Archive for February, 2009

Not much stress – Paul Krugman Blog

Not much stress

OK, so we now know the “adverse case” that will be used for the bank stress tests. Testing to destruction it isn’t.

In the adverse case — which is, remember, supposed to be a worst-case scenario — the average unemployment rate next year is 10.3 percent. That’s worse than most forecasts, but it’s hardly the worst one can plausibly imagine.

And color me baffled at what they consider an adverse case for housing prices. They consider a fall of housing prices, as measured by the Case-Shiller 10-city index, of 27 percent from 4th-quarter 2008 levels to be as bad as it could get. But the CS-10 were around 30 percent overvalued relative to rents or overall consumer prices in 2008 Q4 — so their worst case is for housing prices to fall to historical norms, with no overshooting.

What a letdown.

via Not much stress – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.

Solar Panels on the White House or Just Wind? | Green Tech Gazette

Solar Panels on the White House or Just Wind?

Whitehouse SolarIt’s no secret that President Obama’s new stimulus program offers major incentives for the solar and wind industries. Also included in the package are plans to conserve energy at government offices throughout the nation by adding insulation, CFL bulbs and hybrid vehicles.

And, District of Columbia officials have just announced that they will be offering as much as $33,000 to homeowners, businesses, private schools and non-profit organizations to use wind and solar power. This is just begging the question of whether or not the Obama Whitehouse will be going solar anytime soon, or will wind energy be the preference of the new President?

via Solar Panels on the White House or Just Wind? | Green Tech Gazette.

Kmareka.com » A Sip of Water, a Taste of Sweetness

A Sip of Water, a Taste of Sweetness

It’s really cool being a nurse, often stressful, never boring, seeing the science of nursing and medicine evolve. My favorite technological advances are those that make you slap your head and say ‘duh’. As in ‘why didn’t someone think of this before?’

Here are two life-saving inventions that have been around for a few years, and one new study that points the way to fast emergency relief for sick children…

Plumpynut is a remarkably simple concoction: it is basically made of peanut butter, powdered milk, powdered sugar, and enriched with vitamins and minerals. It tastes like a peanut butter paste. It is very sweet, and because of that kids cannot get enough of it.

The formula was developed by a nutritionist. It doesn’t need refrigeration, water, or cooking; mothers simply squeeze out the paste. Many children can even feed themselves. Each serving is the equivalent of a glass of milk and a multivitamin.

via Kmareka.com » A Sip of Water, a Taste of Sweetness.

Intel chief: Gitmo jail hurts more than it helps – San Jose Mercury News

Intel chief: Gitmo jail hurts more than it helps

WASHINGTON—The detention center at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has to be closed because of the damage it has done to America’s reputation and to its ability to achieve foreign policy goals, the top U.S. intelligence officer told a House panel on Wednesday.

“Countries won’t deal with us. Our popularity’s down. We don’t have blue chips to trade,” National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told the House Intelligence Committee.

via Intel chief: Gitmo jail hurts more than it helps – San Jose Mercury News.

A Modest Proposal An Iraqi Vote on Troop Withdrawal

A Modest Proposal An Iraqi Vote on Troop Withdrawal

(The Intelligence Daily) — Over the years, we’ve seen various “exit strategies” proposed for withdrawal from Iraq. The best proposal was made by a Baghdad man on his way to a demonstration just a few days after that city fell. A U.S. reporter asked what should happen now. The man turned to the reporter and said, “Thank you for getting rid of Saddam. Now please leave our country.”

That advice was probably the best input that United States policy makers ever received (if they even noticed). It was freely offered and no one died in the process.

Why not give democracy a chance?

via A Modest Proposal An Iraqi Vote on Troop Withdrawal.

Gary Locke: Militant (and Misguided) Free Trader

Gary Locke: Militant (and Misguided) Free Trader

The Nation

It is frequently suggested that the Democratic Party, once fairly divided on the issue of trade policy, has moved in recent years toward the fair-trade camp. As such, while most Republicans continue to preach the free-trade orthodoxy of the 1990s with all the associated fantasia about a coming boom for U.S. manufacturers and farmers, relief of global poverty and the certain spread of democracy, Democrats are supposed to be the realists who recognize the failure of the North American Free Trade Agreement, granting permanent Most-Favored Nation status to China and other trade-related missteps of the Clinton years.

But for the critical position of Secretary of Commerce, which has a significant role in both the framing and advancement of trade policies, Obama has nominated former Washington Governor Gary Locke.

via Gary Locke: Militant (and Misguided) Free Trader.

t r u t h o u t | E-Voting Security Fixes Will Get Us Nowhere Without Stats

E-Voting Security Fixes Will Get Us Nowhere Without Stats.

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, a statistician made a forceful argument that her field can help us do a better job of ensuring fair and representative elections, but only if we decide to let it.

The recent American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting included a session entitled “Science for Public Confidence in Election Fairness and Accuracy” and, as might be expected, computer science made a significant appearance. Ed Felten of Princeton, whose work in the area we’ve covered extensively, spoke and emphasized the limits of what computer science can do, and how the ultimate goal should be to ensure that electronic voting systems are verifiable and auditable. Of course, that raises the question of what you do with the auditing information, which is where Arlene Ash, a biostatistician at Boston University’s School of Medicine, came in. It turns out that we already have excellent statistical tools for detecting problematic patterns of voting – the legal system just chooses to ignore them.

NTI: Global Security Newswire – U.S. Energy Department Cannot Account for Nuclear Materials at 15 Locations

U.S. Energy Department Cannot Account for Nuclear Materials at 15 Locations.

WASHINGTON — A number of U.S. institutions with licenses to hold nuclear material reported to the Energy Department in 2004 that the amount of material they held was less than agency records indicated. But rather than investigating the discrepancies, Energy officials wrote off significant quantities of nuclear material from the department’s inventory records.

That’s just one of the findings of a report released yesterday by Energy Department Inspector General Gregory Friedman that concluded “the department cannot properly account for and effectively manage its nuclear materials maintained by domestic licensees and may be unable to detect lost or stolen material.”

