[Pen-l] Answer 6 questions on the economic collapse

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/10/hbc-90003696 Six Questions for Eric Janszen on the Economic Collapse By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi Angel investor and iTulip.com founder Eric Janszen contributed to this month’s Forum, “How to Save Capitalism: Fundamental fixes for a collapsing system,” and wrote

[Pen-l] Rick Kuhn on the economic crisis

A few months ago I was crossposting items about Henryk Grossman from the Intro to Marxism mailing list here. Grossman was a Marxist economist who believed that overaccumulation led to crisis. Rick Kuhn, who received the Isaac Deutscher prize for his biography of Grossman, has an article on

[Pen-l] Palestine and Israel in film

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/palestine-and-israel-in-film/ ___ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l

[Pen-l] Swans Release: October 20, 2008

Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ October 20, 2008 $ $ $ $ $ Please, consider supporting our co-operative work financially. See http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html -- We need help... $ $ $ $ $ Note from the

[Pen-l] Economic situation driving people to suicide

The Rising Body Count on Main Street The Human Fallout from the Financial Crisis By Nick Turse On October 4, 2008, in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, Karthik Rajaram, beset by financial troubles, shot his wife, mother-in-law, and three sons before turning the gun on himself. In one of

[Pen-l] Stiglitz: worst crisis in 80 years

http://www.newstatesman.com/business/2008/10/economy-world-crisis-financial Guided by an invisible hand Joseph Stiglitz Published 16 October 2008 The bank meltdown marks a turning point in our thinking about how the world works writes the Nobel Laureate. In some ways this is the biggest crisis

[Pen-l] Dean Baker on Peter Peterson's campaign against Social Security

(Dean Baker is making the same points that I made on October 5th: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/financial-crisis-the-welfare-state-and-disaster-capitalism/) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/20/social-security-peter-peterson The quest to cut social

[Pen-l] Is Obama a socialist?

As many of you know, the Republican Party and particularly its operatives on talk radio and cable TV news have all been hammering away at the idea that Barack Obama is a “socialist”. For most the proof is found in an off-the-cuff remark made by the Democratic Party hopeful with a rightwing

[Pen-l] Bring Back Glass-Steagall?

http://hnn.us/articles/55548.html 10-21-08 Bring Back Glass-Steagall? By Robert Buzzanco Mr. Buzzanco is Professor and Chairman, Department of History, University of Houston. He is the author of Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era and Vietnam and the

Re: [Pen-l] The battle for Obama's economic soul

That doesn't make him a bad guy, does it? (especially if the decline is primarily above the median). --ravi Volcker is a very bad guy. In fact, anybody who has ever run the Federal Reserve is a skunk. ___ pen-l mailing list

[Pen-l] Latin America and the dependency theory debate

After Robert Brenner wrote his attack on dependency theory in the 1977 NLR, the impact was immediate. Marxists in the academy found the appeal to return to a class-based Marxism very seductive, especially among Latin American specialists. The Marxist-oriented journal called Latin American

Re: [Pen-l] The battle for Obama's economic soul

Fair enough but I am not inclined to say the guy is pure evil and every word of his should always be interpreted with the utmost cynicism. Maybe if you can provide the context in which he made the remark, we may be able to evaluate it better. -raghu. Jimmy Carter's Economy: Policy in an Age of

[Pen-l] Hobsbawm discusses the economic crisis

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7677000/7677683.stm ___ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l

[Pen-l] Grave diggers

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/18020 Grave Diggers by Stephen Fleischman | October 18, 2008 - 12:40pm I didn't believe I'd ever see it. Grave diggers at work. It's an honest profession, I know. Bodies need to be buried. Right now they're working at a frantic pace. You can barely hear the

[Pen-l] Real unemployment rate is ten percent

http://www.slate.com/id/2202879/ The 20-Hour Workweek The unemployment rate seems low. That's because it's not counting all those underemployed workers. By Daniel Gross Posted Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008, at 3:59 PM ET It's hard to overstate the poor numbers coming out of Wall Street in recent

[Pen-l] College presidents on Bear Stearns board

http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/10/5990n.htm The Chronicle of Higher Education Today's News Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2 College Presidents Had Ringside Seat to Wall Street Meltdown By PAUL FAIN The collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns has led to some of the first repercussions over

[Pen-l] End of the road for U.S. auto?

