KICK OUT ALL POLITICIANS WHO VOTE TO CUT PENSIONS IN QUEST FOR AUSTERITY

I call upon all those older people in Spain, Greece and Portugal, who have had their pensions unjustly reduced in the pursuit of austerity, don't accept this immoral penalty.  Vote out all those politicians, who have meekly surrendered your basic rights.  Reject all tributes to the Germanic austerity zealots behind Angela Merkel.

I commend the citizens of Athens for protesting the arrival of Angela Merkel in Greece.

GREEKS! RESIST THE IMPOSITION OF AUSTERITY!

I urge the citizenry of Greece—don't allow Angela Merkel or François Hollande to impose cruel and excessive cuts on your economy.  Merkel and Hollande are just like Republicans in the U.S.  They blindly and arrogantly insist on cuts that will cause Greece and the rest of Europe to go into steep economic depression, not just recession.

BUSH TRIES TO DEFLECT FINANCIAL BLAME, REFUSES TO HELP OUT SMALL HOMEOWNER

Did you catch President Bush's self-serving speech yesterday to the conservative Manhattan Institute at the Federal Building on Broad and Wall? Dan Eggen reports the speech for today's The Washington Post:

"The president's remarks clearly sought to influence a debate that appears headed in a direction Bush and his aides do not favor, just two months before he leaves office. Many of the world's most influential world leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have advocated bold reforms including, to use a Sarkozy example, restrictions on executive pay.

"The speech came as the Bush administration still struggles to implement the faltering federal bailout package, while fending off calls from President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats for additional stimulus measures. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. acknowledged Wednesday that the administration had abandoned its initial plan to buy distressed mortgage securities, focusing instead on offering aid to banks and other lenders to shore up credit markets."

Bush claims that the current financial melt-down stems not from the lax regulatory policy of his administration but has been building for decades, thus trying to cast the blame on Clinton and former administrations, including that of his father. Bush is so transparent. He wants so much to deflect blame and cast himself as the great leader capable of no wrong.

Bush claims that American capitalism can solve its own problems, thereby cutting off Sarkozy and Merkel's proposals for stricter financial markets regulation. What he is saying is that he refuses to help those homeowners who are now or in the immediate future risking foreclosure of their homes and mortgages. But he conveniently omits the 700 billion plus bail-out of the large Wall Street banks. So here is Bush's policy - help the banks and insurance companies who cannot meet their obligations but damn the poor sucker who cannot pay his or her mortgage.

Reports Eggen:

"Bush also argued that "the crisis was not a failure of the free market system" and that leaders should "not try to reinvent that system." Rather, he said, global leaders need to "fix the problems we face, make the reforms we need, and move forward with the free-market principles that have delivered prosperity and hope to people around the world."

""If you seek economic growth, if you seek opportunity, if you seek social justice and human dignity, the free market system is the way to go," Bush said to another burst of applause. "And it would be a terrible mistake to allow a few months of crisis to undermine 60 years of success."

"But Grant Aldonas, a former senior trade official in the Bush administration now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the tenor of the speech suggests Bush "does not understand his moment." He also said the administration has lost authority to argue against government intervention in the markets.

""The disabling of capitalism has already begun and he's the one who started it," Aldonas said. "It rings hollow for an awful lot of people, not only in the marketplace but for world leaders abroad. . . . They are the ones who are going to have the leverage at the table.""

BUSH DOMINATES EUROPEAN "LEADERS" - THEY PARROT BUSH'S ANTI-IRANIAN THREATS

It amazes me to think that the lame duck George Bush has obtained the support of the major European leaders in his bullying of Iran over its nuclear development. Merkel, Sarkozy and now Brown. These "leaders" turn out to be abject followers, and George Bush turns out to be their dominator. Talk about Tony Blair being Bush's poodle. The present leaders especially Gordon Brown are but Bush's toads.

The BBC reports:

"Mr Brown said Britain would urge Europe to impose "further sanctions" on Iran and Europe would take action to freeze the overseas assets of the country's biggest bank and impose new sanctions on oil and gas.

"President Bush thanked Mr Brown for his "strong statement" and added: "The Iranians must understand that when we come together and speak with one voice we are serious.""

We have seen all this bluster and threatening talk before from Bush preceding the invasion and war in Iraq. Let's hope time prevents the bully Bush and his suck-ups from doing even worse as to Iran.

JIMMY CARTER CRITICIZES EUROPEAN LEADERS FOR NOT DENOUNCING ISRAEL'S UNJUST TREATMENT OF PALESTINIANS

The Guardian has an article by Jonathan Steele and Jonathan Freedland about former president Jimmy Carter criticizing a "supine" Europe for failing to protest the Israeli blockade of Palestinians in Gaza.

Write Steele and Freedland:

"Britain and other European governments should break from the US over the international embargo on Gaza, former US president Jimmy Carter told the Guardian yesterday. Carter, visiting the Welsh border town of Hay for the Guardian literary festival, described the EU's position on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as "supine" and its failure to criticise the Israeli blockade of Gaza as "embarrassing"."

Carter is the only American out there who is not afraid to go up against the powerful Israeli lobby and denounce Israel's unjust and criminal collective punishment of the Palestinians.

Steele and Freedland report more on Carter's speech:

"The blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, imposed by the US, EU, UN and Russia - the so-called Quartet - after the organisation's election victory in 2006, was "one of the greatest human rights crimes on Earth," since it meant the "imprisonment of 1.6 million people, 1 million of whom are refugees". "Most families in Gaza are eating only one meal per day. To see Europeans going along with this is embarrassing," Carter said."

Carter brings up a subject upon which European leaders such as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown have been strangely silent. And how about the silence of former prime minister Tony Blair? He has a job of trying to bring peace to Palestine, yet he has remained incommunicado. Why hasn't he spoken up as Carter? Europe's leaders are a milquetoast bunch. They loudly protest against Iran's development of nuclear power but they are mute when it comes to Israel's enforcement of collective punishment.

GEORGE BUSH THE CLEAR WINNER AT G8

It seems that George Bush has succeeded in bullying members of the Group of Eight meeting this year at Heiligendamm. This includes not only Angela Merkel but also Vladimir Putin. Forget about concrete goals in reducing CO2 emissions. Everyone should be grateful that George Bush even admits there is a problem with global warming. Philip Clapp, US National Environment Trust President, described the results:

"Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Blair are trying to portray this as a strong agreement. But President Bush didn't give them an inch. The best they could get from him was a statement that their 50% by 2050 emissions reduction proposal would be "seriously considered". That's a pretty tiny landmark."

As to Vlady, Bush intimidated him enough that now Russia wants to participate in a joint venture setting up missiles in Azerbaijan.


Sad to say, George Bush won the day in Heiligendamm in every respect. He even dissed the whole concept of the G8 today on the final day by claiming he was battling an upset stomach. Apparently, last night W was seen having a beer, although aides claimed it was non-alcoholic. So much for thinking that you can work with this guy.