Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 498 Editor's Choice: 43
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Roman Forts
[Read the article: McCain owns the Iraq war -- for better or worse]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The U.S. has built "Roman" forts all over the world, in friendly and 'unfriendly' countries.
These forts allow the U.S. to control world trade, and especially the oil industry. The control of the Panama canal was seized back from the State of Pananma after our illegal invasion to stop 'drug smuggling' by Manuel Noriega. We still have a base in Cuba, of all places, conveniently placed there to control the Caribbean, and observe and one day overthrow Castro. Or Camp Bondsteel, right on the route of a proposed oil pipeline from the Caspian, and also in striking distance of most of the former "Balkans." Or our numerouse island air bases all over the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Or our proposed missile facility in the Czech Republic.
What are ten more in Iraq? The real question American's have to answer is, do they want to be the new Romans? If the answer is no, then these bases have to go.
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Book Reviews
[Read the article: YouTube, j'accuse!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I post book reviews on-line on a 'blog.' Does that make me a blogo-fascist?
Or is my crime avoiding getting hired by the New Republic?
Or perhaps reviewing books that newspapers and magazines don't review? Or Lee Siegel (whoever he is...) doesn't review?
The guilt is just overwhelming. Apparently I'm part of the new illiteracy!
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Late Finance Capitalism
[Read the article: How Wall Street broke the free market]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've been a Marxist for 35 years, and events, instead of reputing Marx, only confirm him nearly every time. That is not how it's supposed to work. We're supposed to get conservative as we age, and Marxism is supposed to be 'old hat.'
An unplanned economy, prone to overproduction, creates it's own crises. We've had two major economic meltdowns since 2000, and it only pushes the whole world a little farther out on the ledge each time. The economic booms are benefiting the small middle classes in most of these countries, not the majority of people, who's lives are getting worse.
Oil, which is the heart of capitalist overproduction and 'growth,' is now becoming more expensive and scarce. As Lenin estimated would happen, finance forms the basis for the ageing U.S. economy, not production of goods. Laissez faire capitalism, which both U.S. parties embraced so heartily under Reagan and Clinton, is looking like a short idyll. The environment, which cannot be ignored without peril, is now hanging over capitalist 'growth' and the overly-consumerist society. It also hovers over the bureaucratic regime in China, which has linked itself to imperialist production instead of social change.
All this means regular working people have fewer jobs and, if their credit dries up, little money. This is because the finance and 'internet' industries employ far fewer people than building or making things, or agriculture, ever did... as most of those jobs went overseas or 'south,' or in the case of agriculture, oil replaced human labor.
I'd agree we are reaching some kind of a turning point here. And it won't be a mythical one where events only happen to 'other' people - it is going to happen to most of us.
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E-mail Archives
[Read the article: "Where are what?"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What? Did we all actually read that an actual person actually said this? I don't think they are high fiving, unless this mumbo jumbo actually works... Maybe for clueless Democratic Party 'leaders' this is good coin.
As another poster wrote, corporations keep live e-mail archives, and then backup tapes, for years. It is part of the process.
I can find any e-mail on our system back to 5/2003 in about 2 hours. Before that we can find external e-mails in another archive, back to 11/19999, in about 3 hours. The third source is network and exchange backup tapes, held since 2002, which still hold e-mails prior to that period. These might have to be resurrected by an outside vendor. The fourth source is if the employee is still with the company, you can search their present live or archive Outlook .psts, although they may have deleted these as end-users.
We search on e-mail address, date, direction of e-mail, or textual and header contents.
For instance, a company that suddenly had an e-mail 'hole' would be fined heavily by the SEC, let's say if they were in the brokerage business. And companies HAVE been fined millions of dollars. Massive loss of e-mail is seen as a priori proof of malfeasance. And it should be.
There is no doubt the White House has deliberately deleted the e-mails or tapes, or, is refusing to search them. Both are civil or criminal offenses.
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Numbers of primary votes and caucus goers
[Read the article: Dead party walking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The press doesn't like to look at these figures, but the Democrat caucuses and primaries are drawing far more people - 30% more - than the Republicans. Does the press ever compare this part of the 'horse race'? No.
Anyone know a good site that collects this data?
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Outsource the Misery, Import the Cash
[Read the article: The politics of an economic nightmare]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Imperialism has been able to outsource the misery in the U.S. by exporting good chunks of unemployment, pollution, overproduction, inflation and poverty to the 'third world' for years. In the meantime, we've been able to make money off the 'third world.'
Looks like we are now starting to 'import' assets in this latest crisis, as the banks were heading towards insolvency without the infusions from foreign governments in the last month. There is now a 'buying' spree in which foreign companies are snapping up U.S. assets.
This model, relying on the rest of the world to bail us out, might work for awhile longer. But it will be at the expense of the local working class, once again. While our companies sell to the middle classes of Singapore and India, they are letting the U.S. working class drift lower. The largest corporate market growth is in these economies. Our country is resembling, more and more, a class stratified place, run by a local oligarchy whose business is elsewhere.
Think that will be solved by Clinton or Obama's liberal pablum? I don't think so!