Auditors found that Energy could not accurately account for the quantities and locations of nuclear material at 15 out of 40, or 37 percent, of facilities reviewed. The materials written off included 20,580 grams of enriched uranium, 45 grams of plutonium, 5,001 kilograms of normal uranium and 189,139 kilograms of depleted uranium.

The progressive approach to fiscal responsibility – People’s Weekly World

The progressive approach to fiscal responsibility

Fiscal responsibility, the code word for balancing the budget, is on everyone’s lips in Washington these days. With a federal budget deficit close to $2 trillion inherited from the Bush administration, the Obama White House is eager to build a consensus in Congress for reducing the deficit, shifting budget priorities and reforming the process of federal government appropriations.

This push for “fiscal responsibility” has progressive activists both concerned and primed for an opportunity to bring far-reaching reforms in health care and other fiscal matters.

via People’s Weekly World – The progressive approach to fiscal responsibility.

Rich Americans Sue UBS to Keep Names Secret

Rich Americans Sue UBS to Keep Names Secret

UBS was sued on Tuesday in a Swiss federal court by wealthy American clients seeking to prevent the disclosure of their identities as part of a tax-evasion investigation by the United States Justice Department.

The lawsuit accuses UBS and Switzerland’s financial regulator, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or Finma, of violating Swiss bank secrecy laws and of conducting what Swiss law considers illegal activities with foreign authorities. It also named Peter Kurer, the chairman of UBS, and Eugen Haltiner, the chairman of Finma, as defendants.

via business news – General * US * News * Story – CNBC.com.

States of panic | Salon News

States of panic

There’s fiscal chaos in capitals coast to coast and the stimulus didn’t stop it. A tour of the mayhem, from the nearly bankrupt, like California, to the flush.

Feb. 26, 2009 | On Monday, during a White House meeting with the nation’s governors, President Obama told his listeners that the check was in the mail. Fifteen billion in Medicaid money from the stimulus bill was distributed beginning Wednesday. “That means,” he said, “that by the time most of you get home, money will be waiting to help 20 million vulnerable Americans in your states keep their healthcare coverage.”

Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals – WSJ.com

Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals .

WASHINGTON — Industries from health care to agribusiness to mining that stand to lose under President Barack Obama’s policy agenda are ramping up lobbying campaigns to derail or modify his plans.

The day after Mr. Obama formally laid out his policy goals in his first address to Congress, the former chief executive of HCA Inc. unveiled a $20 million campaign to pressure Democrats to enact health-care legislation based on free-market principles.

“What you see is when the government gets involved, you run out of money and health care gets rationed,” former CEO Richard Scott said Wednesday, after announcing the creation of Conservatives for Patients Rights.

Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats

Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats .

WASHINGTON — A group of liberal bloggers said it is teaming up with organized labor and MoveOn to form a political action committee that will seek to push the Democratic Party farther to the left.

Soliciting donations from their readers, the bloggers said they are planning to recruit liberal candidates for challenges against more centrist Democrats currently in Congress.

The formation of the group marks another step in the evolution of the blogosphere, which has proven effective at motivating party activists to give money and time to political campaigns, especially in local races.

But it also illuminates a deepening wrinkle for President Obama, whose attempt to build a broad governing coalition — often by tempering some of his more liberal previous positions — has already angered some of his supporters on the left.

The new organization is in many ways the liberal equivalent of the Club for Growth, a conservative group that has financed primary challenges against Republicans it deems insufficiently dedicated to tax cuts and small government.

Obama cuts funds for Nevada nuclear dump

Obama cuts funds for Nevada nuclear dump Newsweek.com.

President Barack Obama is taking the first step toward blocking a nuclear waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain by slashing money for the program in his first budget, according to congressional sources.

Obama’s budget to be announced Thursday will eliminate virtually all funding for the Yucca project with the exception of money needed for license applications submitted last year to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“The Yucca Mountain program will be scaled back to those costs necessary to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission while the administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear-waste disposal,” the Energy Department will say as part of the budget document, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the document had not been made public.

The Dead Tree Theory

The Dead Tree Theory

By GAIL COLLINS

Whenever a president gives a major address, like the one Barack Obama delivered to Congress this week, the opposition party delivers a rejoinder. Which American citizens always ignore. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s speech was, therefore, a kind of triumph. So bad, people actually paid attention!

We will pass over Jindal’s delivery, which sounded a little like a junior high schooler’s entry into the Chamber of Commerce “I Speak for Fiscal Restraint” contest. The content was the thing: a message to the nation that the Republicans were not going to have anything important or useful to say about the current economic crisis.

Absent any deep thoughts, the Republicans are going to complain about waste. The high point of Jindal’s address came when he laced into “wasteful spending” in the stimulus bill, and used as an example a $140 million appropriation for keeping an eye on the volcanoes in places like Alaska, where one is currently rumbling.

“Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.,” Jindal claimed.

I don’t know about you, but my reaction was: Wow, what a great stimulus plan. The most wasteful thing in it is volcano monitoring.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Dead Tree Theory – NYTimes.com.

To Pay for Health Care, Obama Looks to Taxes on Affluent

Buzzflash: Now We’re Talking! “To Pay for Health Care, Obama Looks to Taxes on Affluent.” NYT, as mainstream corporate media, however, overemphasizes the cut and the impact, as if this is anything but a modest reduction in tax deductions for the small percentage of wealthiest Americans. BuzzFlash Says: “Go for the Gold!”

OPS agrees.

To Pay for Health Care, Obama Looks to Taxes on Affluent

NYTimes.

WASHINGTON — President Obama will propose further tax increases on the affluent to help pay for his promise to make health care more accessible and affordable, calling for stricter limits on the benefits of itemized deductions taken by the wealthiest households, administration officials said Wednesday.

The tax proposal, coming after recent years in which wealth has become more concentrated at the top of the income scale, introduces a politically volatile edge to the Congressional debate over Mr. Obama’s domestic priorities.

DC Special Interests Examiner: Former baseball player and current Republican senator gives Justice Ginsburg nine months to live

Former baseball player and current Republican senator gives Justice Ginsburg nine months to live.

