The Inland Empire area of southern California is one of the hardest hit areas for foreclosures.This TV report (which I meant to post earlier) shows some of the devastation.

One guy has a business clearing out foreclosed homes. Everything must go. The people often leave behind computers, TVs, furniture, etc. He started the business a few years ago with a handful of employees. Now he has over 70. He tried to recycle the stuff, but Salvation Army and Goodwill are so unreliable in showing up that all the stuff goes directly to landfills minus whatever the crews want that they can carry away.

Another business is spray-painting brown lawns with a biodegradable, safe-for-grass green paint so the house looks better maintained and not obviously vacant.

That businesses like this are thriving shows just how bad things are there. BTW, these are good-sized homes too, 3,000-4,000 sq. ft. Bought in the exurbs by people who drove long distances to get to work. But then gas went up and their variable-rate mortgages reset to higher interest rates as the property value plummeted…

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Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Yet Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney provided none when she recently claimed that 5,000 prisoners were executed by the US in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and dumped in swamps.
Socialist Unity:

Surely 5000 prisoners would have been missed by their families? Surely at least some of the prison guards might have had moral objections and gone to the press. Shooting 5000 people would be a very major undertaking, and would need a lot of organisation, and transporting the bodies would take several lorries, and dozens if not hundreds of people would need to be involved. In the absence of any corroborating evidence, McKinney’s claim is so improbable that it will seriously damage the Green Party’s credibility.

Agreed. I’d say that somewhere a Democratic operative is laughing his ass off except that the Democrats undoubtedly no longer see the Green Party as a threat.

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Since Thursday, when the Senate voted Yes on the bailout and an okay by the House looked probable, the Dow has dropped 500 points. The Dow really started dropping today at about the time the House passed the bill.

The market is saying, we don’t believe in the bailout.

Here’s what is almost certainly coming.

Some time after the U.S. presidential election, with credit markets still a mess, banks failing all over the landscape, and no real end in sight, we will likely see the new president pull together some sort of TARP II commission. What should we do, post-Paulson, to prevent this crisis from further deepening and continuing? Top of the agenda will be further fiscal stimulus, and, in all likelihood, an explicit recapitalization of the banking system, with government picking favorites.

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According to a new USGS study, geothermal if developed fully, could generate about half the currently installed US generating power, a huge amount.

The DOE says algae fuel could replace all petroleum fuel in the US using an area about the size of Maryland. This could be done on non-arable land with small amounts of non-potable water. Even better, it is way more more carbon-neutral.

Biological fuel which was grown and harvested today, has just absorbed all its carbon from today’s atmosphere through using solar energy and photosynthesis forming chlorophyll. So it absorbs the carbon dioxide first, before releasing it back to the atmosphere after being burnt in an engine, a closed loop cycle.

The answers to our energy problems exist now. All that is needed is for the government to act decisively and fund it, giving tax breaks ansd credits to jump start the process. The result will be enormous numbers of new jobs, a hugely decreased reliance on oil, and a vibrant economy.

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In three years, buildings covered in steel sheets could be generating large amounts of solar electricity, thanks to a new photovoltaic paint that is being developed

The photovoltaic paint is made up of a layer of dye and a layer of electrolytes and can be applied as a liquid paste.

There is so much amazing reasearch and development happening in renewables now. Some of the technologies being developed now will unquestionably go mainstream. After too much financial doom and gloom it is heartening to see the real and promising work being done now in renewables.

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Please vote NO on the bailout package. It seems Wall Streets wants its $700 “or else” our retirement plans get shot in the head. But why rush to put so much control and money into their hands? Why not first consult with the over 200 academic economists, include four Nobel laureates, who signed a petition opposing the bailout as hasty and ill-conceived.

And since Congress is embracing bipartisan action, why not slow down and listen to the concerns of Senator Enzi (R-Wyoming) who lamented that this bill, pressured onto Congress by a hasty administration and crafted in large part by Wall Street itself, has resulted in a “very costly Band-Aid for big banks that will do very little to help” what ails America.

Take into account the criticisms of Senator Shelby (R-Alabama) the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, when he said that Congress has panicked and is “now about to spend $700 billion on something we have not examined closely. Yes, in the end, we will have ‘done something.’ At the same time, however, we will have done nothing to determine whether it will accomplish anything at all.”

Take counsel from the remarkable agreement of Senator Sanders, the Socialist Senator from Vermont, and Senator Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, when they said that it is strange and breathtaking that Congress is about allocate $700 billion, the largest single authorization of expenditure in United States history, to one person – Secretary Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the wall street mavens who got us into this trouble in the first place — with very little oversight as to which institution is bailed out, what is purchased, and at what price.

Vote NO, take time, and craft a better bill. Yes, the banks need recapitalization, but there are better ways.

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Go see Burn After Reading. George Clooney and Brad Pitt star in the Coen Brothers movie about CIA-themed madness and violence. It’s crazed, darkly funny, violent. Hey, it’s a Coen Brothers movie!

Special bonus: As the credits rolled, the soundtrack was “CIA Man” first recorded in about 1965 by the Fugs, and sung now (I recognized the voice) by original member Tuli Kupferberg.

Who can kill a general in his bed
Overthrow dictators if they’re Red?
Who can squash republics like bananas
If they do not like their social manners?
Who can train guerrillas by the dozen
Send them out to kill their untrained cousins?
Fcukin’ A, man, C.I.A. man.

The Fugs were maybe the first protest band, as well as the first DIY band. They could be sacred, profane, horny, as well as satirically humorous as witness their antiwar song “Kill For Peace.”

Near or middle or very far east
Far or near or very middle east
Kill, kill, kill for peace
If you don’t like the people
or the way that they talk
If you don’t like their manners
or they way that they walk,
Kill, kill, kill for peace
If you don’t kill them
then the Chinese will
If you don’t want America
to play second fiddle,
Kill, kill, kill for peace

I first heard the Fugs in 1965 when I was a teenager. They had a profound influence on my tender young psyche and I thank them for it. They showed that not only could you protest, you could have lots of fun doing it too.

Kupferberg is in his 80’s now. The Fugs are still recording with founding members Kupferberg and Ed Sanders still active. Their recent The Fugs Final CD Vol. 1 is maybe their best yet too.

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Battles over voting registration are building. The Chicago Tribune has the details about the battles, which mostly seem like Republican attempts to block new voters.

However, unlike Al Gore, who never did fight back, the Obama campaign already has teams of lawyers in the field. Obama is not flashy, but he is always prepared, and always has a well-thought-out plan.

Both in the primary and now against McCain, there’s been times when his supporters were screaming, do something, hit back, and then a week later you realize he just surged ahead in the polls. So, I’m not too worried about attempted Republican dirty tricks on voter registration. I’m sure Obama has a plan here too.

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