Archive for March, 2009
Obama unveils war plan to ‘defeat’ Al-Qaeda
Obama unveils war plan to ‘defeat’ Al-Qaeda
President Barack Obama will Friday announce a new strategy to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” Al-Qaeda in safe havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan and deploy an extra 4,000 military trainers.
The new strategy, the product of a 60-day review in conjunction with US allies, marks one of the boldest foreign policy bets laid so far in Obama’s two months in power and defies those who warn he is walking into a quagmire.
The 4,000 US troops will build up the Afghan army and are in addition to 17,000 extra troops already promised by the president.
Obama will also send hundreds more civilian and development workers into Afghanistan, three administration officials said on the eve of his announcement.
via The Raw Story | Obama unveils war plan to ‘defeat’ Al-Qaeda.
Pro-choice Christian group fires back at Obama protestors
Pro-choice Christian group fires back at Obama protesters – Rachel Oswald
While the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame University have been trending secular for several decades now, a group of anti-abortion activists are hoping to reverse that movement away from Catholic orthodoxy.
Outraged that the university will be hosting President Obama as its commencement speaker this spring, a number of religious pro-life groups are attempting to scuttle the president’s appearance at the Notre Dame through online petition drives.
via The Raw Story | Pro-choice Christian group fires back at Obama protestors.
O’Reilly Defends His Assault On ThinkProgress: I ‘Just Presented The Facts’
OPS: A Double Wanker Award for this one.
O’Reilly Defends His Assault On ThinkProgress: I ‘Just Presented The Facts’
As ThinkProgress continues to wage an action campaign against Bill O’Reilly’s harassment machine, the Fox News host is getting increasingly belligerent in his attacks on TP, the Center for American Progress, and CAP’s founder and CEO, John Podesta. On Wednesday, O’Reilly lashed out, calling TP and CAP part of a “well-financed, well-coordinated cabal” that will “go after your sponsors, they’ll go at your house, they’ll go after your family.”
Last night, O’Reilly defended his attacks, reading letters from viewers condemning the “far-left hate machine.” When one viewer asked if O’Reilly was worried about a lawsuit for his slandering of Podesta, O’Reilly insisted he had “just presented the facts”:
O’REILLY: Gary Stebnitz, Madison, Wisconsin: “O’Reilly, how in the world do you expect to avoid a lawsuit after your attack on John Podesta?”
Now, I want you to write this down, sir, so you can read it to all of your Kool-Aid crew out there in Madison. Podesta is running a hate Web site. Everything we said about him was true. We used no ad hominem attacks, just presented the facts. Got it?
via Think Progress » O’Reilly Defends His Assault On ThinkProgress: I ‘Just Presented The Facts’.
Pot Saved My Life, Mr. President
Pot Saved My Life, Mr. President - by Jim Gilliam, Video
Why Obama shouldn’t chuckle at the question of legalization.
Today, in the historic first online town hall, President Obama fielded questions from nearly a hundred thousand people online. One of the most popular questions, and indeed, one of the most popular questions in any forum that lets people vote on what matters to them, was about whether legalizing marijuana would help improve the economy and job creation.
Chuckling, the President said: “I don’t know what this says about the online audience, but [laughing] this was a fairly popular question, we want to make sure it was answered. The answer is no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”
I’ve never smoked pot in my life, indeed I’ve never smoked anything at all. Despite that, a couple years ago, I needed a double lung transplant. My lungs were scarred beyond repair due to side effects from radiation treatments I’d had nearly a decade earlier in my two battles with cancer.
via Pot Saved My Life, Mr. President | Video | AlterNet.
Why Suburbs May Become the Next Slums
Why Suburbs May Become the Next Slums – By David Villano,
The poor are fleeing our cities, but life is not always greener in the suburbs, even when affordable housing comes with a two-car garage.
The financial meltdown has produced a vast patchwork of foreclosed and abandoned single-family homes across America, accelerating the decades-long migration of our nation’s poor from cities to the suburban fringe. In 2005, as rising property values reduced affordable-housing stock in inner-city neighborhoods, suburban poverty, in raw numbers, topped urban poverty for the first time.
The trend will continue. By 2025, predicts planning expert Arthur C. Nelson, America will face a market surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (a sixth of an acre or more), attracting millions of low-income residents deeper into suburbia where decay and social and geographic isolation will pose challenges few see coming.
“As a society, we have fundamentally failed to address our housing policy,” said Nelson, director of metropolitan research at the University of Utah. “Suburbia is overbuilt and yet we will keep on building there. Most policymakers don’t see the consequences, and those who do are denying reality.”
Nelson and others warn that suburbia’s least desirable neighborhoods – aging, middle-class tract-home developments far from city centers and mass transit lines — are America’s emerging slums, characterized by poverty, crime and other social ills. Treating those ills is complicated by the same qualities that once defined suburbia’s appeal — seclusion, homogeneity and low population density. “We built too much of the suburban dream, and now it’s coming back to haunt us,” Nelson said.
via Why Suburbs May Become the Next Slums | | AlterNet.
Inside Bush’s War on Birth Control
Inside Bush’s War on Birth Control – By Marie Cocco
For those whose nostalgia for the Bush administration is unfulfilled by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s snarling television appearance, there is a new window into the soul of the old regime. It is the brutally frank account of how political operatives and ideological helpmates of George W. Bush violated the law in their efforts to keep birth control away from American women—particularly teenagers at the greatest risk of an unplanned and life-altering pregnancy.
The broad outlines of the case against Bush’s Food and Drug Administration for trying to block the approval of over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, or Plan B, are widely known. For more than five years, the loyal Bushies at the agency blocked action by subverting science, overruling medical professionals and abandoning FDA standards that have long governed how drugs are switched from prescription-only to over-the-counter availability.
It was done, of course, at the behest of anti-abortion zealots who consider many commonly used birth control methods as equivalent to terminating a pregnancy. When the FDA finally approved over-the-counter sales in 2006, it restricted them to women 18 and older and tried to impede the pill’s use by insisting that pharmacies keep the drug out of plain view.
U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman, ruling in a lawsuit brought by the drug’s sponsors and others, now has ordered the FDA to reconsider the age and availability restrictions on the morning-after pill.
via Truthdig – Reports – Inside Bush’s War on Birth Control.
AIG Exec Whines About Public Anger, and Now We’re Supposed to Pity Him? Yeah, Right
AIG Exec Whines About Public Anger, and Now We’re Supposed to Pity Him? Yeah, Right - By Matt Taibbi
AIG exec Jake DeSantis’ NY Times letter asking for us to chill out about his poor overworked employees is a sick joke.
“I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to AIG. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.” via Op-Ed Contributor — “Dear AIG, I Quit!” — NYTimes.com
Like a lot of people, I read Wednesday’s New York Times editorial by former AIG Financial Products employee Jake DeSantis, whose resignation letter basically asks us all to reconsider our anger toward the poor overworked employees of his unit.