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-autos28-2008oct28,0,1118586.story The end of the road for U.S. carmakers? Some analysts suggest failure may not be such a bad thing for Detroit's Big Three. Others, especially Michigan politicians, warn of calamity. By Ken Bensinger October 28, 2008 Are

[Pen-l] Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

(Posted originally to the Introduction to Marxism mailing list on Yahoo.) I want to wrap up the discussion on dependency theory by referring to a jewel that I stumbled across on the Marxism Internet Archives a week or so ago. Written in 1973, Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”

[Pen-l] Ecological credit crunch

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/29/climatechange-endangeredhabitats The Guardian, Wednesday October 29 2008 by Juliette Jowit World is facing a natural resources crisis worse than financial crunch • Two planets need by 2030 at this rate, warns report • Humans using 30% more

[Pen-l] The Last Bolshevik

Regular readers of my movie reviews must know by now that I can’t stand hype, particularly when it involves the latest Hollywood blockbuster. But I would be loath not to describe the two DVD package released under the title “The Last Bolshevik” as the event of the decade, at least for the small

[Pen-l] Top Economic Strategist warns of ‘Catastrophe and Revolution’

http://www.marxist.com/top-economic-strategists-warns.htm Top Economic Strategist warns of ‘Catastrophe and Revolution’ By Rob Sewell Wednesday, 29 October 2008 top-economic-strategist-warns-thumb.jpg“At stake could be the legitimacy of the open market economy itself… the danger remains huge

Re: [Pen-l] Neo-classical crises

Max Sawicky wrote: The author is John Quiggin of Oz, an outstanding social-dem economist and blog-acquaintance of mine. From http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/08/19/rotten-timber/ Since Serb-bashing is fairly well entrenched at Crooked Timber, I was surprised to discover that one of

[Pen-l] Pollin?

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081117/pollin We're All Minskyites Now Comment By Robert Pollin I thought that Pollin was a Marxist. ___ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l

[Pen-l] How did we get suckered into this?

NY Times, November 2, 2008 The Reckoning From Midwest to M.T.A., Pain From Global Gamble By CHARLES DUHIGG and CARTER DOUGHERTY People come up to me in the grocery store and say, 'How did we get suckered into this?' — Marc Hujik, of the Kenosha, Wis., school board On a snowy day two years

[Pen-l] Swans Release: November 3, 2008

Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ November 3, 2008 @ @ @ @ @ Come on, good people: We need financial support. Please do your part. Thanks! http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html @ @ @ @ @ Note from the Editors:

[Pen-l] Precarious financial lives

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22080 Volume 55, Number 18 · November 20, 2008 Trapped in the New 'You're on Your Own' World By Robert M. Solow High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families by Peter Gosselin Basic Books, 374 pp., $26.95 When the Bush-Cheney administration

[Pen-l] Worst case scenario about to unfold

NY Times, November 3, 2008 Debt Linked to Buyouts Tightens the Economic Vise By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED Private equity firms embarked on one of the biggest spending sprees in corporate history for nearly three years, using borrowed money to gobble up huge swaths of

[Pen-l] Jared Diamond on tribal warfare in New Guinea

Recently somebody who shares my distaste for Jared Diamond alerted me to an article that appeared in the April 21, 2008 “New Yorker”. Titled “Vengeance is Ours: What can tribal societies tell us about our need to get even?“, it is focused on so-called tribal wars in the highlands of Papua New

Re: [Pen-l] ding dong the witch is dead

Odd how Obama's victory evokes references to Hollywood struggles between Good and Evil. Here's something else I received this morning from http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/editorsblog Mordor Brightens; Obama's Challenge -- And Ours By Robert Weissman November 5, 2008 Good morning, America.

