Bank of America Posts Loss as It Gets New Aid

On January 17, 2009 the New York Times reported that "Bank of America Posts Loss as It Gets New Aid" in an article by LOUISE STORY, ERIC DASH and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN.

The new bailout includes "a fresh $20 billion capital injection and absorb as much as $98.2 billion in losses on toxic assets."

"The second lifeline brings the government’s total stake in Bank of America to $45 billion and makes it the bank’s largest shareholder, with a stake of about 6 percent."

Thus one financial organization has received a commitment from the US federal government for $45 billion in direct cash and $92 billion in indirect support, or a total of $143 billion.

This represents 20% of the amount that is being proposed to help put the millions of people who are now out of work back to work. In real terms, it shows that the current capitalist system has a much greater commitment to maintaining its own structures than to addressing the needs of the people.

While many voices across the political spectrum talk about the need to help working families, they at the same time talk about being careful about debt. The sense of a total commitment to helping working families such as that expressed for protecting banking institutions is lacking.

As quoted in the article:

“The U.S. government will continue to use all of our resources to preserve the strength of our banking institutions and promote the process of repair and recovery and to manage risks,” regulators said.

With losses mounting in the financial industry, other banks may eventually feel compelled to turn to the government for assistance, and the program could to used for other big banks. Taxpayers could end up guaranteeing hundreds of billions of dollars of banks’ toxic assets.

“The financial services sector still needs more equity,” said Frederick Cannon, the managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “TARP was announced in mid-September and most of the initial decisions were based on the state of the economy then. The economy has gotten a heck of a lot worse.”

The question remains, why is this total commitment lacking when it comes to industry and to working families. This highlights a fundamental problem with the capitalist system; the prioritization of profits over people.

While we struggle as a society to find funding for the human needs of the vast majority of the people, needs like health care, housing, education, and addressing hunger, the coffers have no bottom when it comes to bailing out the rich and their institutions.

Socialism realigns the social priorities toward meeting the needs of the majority of the people and limits exploitation for private profit. Fundamental change is needed today. We in the United States can move forward together to figure out how to meet our needs and dump those who exist to exploit and legally rob off our backs.

US Rabbis Urge Obama to Push for Immediate Gaza Truce

US Rabbis Urge Obama to Push for Immediate Gaza Truce

 

By Natasha Mozgavaya and Haaretz Staff

 

January 15, 2009 by Haaretz (Israel)

 

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055463.html

 

A group of rabbis and other religious leaders bought advertising space in the New York Times this week to call for U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to push for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

 

The ad, placed by the Network of Spiritual Progressives and claiming to represent more than 2,800 other religious, cultural and community leaders, urges Obama to convene an international Middle East peace conference to "facilitate a lasting and just settlement for all parties."

 

Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, who convened the group, said the group had to buy the advertising space because the national newspapers would not make room for their perspective.

 

"They feel that AIPAC's choice is overwhelming, and there's no space left for empathy or objective coverage

- the media, according to the group, simply ignored the voice of the Jewish opposition to war in Gaza," Rabbi Lerner said.

 

Eleven prominent British Jews, including Baroness Julia Neuberger, published a letter in The Observer newspaper last weekend expressing their "horror" at the Gaza conflict and calling on Israel to stop its military campaign.

 

Israel has been waging an offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip since December 27. The operation, launched in order to halt cross-border rocket fire, has come under heavy criticism for the high number of civilian casualties.

 

AFL-CIO - Acuff Cuts Through the Spin About Employee Free Choice

Our own Stewart Acuff delivered quite a shock to Fox News last week. Despite the network and corporate spin, Acuff told talk show host Neal Cavuto the Employee Free Choice Act does not eliminate or make illegal the secret ballot election when workers want to form a union. After parroting the party line for so long, that seemed to come as shock to Cavuto.

 

Click link below to see:

Acuff Cuts Through the Spin About Employee Free Choice

 

 

Post-Tribune Jan. 14 addition: "Environmental, citizens groups upset with Daniels"

"Environmental, citizens groups upset with Daniels"
By Gitte Laasby
A coalition of environmental and citizen action groups are getting fed up with Gov. Mitch Daniels' lack of response to their public information requests.
The groups requested information two and a half months ago but have not received any documents.
http://www.post-trib.com/business/1375985,dukedoc.article

The Cuba 5 on the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution

On the 50th anniversary of Cuba's socialist revolution, the CPUSA recognizes the heroism and revolutionary example of five Cuban men unjustly imprisoned in U.S. federal prisons for over ten years.

Arriving in Florida in the 1990's, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González joined private paramilitary groups in order to monitor and report on preparations for attacks against Cuba. For decades, right wing terrorists based in Florida had carried out murderous assaults which have cost the lives of many innocent people.

From the time of their arrest, the Five were subjected to cruel persecution. At their trial, which rampant with bias, the prosecution had free rein to commit egregious abuses of due process. Outrageously long sentences were handed down. UN human rights authorities and international jurists are of one voice in castigating judicial proceedings in the case of the Five.

