Memory Lane on Secretary of State William Galvin and BofA.

In the early to mid ’90′s, Fleet Bank was found guilty of redlining, and giving unfavorable terms to minorities regarding all areas from checking/savings accounts to loan terms. The remedy? Fleet basically had to accept every minority applicant at approved terms.

Fleet was eventually bought by Bank of America. So it’s not like any bank that repeated that behaviour should expect to get away with it. Especially one that bought the one that got whacked for previous crimes.

Two stories from Latin America:

Guatemala leader [former Army general] to propose legalizing drugs

“The Guatemalan president said the war on drugs and all the money and technology received from the U.S. has not diminished drug trafficking in the area.” LINK.

* * * * * * * *

‘Attempt on life’ of FARC false demobilization witness

“Agudelo, Restrepo, and a drug trafficker allegedly paid homeless and unemployed people to train, live and act like FARC guerrillas, then surrender to security forces.

‘”I want to announce that [Thursday] at 9am a plan to kill me was dismantled. A prisoner named William Marroquin had in his possession a 38 revolver and was going to take my life,” said Agudelo.

“Agudelo claims the alleged assassination attempt is to silence him before presents “all the truth,” in court about the false demobilizations.” LINK.

I’ve been expecting this:

Jeb Bush could emerge as GOP nominee at a brokered convention, says top Republican

LINK.

• As Homs continues to be under siege, the Arab League’s next step in Syria is to request UN peacekeepers, or at least a joint observer mission. The UN General Assembly will probably decide this. By the way, it’s weird that the name of the main activist chronicling the siege of Homs bears a striking resemblance to my own.

It should be noted that our recently pulled Ambassador to Syria says it’s a unwise decision to get involved…U.S. military not the answer in Syria…

Isn’t it reassuring to know we’re fighting on the same side as Al Qaida…?

Al-Qaida leader backs Syria protests…

*gah*

A name change might help Jeb in the general.

• According to Mark Zandi (I know: big grain of salt) each young person who lives with his parents instead of buying/renting costs the economy $145,000. It’s hard to see how the economy digs out if that trend continues.

• I would never say a black president in a bad economy with lukewarm support is safe for re-election. But Romney has a 56% negative rating in Ohio, a state that he must win. That’s a hell of a steep hill to climb.

• 2.12.12 is 212 in decimal. Fun with numbers.

In that case, it would be Bush and his horse on the ticket.

“Libya simply has no government”; the lack of government institutions under Ghadafi was pointed out as a major issue if his regime fell. They’re trying to create a government from scratch in a population still ruled by tribal interests and loyalties.

“Steven Harper keeps saying that he’s about to re-route the Keystone XL pipeline and sell the oil through British Columbia to China. If that was such an easy task, you’d think he’d have started construction by now.”; exactly; damn troublesome Indian tribes, eh?

“in the context of an inadequate settlement.”; given all the negative perception of this ‘deal’, I wonder if will ‘stand up’ under court analysis and something more gets done.

You mean one of these horses?

I have mixed feelings on that article about women in combat. I am happy that the military is finally acknowledging that you don’t need to be on the front lines to be considered “in combat.” At the same time, I’m concerned because the number of sexual assaults in the military in combat zones and ability to conduct a conclusive investigation seems seriously lacking.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25784465/ns/us_news-military/t/female-soldiers-raise-alarm-sexual-assaults/

That one comment about “cardiovascular health” from the retired military officer was just plain odd. Last I heard women’s problem with cardiac health has less to do with prevalence and more to do with the medical community’s ability to understand that women display different symptoms then men and to take those symptoms seriously.

The GOP must really want to lose. The Bush name is still mud for many of us that choose not to pledge our allegiance to either party.

Gasoline prices will be a hot issue.

Why the increase? Do these increases ever have anything to do with actual supply and demand or are they always just the result of speculators? Is there any end in sight? We just always accept the New Normal. Into the $2 and change – fine. Into the $3 and change- fine. And so on. We always get the obligatory increase in the summer “driving season” which then never goes away.

Americans will stay home this summer and the tourist, restaurant and hotel industries will go down for the count.

This will be another nail in the economy as there will be NO discretionary income left.

I don’t have mixed feelings at all.

I think neither gender should be in combat.

GAAAAHHHHH!

How can Obama keep getting so lucky? Next, they’ll try to recruit MiniCheney.

Boxturtle (Barry would be easy to beat, if something to the left of Attila the Hun was running)

Me, too. Given the prospective deterioration in the economy through summer (in part because of the gasoline price rise mentioned above), the Republicans have a good chance of winning provided they get a viable candidate. The only way they can get a viable candidate is to pluck someone who did not run in the primaries. This will create much less outrage among the Thugs than it would among Democrats, who have idolized the primaries since the McCarthy and McGovern campaigns, not that they have given us better candidates than Adlai Stevenson or John Kennedy. Jeb could actually win. He holds all the states the Thugs would take anyway; would probably take Florida, and with that needs only Ohio to win it all, since he takes New Hampshire. At worst it is the electoral college replay of 2000, but he would probably also win a majority of the popular vote.

No one would be enthusiastic about him; but there isn’t much enthusiasm for Obama, either, so on that score it’s a wash.

