become one of the most powerful nations in the world!

But let me remind you, we no longer have aspirations to dominate the world and completely exterminate the Jews, Slavs, and other undesirable peoples. That was committed by the people known as "the Nazis" and very few Germans supported the Fuhrer evil Hitler. It is very fortunate that the Nazis no longer exist. Today Germany is all about peace. We love peace today just as much as the Nazis loved war. We are also very green because all of us believe that global warming is only human-induced (we love Al Gore) and will kill the planet and so we are the #1 nation using solar energy. Solar energy in the beautiful yet quite cloudy Germany, you may ask? How did we do it? We have the #1 engineers in the world (just a little better than our best friend Japan). We can build the biggest and best weapons machines and cars very fast, unlike anyone else--all precisely made to the correct specifications! Ja!

So, it is true that we started World War I and World War II, but those horrible things were not committed by true Germans. Today true Germans are all about green energy and peace (we also like to produce lots of bukkake videos like our friend Japan) and we will never start World War III. As proof, did you know that we have 2 million Turks (some of whom have been allowed to become German citizens, subject to tracing their bloodline to true Germans) in Germany and only 91.5% of our population is truly German? They are all ugly and undisciplined and bad engineers great people and Germany hates welcomes all non-German immigrants.

Das ist gut, ja!!!

Please accept the great and peaceful country of Germany's admittance to the U.N. Security Council.

P.S. One more proof we will not start WWIII: look at the friendly and peaceful eagle on our flag!

END OF DRAFT #2,
TOP SECRET
APPLICATION FOR GERMANY'S ADDMITANCE TO THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL
COMPLETED ON 2008/07/06 17:59:48 BERLIN TIME


India

Hello, we are the great nation of India! We need not to introduce ourselves. We are known around the world for having the #2 population in the world (after the despicable country of China), one of the fastest growing economies, Gandhi and peace, spicy cooking, and skilled engineers who work in technical support for Dell Computer Corporation and many other great American companies.

Let us first talk about the primary reason why India should be on the U.N. Security Council. Our country is all about peace. Did you know that India has 23 official languages and over 100 million Muslims? That speaks to our acceptance of diverse people. What about the caste system then, you may ask? The frequently mentioned article depicting the modern-day slavery of 160 million Untouchables is not true. First of all, we cannot speak of this issue personally as the authors of this application are all from the Brahmin caste and we are not allowed to touch Untouchables, but we have been assured that the filthy and disgusting "people" performing the work of sewer, garbage, and laundry cleaners receive over $.05/day. Secondly, these stories are told from their side. If we were born into such as a miserable caste, we'd be liars too. But no worry, they'll have a better chance in their next life, provided that they are subservient to us and they perform their duties as told. Perhaps some of them will be lucky enough to become a blessed cow.

Also, we have nuclear weapons which we shall never use (except on Pakistan) because we are all about peace. How can a country with millions of malnourished people afford to have nuclear weapons? The solution is spectacularly simple: the top two, maybe three castes have very smart people (and not all work in technical support for great American corporations).

India is a great nation and deserves to be a permament member of the U.N. Security Council.

Peace,

Signed

The Esteemed and almost divine Brahmin Members of the Indian Parliament


Japan

KONICHIWA!!! HAI, we bow to you, the great United Nations Security Council. We represent the humble yet very rich nation of Japan. We ask you respectfully to admit the humble nation of Japan to the great U.N. Security Council. We bow to you.

Unlike China, Japan is a very small country with lots of people and very few natural resources. Yet, we have persevered through atomic bombs (reminder: when America self-destructs in the next century, we must drop two Class Kamikaze hydrogen bombs on New York City and Los Angeles) to become the #2 richest nation in the world. How did we do so? We are the #1 engineers in the world. Unlike Germany (who we very much support for membership also) who has the #2 engineers in the world, we build very small things. We are very good at that because as we've mentioned we are a small country with lots of people. Of course, it is true that we are the smartest most humble Asians in the world (especially compared to the dirty Chinese and the dark-looking Philipinnos, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Indonesians), but and the great nation of Japan no longer believes that Japan was destined to rule and enslave the world as foretold by our glorious poisoned (became mentally unstable) by the Americans former Emperor of Japan. It is not true that the Japanese people supported World War II and the Japanese Army created slave sex camps. As we mentioned, the Emperor of Japan became mentally sick.