[Pen-l] President Obama, Governor Paterson and Ayn Rand

Last night as I was listening (or trying to listen) to Obama’s vaporous victory speech, I heard a steady procession of young people walking up Third Avenue cheering and yelling “Obama” over and over. For all practical purposes, it was just the kind of display that attends a World Series or

Re: [Pen-l] ding dong the witch is dead

Jim Devine wrote: It's true about Baum. He was a populist (favoring a bimetallic monetary system) and 19th 20th century populism had major baggage, such as so-called nativism, which involved racist attitudes toward the real natives. Not everybody felt that way. I have recently discovered the

[Pen-l] Ch-ch-ch-Changes?

Changes David Bowie I still don't know what I was waiting for And my time was running wild A million dead-end streets Every time I thought I'd got it made It seemed the taste was not so sweet So I turned myself to face me But I've never caught a glimpse Of how the others must see the faker I'm

Re: [Pen-l] President Obama, Governor Paterson and Ayn Rand

Jim Devine wrote: I think it's good for people on the left to actually talk to such people and ask such questions, though it doesn't have to be around this issue. We tend to be too insular. No need to really. I rely on Julio Huato's posts. ___ pen-l

Re: [Pen-l] Re: President Obama

Joanna wrote: I think it was Marx who said that socialist revolution would not be possible in the United States until we have solved the race question. I imagine you are referring to Ireland. Marx never wrote much about socialism in the U.S. Obama's election is a first step in that process.

Re: [Pen-l] Re: Re: President Obama

Julio Huato wrote: But, is that all? Avoiding sectarian Marxism-Leninism and denouncing Obama as a Rockefeller Republican is what's required to advance Marxist (TM) socialism in the U.S.? More or less. ___ pen-l mailing list

Re: [Pen-l] Obama's economic policy

Sandwichman wrote: In advance I will christen the first phase of the Obama administration's economic policy as the phony war. It will pursue a moderate, conventional path of economic stimulus and it will fail. Not only is the recession not over yet, it has hardly begun. On the heels of

Re: [Pen-l] President Obama, Governor Paterson and Ayn Rand

Charles Brown wrote: CB: Yep, especially since such people are the new left. Old left meet the new left. I think this describes the people on the street better: Some notes and thoughts: ---Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT is known as a seat of the counterculture in the northeast,

Re: [Pen-l] Obama's economic policy

Sandwichman wrote: It's all very well to connect the crisis to the underlying capitalist system. The proof, though, comes in whether one presents a program for BOTH responding to the current crisis within the constraints posed by that system while at the same time moving beyond those very

Re: [Pen-l] : the odd couple

Charles Brown wrote: The what-is-to-be-done question of the day isn't about the deficiencies of the Obama programme. That's a no-brainer. The question should be about what's going on beneath the surface and how the phenomenal embrace of vague change can be channeled into struggle for

Re: [Pen-l] Obama's economic policy

Sandwichman wrote: Exactly. Fat chance especially if there is no popular agitation and absolute silence/hostility on the issue from trade unions. If th trade unions in the U.S. did little to oppose Bush, how can we expect them to conduct a struggle against Obama? I suspect that it will only

Re: [Pen-l] Obama's economic policy

Max Sawicky wrote: Sure, bullshit is easy. How about free ice cream every Sunday? How about the government not forcing me to pay for bail-outs of Wall Street firms and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? I'd be happy to pay for my own ice cream if these scumbags would let Goldman-Sachs and

Re: [Pen-l] Place your bets

So you think EFCA is trivial? No, it is not trivial but the main problem facing workers today is job loss compounded by the loss of good paying jobs. If GM merges with Chrysler, leading to tens of thousands of firings, what good is EFCA? ___

[Pen-l] Query

Can people recommend some critiques of FDR and the New Deal? Ideally, I am looking for the kind of thing that Seymour Hersh did with JFK in The Dark Side of Camelot. ___ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu

Re: [Pen-l] Place your bets

One test case for BHO the Ds is the Employee Free Choice Act, which makes it easier for unions to form with card check rather than secret ballot. It's on the top of the unions' wish list. Assuming you think this is not a trivial piece of legislation, where do all you hot lefts stand on

Re: [Pen-l] Howard Zinn: Obama's Historic Victory

Zinn wrote: Obama, like Lincoln, tends to look first at his political fortunes instead of making his decisions on moral grounds. Obama has more in common with Jefferson Davis since wage slavery is the chattel slavery of our epoch. ___ pen-l

