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POPSSarkozy Calls Crisis EU Summit on Georgia, Russia German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to supportive of this view. In a telephone conversation with the French President, she suggested that the EU convene a regional conference to address Georgia's reconstruction and wider stability issues in the region. But the conference would not include Russia, according to Merkel, who will explain her views in an article to be published in Der Spiegel on Monday. Earlier, while on a visit to Tbilisi on 17 August, the German Chancellor had lent her support to Georgia's NATO membership, moving away from a previously more cautious stance about the countries' affiliation to the North Atlantic military alliance. US officials have warned that the conflict in Georgia could affect Russia's membership of international organisations such as the Group of Eight industrialised nations and could undermine its bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
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POPS Obama Takes Experience Lead Over McCain -- Again - there’s only one serious candidate in the race. Sister Toldjah McCain is demonstrating that when it comes to criticial foreign policy issues, his near 30 years in the Senate dealing with foreign issues as well as domestic, along with his long career in the Navy...... Hot Air Now, the media has awakened to truly historical events in the Caucasus, and McCain has commanded their attention with his leadership — while Obama hides in Hawaii. Macsmind You would think with 300 advisers THE ONE would have some words of wisdom from his Mount Olympus. The silence is more than telling and quite possibly a view into how Obama would actually handle such events as President. Surfs Up Dude! The New Republic McCain has had a prominent and strong presence in the news while Obama has been fairly invisible. Obama deserved a vacation but the timing–I assume his team figured the Olympics would drown out any other story.
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POPSTop 25 Censored stories of 2008 "Project censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism." — Walter Cronkite last three: # # 23 Feinstein’s Conflict of Interest in Iraq # # 24 Media Misquotes Threat From Iran’s President # # 25 Who Will Profit from Native Energy?
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POPSGoing After OPEC The real energy problem, in other words, isn't Big Oil; it's Big Government. As with so many other things, President Reagan got it right when, not even a week after taking office in 1981, he signed Executive Order 12287 decontrolling the price of oil and gas. He then ordered his secretary of energy to focus on encouraging U.S. companies to find and produce more. It worked like a charm, bringing oil prices down sharply and OPEC to its knees. By 1986, after a 74% drop in the price of oil, some even doubted OPEC could survive. Such would-be monopolies look invincible when demand rises and prices follow. But when supply increases, prices fall and members start cheating, they look pathetic. This pretty much describes the history of OPEC. Reagan's strategy of energy decontrol would work again today . But this time it's supplies, not prices, that need to be untethered.
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POPSOn Performer’s Rights, Kathleen Ferrier, Bruno Walter and Mahler’s Rückert Lieder Since Gustav Mahler lived from 1860 to 1911, it is more than 70 years since his death, and his works are today out of copyright. (Actually, they went out of copyright in 1961 (50 years after 1911) as the 70 year term was only retroactively introduced in the EU with a 1993 Directive . However, for today’s distribution of the songs, this is not relevant.) Friedrich Rückert , the author of the poems used in the songs, lived from 1788 to 1866, so his poems are out of copyright as well. So, as far as the author’s of the music and the lyrics are concerned, there are no limitations to making these songs available over the Internet.
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POPSThe Lies Behind 'Free Trade' This book on disastrous trade policies makes clear that it's time to dismantle the barriers that keep so much of the world so poor. Neoliberalism is a rerun of what economists suffering from "historical amnesia" believe were the key characteristics of the international economy in the golden age of liberalism (1870-1913). The Third World was not always poor and economically stagnant. Throughout the golden age of capitalism, from the Marshall Plan (1947) to the first oil shock (1973), the United States was a Good Samaritan and helped developing countries by allowing them to protect and subsidize their nascent industries. forced to adopt neoliberal policies and to open their economies to much more powerful foreign competitors on unequal terms, their growth rate fell to less than half of that recorded in the 1960s . Apologists for neoliberalism have also revived an old 19th century and neo-Nazi explanation for developmental failure - namely, culture.