Today, the great people of Japan are all about building tiny cameras and cell phones, engineering the best cars and earthquake-proof buildings, designing the coolest video games, having the most gruesome and violent beautiful cartoons called anime, and fantasizing over American Hollywood stars, such as the cute little Dakota Fanning enjoying American films.

We bow to you. Please accept the great and peaceful country of Japan's admittance to the U.N. Security Council. We bow to you, HAI!

END OF DRAFT #2,
TOP SECRET
APPLICATION FOR THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN's ADMITTANCE TO THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL
DIGITALLY STORED IN A TINY NIKON CAMERA (TO BE DUPLICATED ON A TINY CANON DIGITAL CAMERA)

Beijing Olympics -- Cradle of the Revolution?

China: I think it's good for you that the Olympics are in China. Yeah, you deserve the bad press for Tibet, but overall it's great exposure for you and I hope that your country's GDP/capita continues to increase. You've been poor for way too long. Which brings me to the following question: WHAT THE FUCK is this bullshit doing on the front page of the Beijing 2008 Web site?




Celebrating the "Cradle of Revolution"? Here's the full press release:

Chinese 'Cradle of Revolution' hosts Olympic Torch Relay
Updated：2008-07-02

(YAN'AN, July 2) – A few minutes after noon on Wednesday, July 02, Wang Xilin ignited the flame cauldron to signal the end of the torch relay in the city of Yan'an, Shaanxi Province.

The relay in the city began at 8:15 this morning, when 93-year-old Red Army veteran Liu Tianyou started off the Torch Relay from the site of the Zaoyuan Revolution.

As China's "Cradle of Revolution," Yan'an holds a prominent place in the country's history. From 1935 to 1948, Yan'an was the headquarters of the Chinese Communist revolution. The city served as the country's military headquarters during the Chinese Anti-Japanese War and China's War of Liberation. In addition, Yan'as was former home of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Along a route that highlighted the historical and cultural importance of Yan'an and its surroundings, a total of 208 torchbearers took part in the 6.31 kilometer-long relay.

The sacred flame will travel to Yangling and Xianyang next.

So you're celebrating the torch going through Yan'an because it was the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Revolution and the former home of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

THIS IS (Communism) what got you into trouble in the first place! If it hadn't been for communism, you'd probably be the richest country in the world a long time ago and millions of your own citizens would not have been killed from starvation and political prosecution.

So celebrate the rise of China, the growth of your cities, the increasing standard of living, the ingenuity and perseverance of the Chinese people, etc., but don't celebrate mass-murderer Mao and "the cradle of revolution". That's fucked up.

Gun Control Laws in the U.S.

I've never owned a gun, I don't like them, and I believe that the U.S. would be better off without them. But I have to agree with the recent ruling of the Supreme Court. This country was founded on the principles of protecting its citizens from the government (unfortunately government spending is now over 30% of the GDP; of course, the "anti-terrorism" laws in the past few years are even worse for the liberty of citizens), and guns were in a sense part of the foundation of this country.

The best policy is to either outlaw all guns--which can never be done in this country--or give citizens the right to protect themselves from criminals who will get them irrespective of gun ownership restrictions.

And so, Justice Scalia's opinion is not glib in my opinion, Mr. Kellermann.

Guns for Safety? Dream On, Scalia.
COMMENT
Sunday, June 29, 2008; Page B02

The Supreme Court has spoken: Thanks to the court's blockbuster 5 to 4 decision Thursday, Washingtonians now have the right to own a gun for self-defense. I leave the law to lawyers, but the public health lesson is crystal clear: The legal ruling that the District's citizens can keep loaded handguns in their homes doesn't mean that they should.
...
Read more here.

Hillary Clinton = The Dark Side

Simple, but true. I'd prefer Ron Paul instead of Obama, but given the warmonger McCain and the "I'll do anything to get elected" Clinton, Obama is my man.

Anti-Tibetan Protests by Chinese in Seattle and San Francisco

I really found this disturbing: Chinese or Chinese-Americans University of Washington students protesting against the Dalai Lama, a man who preaches non-violence and compassion.

From the UW Daily:

More than 100 protestors gathered in front of the venue with megaphones and banners displaying text such as “Tibet part of China” and “No violence, no riots, stop media distortion.”

