War for Peace

urstruly,

....... are mark cuban, michael dell, larry page and sergey brin part of the `power elite` ? ........ if so, where were they a few years ago ? ...... what about mark zuckerberg, who is barely 21 years old, is he part of the power elite ?............. here is a list of under 30 men and women who will be part of the power elite in a couple of years while you are still whining about how unfair the world is ............. http://www.inc.com/slideshow_INC/slideviewer.cgi?list=30under30&refresh=10

......... i just sent this link to my daughter to make sure she doesn`t end up like you and masadi - lazy and incompetent slackers who have failed to compete and now sit around making excuses and blaming their miserable state on the `power elite` .............. we have to be honest with ourselves .... the other day when my younger daughter asked me why i never made partner i simply said, `because i was lazy and didn`t work hard enough` instead of giving her some cock and bull story about the power elite ...........

Re: # 178

so is your argument that, if I had not been lazy and worked hard the US power elite would not exit, but since I am lazy and don`t work hard therefore it exists?


scratching head.

Re: # 180


urstruly,

stop scratching your head ! ...... what i meant was that anyone can be a member of your `power elite` if they work hard enough ......... over the past thirty years i have known many people from rather humble backgrounds who are now on multiple boards and they got there by simply working at it ....... so instead of whining and griping, get off your duff and see if you can make it too .......

Re: # 180

Yeah, keep scratching, you might find something in there, if you are lucky.

Re: # 178

H Sahib.. All this time I thought Masadi was talking about power tools. But the diagram clearly explains who the real culps are.

masadi`s post# 171 proves without any shadow of doubt that there exists a tightly-knit power elite in US. The question whether this power elite is an evil entity or not comes later but first I have to ask this question from those interactors who were so whemently denying the existence of such a power elite. Was their assertion based on a belief or wish that such an elite didn`t exist or did they have a sound basis to assert that such an elite does not exist. I want to know why they were defending an undefendable.

Re: # 177 by Urstruly on July 13, 2006 10:06am PT

{Was their assertion based on a belief or wish that such an elite didn`t exist or did they have a sound basis to assert that such an elite does not exist. I want to know why they were defending an undefendable.}

The argument actually was about the hold this so-called power elite has on the world and its political life, and whether there is no opportunity for anyone else to break into this so-called circle. Masadi is totally wrong in his assertions that this power elite is something static and new comers are not allowed into the fold. Hamid is wrong in thinking that corporate America can do no harm. Masadi is wrong in asserting the institutional political and the institutional structure is based purely on power elite`s whims and wishes.

The American people are very smart and the system of checks and balances have continuously destroyed this so-called phantom of power elites. If there is something like power elites its membership is not static but quite dynamic and changes all the time. The basis of masadi`s point of power elite is that they are wealthy and hence unscrupulous. For the most part, and individuals, these people are very authentic, as Hamid has suggested. But, as a collective group of people, if they can get away with it, they will screw humanity. And that is where Joe Schmuck American steps in and say enough is enough.

Hope that clarifies the distinction from hamid`s thoughts and masadi`s thoughts.

Respectfully submitted,

Kalyan #175 {``Ferozk, I assume you pay your taxes in Pakistan. I also assume you take ownership of all of GoP`s policies?
Why do you support military dictatorships with your tax rupees? ``}

Kalyan,
For the same reason that many Americans, like me, have to support a whacko fundo right-wing bible-thumpin Knight Templar, as he goes on a Crusade on taxpayers` expense.

Ferozk, I assume you pay your taxes in Pakistan. I also assume you take ownership of all of GoP`s policies?

Why do you support military dictatorships with your tax rupees?

Re: # 175

You have raised a very interesting point.

I am responsible for the acts of my government, because in the end, I have to bear the consequences of my government`s actions as they determine and shape the course of events, which effect my existence in Pakistan.

It is another matter that I have no choice in selecting my government or those who rule over me and given the state of affairs in Pakistan, I doubt that I will ever have the opportunity to truly select a government of my own choice through the expression of a ballot.

It would be an act of moral cowardice on my part, to say that I have no ownership on the policies of the Pakistani government, because I did not elect it. I will not claim this argument. When the government of Pakistan acts in my name, without my permission, I am still liable for its actions and my own personal sense of accountibility, will not allow me shy from this responsibility.

As to my taxes supporting a dictator, I will be honest with you and state that would be a very fair and just assessment of my present situation in Pakistan.

I have no objections to admitting the truth and on being found quility, but I do expect others to also stand up and admit the truth and also accept the ``ownership`` of their acts. :)

Ciao

quiz #1

...... if you are a shareholder in a company that makes widgets, who would you want on your board ?

a) a professor of sociology who thinks that widget-makers are evil
b) a hobo who rides the trains in new mexico and has never seen a widget
c) a homeless person in nyc who lives in a empty widget carton
d) a ceo of a company who is on the board of another company that buys widgets

feroz writes in #171 <<< Asadi, when you start questioning people`s personalities, do not be surprised when they start to question yours and once you set an example and other follow it to your dislike; do not blame them because that is a sign of hypocrisy. >>>

What a sorry excuse for a post. Go back to the interacts on this thread or any thread, whenever I have posted these AHs have attacked me, I have never made personalities an issue.