Violation of civil rights and repudiation of judicial norms are two reasons why we joined the world solidarity movement on their behalf. The CPUSA fights for the Cuban Five also because of dedication to the Cuban Revolution. The U.S. government has cast these five revolutionaries as proxies for a government and people that resist. Our Party defends Cuba's right to protect its national sovereignty against the depredations of empire, and to continue without interference on the socialist path it has chosen.

Wholesale perversion of justice in the case of the Five serves as cover-up for hypocrisy. The U.S. government wages a so-called war on terrorism, yet has long sanctioned violent assaults on Cuba. Safe harbor provided arch terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who lives undisturbed in Miami, is one example.

The CPUSA issues an appeal for all in solidarity with the Five to reach out to fair-minded, politically conscious people to commit themselves to the Five. Such solidarity is overwhelmingly necessary if the nefarious influence of the corporate dominated media that has suppressed news of the case is to be overcome.

The time is now for our party and other activists to intensify educational efforts on the Five directed at union locals, peace groups, and civil rights organizations as preparation for communications to the media, meetings with elected officials, and public statements.

British and other international labor unions have taken up the cause of the Five as their own; we urge US trade unionists to do so also..

We are mindful that mobilization of progressive forces to demand a presidential pardon could eventually be required to complement the appeals process.

The CPUSA is part of the campaign to force the U.S. State Department to permit Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva to visit their imprisoned husbands, whom they have not seen for ten and almost nine years, respectively. At issue are rights of families and prisoners.

Lastly we urge that all in solidarity with the Five to correspond with the prisoners as a step toward lessening their isolation and as token of the worldwide movement on their behalf [below are the addresses].

Gerardo Hernandez
#58739-004
U.S.P. Victorville
P.O. Box 5300
Adelanto, CA 92301

Antonio Guerrero
#58741-004
U.S.P. Florence
P.O. Box 7000
Florence CO 81226

Luís Medina
#58734-004
U.S.P. McCreary
P.O. Box 3000
Pine Knot, KY 42635

(NOTE: the envelope should be addressed to "Luis Medina," but address the letter inside to Ramon Labañino)

Rubén Campa
#58733-004
FCI Terre Haute
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute, IN 47808

(NOTE: the envelope should be addressed to "Rubén Campa," but address the letter inside to Fernando González)

René González
#58738-004
FCI Marianna
P.O. Box 7007
Marianna, FL 32447-7007

William Sieghart: We must adjust our distorted image of Hamas

Gaza is a secular society where people listen to pop music, watch TV and many women walk the streets unveiled

-- William Sieghart

Last week I was in Gaza. While I was there I met a group of 20 or so police officers who were undergoing a course in conflict management. They were eager to know whether foreigners felt safer since Hamas had taken over the Government? Indeed we did, we told them. Without doubt the past 18 months had seen a comparative calm on the streets of Gaza; no gunmen on the streets, no more kidnappings. They smiled with great pride and waved us goodbye.

Less than a week later all of these men were dead, killed by an Israeli rocket at a graduation ceremony. Were they “dangerous Hamas militant gunmen”? No, they were unarmed police officers, public servants killed not in a “militant training camp” but in the same police station in the middle of Gaza City that had been used by the British, the Israelis and Fatah during their periods of rule there.

This distinction is crucial because while the horrific scenes in Gaza and Israel play themselves out on our television screens, a war of words is being fought that is clouding our understanding of the realities on the ground.

Who or what is Hamas, the movement that Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, would like to wipe out as though it were a virus? Why did it win the Palestinian elections and why does it allow rockets to be fired into Israel? The story of Hamas over the past three years reveals how the Israeli, US and UK governments' misunderstanding of this Islamist movement has led us to the brutal and desperate situation that we are in now.

The story begins nearly three years ago when Change and Reform - Hamas's political party - unexpectedly won the first free and fair elections in the Arab world, on a platform of ending endemic corruption and improving the almost non-existent public services in Gaza and the West Bank. Against a divided opposition this ostensibly religious party impressed the predominantly secular community to win with 42 per cent of the vote.

Palestinians did not vote for Hamas because it was dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel or because it had been responsible for waves of suicide bombings that had killed Israeli citizens. They voted for Hamas because they thought that Fatah, the party of the rejected Government, had failed them. Despite renouncing violence and recognising the state of Israel Fatah had not achieved a Palestinian state. It is crucial to know this to understand the supposed rejectionist position of Hamas. It won't recognise Israel or renounce the right to resist until it is sure of the world's commitment to a just solution to the Palestinian issue.

In the five years that I have been visiting Gaza and the West Bank, I have met hundreds of Hamas politicians and supporters. None of them has professed the goal of Islamising Palestinian society, Taleban-style. Hamas relies on secular voters too much to do that. People still listen to pop music, watch television and women still choose whether to wear the veil or not.

The political leadership of Hamas is probably the most highly qualified in the world. Boasting more than 500 PhDs in its ranks, the majority are middle-class professionals - doctors, dentists, scientists and engineers. Most of its leadership have been educated in our universities and harbour no ideological hatred towards the West. It is a grievance-based movement, dedicated to addressing the injustice done to its people. It has consistently offered a ten-year ceasefire to give breathing space to resolve a conflict that has continued for more than 60 years.