We won’t invade Syria. No oil. No lithium. No rare earths. Just some people pleading for help while they’re being exterminated.

Boxturtle (Besides, I suspect Israel’s goal there is to maintain the chaos)

That would be redundent, the horse already has an ass.

Boxturtle (Was I the first to post this or do I owe someone a drink?)

Or,

02 12 2012

Ternary (sometimes called trinary) is the base-3 numeral system.

Jeb could win Ohio, depending on his running mate and how quiet he keeps about the red meat issues.

You’re right, he could win simply because he hasn’t had to pander to the Tea Party in the primary and frighten the rest of us.

Boxturtle (Obama’s support in Ohio seems very soft)

In case anyone missed it, Harry Shearer interviewed Yves Smith on le Show yesterday. An excellent discussion of the rampant crime wave in the mortgage markets and the dive taken by the Gov in the “settlement.”

You can stream or podcast it at the KCRW website.

The post up at Yves’ blog Naked Capitalism is for a NYC march today to Occupy the SEC.

The judge thing really pisses me off. Obviously he’d bagged his limit and when he threatened to spotlight the Bush regime, it was only a matter of time.
Phucking Phuckers!

Let’s also not forget that Iran is making terorist suicide bomber boats /s

Some societies come alot closer to achieving equal educational opportunity than others. If you are intrigued by the NYT article on income inequality and educational performance, I would refer you to THE SPIRIT LEVEL, chapter 8, “Educational Performance”, authors are: Richard Wilkerson and Kate Pickett. They have many brief overview videos online as well as a beautifully linked (read richly informative) website at equalitytrust.org.uk.

It is all about the nations with high income inequality between income ‘classes’.

TomThumb

When Glenn Greenwald discusses Hez and the 30 years of terror paid for by Iran, he will have more credibility in an article that is filled with “if” after “if” as it leads one to the Chomsky assertion Glenn is trying to sell.

I do not doubt MEK is not nice to the Iranian gov, or that it survived in Iraq by being seen as part of the ruling groups friends. Beyond that there seems no facts – indeed the fact that the Rand study non-random sample found only 3 out of 10 at the MEK camp would assert love of MEK is the only “solid” fact there – if you call that solid. I swear it was like reading Chomsky – assertions but no facts once you actually check sources.

The FACT is that the North of Iran has been fighting against the central Shia gov since the late 1940′s – and that is as far back as my memory goes. I Doubt that Israel has much to do with Shia/Sunni/Kurd conflict, despite Chomsky’s assertions. After the 70′s I stopped attending Chomsky’s speaking moments in Cambridge because I was tired of being convince of something by Chomsky only to research the topic and find what weak tea Chomsky was really serving.

i would like to see some turnout comparisons in gooper primaries from 2008 to 2012.
as much as they hate Obama, I think the turnout is low and the leadership is very worried.

Well, that was good for a laugh. Wasn’t it Laura Bush who said W. tried to milk a horse, “and it was a male horse”?

There are 212 days until 9/11/2012, and it is 9 months and 11 days since may 1st, the day Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, which was exactly ten years after the war on iraq was declared ( which was a direct response to 911 )

The area code of New York city is 212, and it is the country code for Istanbul

The boiling point is 212 degrees

And the sign of the devil – 666 – divided by 212 is 3.14159 – so it is time to bake a pie. :-)

I just strangled my abacus lol. You made me do it!

Papau, the main point of Greenwald’s post is that the US government has labeled the MEK a terrist organization, but, when “leaders” of our various US factions and parties openly provide support to the MEK they are not charged with any crimes or even given any warnings.

Yet, US Muslims who have done thing which seem more like exercise of free speech get charged, tried, and jailed.

That’s the main point. And, as I’m sure you noted, Greenwald thinks that supporting any group via speech is a right in this nation. Now under assault from both D and R presidents and Congress Critters.

Hypocrisy is a bitch.

Here you go! Repug humor–unlike any other.

Thanks-has the ring of truth, don’t it?

Not fond of the experience myself. However, I do think there are times that you have to fight.(I opposed Iraq and Afghanistan 2.0 because I did not believe we were fighting for the right reasons. It’s almost like we felt we could get do overs.)

Hypocrisy is something we all dislike.

We put them on our terror list because they did not limit their fighting to Iran, but fought as Sunni against Shia and Kurd and appear not to have been properly bribed (the Sunni violence ending was due to bribes – not any surge).

But once on the list you and he are right that the result should be the same for all – even when we know they really should not have made the cut for the list (close to be sure).

Hypocrisy about Hez and Iran’s sponsorship/funding/giving direction to/ordering terror through should be next on Greenwald’s list to comment on.

But we all do agree on rejecting hypocrisy.

Greenwald pretty much limits his comments to the lens of domestic politics

Well, Happy Birthday, Dave, even if it is a day late. Sorry about that.

I miss actually celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday separately.
Combined for business efficiency, don’cha know…business hates giving people holidays off, let alone two in one month.

Oh, and re George W and horses: he’s afraid of them, remember? Forget which foreign leader it was who brushed up his riding skills to prepare for a visit to the “ranch,” and then found when he got there that were no horses. It may have been he who passed on the word that dubya’s jus plaiin afraid of ‘em.