Re: [Pen-l] Howard Zinn: Obama's Historic Victory

It was not until 1863 that Lincoln was won over to the cause emancipation. Until then he prosecuted the Civil War to preserve the Union, NOT TO FREE THE SLAVES. It is not the intention of Obama and the Democrats to emancipate wage labor. But they have undertaken a problem, the solution of which

[Pen-l] Progressives for Obama: still intoxicated

Now that the intoxication of the Obama victory is over (or should be over), one wonders how long it will take the pro-Obama left to wake up to a hangover. For the last few days, news reports should have given them an Excedrin-sized headache. Instead of ushering in a new New Deal, Obama seems

[Pen-l] Preview of coming attractions

NY Times, November 10, 2008 Paterson Says Schools and Medicaid Face Cuts By DANNY HAKIM SAN JUAN, P.R. — Gov. David A. Paterson said in an interview on Sunday that he would almost certainly seek billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, as well as midyear reductions in school aid, to address

[Pen-l] Krugman: WWII ended the Depression

NY Times, November 10, 2008 Op-Ed Columnist Franklin Delano Obama? By Paul Krugman Suddenly, everything old is New Deal again. Reagan is out; F.D.R. is in. Still, how much guidance does the Roosevelt era really offer for today’s world? The answer is, a lot. But Barack Obama should learn from

Re: [Pen-l] Krugman: WWII ended the Depression

Let's see, in the past 8 years, we have had tax reductions, two wars, and huge increasing budget deficits. Who among you is going to say with a straight face we have not had a huge fiscal stimulus? The stimulus worked great for 6 and 1/2 years until we all realized the stimulus had gone into

Re: [Pen-l] Howard Zinn: Obama's Historic Victory

Rahgu wrote: How is wage slavery like chattel slavery? Huh? That's like asking how serfdom is like wage slavery. The workers produce surplus value differently in different modes of production. A serf turned over a portion of his crops to the lord and did corvee labor. Slaves produced

Re: [Pen-l] Howard Zinn: Obama's Historic Victory

Wage slaves are not kept shackled in a barn or branded and sold at auction like farm animals, are they? -raghu. Of course not. That's why Marx supported Lincoln. In 2008 Marxists would support a presidential candidate who took strong stands against wage slavery, a system that may not sell

RE: Re: [Pen-l] Krugman: WWII ended the Depression

I have one test about whether the American economy is working: whether people are coming or leaving. As of today, or at least until a month ago when Paulson and Bernanke decised to socialize the economy, America remains the place to be if you are an entrepeneur with ambition and an idea,

[Pen-l] Obama wins over the 'decent left'

When candidate Obama selected Samantha Power to be his foreign policy adviser, this was a clear signal that he endorsed the idea of liberal imperialist intervention that she embodied. In contrast to Bush’s “failed” interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Power stood for a more adroit

[Pen-l] Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

The timing of the PBS documentary on Lee Atwater titled “Boogie Man” last night could not be better. As the inventor of the kind of dirty tricks that John McCain used unsuccessfully, Atwater is a symbol of the kind of bare-knuckle politics that has worked so well for Republicans since Reagan’s

[Pen-l] Against Volcker

Counterpunch, November 12, 2008 Obama's Economic Advisors Against Volcker By PATRICK BOND One of Barack Obama's leading advisors has done more damage to Africa, its economies and its people than anyone I can think of in world history, including even Cecil John Rhodes. That charge may surprise

[Pen-l] My choices

The NY Times has an interactive feature that allows readers to enter the names of people to serve in Obama's cabinet. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/11/us/politics/2008_CABINET_PICKER.html My choices: Secretary of Defense: Bill Ayers (I cribbed this) Secretary of State:

[Pen-l] Michael Lewis meets with John Gutfreund

(An excerpt from an interesting article by Michael Lewis, whose investment banking job at Salomon Brothers provided the material for Liar's Poker. I worked under John Gutfreund at Salomon Brothers and even fairly closely with Michael Bloomberg when I was developing a system to automate their