DeSantis has a few major points. They include: 1) I had nothing to do with my boss Joe Cassano’s toxic credit default swaps portfolio, and only a handful of people in our unit did; 2) I didn’t even know anything about them; 3) I could have left AIG for a better job several times last year; 4) but I didn’t, staying out of a sense of duty to my poor, beleaguered firm, only to find out in the end that; 5) I would be betrayed by AIG senior management, who promised we would be rewarded for staying, but then went back on their word when they folded in highly cowardly fashion in the face of an angry and stupid populist mob.
I have a few responses to those points. They are 1
Why Is a Progressive Think Tank Telling Obama to Escalate the War in Afghanistan?
Why Is a Progressive Think Tank Telling Obama to Escalate the War in Afghanistan? – By Tom Hayden
It is deeply disappointing that the Center for American Progress has issued a call for a 10-year war in Afghanistan.
The Center for American Progress has positioned itself as a “progressive” Washington think tank, especially suited to channel new thinking and expertise into the Obama administration. It therefore is deeply disappointing that CAP has issued a call for a ten-year war in Afghanistan, including an immediate military escalation, just as President Obama prepares to unveil his Afghanistan/Pakistan policies to the American public and NATO this week.
It is likely that Obama will follow most of CAP’s strategic advice, assuming the think tank to be the progressive wing of what’s possible within the Beltway.
That means a long counter-insurgency war ahead, with everything from massive incarcerations and detention to Predator strikes that amass increasing civilian casualties. CAP begins by calling on the president to meet the request of his commander in Afghanistan for another 15,000 troops in addition to the 17,000 Obama already has committed, which would bring the near-term US total to 70,000. To pay for these additional troops, CAP proposes redirecting $25 billion annually from combat in Iraq to Afghanistan. In addition, CAP favors up to $5 billion annually for diplomatic and economic assistance, also from a redirection of Iraq spending.
Cell Phone Scare: What Do We Really Know About the Health Risks?
Cell Phone Scare: What Do We Really Know About the Health Risks? – By Elisa Batista, Terrain.
Given the confusing studies and the fact that cell phones are a part of modern life, what is a concerned person to do?
Last July, renowned cancer expert Dr. Ronald Herberman sent off a rather alarming note to the 3,000 faculty and staff members at the University of Pittsburgh warning that children should limit their use of cell phones to decrease their risk of cancer. “Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use,” wrote Herberman, who heads the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. He also advised adults to choose texting, Bluetooth headsets, or speakerphone options instead of holding a cell phone to the ear.
A few months later, Herberman was standing before the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, explaining
why he’d sent up this warning flare. After all, pinning down whether mobile phones — or the many antenna towers that relay their calls via radiofrequency (RF) signals — actually cause cancer or other health problems has been a notoriously tricky scientific endeavor. Studies investigating their risks have often been ambiguous and confusing, partly because cell phone technologies are still relatively new, and partly because many cancers take years to develop. Phones’ long-term impact on children, whose brains absorb more RF radiation than those of adults, also remains unclear.
via Cell Phone Scare: What Do We Really Know About the Health Risks? | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
This Crisis Is Way Bigger Than Dead Banks and Wall Street Bailouts
This Crisis Is Way Bigger Than Dead Banks and Wall Street Bailouts – By James Galbraith,
Why the economic crisis, and its solution, are bigger than anyone has so far admitted.
Barack Obama’s presidency began in hope and goodwill, but its test will be its success or failure on the economics. Did the president and his team correctly diagnose the problem? Did they act with sufficient imagination and force? And did they prevail against the political obstacles — and not only that, but also against the procedures and the habits of thought to which official Washington is addicted?
The president has an economic program. But there is, so far, no clear statement of the thinking behind that program, and there may not be one, until the first report of the new Council of Economic Advisers appears next year. We therefore resort to what we know about the economists: the chair of the National Economic Council, Lawrence Summers; the CEA chair, Christina Romer; the budget director, Peter Orszag; and their titular head, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. This is plainly a capable, close-knit group, acting with energy and commitment. Deficiencies of their program cannot, therefore, be blamed on incompetence. Rather, if deficiencies exist, they probably result from their shared background and creed — in short, from the limitations of their ideas.
New support for West Bank outpost
New support for West Bank outpost
An unauthorised settlement in the West Bank, illegal even under Israeli law, appears to be benefiting from state funding, the BBC has uncovered.
A road is being built from the established settlement of Eli, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, leading east to the illegal outpost at Hayovel.
Settlement expansion is a major barrier to an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
The international community regards all settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this, but even under Israeli law, those newer, smaller settlements – known as outposts – which have not received authorisation from the government are deemed, by the Israeli government, to be illegal.
via BBC NEWS | Middle East | New support for West Bank outpost.
NEWS ANALYSIS: Obama’s Week Exposes Meaninglessness Of The 24/7 ‘News Cycle’
NEWS ANALYSIS: Obama’s Week Exposes Meaninglessness Of The 24/7 ‘News Cycle’
This week probably should leave journalists, broadcasters, commentators, pundits, spinmeisters — and any other noisemakers who contribute to the multimedia cacophony that is the so-called 24/7 “news cycle” — rethinking their place in the universe a bit.
To listen to the din recently, you should be convinced that mobs are lining up outside the White House, pitchforks at the ready, over the outrage of the AIG bonuses. You also would be pursuaded further that President Obama is sinking in the polls daily as his budget and change agenda is undone by Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.
And, in perhaps the greatest irony of all for those who are themselves the ones feeding and perpetuating the constant stream of mostly soundbites and general bloviation that calls itself news and analysis — you would think that Obama himself is just talking too darn much under some threat of being “overexposed.”
via On The Hill: NEWS ANALYSIS: Obama’s Week Exposes Meaninglessness Of The 24/7 ‘News Cycle’.
The Downside of Letting Robots Do the Bombing – NYTimes.com
The Downside of Letting Robots Do the Bombing
WASHINGTON — In the mountains of northwest Pakistan, the psychological impact of America’s drone strikes can be measured by this: Some locals have given up drinking Lipton tea, out of a growing conviction that the Central Intelligence Agency is using the tea bags as homing beacons for its pilotless planes.
But in Pakistan’s cities there is a different impact: a sense that the gizmos, created to instill fear in America’s enemies, only reveal the fears of Americans to take casualties themselves. There, a song of protest taunts the world’s most powerful country for sending robots to do a man’s job:
America’s heartless terrorism
Killing people like insects
But honor doesn’t fear power.
Even as the C.I.A. crosses names off its list of Al Qaeda leaders with each successful strike in Pakistan, Washington is struggling to understand the long-term implications of a push-button conflict. One question is whether the robot wars are only a holding action in a far more complex political and ideological war, against an enemy whose resilience America still doesn’t fully understand.
via The Downside of Letting Robots Do the Bombing – NYTimes.com.
A Harvard dean gets call from Washington
A Harvard dean gets call from Washington
Obama taps Koh for a health post
President Obama last night nominated Dr. Howard Koh, an associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health and former Massachusetts public health commissioner, to a top health position in his administration.
If confirmed by the Senate as assistant secretary for health, Koh would be responsible for establishing the nation’s public health agenda, handling a vast portfolio that includes the US surgeon general and programs that coordinate vaccines, AIDS policy, minority health, and blood safety.