“The Dalai Lama is looking for independence; they’re (Tibetans are) starting violence,” protestor Benson Zhang said. “So many Chinese are angry with Western media. … The media is anti-Chinese.”

Perhaps even more disturbing: the Chinese Consulate had bused in Chinese along the Olympic torch run in San Francisco. A foreign government busing in people to protest in America??? Imagine the American consulate in Shanghai busing in Americans for a pro-Iraq war rally. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

For all the talk of protests leading up to the Olympic torch relay, we didn't hear much from the supporters of China.

We learned why early on Wednesday morning. They planned to take over the event.

By 10 a.m. at AT&T Park, where the torch run was supposed to begin, it was obvious that the fix was in.

Thousands of supporters were already there, unloaded from dozens of buses parked across from the ball park. (One torch relay insider told me some in the crowd had been bused from as far away as Los Angeles.) During the day Chronicle reporters were told by some supporters that they had been bused into San Francisco from the South Bay, the East Bay and Sacramento by the Chinese Consulate and Chinese American groups.

China supporters far outnumbered many human rights protesters, and anyone from the small pockets of "Free Tibet" protesters was quickly surrounded by the crowd and shouted down. When a Tibet supporter held up a sign, a Chinese supporter would sidle up, the wind would catch his flag, and it would obliterate the sign from the view of the cameras.

"We suspected that the Chinese government would want a public relations spectacle," said Kate Woznow, campaign coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet. "Something that they could broadcast back home."

"80G Luv Gov" Spitzer

"Prosecutors have considered charging Mr. Spitzer with violations of the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution. Other possible charges could include structuring transactions to evade financial-reporting requirements; violating bans on interstate travel with intent to commit a crime; and helping an illegal entity to launder money. Some of the charges carry prison terms of more than five years.

But Mr. Spitzer's lawyers argued Tuesday that the governor didn't violate federal money-laundering or structuring laws because he didn't hide the transactions, which were in his name and from his bank accounts. In negotiations with prosecutors of Manhattan's U.S. Attorney's office, his lead lawyer, Michele Hirshman, a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, said it would be unfair to charge Mr. Spitzer. People familiar with the legal team's thinking say Ms. Hirshman argued that men who use the services of prostitutes rarely get charged with crimes, even when prostitutes and ringleaders do."

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? Why are prostitutes and ringleaders charged, but not the johns? I personally think prostitution should be legal, like it is in Singapore, but if you are going to charge someone, it should definitely include "Lov Guv 80G" Spitzer, who clearly broke the law by facilitating the illegal transportation of a prostitute across state lines.

The Clinton Attack Machine

I remember a comment somewhere on the Internet in the final days before the general election in 2000, something along the lines of, "do you think they're going to let this happen?" Sure enough, a couple of days before the vote, someone in the Gore/Clinton camp leaked that Bush was arrested for DUI in the 1970s.

The 3am ad by the Clinton campaign is another last-minute desperate tactic to try to win the election.

Clinton will never, ever give up. This bitch is so power hungry I am almost certain there will be a serious fight (legal challenge?) when the final delegate count is in. Democratically, she has almost no chance of winning, but again, she will pull out all the stops to make sure that doesn't happen.

Obama not too good at Economics

I like Obama and will still probably vote for him because McCain is a warmonger, but this so-called Patriot Employer Act is misguided. From the Wall Street Journal:

...Under Mr. Obama's plan, "patriot employers" qualify for a 1% tax credit on their profits. To finance this tax break, American companies with subsidiaries abroad would have to pay the U.S. corporate tax on profits earned abroad, rather than the corporate tax of the host country where they are earned. Since the U.S. corporate tax rate is 35%, while most of the world has a lower rate, this amounts to a big tax increase on earnings owned abroad.

Put another way, U.S. companies would suddenly have to pay a higher tax rate than their Chinese, Japanese and European competitors. According to research by Peter Merrill, an international tax expert at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, this change would "raise the cost of capital of U.S. multinationals and cause them to lose market share to foreign rivals." Apparently Mr. Obama believes that by making U.S. companies less profitable and less competitive world-wide, they will somehow be able to create more jobs in America.