In a scene reminiscent of the Terri Schiavo case, Senator Jim Bunning (R–KY) said during a fundraiser that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has nine months at most to live. Ginsburg was recently treated for Stage 1 pancreatic cancer and is expected to return to the bench soon.
According to a report in today’s Louisville Courier-Journal, Bunning told a crowd of 100 supporters that, “Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer”.
According to the American Cancer Society, people diagnosed with Stage 1 pancreatic cancer have between a 21 and 37 percent chance of living for more than five years with the disease.

Reid increased congressional budget to allow GOP to maintain its staff levels.

OPS-Ed: Reid must be replaced – ASAP
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Reid increased congressional budget to allow GOP to maintain its staff levels.

The Huffington Post reports that the congressional operations budget has been increased to $4.4 billion “because Senate Republicans wanted to retain previous staff levels” — despite losing 20 percent of their seats last year and railing against government spending recently. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) discussed the issue at a press conference today:

We had a situation — you should direct that question to Senator McConnell because we had trouble organizing this year. He wanted to maintain a lot of their staffing even though they had lost huge numbers. And the only way we could get it done is to do what we did.

via Think Progress » Reid increased congressional budget to allow GOP to maintain its staff levels..

Leahy announces hearings on Bush investigations set for next Wednesday.

OPS-Ed - so begins the Bush Crime families Get Out Of Jail Free Card

Leahy announces hearings on Bush investigations set for next Wednesday.

Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) reiterated his call to hold a truth commission to investigate Bush wrongdoings, and announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee would hold hearings on the matter next Wednesday. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) rose after Leahy to support the call for investigations into “this past carnival of folly, greed, lies, and wrongdoing.” “If we blind ourselves to this history, we deny ouselves its lessons,” he said, warning that such an investigation will not be comfortable or easy:

WHITEHOUSE: We are optimists, we Americans. We are proud of our country. Contrition comes hard to us. But the path back from the dark side may lead us down some unfamiliar valleys of remorse and repugnance before we can return to the light. We may have to face our fellow Americans saying to us, “No. Please. Tell us that we did not do that. Tell us that American did not do that.” And we will have to explain, somehow. This is no small thing. And not easy. This will not be comfortable, or proud. But somehow, it must be done.

Watch it:

via Think Progress » Leahy announces hearings on Bush investigations set for next Wednesday..

Group of Rich Americans Sues UBS to Keep Names Secret in Tax Case

Group of Rich Americans Sues UBS to Keep Names Secret in Tax Case

By LYNNLEY BROWNING

UBS was sued on Tuesday in a Swiss federal court by wealthy American clients seeking to prevent the disclosure of their identities as part of a tax-evasion investigation by the United States Justice Department.

The lawsuit accuses UBS and Switzerland’s financial regulator, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or Finma, of violating Swiss bank secrecy laws and of conducting what Swiss law considers illegal activities with foreign authorities. It also named Peter Kurer, the chairman of UBS, and Eugen Haltiner, the chairman of Finma, as defendants.

The suit, filed by a lawyer in Zurich, Andreas Rued, on behalf of nearly a dozen American clients, underscores the growing clash between Swiss banking secrecy laws and those of the United States. Tax evasion is not considered a crime in Switzerland. Disclosing client names under Swiss law is a criminal offense and can expose bank executives and officers to fines, prison terms and other penalties.

UBS is the world’s largest private bank and Switzerland is the world’s largest offshore tax haven, with trillions of dollars in assets.

via Group of Rich Americans Sues UBS to Keep Names Secret in Tax Case – NYTimes.com.

The New Center: Progressive Government

The New Center: Progressive Government

OurFuture.org.

The man can give a speech. Confident, relaxed, bold, serious, President Obama made his case to the American people with boffo reviews from all who saw it from both parties.

And that case was a clear and bold statement of the need for progressive government as the vital instrument to move us out of this crisis and into the future. The recovery plan to put people back to work. Banking reform and “new rules of the road” to get banks working once more. The mortgage initiative to help homeowners stay in their homes.

But more, the need for sustained public investment and leadership to move us into the future with new energy, reform of our broken health care system, and provision of a world class education from birth to a career for every child.

Existing U.S. home sales, prices drop in January | Reuters

Existing U.S. home sales, prices drop in January

Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes plunged in January, reversing the previous month’s surprise jump, and prices spiraled down to a six-year low as the deep recession and rising joblessness took its toll.

A drop in number of unsold homes offered some hope for the housing market, the main trigger of the worst financial crisis in the post-war period.

The pace of sales of existing home fell 5.3 percent to a 4.49 million-unit annual rate in January, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said, from the 4.74 million rate reported for December.

Polar regions found warming fast, raising sea levels

Polar regions found warming fast, raising sea levels

Reuters.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The Arctic and Antarctic regions are warming faster than previously thought, raising world sea levels and making drastic global climate change more likely than ever, international scientists said on Wednesday.

New evidence of the trend was uncovered by wide-ranging research in the two areas over the past two years in a United Nations-backed program dubbed the International Polar Year (IPY), they said.

“Snow and ice are declining in both polar regions, affecting human livelihoods as well as local plant and animal life in the Arctic as well as global atmospheric circulation and sea-level,” according to a summary of a report by the researchers.

Gaia scientist says life doomed by climate woes

Gaia scientist says life doomed by climate woes

Reuters.

LONDON (Reuters) – Climate change will wipe out most life on Earth by the end of this century and mankind is too late to avert catastrophe, a leading British climate scientist said.

James Lovelock, 89, famous for his Gaia theory of the Earth being a kind of living organism, said higher temperatures will turn parts of the world into desert and raise sea levels, flooding other regions.

His apocalyptic theory foresees crop failures, drought and death on an unprecedented scale. The population of this hot, barren world could shrink from about seven billion to one billion by 2100 as people compete for ever-scarcer resources.

“It will be death on a grand scale from famine and lack of water,” Lovelock told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “It could be a reduction to a billion (people) or less.”

FDA ignored debris in syringes

FDA ignored debris in syringes

News & Observer.

FDA ignored debris in syringes

FDA ignored debris in syringes

News & Observer.

Super malaria threat on Thai-Cambodia border

Super malaria threat on Thai-Cambodia border

Reuters.