“We at Harvard School of Public Health feel proud that a member of our community has been entrusted with this important mission,” said the school’s dean, Dr. Julio Frenk.
via A Harvard dean gets call from Washington – The Boston Globe.
As economy slumps, arts groups suffer, Congress told
As economy slumps, arts groups suffer, Congress told
WASHINGTON — Though audiences are flocking to plays and musical performances, the slumping economy could dim the stagelights, arts advocates told Congress Thursday in a bid to shore up support for arts funding.
Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit art advocacy organization, predicts that more than 10 percent of the nation’s nonprofit arts organizations — theaters, symphonies, orchestras, and arts and music festivals — are at risk of closing this year as the stock market decline cuts into corporate, foundation and individual charitable giving.
The effect could be devastating for burgeoning arts communities, said Michael Spring, director of Miami-Dade County’s cultural affairs department in Florida.
“It’s pretty young and it’s pretty fragile,” Spring said after testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee. “Most organizations have built up endowments and can ride it out better. For Miami’s community, this recession couldn’t have come at a worst moment.”
via As economy slumps, arts groups suffer, Congress told | McClatchy.
Gingrich: ‘Liberal fascists’ moving us towards ‘political dictatorship’
Former (?) adulterer, Gingrich is projecting again.
Gingrich: ‘Liberal fascists’ moving us towards ‘political dictatorship’
President Barack Obama has been in office just over three months, yet former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is already forecasting a looming “political dictatorship.”
In a televised interview with Fox editorialist Sean Hannity on March 25, Gingrich cited Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism as reference for what he sees Democrats in Congress and the White House pushing for.
“I think [Goldberg] ought to reissue it as sort-of an introductory guide to how the left is thinking this year,” said Gingrich. “We are seeing the biggest power grab by politicians in American history.
“… The idea that they would propose the Treasury can intervene and take over non-bank, non-financial system assets, gives them the potential to basically create a dictatorship. You don’t do what they want, they take over your company.
“… It absolutely moves you toward a political dictatorship,” he said.
via The Raw Story | Gingrich: ‘Liberal fascists’ moving us towards ‘political dictatorship’.
Why Pelosi Wants No Filibusters on Health Care
Why Pelosi Wants No Filibusters on Health Care – By David Nather
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t hedging on her budget strategy in any way: She thinks preventing Senate filibusters is the only way to get a decent health care overhaul package later this year.
The issue is whether to include “reconciliation” instructions for health care in the budget blueprint that’s moving through Congress right now. If they’re included, Republicans can’t filibuster whatever health care package moves through Congress later on, and the Senate can pass it with a simple majority. Right now, the House version has the reconciliation instructions, and the Senate version doesn’t.
The House, as you may have gathered, hates Senate filibusters. They also hated it when Senate Democrats had to give concessions to moderate Republicans to win passage of the stimulus bill. So Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House Democratic leaders are hammering away at their arguments about why reconciliation is the key to a non-watered-down health care package.
via CQ Politics | Balance of Power – Why Pelosi Wants No Filibusters on Health Care.
AP: Thousands of U.S. Sites in Iraq May Have Electric Shock Problems
OPS: THOUSANDS?! Will the rank-and-file Right ever be able to admit how profoundly their team has screwed up EVERYTHING they have touched? Those that can, have already left the party. What remains is the lunatic fringe.
Thousands of U.S. Sites in Iraq May Have Electric Shock Problems – By KImberly Hefling,
Military inspectors are racing to examine 90,000 U.S.-run facilities in Iraq with the goal of repairing electrical problems before more troops are electrocuted or shocked while showering or using appliances.
About one-third of the inspections so far have turned up major electrical problems, according to interviews and an internal military document obtained by The Associated Press. Half of the problems they found have since been fixed, but about 65,000 facilities still must be inspected, which could take the rest of this year. Senior Pentagon officials were on Capitol Hill this week for briefings on the findings.
The work assigned to Task Force SAFE, which oversees the inspections and repairs, is aimed at preventing deaths like that of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh. He died in January 2008, one of at least three soldiers killed while showering since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Scores more soldiers suffered shocks between September 2006 and July 2008, according to a database maintained by KBR Inc., the Houston-based contractor that oversees maintenance at most U.S. facilities in Iraq.
via AP: Thousands of U.S. Sites in Iraq May Have Electric Shock Problems.
President Expresses Anger with Automakers, Plan for Industry to be Announced Likely on Monday
President Expresses Anger with Automakers, Plan for Industry to be Announced Likely on Monday
A woman from Michigan whose family members who work for GM and Ford prompted President Obama to provide a sneak preview of an announcement about automakers to likely take place on Monday.
“What specific steps do you see your administration taking about the health of the auto industry?” he was asked at a town hall meeting.
The president called it a “very topical question because I’m going to be making some announcements over the next several days about the auto industry. I don’t want to make all the news here today, so I’m not going to be as specific as you’d like, but I guarantee in the next few days you will have a very extensive answer on what we need to do.”
Mr. Obama said as a “general philosophical approach” he believes “we need to preserve a U.S. auto industry…but the price is that you’ve got to finally restructure to deal with these long-standing problems. And that means that everybody is going to have to give a little bit — shareholders, workers, creditors, suppliers, dealers — everybody is going to have to recognize that the current model, economic model, of the U.S. auto industry is unsustainable.”
Pew Research Center: Americans Favor Carbon Cap, Gays in the Military and Renewing U.S.-Cuba Ties
Americans Favor Carbon Cap, Gays in the Military and Renewing U.S.-Cuba Ties
Washington’s policy agenda has been dominated by the economy and financial crisis during President Obama’s first two months in office. Yet a number of other policy proposals are currently being considered or may emerge in the future. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 9-12 among 1,308 adults, included public attitudes toward setting limits on carbon emissions, allowing gays to serve openly in the military and re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Support for Carbon Cap
A majority of the public (59%) favors setting limits on carbon dioxide emissions and making companies pay for their emissions, even if that may mean higher energy prices. A third (33%) oppose capping carbon emissions under these conditions.
Seven-in-ten Democrats (70%) favor limiting carbon emissions even if it may ultimately result in higher energy prices, compared with 60% of independents and 42% of Republicans.
While Republicans and Democrats differ widely in opinions about setting limits on emissions of carbon dioxide, there are also substantial ideological and class divisions within both parties.
via Pew Research Center: Americans Favor Carbon Cap, Gays in the Military and Renewing U.S.-Cuba Ties.
Blackwell Blames The Left For The Right’s Woes
Blackwell Blames The Left For The Right’s Woes
For several years now, there has been a tension in the Republican Party between the economic conservatives and the social conservatives that has only become more pronounced in the wake of their string of electoral losses.
When the GOP was winning elections, these differences were easily papered over but now that the movement finds itself in the wilderness, these differences are coming more to the forefront as both wings try to remake the GOP in its preferred image and potential for disaster has sparked efforts like the one Newt Gingrich has launched to bring both groups together under a common banner.