He has it backwards: The offshore activities of U.S. companies tend to increase rather than reduce domestic business. A 2005 National Bureau of Economic Research study by economists from Harvard and the University of Michigan found that more foreign investment by U.S. companies leads to greater domestic investment, and that U.S. firms' hiring of more offshore workers is positively, not negatively, associated with the number of American workers they hire. That's in part because often what is produced overseas by subsidiaries are component parts to final, higher-value-added products manufactured here....

McCain Out of Control

Why not to vote for McCain:

“My friends, we are in challenging times,” he said, summing up his pitch. “I am running for president of the United States of America because I believe the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is the struggle against radical Islamic extremism, which takes many forms, is the greatest force of evil we’ve ever faced, and is bent on our destruction and our extinction. And my friends, we will never surrender. They will.”

John--you really should listen to Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan. "Interventionism is not the cure for terror, it is the cause of terror."

The only candidates left in the presidential race who believe in this concept are Ron Paul and Barack Obama.

Hillary is not an Evil Robot! (not)

I feel for you Hillary... And because of that, I will now vote for you in the New Hampshire Primary!

Ron Paul Tea Party - December 16, 2007

The only hope left to save this country... I'll be there for you Ron on December 16th drinking tea (my preference is to mix it with vodka).

Interventionism is not the cure for terror, it is the cause of terror.

More Pat Buchanan (the great quote is at 3:38):



If people only listened more to Pat and Ron Paul, this country would be in much better shape. Billions saved, constitution and privacy rights upheld, lower taxes, no war, no antagonism from the rest of the world, etc., etc....

No Free Energy Episode #4

I'm passionate about this issue because a lot of people think . It's too bad Einstein is now alive; I'd really like to hear his view on this issue. In my opinion, it comes down to this fundamental law: energy can not be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.

Notes from the McLaughlin Group:

AL GORE (former vice president): (From videotape.) Tipper and I will go to Oslo and I will accept this award on behalf of all of those who have been working so long and so hard to try to get the message out about this planetary emergency.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: The Nobel Peace Prize this year went to Al Gore. Gore has awakened the world to the reality and the danger of global warming. This alert and the scientific evidence behind it has set off a worldwide scramble to profit from a tectonic shift.

There's big money to be made in the green gold. The gold rush of yesteryear has become the green rush of today. General Electric, General Motors, Archer Daniels Midland, ExxonMobil, are racing to discover how, through their own businesses, they can feed the demand for green -- green fuels, green subsidies, green mandates.

You've heard of blue-collar jobs and white-collar jobs. Well, climbing up the ladder, we now have green-collar jobs. The Credit Suisse Group has introduced a new, quote-unquote, "global warming index." It lists new green investment stocks and other green instruments for major banks. Over the next 25 years, global demand for energy will climb by 40 percent.

This combination of profit motive, market incentives and government regulation has unleashed billions of dollars in new research on two fronts: New energy and efficient energy. Economists predict that this wave of innovation will reshape world markets as radically as the computer boom of the '90s.

But skeptics say we've heard that song before, notably in the '70s during the energy crisis. Washington then subsidized synthetic fuel. Washington then subsidized solar panels. Nuclear took on a new life. Detroit retooled; built engines that delivered more miles to the gallon and a catalytic converter built around it.

Then, after all this commotion, after all this reaction to the escalation of oil prices, the price plummeted and the big green balloon burst.

Question: So which will it be this time, a green boom or a green bust? Pat Buchanan.

MR. BUCHANAN: It'll be both, John. It's going to start off with a boom because there's an enormous political movement to transfer wealth and power to the federal government and from nation-states to international bureaucrats who can control the planet and the rest of it.

Businesses are going to reach into this thing and make all the money they can on good capitalist principles. The media love an end- of-the-world scenario; nothing better than that for ratings. And it's all going to continue, John, until we're going to wake up and find the ocean did not rise 20 feet at all and the planet is warming very slowly and it's not a crisis.

Then they'll find a new one, like bird flu or nuclear winter. They find these every decade, one or another. And then it will go away and everybody will have made a lot of money, and government everywhere will have more power. MR. MCLAUGHLIN: So global warming is the big lie. Is that what you're saying?

MR. BUCHANAN: It's not a lie. It's occurring. But it's a big con.
...

Pat, you are my hero. I am certain that 30 or 50 years from now when America will be a 2nd or 3rd rate economic power, people will say, "Buchanan was right".