LONDON (Reuters) – The fight against malaria could be undermined by the emergence on the Thai-Cambodian border of strains that are resistant to the most potent type of drug, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

Artemisinin, a compound extracted from a Chinese herb, is regarded by medical experts as the best drug against malaria and is recommended for use in combination with other medicines to stop the development of resistance.

But the WHO said there was growing evidence that parasites resistant to artemisinin had emerged along the border between Cambodia and Thailand, where workers walk for miles every day to clear forests.

The risk is similar to the development of so-called “superbugs” that are resistant to antibiotics.

What Will New York Do?

What Will New York Do?

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Now that thirty years of deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy have failed so spectacularly, creating an economic catastrophe in its wake, the American people are beginning to recognize conservative economic policy for what it is: a disastrous recipe for privatizing profits and socializing costs, and shifting the economic burden to the poor and middle class.

But with 46 states facing budget shortfalls it is clear that conservative orthodoxy is still alive and holding sway in too many statehouses. Too often, the emphasis isn’t on change we can believe in — but on the same old cutting of services that people need rather than raising taxes on the rich who have disproportionately benefited from fiscal policy over these many decades.

via What Will New York Do?.

What should government do? A Jindal meditation – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com

What should government do? A Jindal meditation

Paul Krugman

What is the appropriate role of government?

Traditionally, the division between conservatives and liberals has been over the role and size of the welfare state: liberals think that the government should play a large role in sanding off the market economy’s rough edges, conservatives believe that time and chance happen to us all, and that’s that.

But both sides, I thought, agreed that the government should provide public goods — goods that are nonrival (they benefit everyone) and nonexcludable (there’s no way to restrict the benefits to people who pay.) The classic examples are things like lighthouses and national defense, but there are many others. For example, knowing when a volcano is likely to erupt can save many lives; but there’s no private incentive to spend money on monitoring, since even people who didn’t contribute to maintaining the monitoring system can still benefit from the warning. So that’s the sort of activity that should be undertaken by government.

via What should government do? A Jindal meditation – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.

The Obama Code

The Obama Code

CommonDreams.org

by George Lakoff

In the wake of President Obama’s address to the joint session of Congress, what can we expect to hear?

The pundits will stress the nuts-and-bolts policy issues: the banking system, education, energy, health care. But beyond policy, there will be a vision of America–a moral vision and a view of unity that the pundits often miss.

What they miss is the Obama Code. For the sake of unity, the President tends to express his moral vision indirectly. Like other self-aware and highly articulate speakers, he connects with his audience using what cognitive scientists call the “cognitive unconscious.” Speaking naturally, he lets his deepest ideas simply structure what he is saying. If you follow him, the deep ideas are communicated unconsciously and automatically. ” The Code is his most effective way to bring the country together around fundamental American values.

For supporters of the President, it is crucial to understand the Code in order to talk overtly about the old values our new president is communicating. It is necessary because tens of millions of Americans–both conservatives and progressives–don’t yet perceive the vital sea change that Obama is bringing about.

via The Obama Code | CommonDreams.org.

Scientists Find Bigger than Expected Polar Ice Melt | CommonDreams.org

Scientists Find Bigger than Expected Polar Ice Melt

GENEVA – Icecaps around the North and South Poles are melting faster and in a more widespread manner than expected, raising sea levels and fuelling climate change, a major scientific survey showed Wednesday.

[The Antarctic icecap has warmed more rapidly than the global average. (AFP photo)]The Antarctic icecap has warmed more rapidly than the global average. (AFP photo)

The International Polar Year survey found that warming in the Antarctic is “much more widespread than was thought,” while Arctic sea ice is diminishing and the melting of Greenland’s ice cover is accelerating.

The frozen and often inaccessible polar regions have long been regarded as some of the most sensitive barometers of environmental change and global warming because of their influence on the world’s oceans and atmosphere.

Preliminary findings from the two year survey by thousands of scientists revealed new evidence that the ocean around the Antarctic has warmed more rapidly than the global average, the World Meteorological Organisation and the International Council for Science said in a statement.

Meanwhile, shifts in temperature patterns deep underwater indicated that the continent’s land ice sheet is melting faster than reckoned.

via Scientists Find Bigger than Expected Polar Ice Melt | CommonDreams.org.

Red Yeast Rice: Cholesterol Lowering Supplement

Red Yeast Rice and Cholesterol

Red yeast rice is the natural source for Lipitor

• What is red yeast rice?
• What is the present status of red yeast rice?
• What are the different preparations of red yeast rice?
• What is the composition of HypoCol™ and Cholestin®?
• How effective are HypoCol™, Cholestin® and Xuezhikang in lowering lipids?
• How safe are red yeast rice products?
• Are there any precautions in consuming red yeast rice products?
• Who are suitable candidates for red yeast rice products?
• Who are not suitable candidates for red yeast rice products?

What is red yeast rice?

Red yeast rice is rice that has been fermented by the red yeast, Monascus purpureus. It has been used by the Chinese for many centuries as a food preservative, food colorant (it is responsible for the red color of Peking duck), spice, and an ingredient in rice wine. Red yeast rice continues to be a dietary staple in China, Japan, and Asian communities in the United States, with an estimated average consumption of 14 to 55 grams of red yeast rice per day per person.

via Red Yeast Rice: Cholesterol Lowering Supplement on MedicineNet.com.

Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street

Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street.

Global research

n the mid-’80s, Wall Street turned to the quants—brainy financial engineers—to invent new ways to boost profits. Their methods for minting money worked brilliantly… until one of them devastated the global economy.

A year ago, it was hardly unthinkable that a math wizard like David X. Li might someday earn a Nobel Prize. After all, financial economists—even Wall Street quants—have received the Nobel in economics before, and Li’s work on measuring risk has had more impact, more quickly, than previous Nobel Prize-winning contributions to the field. Today, though, as dazed bankers, politicians, regulators, and investors survey the wreckage of the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, Li is probably thankful he still has a job in finance at all. Not that his achievement should be dismissed. He took a notoriously tough nut—determining correlation, or how seemingly disparate events are related—and cracked it wide open with a simple and elegant mathematical formula, one that would become ubiquitous in finance worldwide.