The reasons for this tension are myriad and complex, but Ken Blackwell doesn’t see it that way. In fact, he’s got a rather simple explanation – it all the left’s fault:
Part of this divide between conservatives is due to the sanitizing of the public square of references to God. Not many years ago, there was no dispute between conservatives over basic talk about faith. People were not necessarily more religious. There was just a comfort level with general expressions of common faith, such as prayer, signs of the Ten Commandments, or referring to school vacation in December as Christmas Break, instead of Winter Break.
But years of enforced and increasing secularism has left people of faith to their faith, but non-religious conservatives to become increasingly squeamish over even basic expressions of faith. All conservatives believe in the primacy of the individual, but such conservatism must also be rooted in the truth that the individual does not live for the state, and does not receive what is most important from the state.
via Blackwell Blames The Left For The Right’s Woes | Right Wing Watch.
How Much of Your 2008 Income Taxes Pay for War?
How Much of Your 2008 Income Taxes Pay for War?
War spending has continued steady and high. But we don’t know exactly how high.
Ordinarily, FCNL produces an annual analysis of spending on war and other priorities before income tax returns are due in April. This year, because of the way the budget proposals were introduced – in outline form only – we’ve had to estimate based on February 2008 figures.
At that time, most spending decisions for FY2008 had been made and the Office of Management and Budget had estimated spending for the remaining 9 months of the federal fiscal year.
Based on that estimate, we calculate that 43.4 percent of your 2008 tax dollars were spend on the military, both for current military programs and past military spending.
29.8 percent is the portion estimated to be spent on current military programs – the Pentagon, nuclear weapons, foreign military training and assistance.
via How Much of Your 2008 Income Taxes Pay for War? – FCNL Issues.
You Pay, Computer Prays For You
OPS: this is for the laziest Kristians
You Pay, Computer Prays For You
Information Age Prayer is a site that charges you a monthly fee to say prayers for you. A typical charge is $4.95 per month to say three prayers specified by you each day.
“We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying,” the company states. “Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen.”
Prices, however, are dictated by the length of the prayer. As noted in the Information Age Prayer FAQ, “A discounted prayer will cost less than other prayers of similar length.”
I’m fascinated by the intersection between religion and technology, as are some well-known science fiction writers. For example, if a machine can say a prayer for you, why not have a fully robotic pope and clergy?
In his 1971 story Good News From The Vatican, writer Robert Silverberg tells the story of a robot cardinal who might one day become pope:
“Rabbi Mueller removes his sunglasses… ‘I can tell you that his Eminency is tall and distinguished, with a fine voice and a gentle smile…’
‘But he’s mounted on wheels, isn’t he?’ Kenneth persists.
via You Pay, Computer Prays For You | LiveScience.
MT Report: Health Insurance Premiums Up 88%
OPS: These Parasitic Dinosaurs mUST be crushed – NOW. This will be our only opportunity to break free
MT Report: Health Insurance Premiums Up 88%
Helena, MT – Number-crunching on health care costs in Montana shows medical insurance premiums have increased almost 90 percent since 2000, and other health care costs have sky-rocketed, too. Molly Moody, statewide organizer for Montanans for Health Care, which published the report, says health care expenses are burdening state and local government budgets, overwhelming businesses, and making it tough for families to afford adequate health care.
“We really just have this moment in history to move forward and negotiate health care reform. With our broken economy, a good way to address that is addressing the health care crisis.”
The report documents that the average annual premium for family coverage in Montana is almost $12,000, while the median yearly wage is just $22,000. Brian Depew, program director with the Center for Rural Affairs, says that’s a good example of how high health care costs drag down the economy.
“The economic burden created by the increasing costs of health care poses particular challenges for rural Montana, the family farmers, ranchers, small business owners.”
via Public News Service.
Legislation Among Remedies Recommended Improve FedEx Labor Situation
OPS: The meme and the theme are always the same with the Reich: “Labor is the problem”. Until THAT changes we will continue our downward slide.
Legislation Among Remedies Recommended Improve FedEx Labor Situation
New legislation is among the recommendations of a panel that examined the labor situation at express delivery titan Federal Express.
Panel members say that FedEx has systematically eroded the living standards of its employees to the point where its workers find themselves on the brink of falling out of the middle class, according to a statement released by the Teamsters union announcing the commission’s findings.
The commissioners, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl and United Methodist Church Bishop Mary Ann Swenson heard testimony from economic experts, FedEx workers, clergy and community members at a hearing in Los Angeles in December 2008, the statement says.
“FedEx Corp. enjoys revenues surpassing $36 billion annually, with operating profits estimated to be $2.9 billion,” says Sanchez. “Yet over the past several years, during times of enormous company profits and unbridled executive compensation, FedEx has threatened the economic stability of its employees, not only with stingy wages, frozen pensions, and inadequate health benefits, but also with aggressive anti-union tactics that intimidate workers and prevent them from organizing to improve their lot.”
via On The Hill: Legislation Among Remedies Recommended Improve FedEx Labor Situation.
Medical Insurance Companies Have Run Amuck…Time for a Single Payer Smack down
Medical Insurance Companies Have Run Amuck…Time for a Single Payer Smack down
Insurance companies are out of control. The health system is so out of wack and the insurance companies have no fear of reprisal. They are in need of a single payer smack down.
States consider drug tests for welfare recipients
Question: Shouldn’t Wall Street Execs Take Mandatory Drug Tests Since They are On Welfare? Aren’t Wall Street bankers and insurance guys also welfare recipients? Shouldn’t they have to pee in a cup or something else 
humiliating?
States consider drug tests for welfare recipients – By TOM BREEN,
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs.
Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing.
The effort comes as more Americans turn to these safety nets to ride out the recession. Poverty and civil liberties advocates fear the strategy could backfire, discouraging some people from seeking financial aid and making already desperate situations worse.
Those in favor of the drug tests say they are motivated out of a concern for their constituents’ health and ability to put themselves on more solid financial footing once the economy rebounds. But proponents concede they also want to send a message: you don’t get something for nothing.
“Nobody’s being forced into these assistance programs,” said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature who has created a Web site — notwithmytaxdollars.com — that bears a bobble-headed likeness of himself advocating this position. “If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?”
via Print Story: States consider drug tests for welfare recipients – Yahoo! News.
Cuomo Widens His A.I.G. Investigation
OPS: “Why is the AG of New York Doing the Investigating Geithner and Holder Should be Doing of the Wall Street Crooks? …. The question is whether the contracts are being wound down properly and efficiently or whether they have become a vehicle for funneling billions in taxpayers dollars to capitalize banks all over the world.” The Obama Administration Would Want to Know, Don’t You Think?”
Cuomo Widens His A.I.G. Investigation
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said Thursday afternoon that he was widening his investigation of the American International Group to examine whether its trading counterparties improperly received billions of dollars in government money from the troubled insurer.
Those counterparties include Goldman Sachs, which received $12.9 billion, as well as Société Générale of France and Deutsche Bank of Germany, which each received nearly $12 billion.
