The present system has to be smashed. We need a politically rigorous working class. Universal suffrage.

By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer , On Friday January 29, 2010, 1:29 pm EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy's faster-than-expected growth at the end of last year, fueled by companies boosting output to keep stockpiles up, is likely to weaken as consumers keep a lid on spending.

The 5.7 percent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter was the fastest pace since 2003. It marked two straight quarters of growth after four quarters of decline. Growth exceeded expectations mainly because business spending on equipment and software jumped much more than forecast.

NBC News and news services updated 38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Pressured by a growing clamor from New York, the Obama administration has decided to move the trial of Sept. 11 terror suspects away from Manhattan, where it had been scheduled to take place just blocks from the site of the twin towers attack.

Multiple media outlets, including NBC News, The Washington Post and The New York Times, reported on Friday night that the administration has abandoned its plan to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the city.

How are things in Jolly Ole England?

They get screwed royally over there.

It appears that this was done for political reasons, yes?
I hope that the Administration realizes that it looks like if people push hard enough, the Administration will back down.

Wait.... the fun is just starting. Now we have the infamous "NIMBY"* coming in to play.

A few of the areas suggested to hold the trial have already gone on record as saying that they don't want it; they don't want their citizen's put at risk or possibly be disrupted by the attention that a trial would bring.

Orange County (upstate NY) is the home of two of the suggested choices and many town and civic leaders from there are already yelling that they don't want the trial in their area.

* NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard

Plattsburgh would be nice. They could use a little boost to their economy.

I never heard of this city, but the Mayor of Newburg, NY says he wants it there, saying it'd be good for the economy.



Nicholas Valentine -- whose small city 60 miles north of the Big Apple is right next to an Air National Guard base being mentioned as a possible trial site -- said the relocation of the case would be a win-win.



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/upsta...M#ixzz0e6tcAPFl

Btw, did anyone see Obamas "lecture" to the Republican caucus yesterday????


TIS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.

In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.

Now, this is definitely an example of bi-partisanship at its best. You have a Democrat President and a Republican Senator joining forces to address one of the most damn, dumb, and stupid subjects they could ever address.

Capo, I wish you had shared my experience of living in a system run by the self-entitled working class elite. They were real "enemies of democracy", to use your Lenin quote. Btw., Lenin wasn't a fan of democracy either. He and his fellows destroyed the democratic grass-root councils ("soviets") and installed a complete un-democratic system. (Which we "smashed" in 1989.)

"Working class elite" seems like an oxymoron; (or) a product of apologist superficiality. It doesn't ring true, I'm afraid.

LOL!

Read The State and Revolution - it's not the product of some majorly deceptive mastermind. It's pretty cogent; not even Robert Service could discredit it in his "revisionist" anti-Marxist introduction to the edition I have.

After you read that, read Chris Harman's 'How the Revolution Was Lost'; it's an essential read that accounts for the party's post-war substitutionism - where the dislocation of the working class due to the civil war resulted in the party substituting itself for the class.

Lenin foresaw and forewarned of Stalin's rise to power (read Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed), and of the dangers of bureaucratism and parliamentarism, even within the party itself - he was able to analyse these honestly because he analysed the objective historical forces at work that led to the decimation of the working class in Russia.

Lenin was a socialist; by definition, then, he was against social democracy. So am I. Social democracy translates to bourgeois reformism - that the transition from capitalism to socialism is a "logical if gradual eventuality". Make that "a stagnant falsity wherein the promise is forever deferred" - "socialism is great in concept but doomed in practice", and "doomed because of its own internal defects, never due to external forces" (then why is it great in concept if internally doomed? Ah, the contradictions of bourgeois apologia). Under social democracy, you get tokenistic concessions to "the masses" but everything is designed to maintain the self-interests of the ruling elite, via political inequality. Socialism and all claims of "socialistic policies" are completely vacuous.

Opportunists like Obama thrive under social democracy. Meanwhile, people continue to scratch their heads wondering why the leaders they vote for every four years bear an increasing resemblance to one another: parasites of empty buzz-phrases, false promises and apologists for some of the most inhumane policies currently in circulation. Of course it's the failures of the individuals in office, never of the system itself.

But the System is bigger than the Man; always.

By the way, you mention in the God thread that you "studied Marx because you had to" (love the half-veiled dig); as part of an educational institution within an inherently bourgeois set-up, no doubt. Where Marxism is either presented and studied as an "interesting because it failed" doctrine, and/or limited to counter-revolutionary academia, cut off from real life.

Study Marx voluntarily and you might find there's something in there to account for why we're living in, and are at the mercy of, a grossly fucked up economy. Not only this, but crucially, you'll find answers as to how to overcome it.

Not great, despite the declaration by the news the other night that we're "officially out of the recession".

So, what is it going to be: socialism or barbarism?

I don't understand why they are having this trial in the US to begin with. How much is this going to cost the taxpayers for security and other costs?

All we need is for that jerkoff to signal his terrorist radical buddies that are living here to bomb us again.

Because the crimes were committed on American soil.

I'm all for having the trial on a military base. It would probably be the least expensive way to do it. The MPs could supply the security. As far as I know, they don't have to pay soldiers overtime, either.

As for the mayor of Newburgh, it's one of the most crime-ridden cities in NY. That's why people don't go there. They have enormous drug problems. Just let the terrorists loose in downtown Newburgh in the middle of the night. They probably wouldn't survive.

Newburgh Crime Statistics

SB, maybe Spring Valley would be a better locale?

I know this video won't sit well with alot of you but I heard it the other day and I liked it.

Should play well at the next Klan meeting.... goes well with Dueling Banjos.

Well thank goodness it's the Sean Hannity version, so at least we know it's all on the level.



TIS

@Capo. Maybe we should discuss the things you mention in another thread.

Maybe, but then I'm talking specifically about Obama as opportunist, as far from the socialist he claimed to be; as commander-in-chief of an inherently unstable economic system.

You brought Lenin up; and everything you wrote was rubbish.

Thank you for this thoughtful comment.

I wrote my "thoughtful comments" on the previous page.

Sorry, but the notion that Lenin was an "enemy of democracy" or responsible for "destroying the democratic grass-roots councils" is rubbish.

If something's incorrect, it's rubbish.

I don't understand it. What is its purpose? I heard something about "White" in the beginning, but then it was just clips of Obama speaking with some song about "guns and bibles", two things that I personally don't think belong together. At the end, there was an audio clip of Reverend Wright.

Could you please explain to me what you liked about it? I didn't even understand it. It just seemed a big jumble to me.

I liked all those sound bites of his lies and how the country has this obsession with Obama. I think it is funny how a rock band Lynard Skynard and Hannity put all those lies together to show America how radical he is and how he wants to change our constitution to suit his needs and the needs of the current far left libs.

SB, Wright imo is far from being a Reverend.

What lies? I really didn't hear any. And what changes does he want to make to the constitution? I didn't hear anything about that. Radical? Is he really? Can you give me a specific example of President Obama being radical?

As for Reverend Wright, I can't decide what he is or isn't from a 2 second sound bite, and neither should anyone else.

My PC speakers aren't working, so I can't listen to it the clip. Tell me a couple of the lies attributed to him and at least one proposal by the President to change the US Constitution. By the way, what is "the country"?

lynrd Skinner, a bunch or racists and Hannity is a nut. Come on Miggie, criticize Obama all you like, but stop pushing lies and other people's agendas.