For five years, Li’s formula, known as a Gaussian copula function, looked like an unambiguously positive breakthrough, a piece of financial technology that allowed hugely complex risks to be modeled with more ease and accuracy than ever before. With his brilliant spark of mathematical legerdemain, Li made it possible for traders to sell vast quantities of new securities, expanding financial markets to unimaginable levels.

Afghanistan: U.S. Escalates the Illegal Drug Industry

Afghanistan: U.S. Escalates the Illegal Drug Industry.

Global Research

It is common knowledge that Afghanistan remains the primary source of the world’s supply of opium and heroin. A recent United Nations’ report claims that three quarters of the world’s heroin comes from the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. But there is also recognition that poppies are grown in almost all of the country’s 34 provinces.

The western media argues that most of the production of illegal drugs is being done by the Taliban or that the Taliban is protecting the farmers. The fact that there are well known drug lords in the government of President Hamid Karzai, and many are members of the parliament, is usually ignored. Yet the Asian press carries photos of “narco palaces” in Kabul and describes the local “narcotecture.” The Afghan population is well aware of the close ties between the drug lords and the government.

Of course this is quite embarrassing to the U.S. government, which put Karzai in office and created the present Afghan constitution and system of government. Thus Hillary Clinton, nominated for Secretary of State, created quite a shock when she referred to Afghanistan as a “narco state” in her testimony before the U.S. Senate.

Forgotten in all this is the key role that the U.S. government played in the development and expansion of the illegal drug industry in Afghanistan. It goes back to the decision made in July 1978 by the administration of Jimmy Carter to give aid and assistance to the radical Islamists in their rebellion against the leftist government of the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

The CIA and the Afghan Drug Trade

America’s Economic Report – Daily

Facilitating a Downward Spiral

Dustin Ensinger

Despite massive government intervention, all economic indicators point to a worsening recession through 2009, according to a survey of leading economists by the National Association for Business Economists.

Overall, the U.S. economy – the world’s largest – is expected to contract by 1.9 percent in 2009. That is a much dire projection than the 0.2 percent contraction predicted by the same group in November. If correct, that means that the economy will shrink a total of 2.8 percent through the recession that began in Dec. 2007. That would mark the worst period for the U.S. economy since 1973 through 1975. It would also be the first time since 1992 that the economy contracted for a full year.

The first quarter is expected to be the worst, as the economy shrinks by an astounding 5 percent. The second quarter will see the economy shrink again, this time by 1.7 percent.

via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

America’s Economic Report – Daily

America Has Become a Boiling Frog  – video

The United States is in a much more precarious situation than most of us realize. Our predicament is similar to the old adage of the “boiling frog syndrome.” The proverb states that a frog can sit in cool water being brought to a boil without jumping out of the pot. As long as the heat increases gradually it will go unnoticed by the frog while it swims around comfortably. Before the frog realizes what is happening, the pot is boiling and it is already too late.

As it currently stands we are living on the graces of our foreign bankers. So long as our competition continues to fund our government and service our debt the United States can maintain the status quo. Meanwhile, America sits idly by and continues to watch its productive capacity destroyed by “free trade” and economic deregulation.

via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

Jindal Doesn’t Levitate to the Occasion

Jindal Doesn’t Levitate to the Occasion

Ronald Reagan gave us “voodoo economics.” Dennis Kucinich spotted a UFO. Credit Bobby Jindal for making “magnetic levitation” and “volcano monitoring” national buzzwords.

The Louisiana boy wonder has always been an eccentric fellow, converting from Hinduism to Catholicism in high school, changing his name from Piyush to Bobby and reportedly participating in an exorcism in college (at Brown, no less!). He’s signed legislation as Governor of Louisiana to chemically castrate sex offenders and recently refused to accept extended unemployment benefits for his economically depressed state as part of the stimulus.

His folksy demeanor, on display in his response to Obama last night, helps to conceal his hard right politics.

via Jindal Doesn’t Levitate to the Occasion.

Senate to announce investigation of torture under Bush, senators say

Senate to announce investigation of torture under Bush, senators say.

The Raw Story

‘This is going to be big,’ senator says

The Senate is quietly preparing plans to investigate allegations of torture under President George W. Bush, according to comments published Wednesday by Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

The Senate Judiciary Committee could announce a hearing to consider various plans to probe allegations of torture as early as today, according to Salon‘s Mark Benjamin, citing Committee Chairman Pat Leahy and members of his staff.

Obama approval ratings rise 17 percent after speech

Obama approval ratings rise 17 percent after speech.

A flash CBS News poll conducted Tuesday evening found broad increases of support in almost all areas surrounding President Barack Obama’s approval of the economy.

In fact, Obama’s approval rating for handling the economic crisis leapt 17 percent after the speech among those who watched it, from 63 to 80 percent.

51 percent of viewers felt that Obama’s economic plans would help them personally, with 36 percent before the speech — and increase of 15 percent.

New CBS News VP tied to Jack Abramoff scheme

New CBS News VP tied to Jack Abramoff scheme.

When it was announced last week that CBS News had hired Jeff Ballabon as a senior vice president for communications, with responsibility for “all media relations and public affairs,” there were scattered complaints about Ballabon’s extreme conservatism and apparent bias against Democrats.

One blogger at Huffington Post, Ira Forman, recalled that when he debated Ballabon a decade ago, “Ballabon claimed that, after his most recent job in Washington, he became convinced that Democrats are inherently bad people and Republicans are fundamentally good people.”

Think Progress » Log Cabin Republicans slam Steele’s comments on civil unions.

What the hell did they expect?

Log Cabin Republicans slam Steele’s comments on civil unions.

As ThinkProgress first reported, GOP Chairman Michael Steele was asked on a radio show Monday whether the party should “consider” civil unions. “No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy?” he replied. The Log Cabin Republicans condemned Steele’s comments in a press release put out yesterday:

steelegop.gif“The politics of the past were clearly rejected in the November election. We hope Chairman Steele will work to build a more inclusive Republican Party that can win elections,” said Log Cabin Republicans National Chairman Terry Hamilton. Hamilton continued, “Such comments marginalize gay and lesbian Americans, and further alienate the mainstream, moderate, and independent-minded voters that left the Republican Party in the November election.”

via Think Progress » Log Cabin Republicans slam Steele’s comments on civil unions..