“Our investigation into corporate bonuses has led us to an investigation of the credit default swap contracts at A.I.G.,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “CDS contracts were at the heart of A.I.G.’s meltdown. The question is whether the contracts are being wound down properly and efficiently or whether they have become a vehicle for funneling billions in taxpayers dollars to capitalize banks all over the world.”
Other counterparties that received money from A.I.G. include Barclays of Britain ($8.5 billion), Merrill Lynch ($6.8 billion), Bank of America ($5.2 billion), UBS of Switzerland ($5 billion), Citigroup ($2.3 billion) and Wachovia ($1.5 billion).
via Cuomo Widens His A.I.G. Investigation – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com.
McCain Concedes Republicans Have No Case In Opposing Budget Reconciliation
OPS: Psychotic? Neurotic? Clueless? Hypocritical? Sociopathic? Whaaaat?
McCain Concedes Republicans Have No Case In Opposing Budget Reconciliation
President Obama has signaled that he is open to using the tactic of budget reconciliation to advance health care reform and cap-and-trade. Reconciliation allows some legislation to be protected from filibusters and passed by a simple majority vote. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) conceded that when Republicans were in power, they had laid the “groundwork” for reconciliation by frequently employing the procedure to pass major Bush agenda items:
MCCAIN: I fully recognize that Republicans have in the past engaged in using reconciliation to further the party’s agenda. I wish it had not been done then, and I hope it will not be done now that the groundwork has been laid.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » McCain Concedes Republicans Have No Case In Opposing Budget Reconciliation.
Kyl, McConnell skip Obama’s briefing on Afghanistan.
OPS: So THIS is how interested they really are in the welfare of the Nation
Kyl, McConnell skip Obama’s briefing on Afghanistan.
President Obama has long refrained from detailing the particulars of his plans for Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying he will only do so after conducting a strategic review of the situation. This week, the administration announced that it will will soon release the details of the review. But Senate GOP leaders skipped Obama’s briefing on the strategic review today, opting for a “multi-member meeting”:
via Think Progress » Kyl, McConnell skip Obama’s briefing on Afghanistan..
Webb pushes prison reform commission
Webb pushes prison reform commission
Jim Webb and Arlen Specter “introduced bipartisan legislation to create a blue-ribbon commission charged with conducting an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of the nation’s entire criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform.”
“America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace,” said Senator Webb. “With five percent of the world’s population, our country houses twenty-five percent of the world’s prison population. Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1200% since 1980. And four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals. We should be devoting precious law enforcement capabilities toward making our communities safer. Our neighborhoods are at risk from gang violence, including transnational gang violence.
via Webb pushes prison reform commission.
US deploys warships as North Korea prepares to launch missile
US deploys warships as North Korea prepares to launch missile
The US has deployed two warships with anti-missile capabilities in the waters off Japan as tensions mount over North Korea’s plans to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Alaska.
The deployment comes as America, Japan and South Korea threaten North Korea with ‘serious consequences’ if it proceeds with plans to conduct the missile test in defiance of a 2006 UN resolution.
North Korea, which has informed international agencies of its plan to fire the missile between April 4 and 8, says the launch is a “satellite test” which it is entitled to make under international law.
via US deploys warships as North Korea prepares to launch missile – Telegraph.
Some jobless aren’t down and out enough to qualify for aid – Los Angeles Times
Some jobless aren’t down and out enough to qualify for aid
Earlier this month Caroline Sabey crossed a threshold she never imagined she would see: the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services.
The single mother had been laid off in February from her $55,000-a-year job as an executive assistant. Almost immediately, Sabey, 42, struggled to make ends meet. She went to the county hoping to get money to buy food for her two young sons.
via Some jobless aren’t down and out enough to qualify for aid – Los Angeles Times.
Newest Neocon Outfit Hosting Afghanistan Forum With Sen. McCain And Rep. Harman
OPS: You didn’t think the Fascists would just go away , did you?
Newest Neocon Outfit Hosting Afghanistan Forum With Sen. McCain And Rep. Harman
Largely under the radar, some of the major neoconservative figures who fashioned the rationale for the Iraq war have set up a shop for shaping future trends in American foreign policy.
And while the Foreign Policy Initiative does not have friends within the White House to whom it can push its agenda, it is not lacking for pull among senior elected officials, including Democrats.
FPI, whose founders and principals include Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol, and Dan Senor, will host a summit next Tuesday titled “Afghanistan: Planning for Success.” Billed as a “half-day conference” to “discuss how the United States and our allies can succeed in Afghanistan,” the event will feature appearances and discussion from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rep. John M. McHugh (R-N.Y.) — ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee — and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who chairs of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee.
via Newest Neocon Outfit Hosting Afghanistan Forum With Sen. McCain And Rep. Harman.
“South Park” Explains The Bailouts (VIDEO)
“South Park” Explains The Bailouts (VIDEO)
Last night’s “South Park” took on the economy, which lead to an incredibly convoluted episode that was almost as bizarre as our current financial state. Suffice to say the, the recession has hit South Park hard, and when Stan tries to return a margarita maker everything goes haywire. He’s carrying it around when he reaches the Treasury, only to find their methods of determining who gets America’s money and why to be more than unorthodox.
via “South Park” Explains The Bailouts (VIDEO).
GOP Budget Plan Fizzles Amid Lack Of Details, Infighting, Mockery [UPDATED, NOW WITH CHARTS!]
GOP Budget Plan Fizzles Amid Lack Of Details, Infighting, Mockery [UPDATED, NOW WITH CHARTS!]
House Republicans today made a big show about how they were going to drop their own brand-new alternate budget proposal, packed with urban-suburban hip-hop “flava” and dance moves Eric Cantor learned at the Verizon Center, watching Britney Spears. As it turns out, READY THEY WERE NOT, and so everyone is making fun of them, and it.
And look: I know that a lot has changed since that first, much-hyped-but-ultimately-detail-free attempt that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made at presenting his bank bailout plan. You know…Watchmen opened, and we’ve all filled out our NCAA brackets, and that guy from American Idol who desecrated the corpse of Johnny Cash got himself a haircut and wasn’t half bad on the teevee last night. And yet, I still remember Geithner, rightly getting criticized for a presentation that did not live up to the advance word that President Barack Obama himself put out on the street. The administration, quite rightly, took their lumps for suggesting Geithner was going to deliver the goods when, in reality, he was far from ready for prime time. And the GOP, fairly, led that chorus of criticism.
via GOP Budget Plan Fizzles Amid Lack Of Details, Infighting, Mockery [UPDATED, NOW WITH CHARTS!].
Real plumbers rip Joe the Plumber for shilling against the Employee Free Choice Act.
Real plumbers rip Joe the Plumber for shilling against the Employee Free Choice Act.
Greg Sargent reports that Joe the Plumber has been tapped by the anti-labor Americans for Prosperity to do “a series of events throughout Pennsylvania rallying opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.” Here’s why Americans for Prosperity spokesperson Mary Ellen Burke said Joe was chosen:
“The public loves Joe the Plumber,” the spokesperson, Mary Ellen Burke, claimed to me. “They see him as a role model.”