The Bush-Blair response to the Hamas victory in 2006 is the key to today's horror. Instead of accepting the democratically elected Government, they funded an attempt to remove it by force; training and arming groups of Fatah fighters to unseat Hamas militarily and impose a new, unelected government on the Palestinians. Further, 45 Hamas MPs are still being held in Israeli jails.

Six months ago the Israeli Government agreed to an Egyptian- brokered ceasefire with Hamas. In return for a ceasefire, Israel agreed to open the crossing points and allow a free flow of essential supplies in and out of Gaza. The rocket barrages ended but the crossings never fully opened, and the people of Gaza began to starve. This crippling embargo was no reward for peace.

When Westerners ask what is in the mind of Hamas leaders when they order or allow rockets to be fired at Israel they fail to understand the Palestinian position. Two months ago the Israeli Defence Forces broke the ceasefire by entering Gaza and beginning the cycle of killing again. In the Palestinian narrative each round of rocket attacks is a response to Israeli attacks. In the Israeli narrative it is the other way round.

But what does it mean when Mr Barak talks of destroying Hamas? Does it mean killing the 42 per cent of Palestinians who voted for it? Does it mean reoccupying the Gaza strip that Israel withdrew from so painfully three years ago? Or does it mean permanently separating the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, politically and geographically? And for those whose mantra is Israeli security, what sort of threat do the three quarters of a million young people growing up in Gaza with an implacable hatred of those who starve and bomb them pose?

It is said that this conflict is impossible to solve. In fact, it is very simple. The top 1,000 people who run Israel - the politicians, generals and security staff - and the top Palestinian Islamists have never met. Genuine peace will require that these two groups sit down together without preconditions. But the events of the past few days seem to have made this more unlikely than ever. That is the challenge for the new administration in Washington and for its European allies.

William Sieghart is chairman of Forward Thinking, an independent conflict resolution agency

Jan. 15 Call In Day for HR 676: What Better Way to Honor Dr. King

Unions for Single Payer HR676 is calling for a "Jan. 15 Call In Day for HR 676: What Better Way to Honor Dr. King".

Their statement is included below. Please consider calling in today; there are few more important actions you can take on your own behalf, for your family, and for the many millions of uninsured, underinsured, and people denied access to needed health care by a heartless and expensive bureaucracy that adds nothing to providing health care or to controlling costs.

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking
and inhumane." -Martin Luther King, Jr.


With over 48 million people in the United States living without health insurance, the issue of providing quality affordable health care to all is high on the agenda for this nation.

"Of all forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking
and inhumane." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Born January 15,
1929--Assassinated April 4, 1968, while leading a strike for union and
human rights for Memphis sanitation workers.

The famous quote of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is worth keeping in mind
on Thursday, January 15, as you call your congressperson and ask him or
her to sign on as a co-sponsor of HR 676, Congressman John Conyers' (D-MI)
single payer healthcare legislation. HR 676 will shortly be reintroduced
into the 111th Congress with the same number.

Eighty-six members of the new 111th Congress were co-sponsors of HR 676 in
the last Congress. Now is the time to call them and urge them to sign on
again as co-sponsors in the 111th Congress and to ask all the others,
including the newly elected representatives, to do likewise.

A number organizations advocating HR 676 are asking supporters to call
their congressperson on Thursday, January 15th. All of us acting on the
same day will magnify the impact. Please take a moment to call the US
Capitol switchboard: (202) 224 3121. Then ask for your representative.



If you need to look up your or someone else's Congressperson, you can go
to http://votesmart.org/ and put in the zip code.

If you have two more minutes, please call one or both or your senators to
urge them to introduce in the Senate a companion bill to HR 676. You can
use the same number: (202) 224 3121.

We'd love to hear from you about the response you received. Please write
us at nursenpo@aol.com.

HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system in the U.S. by
expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident.

HR 676 would cover every person in the U. S. for all necessary medical
care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient
services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental
health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for
substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.

HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save billions
annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private
health insurance industry and HMOs.

In the 110th Congress, HR 676 had 93 co-sponsors in addition to Conyers

HR 676 has been endorsed by 478 union organizations in 49 states including
118 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 39 state
AFL-CIO's (KY, PA, CT, OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO,
MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX, IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA, AK, MI,
MT, NE, NY, NV & MA).

For further information, a list of union endorsers, or a sample
endorsement resolution, contact:

Kay Tillow
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551
Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org
01/14/09

AFL-CIO - Acuff Cuts Through the Spin About Employee Free Choice

Our own Stewart Acuff delivered quite a shock to Fox News last week. Despite the network and corporate spin, Acuff told talk show host Neal Cavuto the Employee Free Choice Act does not eliminate or make illegal the secret ballot election when workers want to form a union. After parroting the party line for so long, that seemed to come as shock to Cavuto.

 

Click link below to see:

Acuff Cuts Through the Spin About Employee Free Choice