Gingrich’s Bold New Idea: Using Twitter To Mock Democrats

Gingrich’s Bold New Idea: Using Twitter To Mock Democrats

ap98011502931.jpg Conservatives love Twitter. Many have embraced it as the future of the Republican party’s outreach to young people. Prolific Tweeter Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) has said that such technology is “the next revolution that’s going to take back the Congress.”

Last night, former House speaker Newt Gingrich — an inspiration to GOP congressional leaders like Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) — promised to use conservatives’ favorite new social media tool to “liveblog at http://newt.org on the obama/jindal speeches at 9pm, i will twitter and they will appear there as well, join us.”

via Think Progress » Gingrich’s Bold New Idea: Using Twitter To Mock Democrats.

Bush charging $150,000 and private jet travel for speeches.

Bush charging $150,000 and private jet travel for speeches.

bush-stupid-small.jpgNow that Bush has officially joined the lecture circuit, it seems he’s seeking to make good on his hope to earn “ridiculous” money. The Dallas Morning News reports that he’s charging $150,000 per speech and demanding a private jet to take him to the speech venue:

President George W. Bush may have left office with a historically bad 22% approval rating, but he’s still eager to impart his wisdom — for $150,000 a speech.

The former president will charge that hefty fee per pep talk — plus first-class or private jet transport for four — when he hits the lecture circuit next month with stopovers in Canada, the U.S. and other spots around the globe, sources told The News.

He does give the locals a discount, charging Dallas gigs a scant $100,000.

via Think Progress » Bush charging $150,000 and private jet travel for speeches..

Colorado state senator compares being gay to committing murder.

Colorado state senator compares being gay to committing murder.

On the floor of the Colorado state senate on Monday, Republican Sen. Scott Renfroe equated “homosexuality as a sin with murder” during a debate on a bill that would allow same-sex partners of state employees to be covered by health care benefits. “I’m not saying this (homosexuality) is the only sin that’s out there,” said Renfroe. “We have murder. We have all sorts of sin. We have adultery. And we don’t make laws making those legal, and we would never think to make murder legal.” ProgressNow Colorado posted the audio:

via Think Progress » Colorado state senator compares being gay to committing murder..

Jindal: Disaster Preparedness Is Only Worth Funding If It Will Help My State

Jindal: Disaster Preparedness Is Only Worth Funding If It Will Help My State

While delivering the GOP response to President Obama’s address last night, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) attempted to discredit the recently signed economic recovery package by highlighting provisions that he said don’t “make sense.” Jindal complained about a provision providing funding for the federal government to purchase energy efficient automobiles, as well as a provision (that doesn’t actually exist) providing funding for a rail line “from Las Vegas to Disney Land.” But most ironic was Jindal’s attempt to mock the inclusion of funding allowing for, in Jindal’s words, “something called ‘volcano monitoring’”:

JINDAL: While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government. $8 billion for high speed rail projects such as magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disney Land. And $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’

Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC.

via Think Progress » Home Page.

A Pandemic of Economic Violence

A Pandemic of Economic Violence

Islands, it’s well known, are more vulnerable to species extinctions than continents. Could the same be true with economic extinctions? After all, as Rebecca Solnit wrote at this site, the small North Atlantic island of Iceland (pop. 320,000) went bust first in this ongoing, roiling economic crisis. Its economy had been riding high on speculative funny money for years when, in little more than a week in October, all three of its major banks cratered and the country’s currency essentially ceased to have value. Not long after, Icelanders hit the streets of their capital, Reykjavik, launching protests, which have yet to end. Soon after, the government fell.

via Tomgram: Michael Klare, A Pandemic of Economic Violence.

New Ad Campaign Warns of Financial Dangers Dead Ahead

New Ad Campaign Warns of Financial Dangers Dead Ahead

By Ceci Connolly

Folks tuning in to this Sunday’s talk shows had better watch out for the icebergs. They are part of an advertising blitz about our nation’s dangerous financial straits.

In the TV spot, first a baby iceberg floats across the screen. It symbolizes short-term fiscal woes such as this year’s deficit, an expensive economic stimulus package and numerous industry bailouts.

Then a giant iceberg appears, as the narrator intones: “There’s a much larger threat: 56 trillion dollars in unfunded retirement and health care obligations, and the over-reliance on foreign lenders that endanger us all.”

via New Ad Campaign Warns of Financial Dangers Dead Ahead | 44 | washingtonpost.com.

Deficit Hawks Target Social Security, Medicare Again

The Deficit Hawks’ Attack on Our Entitlements

By Robert Kuttner
NYT

Monday, February 23, 2009; A19

With the enactment of a large economic stimulus package, fiscal conservatives are using the temporary deficit increase to attack a perennial target — Social Security and Medicare. The private-equity investor Peter G. Peterson, who launched a billion-dollar foundation last year to warn that America faces $56.4 trillion in “unfunded liabilities,” is a case in point. Supposedly, these costs will depress economic growth and crowd out other needed outlays, such as investments in the young. The remedy: big cuts in programs for the elderly.

The Peterson Foundation is joined by leading “blue dog” (anti-deficit) Democrats such as House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt of South Carolina and his counterpart in the Senate, Kent Conrad of North Dakota. The deficit hawks are promoting a “grand bargain” in which a bipartisan commission enacts spending caps on social insurance as the offset for current deficits.

via  Deficit Hawks Target Social Security, Medicare Again.

Naomi Klein wins $90,000 Warwick Prize for ‘The Shock Doctrine’

Naomi Klein wins $90,000 Warwick Prize for ‘The Shock Doctrine’

20 hours ago

LONDON — Naomi Klein is the winner of the inaugural Warwick Prize for Writing for her book “The Shock Doctrine.”

The prize, worth 50,000 British pounds (about C$90,000), is run by Britain’s University of Warwick and will be handed out every other year.

via The Canadian Press: Naomi Klein wins $90,000 Warwick Prize for ‘The Shock Doctrine’.

Ignoring FDIC, ABC’s Stark says bank nationalization happens “in socialist countries” and is “not supposed to happen” in the U.S.