[Pen-l] Clinton-era retreads

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/nov/10/obama-white-house-useconomy The high priests of the bubble economy If Barack Obama really wants things to change, he shouldn't be seeking economic advice from Clinton-era officials by Dean Baker Those following the meeting of

[Pen-l] The all-American struggle to make do

(A surprisingly informed review of 2 new books by Bill Clinton's chief speech-writer.) http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/015_04/3002 Dec/Jan 2009 WORKING, STIFFED Two books plumb the all-American struggle to make do By DAVID KUSNET Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy

[Pen-l] Not yet at the promised land

Links and forum to comment on this and other columns at: http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/editorsblog Not Yet at the Promised Land By Robert Weissman November 13, 2008 Over the past week, Americans -- and people around the world -- rightfully celebrated the breakthrough election of an

Re: [Pen-l] Re: Politico: Summers may be off of Treasury short list

Julio Huato wrote: Test of what? Are we testing whether Obama is a true communist or not? Or whether he is a true feminist or not? How about true liberal in the sense of George McGovern or even Jimmy Carter (in some respects)? What's obvious now is that he is a true Clintonite. Frankly,

Re: [Pen-l] Re: Politico: Summers may be off of Treasury short list

ravi wrote: I still think it is too early to say... we should consider the simple possibility that Obama is a young, non-pedigreed (in blue blood sense) -- and yet a product of the meritocracy (in the Harvard sense) -- black man who has been (even against his wishes) cast as a Messiah by his

Re: [Pen-l] Re: Re: Politico: Summers may be off of Treasury short list

Julio Huato wrote: Obama cannot be another Clinton just like an apple cannot be an orange. I don't know about apples and oranges but it seems excluded that he will operate as some kind of progressive. Is Obama fit to advance the interest of working people in the U.S. in our times? You

Re: [Pen-l] Re: Re: Politico: Summers may be off of Treasury short list

Julio Huato wrote: I don't understand. Is Robert Samuelson in the short list for treasury secretary? I was referring to Paul Volcker. Counterpunch, November 12, 2008 Obama's Economic Advisors Against Volcker By PATRICK BOND One of Barack Obama's leading advisors has done more damage to

[Pen-l] Creative destruction

NY Times, November 14, 2008 Op-Ed Columnist Bailout to Nowhere By DAVID BROOKS Not so long ago, corporate giants with names like PanAm, ITT and Montgomery Ward roamed the earth. They faded and were replaced by new companies with names like Microsoft, Southwest Airlines and Target. The U.S.

[Pen-l] The future of fish

NY Times, November 16, 2008 On the Farm A Seafood Snob Ponders the Future of Fish By MARK BITTMAN I suppose you might call me a wild-fish snob. I don't want to go into a fish market on Cape Cod and find farm-raised salmon from Chile and mussels from Prince Edward Island instead of cod,

[Pen-l] The Myth of the New Deal

Today one of the sharper subscribers on Doug Henwood's LBO-Talk mailing list, who goes only by the initial B., wrote: startquote Just for giggles I set up Google to email me a news article every time it contained the words 'obama, fdr, and new deal in the same piece. The result is that I

[Pen-l] Swans Release: November 7, 2008

Gilles d'Aymery's critique and implemented the Aymery Plan, which of course does little to safeguard the Wall Street lifestyle of yore... You'll certainly not find such criticism in The Nation magazine, which Louis Proyect notes has always been funded by members of the capitalist class who would never

[Pen-l] Radical perspectives on the crisis

http://sites.google.com/site/radicalperspectivesonthecrisis/ ___ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l

[Pen-l] Stanley Fish--what an asshole reactionary

Are psychologists experts for hire, or is it understood, as a matter of professional self-definition, that their expertise is to be deployed only for benign purposes? As a matter of fact, psychological skills are purchased and deployed as commodities all the time. Law firms employ jury

[Pen-l] Early Days of the Nation Magazine

(Swans - November 17, 2008) For people trying to understand the bankruptcy of American liberalism, there is probably no better place to start than The Nation magazine. I first began subscribing to The Nation in the 1980s when Reagan was in the White House. As a general rule of thumb, the

