David Corn

History matters.

Palestinians have consistently resisted Israeli dominance over their lives. Gazan resistance has been especially problematic for Israel. In the 1970s, before Hamas, Ariel Sharon was charged with “pacifying” Gaza. Sharon imposed a brutal policy of repression, blowing up houses, bulldozing large tracts of refugee camps, imposing severe collective punishment and imprisoning hundreds of young Palestinians.

http://tinyurl.com/872s3w

AIG is a penny stock this morning.

Maybe we should have let them fail as they continue to do so.

What did we buy with the hundreds of billions of dollars we gave AIG? More BS and hot air?

I meant Citi Group is a penny stock this morning - not AIG but the message is the same

U.S. Military Aid to Israel

In these days of economic crisis, budget overruns, earmarks, and multi-billion dollar bailouts, when Americans are being forced to tighten their own belts, one of the most automatic earmarks—a bailout by any measure—goes to a foreign government but is little understood by most Americans. U.S. military aid to Israel is doled out in annual increments of billions of dollars but remains virtually unchallenged while other fiscal outlays are drastically cut.

http://tinyurl.com/baaa8h

Charles Dow Rolls in His Grave: The Distortion of the Average He Made Famous - Friday, March 6, 2009

Have you ever asked yourself why the Dow Jones Industrial Average contains non-industrial stocks? Why such a large weighting is given to financial companies such as American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and AIG (Before its removal)? After all, you wouldn’t expect to see General Motors included in a healthcare index or Goldman Sachs in the home builders index.

The Wikipedia entry for the Dow Jones Industrial Average states that:

“The average is computed from the stock prices of 30 of the largest and most widely held public companies in the United States. The “industrial” portion of the name is largely historical—many of the 30 modern components have little to do with traditional heavy industry.”

We do not dispute the claim that the “industrial” portion is largely historical. Indeed, there are components which have little to do with industry. Financial companies, who do not produce anything, comprise a large weighting the in this average of American Industry.

Over the last 20 years, the Dow Jones has been reshaped into a basket of 30 conglomerate corporations, with little regard for the actual business they’re in. Today’s Dow Jones would be unrecognizable to the man who created it over a century ago.

History
The index was first published in 1896 by Charles Dow, Founder of the Dow Jones Company and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Dow created and monitored a list of important industrial companies. Along with the Industrial Average, he created the Railroad Index (Transportation) which he would track along with the industrial stocks to gauge the health of the economy.

The Dow Theory was created based on the notion that both indexes should rise together in a healthy economy. The concept was a simple one. While industrial companies made the goods, the rails transported those goods to market. One couldn’t function without the other.

The original Industrial Average contained 12 industrial (Producers of goods) stocks:

- American Cotton Oil Company
- American Sugar Company
- American Tobacco Company
- Chicago Gas Company
- Distilling & Cattle Feeding Company
- General Electric
- Laclede Gas Light Company
- National Lead Company
- North American Company, (Edison) electric company
- Tennessee Coal,
- U.S. Leather Company
- United States Rubber Company

Notice that all of the companies in the index were producers of goods. There were no financial or bank stocks included in the average. At the time of his death in 1902, Charles Dow’s industrial average contained 12 stocks which were comprised of industrial producing companies such as US Steel, US Rubber, National Lead, American Car and Foundry, etc. Still no banks.

The Dow Jones Begins to Change
1982
80 years after the death of Charles Dow, American Express was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This marked the first time that a financial stock was added to the century old index.

1988
American can, a manufacturer of tin cans merged with Commercial credit corporation and adopted the name Primerica.

1991
JP Morgan was introduced to the Dow Jones in 1991 and replaced Primerica corporation.

1997
Travelers Group was added to the index. The company would later change its name to Citigroup.

2004
AIG was added.

2008
Bank of America was added.

Reasons:
We struggle to find an explanation as to why such changes were made. Was it because America became de-industrialized over the last quarter century? Was it merely a reflection of big business today? With companies such as General Motors and General Electric playing dominant roles in non-core businesses such as finance and banking? Or were these financial stocks added to the index in hopes of propping up its value with companies such as JP Morgan and AIG, whose earning power seemed indestructible? Our hunch is that it was a combination of each. (More at the link.)

http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/03/charles-dow-rolls-in-his-grave-the-distortion-of-the-average-he-made-famous/

I'm glad the administration is having fun. I assure you that the millions of Americans without health insurance are not.

http://illinillinois.blogspot.com

I wonder why AS IF is so anal about Gaza and Israel?

I wonder why it is so urgent for him to force feed his views off topic?

I was born and grew up in Israel in the 1950s. I feel sorry the Palestinians were exploited and abused by their brethern who made them live in squalor because they were ashamed of being defeated by Israel every time they trumpeted their upcoming victory and their intent on pushing the Israeli Jews into the sea.

As the Arab and Muslim positions hardened into insensate hatred and aversion they murdered children as a warning to the citizens of Israel that Arab barbarism is not even covered by a thin veneer of civilization.

I grew up with many Arab kids in my neighborhood. We played games together, told each other stories and once in a long while shared a meal. (We were all too poor to feed very many others.)

The group charter posted by Hamas states clearly its intent and can be read by anyone who chooses to do so. It does not bode well for anyone in the middle east. The intent to eradicate Israel is its sole current aim.

This implies that the USA and Europe should stand idly by while Hamas slowly builds itself up to the point where it is capable of a massacre of WWII proportions and which the rest of the world will decry as a sad day for civilization. (Make no mistake about it, if Hamas gets the chance there will be a massacre of millions.) At no time has the Arab world accepted the notion that Jews have any right to live anywhere at all other than a mythical somewhere else. Any lands ever conquered by Islam can never revert to its original owners since it is Allah's intent that these lands remain as Dar al Islam.

As Islam keeps supporting the idea and tactic of mass murder, I am more than willing to see Hamas and its supporters, who hide undergrouind when there is fighting to be done, made permanent underground residents till the end of time.

"The group charter posted by Hamas states clearly its intent and can be read by anyone who chooses to do so."

It would seem that a groups intention to drive another group of people out of a geographical area and claim the area as their own, based on their own percieved accuracy and standing of an ancent religious text is now abhorent to you. Isn't that the same justification the Zionists used to displace the then current residents of what is Israel today when the country was formed? Do you deny that Arabs were killed and driven off their lands when Israel was formed? I am very sensitive to people denying events when it comes to commiting inhuman atrocities.

What's different now besides who currently is in power over the land now called Israel and which religion is claiming a devine right to it?

What righteous purpose was inherent in the war and invasion that bloodily creatd Israel by force 60 or so years ago that Hamas can't cite as their justification today? It is the same land, and like you said they believe it was their God's intent that this land be forever under Arab control right?

What makes your ancestors religious based claims more compelling or righteous?

Surely you are not saying the passing of a mere 60 years in time has made what was then acceptable for the Zionists purely evil by another group who basically have the exact same goals as the Zionists did when Israel was formed, are you?

If hamas is wrong now, then weren't the Zionists wrong then? If the Zionists were wrong then, who did they seek atonement from and who did they make raparations to to be absolved of their viciousness?

i wonder why KALPAL is so quick to dismiss the evil brutality that is israel?
oh wait, by his own admission he is an israeli.
no wonder.
the palestinians did not choose to have israel foisted on them and then immediately start spreading out and taking over more and more space that is not theirs.
they did not choose to be corraled into the world's largest concentration camp (GAZA) and then denied basic amenities all the while being brutalized and killed.
israelis are racist scum and their behavior speaks for itself.

Palestine - 60 years of Bloody Oppression

http://tinyurl.com/cnsth5