The American Public Opposes Israeli Settlements

While the American Congress pumps out resolutions declaring that Israel can do whatever it wants to whoever it wants and generally tripping over itself to suck money out of AIPAC’s teats, the American public has steadily moved to a more sensible postion on the Israel-Palestine situation:

A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll finds that three-quarters of Americans think that Israel should not build settlements in the Palestinian territories. This is up 23 points from when this question was last asked in 2002.

“Americans are showing increasing impatience with Israel for building settlements,” comments Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. “Even the third of Americans who sympathize with Israel more than the Palestinians oppose the settlements.”

See Also: Israel at 61: Denial of Catastrophe is at the root of the ‘conflict’, The Real Tragedy in Israel, Modern Portraits Of Evil, Palestine: Most Americans opposed to settlements in the Palestinian territories, 12 Palestinians injured after settler rampage in Urif village, Israel defies global demand over “settlements”, The Right to Exist, and Israel warns EU to tone down its criticism.

[tags]israeli settlements, public polling, israel palestine, west bank, gaza, settlements in the west bank, settlements in palestine, american opinions, poll on american position, american positions on the middle east, palestinian territories[/tags]

What The Fuck Is Wrong With America?

I’ll make this quick and full of pomp and outrage:

What kind of fucking country do you live in where you have to debate whether torturing someone is a crime? What kind of country do you live in when you can spend 3 years prosecuting the President for a consensual sexual act but won’t prosecute a President for authorizing illegal wiretaps and torturing people? What kind of country do you live in where the supposed ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’ leaders think it’s OK to torture non-Christians? What kind of country do you live in where you can’t even use the word ‘torture’ but have to say ‘interrogation techniques’? What kind of country do you live in when their Nuremberg defense (‘We were just following orders’) becomes the mantra for not holding war criminals accountable for their actions? What kind of country do you live in where a major candidate in a Presidential primary openly advocates for doubling the size of America’s illegal detention centers and increasing the use of torture?

Obama, you won the fucking election. Everyone despises Bush and his administration — they spent 8 years spitting on international law, good sense, and common decency. Fucking prosecute them. God damnit.

[tags]george bush, barack obama, what kind of country is america, torture, what is torture, defining torture, the debate on torture, Nuremberg defense, criminals, prosecution, use of torture, bush administration, Geneva convention, Guantanamo bay[/tags]

Defining Socialism

There seems to be some confusion among certain segments of the population on the meaning of socialism.

Socialism is: believing that all individuals are due a certain level of living; that things such as health care, education, adequate nutrition, clean and unpolluted environments, and shelter are universal rights; and that adequate safe guards should be in place to prevent the exploitation of markets and peoples.

Socialism is not propping up failed financial institutions that made their money via speculative and predatory behavior; allowing corporations to profiteer off of federal bail-outs; nor is socialism enriching an oligarchical elite while the economic world they created crumbles. Socialism is not Bizarro Robin Hood, where the government steals from the poor to give to the rich.

So please, if you are an angry white-male who reads too much libertarian literature, do not confuse present circumstances with your interpretation of ‘socialism’. Trust me, real socialists are more outraged by this situation than you are.

See Also: Why Does Healthcare Cost So Much, Ctd., Reducing inequality: how to pay for it, The Bail-Out as Class Warfare, Let Them Drink Tea, Bailout Nation Update, Self-Regulation Doesn’t Work, What are the tea parties really about?, Capitalism versus Socialism – Poll confirms massive anti-capitalist shift in US public opinion, Obama Haters As Viewed By The Economist, and Of Course You’re Not a Socialist, Mr. Rattner.

[tags]socialism, what is socialism, obama administration, financial industry, nationalization, socialism in america, bank bailouts, federal bailouts, bizarro robin hood[/tags]

On Teabagging

Now that the madness of this weeks Tea Parties is over, I have an actual questions for my readers: What is your formal definition of teabagging?

In my ‘hood, teabagging was the process of shoving one’s testicles into the face of someone who was asleep (typically the first person to bitch out at a party after drinking too much). Preferably this would be filmed or at least photographed, both for future laughs and JO material.

But it seems there are varying thoughts on the subject. Are there different schools of philosophy on teabagging? Is there a geisha-like art to the process?

So tell me, dear PBH readers, what you consider teabagging.

Change Your Corporate Overlords Can Profit From

Goldman Sachs, in another sign that banks may be turning around, beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations as it reported a profit of $1.66 billion for the first three months of this year. The bank also said it planned to raise $5 billion in stock to help it pay back government bailout funds.

The New York-based bank said it earned $3.39 per share, easily surpassing analysts’ forecasts for profit of $1.64 per share. This compares with earnings of $1.47 billion, or $3.23 per share, in the quarter ended Feb. 29 of last year, and is a huge improvement over the $2.29 billion Goldman lost in the fourth quarter.

Hey, who knew that having all of your executives involved in the Obama administration could be so… PROFITABLE:

One has to love the sequence of events here. Back in 2004, Goldman chief Hank Paulson goes to SEC chief William Donaldson and petitions to have lending restrictions relaxed for the top five investment banks. Donaldson rolls over, the restrictions are relaxed, and it’s a disaster, as the top five banks immediately overleverage themselves — two of the five, Bear Stearns and Lehman, would actually collapse, at least partially as a result of being insanely overleveraged.

In the midst of this disaster, Paulson is named Treasury secretary. He does nothing about the worsening financial crisis until it is far too late, then allows one of Goldman’s biggest competitors, Lehman, to fail while at the same time intervening on a huge scale to save AIG, which just happens to owe Goldman a ton of money.

When AIG is bailed out, its government regulator is not in the room, but the new chief of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein, is. In fact, Goldman Sachs ultimately receives about $13 billion of the money paid to AIG by the government in the bailout, reportedly getting paid 100 cents on the dollar for its AIG exposure, despite the fact that the bank claimed it wasn’t going to suffer severe losses if AIG collapsed.

See Also: Is TARP Investigator on Collision Course With Treasury on Bank Assets?, Goldman reports $1.8 billion profit, Afternoon Reading: Should Goldman Pay Back the Government?, The Corporate Borg, The Coming Siege of Austerity, Taxpayer Funded GS Profits, Time To Breakup Goldman Sachs, US Economy: You Think You are the Consumer, But You are Really the Product, and The Criminal in the Bank Next Door.

[tags]aig, goldman sachs, record profit, 1 billion profit, goldman sachs profit, profiteering, money making, bailout, socialism, federal bailout, TARP funds, aig, nationalization, profit from tax payers, rent seeking, corruption, larry summers, barack obama, change doesn’t mean shit, democrats are as corrupt as republicans, democracy is a fucking sham[/tags]