Asked whether Joe the Plumber had any particular knowledge or expertise about EFCA that might explain the decision to enlist him, Burke said that he was being enlisted to provide a “grassroots perspective” and “the working perspective” on the measure.
Pressed on whether Joe the Plumber has any particular claim to being a spokesperson on the issue, Burke replied that “he represents the American worker.”
IRS launches crackdown on offshore tax evasion
IRS launches crackdown on offshore tax evasion
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service announced new steps on Thursday aimed at getting taxpayers hiding money in offshore accounts to pay up, promising not to file criminal charges for those who voluntarily fess up to hiding money overseas.
“This is a chance for people to come clean on their own,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told reporters.
While promising not to prosecute criminal charges, the IRS would impose penalties and interest on past due taxes, he said.
Switzerland agreed earlier this month to relax its strict bank secrecy rules and cooperate more on tax evasion to fend off a global crackdown on tax havens. The country has been under pressure because of an IRS tax fraud investigation targeting UBS AG
IRS memos sent to agency examination staff said offshore tax cases should “receive priority treatment.”
via IRS launches crackdown on offshore tax evasion – Boston.com.
The Blue Dog — A Republican’s Best Friend
The Blue Dog — A Republican’s Best Friend
MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
Don’t misunderstand me, fellow Americans, I have always believed in a two-party system of checks and balances in government. Put the best minds together, BUT, that is not how US government has worked for over thirty years. It’s been in print many times how Reagan was chosen by a small group in California, and, even though he has been treated like a hero, the downfall of US economics started then and continued when the Supreme Court broke the law and put their man, Bush, who was clearly incompetent and a loser, even at that time, into the White House. Bush number two and his followers ruled with a dictatorial system of government, until we Americans were no longer of any use to these people, and they sold us to China.
At a fish fry years ago, probably one of the most outspoken politicians running for a ticket said that he wanted to be in DC for the “connections.” It’s been the love of money, not brains, nor the love of country, that has been the ruling factor in US government for the last thirty years, and it would still be going on, except there’s only so much pilfering any one group can do before the US hits bottom, and here we are today, on our knees, looking up at China, instead of digging down.
via The Blue Dog — A Republican’s Best Friend | BuzzFlash.org.
Sources: Obama to add US troops in Afghanistan
Sources: Obama to add US troops in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON – Concerned about the faltering war in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama plans to dispatch thousands more military and civilian trainers on top of the 17,000 fresh combat troops he’s already ordered, people familiar with the forthcoming plan said Thursday.
Obama also will call for increasing aid to neighboring Pakistan as long as its leaders confront militants in the border region. The president plans to lay out his revamped strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday.
Several sources told The Associated Press the strategy includes 20 recommendations for countering a persistent insurgency that spans the two countries’ border, including sending 4,000 military trainers to try to increase the size of the Afghan army.
via Sources: Obama to add US troops in Afghanistan.
Good product; even better byproduct
Good product; even better byproduct
SeedBallz I don’t know if you’re familiar with the SeedBallz story. I’m quite certain that you should be. It began in 2004, when the great Alice Strong and Strong Marketing came up with the idea of clay balls filled with seeds, which in concert could be planted to produce beautiful clusters of flowers. Alice called the new product SeedBallz, and they caught on so quickly that soon Strong Marketing was shipping them all over the world.
The benefits of SeedBallz were – and are – significant, on many fronts. In a day when more than a few items carry the label “Made in China,” Strong Marketing proudly notes that SeedBallz are born in the U.S.A. And this home-grown product is as conveniently bountiful as it gets in the plant world. Each ball contains a number of seeds, meaning all the user has to do is plant them into prepared soil a predetermined depth, water them and enjoy them as they sprout lots and lots of gorgeous flowers. Whether you are making a border, naturalizing an area or hiding a tree stump, SeedBallz represent gardening at its easiest.
via Open Register: Good product; even better byproduct.
Toward a New Sustainable Economy
Toward a New Sustainable Economy
The fallacy that economic growth can lead to improved human welfare underpins the global financial crisis. Now, we need to move beyond ‘growth at all costs’ and reorganise the economy based on the quality of life rather than quantity of consumption
by Robert Costanza
The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. The financial world is, in essence, a set of markers for goods, services, and risks in the real world and when those markers are allowed to deviate too far from reality, “adjustments” must ultimately follow and crisis and panic can ensue.
To solve this and future financial crisis requires that we reconnect the markers with reality. What are our real assets and how valuable are they? To do this requires both a new vision of what the economy is and what it is for, proper and comprehensive accounting of real assets, and new institutions that use the market in its proper role of servant rather than master.
The mainstream vision of the economy is based on a number of assumptions that were created during a period when the world was still relatively empty of humans and their built infrastructure. In this “empty world” context, built capital was the limiting factor, while natural capital and social capital were abundant. It made sense, in that context, not to worry too much about environmental and social “externalities” since they could be assumed to be relatively small and ultimately solvable.
via Toward a New Sustainable Economy | CommonDreams.org.
Why the White House Garden Matters
Why the White House Garden Matters – by Fritz Haeg
Has one vegetable garden ever generated so much excitement or debate? A few details about the new White House vegetable garden caught my attention.
It is 1,100 square feet. This is a garden sized for a family. In my experience of removing front lawns and planting Edible Estate prototype gardens across the country, the Obama garden is about the size of the average American front lawn. Most Americans should be able to imagine themselves planting something about this size in front of their house over a weekend with the help of some friends and neighbours.
Of course I would have preferred that they remove the entire South Lawn of the White House. I imagine a combination of fruit tree orchards, wild berry patches and edible flower and grass meadows. But since this new first family garden should be a model to inspire every American family, perhaps a modest 1,100 square feet is the best way to start the revolution.
There will be tomatillos and cilantro, but no beets. The Obamas love Mexican food, and Barack does not like beets. This is a garden planted for the personal tastes of the family that will be eating from it. It is not just a pretty garden, or an empty symbol, but a place for a family to grow the food that they like to eat, on the land that is around them.
via Why the White House Garden Matters | CommonDreams.org.
Budget Deficits & Blow Up Dolls
Budget Deficits & Blow Up Dolls - by Dean Baker
In the movie Lars and the Real Girl, the main character imagines that a female blow-up doll is his fiancé. To humor Lars, his brother and sister-in-law go along with the charade. Over the course of the movie, more people are drawn into the circle, until eventually the whole town is treating Bianca the blow-up doll as one of its leading citizens.
This seems to pretty well describe the debate over the budget deficit, except it’s not clear that many people realize it’s a charade. The main story is that Lars’ budget hawk counterparts are upset that the deficits projected for 2013 or 2019 are too large. They want President Obama to commit to spending cuts and/or tax increases in order to bring these deficits to levels they consider acceptable.
The unreality of this picture is striking because the budget hawks seem not to notice that we are in the middle of an economic meltdown.
People are losing their homes through foreclosures at the rate of more than 100,000 a month. The default rates on credit cards, car loans and other debt is at record levels. Most of our major banks are effectively insolvent.