He writes

<<< all I can add is that as long as you keep supporting the United States` military operations in Iraq, with your tax dollars, you are contributing to the carnage yourself >>>

Definitely not, I have no choice, the little money I earn is already pre-taxed by coersive measures on threat of imprisonment if I should so refuse. What kind of UBL esque idiotic argument was this? The tax that they collect from me, by these coersive measures wouldn`t even pay for a standard issue M-16 rifle and it is not willingly paid.

Then he writes

<<< The most galling example of your hypocrisy is that you are calling me a hypocrite, when you are yourself a hypocrite! >>>

Another sorry excuse of an argument. Might I suggest you return to the topic or get the hell away from this thread with your personal attacks. People like yourself, that our keeping our youth deceptively ignorant even as their human potential is being robbed by the elite whose ways your worship. I don`t give a damn about what you think about me.

Re: Asadi # 172

I hope you would have realized from the trivality of our last few interact posts on how difficult it is to seriously interact, when the discussion veers off the topic to personal comments.

Ciao

re: Asadi

Apprently, you enjoy to abuse and ridicule people, who disagree with you. As to your comments about addressing the topic of the article, I tried to discuss the article but you were too busy calling me names and seemed more eager to discuss my intelligence than in answering my questions. Now, you have started to call me a hypocrite. It is very hard to discuss this article with you, when you are not answering any questions related to it. You mentioned that you have already answered my questions. You have simply answered what you wished and ignored those aspects of my questions, which you did not wish to answer and that is not the same as claiming that you have answered questions.

As to the carnage in Iraq and my attempts to stop it, as you have suggested, all I can add is that as long as you keep supporting the United States` military operations in Iraq, with your tax dollars, you are contributing to the carnage yourself and if you are against the war, you should stop your financial contributions that are fuelling this illegal war. You claim to be against the war and you cry for the innocent Iraqi victims, and yet you support a government with your taxes that kills the Iraqis in an illegal war. The Janus like nature of your acts and intentions prove beyond a doubt, that it is YOU who is a true hypocrite and not I.

As to HP; HP and I disagreed a lot and we will disagree a lot more in the future, but in all of those disagreements, HP never personalized the issues and HP addressed his comments to my ideas and not towards my personality, you do.

Asadi, when you start questioning people`s personalities, do not be surprised when they start to question yours and once you set an example and other follow it to your dislike; do not blame them because that is a sign of hypocrisy.

The most galling example of your hypocrisy is that you are calling me a hypocrite, when you are yourself a hypocrite!

Ciao

In addition to # 169,



CLICK THE ABOVE LINK

Kulharee writes <<< but $ to $, it contributes more, >>>

First, this article is not a discussion about AID, second that is just like saying that even though Worker Joe gives 30% of his income in taxes of various kinds, since Corporation X is giving 1% it is somehow more generous because dollar for dollar the corporate tax amount will come to be more than Worker Joe. That is not how comparisons are done and generosity determined. The gross amount of AID that the US gave did not exceed the other nations until 2001, and even then if we remove Iraq and the two top recipients of AID before the Iraq war, to whom aid is given for political and not humanitarian reasons, the gross amount falls far short of other nations. Finally you have not and cannot answer the fact that AID in the US according to its own official statements has been foreign policy tied in most cases and results in net loss in most cases from the recipient nation due to such policy requirements and sweet heart deals that follow.


Hamidm, since your question was adequately answered about links between those corporations, instead of accepting the facts as an honest person you come up with further distractions about African Americans and college professors on boards of directors, did you not know that educational institutions, especially the top ones are the ones that serve a vital function for the elite, both as training ground for world view and suppliers of leadership and only those members from the lower echelons are allowed in that clone themselves in the fashion of the dominant ones. The AAs and Jews in the power elite are near clones in their social outlook to the traditional power elite, they have been allowed in due to circumstance, there has been extensive data studies on this by Domhoff and he has published his findings as empirical verifications of the power elite model every decade after Mills published his work in 1956. The latest revision published was in 2005. No amount of ``qualification`` can ever justify the disparity in income between a ceo and and entire regiment of workers combined and the entire point of the discussion, fusion of interests and class consciousness that such institutional arrangement offers the power elite was ignored by hamidm. How else will he justify the lie based upon which he has lived his whole life, some c@ck and bull story about productivity which amounts to inventing ways in which to better fleece workers and line his own pockets.

All what this post by hamidm proves is that regardless of the validity of the answer, well documented, he will still reject it and carry on with his ignorance. Much like the other bigots on here, Hindu or otherwise~ look at their hypocrisy, they don`t give up any opportunity, even distractively construct opportunities to attack Islam at the drop of a hat, engage each other in nationalistic debate and then have the audacity to accuse me because I referred to the well-known repeat violators as ``Hindu`` bigots- which they happen to be and they have adequately demonstrated over the months that I have been here.

And Feroz`s hypocrisy, the same person who was arguing with HP till he was blue in the face that the non state actors like alleged 9/11 perpetrators had their entire state to blame for their acts, in this thread blamed the Muslims for no democracy in the Arab lands, wanted the US to construct an entire militarized corridor across Muslim lands- finds faults when I refer to the most miserable haters on here as ``Hindu`` bigots and that only after they distract all discussions by bringing in Islam into the equation, and attacking me because everything I say gets invisible according to their perception of my ``Muslim`` identity. This hypocrisy is quite baffling and then he talks about ``racing with hares and hunting with hounds``, rather he is a tortoise that suffers from arthritis and a poodle that suffers from gum disease!