Coming Home to Gaza, Ahmadinejad Hearts Neda, Ron Paul Rides Again

Paul Krugman
Gen Wesley Clark

“It’s time to yank the shroud off the Fed and shine some light on these events,” - Edolphus Towns


Well, Bernie Madoff got 150 years, which means very little compared to the many lives he destroyed, the big fish investors are still thrashing around in the small pond looking for chum... Too bad when they sell off the assets from the Madoff estate the ones at the bottom of the list can't get payed back first. you know, the elderly grandparents who have had to move back in with their children, how about letting them get their life's savings back before the large institutional investor. Now, that would be justice... Even better, if ol' Bernie was sentenced to live in Gaza, because it's still a prison for many.

From the BBC the real news is that Egypt opened up the checkpoint at Rafah: "About 400 people were able to cross into Egypt, with priority given to students, patients and officials.
On the Egyptian side, 700 people and 10 trucks with medical aid from Arab countries waited to enter.
Gaza has been blockaded by Israel, and much of the time by Egypt, for two years since Hamas took control there." It will be open three days per week and you need a special pass to get through. So far only people have been allowed to pass, perhaps commercial goods will happen soon. This is really a token because in order to rebuild, the blockade of the Mediterranean has to stop so ships can unload cargo at Gaza City. There is more movement from the West Bank into Israel, and checkpoints are at an all time low, causing delays of only 45 minutes to 2 hours...

So the rubble from Israeli bombs remain, 47,000 houses were destroyed and cannot be rebuilt, 75 tons of depleted uranium remain in the soil, and living in Gaza often looks like a scene in Escape From New York. Meanwhile, Palestinian leaders are learning how to get along with each other on their weekend jaunts into Egypt.

Iran's Guardian Council announced that the presidential election was run honestly and Ahmadinejad was the winner. No surprises here, the Guardian Council, appointed by Ahmadinejad for their loyalty to the Supreme Leader, also ran the election as well as run the investigation into the election which recounts a selected 10% of the vote. 3000 people gathered toprotest yesterday, but were clubbed and gassed until they dispersed. In a bizarre statement, Ahmadinejad said that an official investigation into the death of Neda will begin, after they can remember where they put her family...

That feisty Texas Libertarian Ron Paul, dearly beloved by John Birchers, has introduced a bill to audit the Fed, as reported in CQ Politics: "He may have faded from the national political scene a year ago, after his dark-horse presidential run came to naught, but Rep. Ron Paul ’s influence is still being felt in campaigns and policy debates across the country. Indeed, the latest legislative priority of the libertarian Texas Republican — auditing the Federal Reserve — has gained support in unlikely quarters...
Paul’s legislation, popularly known as the “Audit the Fed” bill, has drawn 244 cosponsors, ranging from Ohio’s John A. Boehner , the conservative Republican floor leader, to Michigan’s John Conyers Jr. , the liberal Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee. We still don't know what the Fed did with all of the stimulus money, they keep stonewalling Elisabeth Warren's oversight committee; and the Obama administration is going to give it more regulatory powers. Having more transparency is a good idea. The banking industry is still spending the most amount of money on lobbying your Congressman, and we could then compare which legislator received the most funds from the banks, along with legislation they then passed, with whom the Fed then bailed out or cracked down on - an instructive, fun filled flow chart that voters can easliy grasp come election time...