[Pen-l] Will Rogers addresses convention of the American Bankers Association in 1922

Loan Sharks and Interest Hounds, I have addressed every form of organized Graft in the U.S. excepting Congress. So it's naturally a pleasure for me to appear before the biggest. You are without a doubt the most disgustingly rich audience I ever talked to, with the possible exception of the

Re: [Pen-l] from Juan Cole: A Quantum of Anti-Imperialism

Jim Devine wrote: -- Forwarded message -- From: Juan Cole [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 2:04 AM The reviews of director Mark Forster's Quantum of Solace have complained about the film's hectic pace ..., about the humorlessness of Daniel Craig's Bond, and even

[Pen-l] Bill Warren's folly

As should be obvious by now, much of the material that I have been forwarding material is connected to major debates within Marxism, such as underconsumption/overaccumulation, dependency theory/Brenner critique, etc. This was not my original intention, but I have become persuaded that this is

Re: [Pen-l] Taming Hillary, propping up George (Osborne)

This approach has a better chance of marginalising the dogmatic right of the Republican party and making it difficult for them to regroup for a couple more terms. No it doesn't. When Clinton was in office, he stuck to the rightist agenda of the DLC and was constantly triangulating with

[Pen-l] Worse than the Great Depression?

http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman171108.htm Worse Than The Great Depression? By Stephen Lendman 17 November, 2008 It's a minority but growing view, including from 86-year old former Goldman Sachs chairman, John Whitehead, at the November 12 Reuters Global Finance Summit in New York. As

[Pen-l] Synecdoche, New York

An edgy movie that makes jokes about old age and death. http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/synecdoche-new-york/ ___ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l

[Pen-l] Doom and gloom

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/19/AR2008111900943.html Stocks Slump As Signs Point To Harder Times Key Indicators Suggest Deep Recession By Neil Irwin and David Cho Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, November 20, 2008; A01 Businesses cut prices at a record

Re: [Pen-l] The I. F. Stone Question (Again) - NYTimes.com

Jim Devine wrote: the NYT's reputation has always been determined relative to the journalistic herd, They're seen as being more liberal and more intellectual than most other newspapers. In a Gothamocentric universe, that reputation is defined relative to the NY POST and the NY You have to

[Pen-l] Marxists for Obama: a bumpy road ahead

The pro-Obama, self-described Marxist left has a tough job on its hands. Well before taking office, Obama has made it painfully obvious that his administration will be in effect Clinton’s third term. With Mrs. Clinton about to assume the office of Secretary of State, a perfect symbol of the

[Pen-l] Calvin Trillin's Obama ode

Obama Reaches Out to Former Foes Deadline Poet By Calvin Trillin Like Lincoln, he asks foes to help the nation (The word we used to use was co-optation). McCain and Clinton both approached the throne. Now Joe the Plumber's hanging by his phone. ___

[Pen-l] Bankruptcy

http://www.bloomberg.com/fun/bbco/lawcol/lawcol1_01.html Mon, 2 Feb 1998, 11:32pm EST Dow Corning Bankruptcy Solves Year 2020 Problem: Legal Affairs Bay City, Michigan, Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- When Dow Corning Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1995, it sought solutions to two

[Pen-l] Slumdog Millionaire

One week after seeing the irony-drenched, terminally depressed and postmodernist Synecdoche, New York at Lincoln Plaza Cinema, I returned to the scene of the crime and watched the altogether marvelous Bollywoodish Slumdog Millionaire. An entire book could be written by a film scholar about the

[Pen-l] Obama picks well-qualified Homeland Security chief

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/scotus/la-na-napolitano23-2008nov23,0,7295300.story From the Los Angeles Times Napolitano: a border-law enforcer in D.C.? The governor of Arizona, who has long complained about federal immigration law, is expected to be named Obama's secretary of

[Pen-l] Capitalism the Edge of a Vortex

Capitalism – the Edge of a Vortex By Fawzi Ibrahim [Fawzi Ibrahim, Senior lecturer (retired) and author of several books on electronic engineering, television and video technology and computers. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] When the crisis of 1973-74 was upon us, Anthony Crosland, the then