Home and stock prices have plummeted, destroying most of the wealth of the baby boom cohort as they stand on the edge of retirement. The economy is shedding almost 700,000 jobs a month, with the unemployment rate rapidly approaching the highest level since the Great Depression.
via Budget Deficits & Blow Up Dolls | CommonDreams.org.
Neo-Con Ideologues Launch New Foreign Policy Group
Neo-Con Ideologues Launch New Foreign Policy Group – by Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – A newly-formed and still obscure neo-conservative foreign policy organization is giving some observers flashbacks to the 1990s, when its predecessor staked out the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy that came to fruition under the George W. Bush administration.
The blandly-named Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) – the brainchild of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, neo-conservative foreign policy guru Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor – has thus far kept a low profile; its only activity to this point has been to sponsor a conference pushing for a U.S. “surge” in Afghanistan.
But some see FPI as a likely successor to Kristol’s and Kagan’s previous organization, the now-defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which they launched in 1997 and which became best known for leading the public campaign to oust former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.
PNAC’s charter members included many figures who later held top positions under Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.
FPI was founded earlier this year, but few details are available about the group, which has so far attracted no media attention. The organization’s website lists Kagan, Kristol, and Senor, who came to prominence as a spokesman for the occupation authorities in Iraq, as the three members of its board of directors.
via Neo-Con Ideologues Launch New Foreign Policy Group | CommonDreams.org.
Hidden Homeless Emerge as US Economy Worsens
Hidden Homeless Emerge as US Economy Worsens – by Steve Gorman and Suzanne Hurt
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Emergency shelters brimming with homeless people in California’s capital are quietly turning away more than 200 women and children a night in a sign of the deteriorating U.S. economy.
The displaced individuals on waiting lists at St. John’s Shelter and other facilities often turn instead to relatives or friends for temporary living quarters, perhaps moving into a spare room, garage or trailer. The less fortunate might sleep in their cars or a vacant storage unit.
They are the hidden homeless. And their ranks appear to be growing as rising joblessness and mortgage foreclosures take their toll in Sacramento and other U.S. cities, experts say.
U.S. President Barack Obama recognized the trend in his televised news conference this week, saying, “the homeless problem was bad even when the economy was good,” and he vowed to bring greater government resources to bear to deal with it.
“It is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours,” he said.
via Hidden Homeless Emerge as US Economy Worsens | CommonDreams.org.
UN panel touts new global currency reserve system
UN panel touts new global currency reserve system
A UN panel of expert economists pressed Thursday for a new global currency reserve scheme to replace the volatile, dollar-based system and for coordinated steps by rich countries to stimulate their economies.”A new Global Reserve System — what may be viewed as a greatly expanded SDR (Special Drawing Rights), with regular or cyclically adjusted emissions calibrated to the size of reserve accumulations, could contribute to global stability, economic strength and global equity,” the panel said.
As part of several recommendations to tackle the global financial crisis, the panel also noted recovery would require all developed countries, in the short term, to take “strong, coordinated and effective actions to stimulate their economies.”
And it stressed the need to “lay the basis for the long-run reforms that will be necessary if we are to have a more stable and more prosperous global economy and avoid future global crises.”
The commission, led by US economist Joseph Stiglitz, a frequent critic of globalization and unbridled free markets, is primarily aimed at finding solutions for developing countries.
via UN panel touts new global currency reserve system.
Army vet billed $3,000 for war wounds
Army vet billed $3,000 for war wounds
(CNN) — Erik Roberts, an Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, underwent his 13th surgery recently to save his right leg from amputation. Imagine his shock when he got a bill for $3,000 for his treatment.
“I just thought it was bull—- that I’m getting billed for being wounded in Iraq doing my job. I always put the mission first, and now that I was wounded in Iraq, they’re sending me bills,” he said.
“I put my life on the line and I was wounded in combat, and I came back and they’re not going to take care of my medical bills?”
It’s a level of outrage shared by his mother, as well as the doctor who performed the surgery.
“It’s hard to understand why we’re not taking care of guys like Erik whose injuries are clearly related to their service. They deserve the best care of anybody,” said Dr. William Obremskey, an Air Force veteran and surgeon at Vanderbilt Orthopaedics in Nashville, Tennessee.
via Army vet billed $3,000 for war wounds – CNN.com.
In Argentina, Nobel prize-winning economist calls for greater regulation of bonuses
In Argentina, Nobel prize-winning economist calls for greater regulation of bonuses
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Nobel prize-winning economist Edmund Phelps called on Thursday for greater regulation of bonuses for employees and executives at U.S. financial institutions, saying stepped-up control is “politically demanded” amid the global downturn.
“Bonuses are an invitation to ‘short-termism,’ never mind the future,” said Phelps, in Buenos Aires for an economic congress. Large bonuses discourage employees and executives from considering long-term benefits of business decisions in order to guarantee a juicy year-end bonus, he said.
Phelps’ comments come as many Americans are still simmering over the $165 million in bonuses insurance giant American International Group Inc. distributed to employees of its financial products group after the government committed more than $182 billion to keep the company afloat.
Doctors say kidney stones in kids are on the rise
Doctors say kidney stones in kids are on the rise
Doctors are puzzling over what seems to be an increase in the number of children with kidney stones, a condition some blame on kids’ love of cheeseburgers, fries and other salty foods.
Kidney stones are usually an adult malady, one that is notorious for causing excruciating pain — pain worse than childbirth. But while the number of affected children isn’t huge, kids with kidney stones have been turning up in rising numbers at hospitals around the country.
At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the number of children treated for kidney stones since 2005 has climbed from about 10 a year to five patients a week now, said Dr. Pasquale Casale.
Johns Hopkins Children Center in Baltimore, a referral center for children with stones, used to treat one or two youngsters a year 15 or so years ago. Now it gets calls about new cases every week, said kidney specialist Dr. Alicia Neu.
via Doctors say kidney stones in kids are on the rise.
Komodo dragons kill Indonesian fisherman – CNN.com
Komodo dragons kill Indonesian fisherman
An Indonesian fisherman has been killed by Komodo dragons after he was attacked while trespassing on a remote island in search of fruit, officials said Tuesday.
Muhamad Anwar, 32, bled to death on his way to hospital after being mauled by the reptiles at Loh Sriaya, in eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, the park’s general manager Fransiskus Harum told CNN.
“The fisherman was inside the park when he went looking for sugar-apples. The area was forbidden for people to enter as there are a lot of wild dragons,” Harum said.
via Komodo dragons kill Indonesian fisherman – CNN.com.
Mount Redoubt Eruptions Threaten Oil Pipeline
OPS: Here’s the next excuse……
Mount Redoubt Eruptions Threaten Oil Pipeline
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska volcano continued to rumble Tuesday amid new concerns that eruptions and mud flows will damage a nearby oil terminal where about 6 million gallons of crude are stored. The 10,200-foot Mount Redoubt volcano, about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, erupted Sunday night. Since then there have been five more explosions; the latest, on Monday night, shot an ash plume into the air that was 40,000 to 50,000 feet high.