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POPS "Don't Make Me Send Chuck Back There!" Says Huckabee Huckabee first ignored the man and then joked, "Don't make me send Chuck back there!" – a reference to actor and WND columnist Chuck Norris, who has been campaigning with Huckabee. Columnist Chuck Baldwin hammered Huckabee for his CFR connections in a commentary last week, mentioning that the candidate spoke before the Council last fall.
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POPSAnti-Corporate Xmas Caroling with Santa Cruz Art and Revolution Court: Malls can't bar protesters, even on mall property By Associated Press Article Launched: 12/24/2007 12:45:11 PM PST SAN FRANCISCO - Shopping malls can't stop protesters from calling for boycotts of its stores, even when they're on mall property, the California Supreme Court ruled today. In a 4-3 decision, the justices ruled that California's free-speech protections extend to demonstrators who set up inside shopping centers and urge customers not to stop there. Today's ruling upholds a 1979 state Supreme Court decision that found that shopping malls are public forums in which people's free speech rights are protected by the California Constitution. origin.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7800348?nclick_check=1 Looks like our last Free Speech zone may be the mall...
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POPSU.S. Victory on China Trade Issues This is a big first step in resolving U.S.-China trade disputes and an indication that economic relations between the two countries may be growing warmer--it comes just as Treasury Secretary Paulson is about to visit China for another round of the "Strategic Economic Dialogue" between the two countries. --Brian Wingfield
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POPSWTO rules against U.S. on cotton subsidies More: Brazil was one of several countries that blamed the United States for the impasse as differences over barriers to farm trade and manufacturing proved unbridgeable. The two countries have repeatedly clashed as the talks have failed to make progress. Critics of the subsidies say they drive down prices, making it impossible for small farms to compete in international markets, and more difficult for poorer countries to develop their economies by selling their agricultural produce abroad. Washington has rejected the cuts, which were first proposed by the African cotton-growing countries claiming to have been most harmed by the U.S. subsidies: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali.
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POPSUS faces US$100 billion fine USA is in trouble again. Brussels think-tank has accused the US government of reneging on commitments made to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over internet gaming. USA does allow domestic gaming online, but prevents foreign gaming interests. Hm. Is it any wonder that USA is keeping such a profitable interest within it's own control and borders.
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POPSI no longer fear the Kucinich Revolution: Part 4 humor, politics, cartoons, comics, webcomics, dennis kucinich, ultra k, jobs, nafta, cafta, gatt, wto, healthcare, insurance, iraq, afghanistan, war, troops
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POPSChina Suddenly Cares About Copyrights Perhaps a little self interest will nudge China toward stricter enforcement of the intellectual property protections it's already vowed to uphold under the WTO. - Louis Hau
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POPSAlas, Britain's Still An Island OK, so dear Mr. Darling (British Chancellor of the Exchequer) and chere Mme la ministre (the French finance minister) are at it again, over the new IMF leader. Can't Britain and France ever get along? I mean, we're talking back to the Versailles Conference (1919), even the Congress of Vienna. The French (and indeed European ex-Britain) candidate, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who I've known for at least 20 years, would make just a fine IMF chief, if we can for a moment ignore his Gallic roots. So WHAT if Frenchmen head the European Central Bank, the EBRD, the WTO as well as the IMF. Next thing, the Brits will want the UN Secretariat uprooted every 10 years and floated around the world. Why oh why can't we just look at the Best Man or Woman for the job? Britain is indeed an island, but have they forgotten what John Donne wrote: "No man is an island....any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind." ---David A. Andelman
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POPSTariff Walls -- Basta! In fact there are all sorts of reasons that the1946-73 economy performed well. Let's leave Smoot-Hawley and its successors out of this, but start with the jolt of new investment after World War II, of GIs coming home and pitching in, the massive military buildup of the Cold War, the tech push in the post-Sputnik era. Also, when we say the 40s-70s economy "vastly outperformed" the 70s-2000s economy, just how exactly? We have the highest standard of living today that the world has ever seen, the most advanced technology and the best-educated workforce. To what do we attribute that? Smoot-Hawley? I think NOT. What the world really needs now is a workable Doha agreement and a WTO that is not a sham. ---David A. Andelman
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