Ignoring FDIC, ABC’s Stark says bank nationalization happens “in socialist countries” and is “not supposed to happen” in the U.S..

Media matters

Obama’s very own quagmire

Opinion | Obama’s very own quagmire.

Thomas Walkom

Will Barack Obama provide a way out of Afghanistan? Perhaps. But I’m not optimistic. The new U.S. president talks about the importance of diplomacy and development. However, his actions so far have focused on extending the war.

Obama is continuing the policy, started by his predecessor George W. Bush, of bombing suspected Taliban hideouts in Pakistan. As well, the U.S. has sent about 70 military “advisers” into that country.

Freeing Up Resources… for More War

Freeing Up Resources… for More War

CommonDreams.org.

Hours after President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress, the New York Times printed the news that he plans to gradually withdraw “American combat forces” from Iraq during the next 18 months. The newspaper reported that the advantages of the pullout will include “relieving the strain on the armed forces and freeing up resources for Afghanistan.”

The president’s speech had little to say about the plans for escalation, but the few words will come back to haunt: “With our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat Al Qaida and combat extremism, because I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens halfway around the world. We will not allow it.”

VIdeo- Bobby Jindal & DEMONS

Bobby Jindal & DEMONS.

Jindal is a reDUMBplican, yes I said it!
DUMB + REPUBLICAN = reDUMBplican

Bobby Jindal’s packaging may be different, but still peddling same GOP crap

Bobby Jindal’s packaging may be different, but still peddling same GOP crap

BuzzFlash.org

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Chad Rubel

Bobby Jindal tried to portray a different picture of the Republican Party. He used phrases that sounded similar to things Barack Obama has said. Jindal spoke of the story about the American dream: “Americans can do anything.” And since we are talking about the superficiality of the experience, Jindal did deviate from the traditional white shirt and solid color tie (Republican red).

Paul Craig Roberts: How the Economy was Lost

Paul Craig Roberts: How the Economy was Lost.

The American economy has gone away. It is not coming back until free trade myths are buried six feet under.

America’s 20th century economic success was based on two things. Free trade was not one of them. America’s economic success was based on protectionism, which was ensured by the union victory in the Civil War, and on British indebtedness, which destroyed the British pound as world reserve currency. Following World War II, the US dollar took the role as reserve currency, a privilege that allows the US to pay its international bills in its own currency.

World War II and socialism together ensured that the US economy dominated the world at the mid 20th century. The economies of the rest of the world had been destroyed by war or were stifled by socialism [in terms of the priorities of the capitalist growth model. Editors.]

‘Jupiter-sized’ comet to streak past Earth tonight | Mail Online

‘Jupiter-sized’ comet to streak past Earth tonight

Mail Online.

We have known of its existence for only two years. But if you raise your eyes heavenwards over the next few nights, you might just catch a glimpse of the comet Lulin.

Glowing green, it will come within 38million miles of Earth, the closest it has ever been, and about the same distance away as Mars.

Lulin, photographed here by an astronomer in Arizona, was discovered by a 19-year-old student from a photo taken at Lulin Observatory-Taiwan, in 2007.

Scientists discover genetic ‘off switch’ for series of cancers – Scotsman.com News

Scientists discover genetic ‘off switch’ for series of cancers

Scotsman.com News.

Activating a specific gene common to fruit flies, mice and humans may allow cancer to be “switched off”, researchers say.

The work has major implications for treating and curing cancers by snuffing out the root of tumour formation.

Manila to slaughter 6,000 pigs to stop Ebola spread | Reuters

Manila to slaughter 6,000 pigs to stop Ebola spread

Reuters.

MANILA, Feb 23 (Reuters) – The Philippines will slaughter 6,000 pigs at a hog farm north of the capital Manila to prevent the spread of the Ebola-Reston virus, health and farm officials said on Monday.

But the government has lifted a quarantine on a second hog farm after tests by experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and Food and the Agriculture Organisation (FAO) showed no more signs of the disease.

The country has more than 13 million heads of swine and the discovery of Ebola-Reston on two hog farms north of Manila was isolated, the government said.

Beyond Scarcity: Re-Inventing Wealth in a Progressive World

Beyond Scarcity: Re-Inventing Wealth in a Progressive World

CommonDreams.org.

We are bound to make the world in our own image. So we had better be sure we have the right values in mind as we think about our selves in this historic transition.

The current economic crisis is causing a massive redistribution of wealth across society. With a newfound capacity to shape our nation’s destiny, progressives can take this opportunity to redefine ourselves – especially our ideas about wealth and prosperity – as we seek to build a flourishing society.

It is often the case that people who dedicate their lives to the betterment of society are hindered by a particular obstacle – what I call the scarcity mindset.

This mindset can be described in several ways:

• The belief that a person has to compromise his or her values to make money.
• Harboring an impoverished view of wealth as merely money or accumulation of material stuff – and seeking to avoid being identified with this activity.
• A recurring feeling that there just aren’t opportunities to do something meaningful and satisfying.
• A cynical view of collaboration.
• The belief that people who seek wealth are selfish or greedy.

Norm Kent: How Judges Disgrace the Bench

Norm Kent: How Judges Disgrace the Bench.

Counterpunch

All across this country, from small counties to large cities, judges are being exposed as every bit as corruptible as the public they preside over. They are frail. They are weak. They are foolish. They are human. There are 800,000 stories in the Naked City. These are just some of them.

Isolated incidents that would normally never be noticed from state to state now come together because of the breadth of the Internet and its spontaneous dissemination of news and information. The picture it creates forever tarnishes the credibility of our courts. The fears that our justices have about attorneys destroying our courts by open criticism of our judiciary can be put to rest. The judges are doing themselves in without any help from counsel.

Let’s begin in Pennsylvania, the shocking case where two jurists were arrested for taking kickbacks from a private firm paid to run juvenile justice detention centers, compensated by the corporation each time they sent a kid into custody, whether he needed to be there or not. They pled guilty and are headed to jail. It is as disgusting a betrayal of a robe as we will ever see anywhere.

Americans Have a Faith-Based Economy. Are We Ready Yet To Deal With the Truth?

Americans Have a Faith-Based Economy. Are We Ready Yet To Deal With the Truth?