[Pen-l] Barack Obama's con job

Counterpunch Weekend Edition November 21 / 23, 2008 Changing With Retreads The Third Clinton Administration By RALPH NADER While the liberal intelligentsia was swooning over Barack Obama during his presidential campaign, I counseled “prepare to be disappointed.” His record as a Illinois state

[Pen-l] The myth of Obama's small donor base

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/study-obamas-small-donors-really-werent/ November 24, 2008, 1:34 pm Study: Many Obama Small Donors Really Weren’t By Michael Luo A new analysis of President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign fund-raising punctures one of the most enduring pieces of

[Pen-l] NY Times grumbles over Obama's economic advisers

NY Times, November 25, 2008 Editorial Mr. Obama’s Economic Advisers In introducing his economic team on Monday, President-elect Barack Obama said that he had chosen leaders who would offer sound judgment and fresh thinking. Was that an order? In various high-level government positions,

[Pen-l] Deficit hawk announces intentions

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1126/p25s11-usgn.html In switch, Obama emphasizes belt-tightening Once the economy starts growing again, he wants to cut programs that have 'outlived their usefulness.' By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the November 26, 2008

[Pen-l] Prominent liberal: Maybe Nader was right

Obama Chooses Wall Street Over Main Street http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081125_obama_chooses_wall_street_over_main_street/ Posted on Nov 25, 2008 By Robert Scheer Maybe Ralph Nader was right in predicting that the same Wall Street hustlers would have a lock on our government no matter

[Pen-l] Tim Unwise

Over on alternet.org, a website occupying a place on the political spectrum a bit to the left of Huffington Post, there's an article that has been generating a bit of controversy. Titled rather provocatively Enough of 'Barbituate' Left Cynicism, Obama Is a Victory over White Supremacy, it is a

Re: [Pen-l] Tim Unwise

That article was an unfortunately poor explication of a promising tagline: We don't need the everything sucks analysis; Obama has mobilized millions of activists and that energy is looking for an outlet. Who exactly has written everything sucks? Where does this temptation to put words in

[Pen-l] The Obama cult

Recently I have noticed an interesting but disturbing phenomenon in New York City. On the streets, subways and buses, you can see people still wearing Barack Obama buttons even though the election is long over. I wonder to myself whether these buttons express an inchoate

Re: [Pen-l] The Obama cult

Time for another Two Minute Hate? Well, the 2 minutes of hate in Orwell novels was based on whipped up propaganda campaigns against the Oceania. I think you are projecting into my post what we can expect from the White House over the next 4 years.

Re: [Pen-l] The Obama cult

Jim D. wrote: I must admit that I don't like the tone of a lot of LP's contributions, but I wouldn't call it hate. What a disappointment. Considering the fact that I have done everything possible to become the Barry Manilow of Marxism, my efforts seem to have been in vain.

[Pen-l] Magnolia Blossom

This is the time of the year that I receive batches of DVD's from PR firms on behalf of major Hollywood studios and distribution companies in anticipation of the December awards meeting of NYFCO (New York Film Critics Online). No batch was awaited more eagerly (at least by this NYFCO member)

[Pen-l] Swans Release: December 1, 2008

Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ December 1, 2008 $ $ $ $ $ *Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!* Put it this way: Over 700,000 people voted for Ralph Nader. Not all read Swans, of course, but thousands do. If only 14 of them give $250 we can reach our

[Pen-l] Roosevelt's Brain Trust vs Obama's Brainiacs

Beyond the Bailout State Roosevelt's Brain Trust vs Obama's Brainiacs By Steve Fraser On a December day in 1932, with the country prostrate under the weight of the Great Depression, ex-president Calvin Coolidge -- who had presided over the reckless stock market boom of the Jazz Age Twenties

[Pen-l] Seymour/Ayers

I just listened to Doug Henwood's interviews with Richard (Lenin's Tomb) Seymour and Bill Ayers at http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html. What a contrast. Richard is erudite and razor-sharp and Ayers is an oozing pile of platitudes. When Doug asks Ayers what he hoped to accomplish by

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