No Free Energy Episode #3 (Ethanol is bull shit)

See this article from the Wall Street Journal:

Ethanol Craze Cools
As Doubts Multiply
Claims for Environment,
Energy Use Draw Fire;
Fighting on the Farm
By LAUREN ETTER
November 28, 2007; Page A1

Little over a year ago, ethanol was winning the hearts and wallets of both Main Street and Wall Street, with promises of greater U.S. energy independence, fewer greenhouse gases and help for the farm economy. Today, the corn-based biofuel is under siege.

In the span of one growing season, ethanol has gone from panacea to pariah in the eyes of some. The critics, which include industries hurt when the price of corn rises, blame ethanol for pushing up food prices, question its environmental bona fides and dispute how much it really helps reduce the need for oil.
[chart]

A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that biofuels "offer a cure [for oil dependence] that is worse than the disease." A National Academy of Sciences study said corn-based ethanol could strain water supplies. The American Lung Association expressed concern about a form of air pollution from burning ethanol in gasoline. Political cartoonists have taken to skewering the fuel for raising the price of food to the world's poor.
...
Read the full article.

See my previous posts about energy: #1 and #2.

Finally, the History Channel's Modern Marvels discusses the pros and cons of various types of renewable energy.

Warren Buffett on the Estate Tax

Warren Buffett is a hero of mine, not only because he is the icon of American capitalism, but because I consider him to be a good guy.

So while I disagree with him on the estate tax, a.k.a. "the death tax"--I don't think there should be any because over one or two generations a rich person's fortune will likely be squandered by his/her descendants anyway and the private sector is better at allocating resources than the government--it was sad to see a man of his stature and integrity to be interrupted and questioned unfairly by the honorable members of our government.

Specifically, during the Senate hearings, he was cut off by Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)when he was discussing why the vast majority of charitable organizations only spend the required minimum (5%) of their endowments; Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) who was making the assumption that Buffett was for the estate-tax because his holdings include insurance companies who have been lobbying hard not to have the estate tax repealed; and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), who thanked Buffett for his contributions to the Gates Foundation, but said a few times something along the lines of, "whenever you do make the contribution."

Do your homework people! Buffett is the good guy here!

John Murtha = George Bush on an Al Gore diet?

From the Wall Street Journal:

"If John Murtha were a businessman, he'd be the biggest employer in this town.
...
Johnstown's [PA] good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else. Defense contractors have found that if they open an office here and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, Concurrent Technologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 here, got hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Rep. Murtha despite poor reviews by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary. Another beneficiary: MTS Technologies, run by a man who got his start some 40 years ago shining shoes at Mr. Murtha's Johnstown Minute Car Wash."
...

Hillary Clinton -- 1984 Redux

Ron Paul is my choice, but this is a good ad nevertheless. Anyone but Clinton! No matter who gets elected, the American empire is still going to sink; the only difference will be how hard the impact will be...

Schweiz, Schweiz, Über Alles!?

Nationalism really sucks. It is unfortunate that xenophobia is a fundamental characteristic of human beings. There's little doubt the attribute was carried down for millions of years from the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, which brings up the following question: can it ever be eradicated? Almost certainly not, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't fight it.

....
Swiss Fury at Foreigners Boiling Over
Grisly Attack on African Underscores Race Issue In a Harsh Campaign
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 9, 2007; Page A10

...One of the world's oldest democracies is at the center of Western Europe's most divisive political debate: to embrace an increasingly globalized, multicultural society or to retreat into social isolation in an effort to preserve eroding traditional identities.

Across Switzerland, anti-foreigner and anti-Islamic attitudes have become so pervasive on the streets, in politics and within governmental institutions that the United Nations, European Union, Amnesty International and Switzerland's own Federal Commission Against Racism have expressed alarm in recent months.

The theme is dominating the campaign for national parliamentary elections Oct. 21 and is crystallized in a controversial campaign poster showing three white sheep kicking a black sheep off a Swiss flag above the slogan, "For more security."
....
Read the full article.

Maternity Leave: U.S. Worst in the World

For being the richest country in the world, this is a disgrace. Isn't the Democratic Party suppose to fix this? Oh wait, it's the Republicans: they're the "family values" party. Wrong--everybody is a pawn to the corporations.

[Graphic is from the most recent issue of National Geographic Magazine]