BuzzFlash.org.

Americans need an economic education. The mainstream media have been nearly worthless. Obama will try tonight. Krugman’s been trying all along.

If most Americans are not up to the job of grasping high finance or monetary policy or the stimulus debates or investment frauds like Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme or the ins and outs of the federal budget and the ballooning deficit, which President Obama plans to discuss tonight before the Congress, why aren’t they?

Well, thanks to overly “creative” capitalist responses to free-market anti-regulatory fervor in recent decades, the world of money just got too complicated. The numbers became too big and convoluted, making risk and responsibility nearly unassignable. It became necessary to rely on money gurus — faith-based advisors, that is.

Cancers caused by obesity ‘as big a threat as climate change’ – Telegraph

Cancers caused by obesity ‘as big a threat as climate change’

Telegraph.

Cancers caused by obesity now pose a threat to mankind akin to that of climate change and must be tackled immediately, a scientist has warned.

Rule by Fear or Rule by Law? | CommonDreams.org

Rule by Fear or Rule by Law?

CommonDreams.org.

“The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.”

- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of “an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

AFP: Climate change risk underestimated: study

AFP: Climate change risk underestimated: study.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The risk posed to mankind and the environment by even small changes in average global temperatures is much higher than believed even a few years ago, a study said Monday.

Published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study updated a 2001 assessment by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change that looked at temperature changes and the risks they pose.

“Today, we have to assume that the risks of negative impacts of climate change on humans and nature are larger than just a few years ago,” said Hans-Martin Fussel, one of the authors of the report.

The new study found that even small changes of global mean temperatures could produce the kinds of conditions singled out as “reasons for concern” in the 2001 assessment.

Those included risks to threatened systems such as coral reefs or endangered species; and extreme weather events like cyclones, heat waves or droughts.

Democrats Resisting Obama on Social Security

Democrats Resisting Obama on Social Security

WASHINGTON — President Obama is eager to seek a bipartisan solution to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security, people who have spoken with him say, but he is running into opposition from his party’s left and from Democratic Congressional leaders who contend that his political capital would be better spent on health care and other priorities.

“I want to help him,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said of President Obama and his Social Security efforts.

Mr. Obama considered announcing the formation of a Social Security task force at a White House “fiscal responsibility summit” that he will convene on Monday. But several Democrats said that idea had been shelved, partly because of objections from House and Senate leaders.

via - NYTimes.com.

The Government Will Stay Funded … But Family Planning Aid Looks Shut Out

The Government Will Stay Funded … But Family Planning Aid Looks Shut Out.

The White House fiscal responsibility summit and the recently passed economic stimulus law continue to take up much of the capital’s attention today — but don’t forget the $410 billion spending bill that the House is slated to approve by Thursday. The government is technically only funded until the first week of March, meaning that time is short to wind up the 2009 appropriations cycle.

Want to know what’s in the massive spending measure? You can download each section of the bill right here.

But a more important question might be what’s not in the 2009 spending bill. The Medicaid family-planning aid that was removed from the stimulus amid Republican attacks, for one, is nowhere to be found in the Health and Human Services title of the 2009 spending measure.

Elderly Emerge as a New Class of Workers — and the Jobless – WSJ.com

Elderly Emerge as a New Class of Workers — and the Jobless – WSJ.com.

AKRON, Ohio — Mary Appleby, 76 years old, lost her job in January as a cashier at a courthouse cafeteria here. She is now looking for minimum-wage work.

Mary Bennett, 80, began filling out applications for fast-food restaurants and convenience stores after she was laid off last March as a machinist. Fred Dase, 81, a bartender until last summer, also needs another job.

Sham Religious Land Deal Decried | CommonDreams.org

Sham Religious Land Deal Decried

WASHINGTON – February 23 – The U.S. Supreme Court should rule against the use of sham land deals to keep religious symbols on federal property, the American Humanist Association said today. This was in reference to this morning’s decision by the Court to hear the case Salazar v. Buono, in which a former National Park Service employee and the American Civil Liberties Union sued to remove the eight-foot Sunrise Rock cross erected in the Mojave National Preserve in California. The memorial was originally built in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, but the cross and the property beneath it were transferred to private hands with Congressional approval in 2004. On two occasions since 2004, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the cross must be removed, invalidating the land transfer.

On The Hill: U.S. Climate Change Science Program Must Focus on Health, Experts Say

U.S. Climate Change Science Program Must Focus on Health, Experts Say.

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) must make public health a strong focus as it undergoes an internal reorganization under the Obama administration, say leading medical experts, health and environmental groups.

A memorandum signed by 22 medical experts and 10 groups recommends that CCSP correct the program’s historic “relative under-emphasis… on human health and human dimensions in general” and instead address “the important and growing gaps in knowledge and practice,” according to a statement announcing the memorandum.

Greg Palast: Damn that Lincoln. Abe’s to blame for Jindal | BuzzFlash.org

Greg Palast: Damn that Lincoln. Abe’s to blame for Jindal | BuzzFlash.org.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Greg Palast

Damn that Abe Lincoln. When Louisiana and Mississippi seceded from the Union, a sensible president would have sent them a box of chocolates with a note, “Goodbye and good riddance.”

Tonight, following Barack Obama’s budget presentation to Congress, effectively the president’s first State of the Union Address, the Republicans have chosen to give their party’s response, the governor of the state that wanted to leave the Union, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal.

Jindal’s going to tell us that Barack Obama is a terrible President because Obama wants to require states such as Louisiana to extend unemployment insurance to — get this — the unemployed! (Technically, the federal government would pay 100% of the cost of reforming Louisiana’s and Mississippi’s Scrooge-sized benefit requirements.)

FT.com / US & Canada – US, China to ‘to help lead the world recovery’

FT.com / US & Canada – US, China to ‘to help lead the world recovery’.

The US and China pledged to step up a high-level dialogue between the two countries which will address the global financial crisis, climate change and security issues.

Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, said the two governments would work together “to help lead the world recovery” and that she appreciated China’s continued purchases of US Treasury bonds.

Obama: Tax Cuts Will Be Felt By April 1 (VIDEO)

Obama: Tax Cuts Will Be Felt By April 1 (VIDEO).