The volcano has been relatively quiet since, but that is not expected to continue, said Stephanie Prejean, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The last time Redoubt erupted was in 1989, when there were more than 20 explosions as magma pushed to the surface and formed domes that later collapsed and sent ash plumes into the air.
via Mount Redoubt Eruptions Threaten Oil Pipeline.
Recycling Batteries: Green 101 (VIDEO)
Recycling Batteries: Green 101 (VIDEO)
The always-helpful Umbra offers a quick video tutorial on batteries: what to use, what to avoid, what to recycle and how — and even how to make a battery.
It’s been around for a while, but if you’re new to recycling batteries, here you go!
WATCH:
via Recycling Batteries: Green 101 (VIDEO).
Nuclear Power Timeline: Meltdowns And Build-Ups
Nuclear Power Timeline: Meltdowns And Build-Ups
1955: A U.S. government reactor makes Arco, Idaho, the world’s first town electrified by nuclear power.
_ 1957: The U.S.’ first commercial nuclear power plant becomes operational in Shippingport, Pa. (Nuclear reactors were already in service in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom). It was retired in 1982.
_ March 29, 1979: Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Middletown, Pa., melts down. No one was killed or seriously injured that day, but the public relations disaster sets back the industry for decades.
_ April 26, 1986: Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes in Soviet Ukraine, killing thousands. A radioactive cloud floats over much of Europe and large areas of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are contaminated.
via Nuclear Power Timeline: Meltdowns And Build-Ups.
Twittering Plant Knows How To Get What It Wants
Twittering Plant Knows How To Get What It Wants
Are you slowly killing your houseplants? Is it because you’re too busy Twittering? THEN HAS THE INTERNET GOT THE SOLUTION FOR YOU!
Discover found a plant that’s an early adopter and has more followers on Twitter than I do (even though I am at least as personable) — and all it does is tweet about how thirsty it is:
Ok, for anyone not on Twitter, it’s time to reevaluate: These days, even plants are doing it. And successfully, too–Pothos has 2,300 followers, and when it tweets, it almost always gets what it wants.
Granted, all it wants is water, but when plant owners are forgetful or just don’t have a green thumb, their green friends often go thirsty. The solution? Botanicalls, a device that sends wireless signals to Twitter. It’s made of soil moisture sensors that transmit information (too much moisture? too little?) through a circuit board to a microcontroller, just like a mini-computer.
via Twittering Plant Knows How To Get What It Wants.
World’s Fastest Electric Car: ’72 Datsun (VIDEO)
World’s Fastest Electric Car: ’72 Datsun (VIDEO)
Zero to 60 in three seconds, no foreign oil required. And it looks like something out of a Ted Nugent video.
The White Zombie is powered by two motors; motors that are usually used to operate forklifts. It’s filled up with over 60 batteries that occupy both the trunk and the back seat. All of this gives the White Zombie about 300 hp, and the ability to beat every combustion engine it comes up against.
It takes about 20 minutes to fully charge the car, and it can get up to 40 miles on a full charge.
via World’s Fastest Electric Car: ’72 Datsun (VIDEO).
Hybrid Wars: Toyota To Sell Two Prius Models
Hybrid Wars: Toyota To Sell Two Prius Models
TOKYO — Toyota will continue to sell the current Prius when the revamped version goes on sale in May in an unusual move likely to help the top-selling hybrid ride out a threat from rival Honda.
Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe said Thursday there is demand in the Japanese market for both the third-generation Prius and the smaller model that’s already on sale.
He declined to give details, including overseas plans. But his comment is the first from Toyota confirming recent Japanese media reports that the current Prius gas-electric hybrid will continue to be on sale, partly to match the cheap price of Honda Motor Co.’s new Insight hybrid.
Prius faces an unprecedented challenge from the Insight, which starts at 1.89 million yen ($19,000) in Japan, and $19,800 in the U.S. The Prius now sells for $22,000 in the U.S. and 2.3 million yen ($23,000) in Japan.
Watanabe said Toyota has been slashing costs on hybrids to almost a fourth of the early costs. He declined to give details on pricing, adding Toyota will give an explanation when the new model is unveiled, expected in May.
via Hybrid Wars: Toyota To Sell Two Prius Models.
UPS responds to our campaign: We are investigating whether to continue advertising on O’Reilly’s show.
OPS: this is the 3rd or 4th advertiser today that has spoken up like this. You have to know that KO will be all over this tonight
UPS responds to our campaign: We are investigating whether to continue advertising on O’Reilly’s show.
Responding to our Stop The O’Reilly Harassment Machine campaign, UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg issued this statement to ThinkProgress:
Kristol Launches Project For A New American Century 2.0: ‘The Foreign Policy Initiative’
OPS: No virus will go away on it’s own. It has to be cut out.
Kristol Launches Project For A New American Century 2.0: ‘The Foreign Policy Initiative’
In November, after Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his neoconservative foreign policy were soundly defeated at the polls, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol told right-wing talker Hugh Hewitt that he was considering putting together a refashioned version of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). “A little bit of a political organization” for “the Fred Kagans and Bob Kagans and Reuel Gerechts of the world” wouldn’t “be bad,” said Kristol:
Kristol’s new “political organization” for neoconservatives is now a reality:
A newly-formed and still obscure neo-conservative foreign policy organisation is giving some observers flashbacks to the 1990s, when its predecessor staked out the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy that came to fruition under the George W. Bush administration.
The blandly-named Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) – the brainchild of Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, neo-conservative foreign policy guru Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor – has thus far kept a low profile; its only activity to this point has been to sponsor a conference pushing for a U.S. “surge” in Afghanistan.
MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer to House GOP: ‘What are your ideas? … Give me some substance!’
MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer to House GOP: ‘What are your ideas? … Give me some substance!’
Today, MSNBC cut away from its live coverage of President Obama’s web town hall to cover the House Republican press conference on its alternative budget. This afternoon, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer expressed her exasperation that the GOP still had not offered any real, specific plans. “Give me some substance!” she proclaimed:
BREWER: Here’s the thing. They say, We have a plan — and proceeded not to tell us what that plan is. They sent us some paperwork. It’s got no numbers attached. I understand, it takes time to do math. I would be content even doing without the numbers. I’m just saying, What are your ideas? You have my attention. We cut away from the president. Give me some substance!
MSNBC’s congressional correspondent Mike Viqueira said that the GOP website promised a “detailed plan.” “I guess details are in the eye of the beholder, but I don’t think most people would call this a detailed plan at this point,” he said. Watch it:
Pressed By MSNBC, Pence Is Unable To Say What Deficit Would Be Under New GOP Budget
Pressed By MSNBC, Pence Is Unable To Say What Deficit Would Be Under New GOP Budget
Earlier this week, President Obama challenged Republicans who have been ripping his budget proposal, saying, “Critics tend to criticize, but they don’t offer an alternative budget.” Today, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) released a GOP budget called “The Republican Road to Recovery.” “Here it is, Mr. President,” he said, proudly waving it in the air.
Except this “budget” is short on one key detail: numbers. The AP calls it “a glossy pamphlet short on detail and long on campaign-style talking points.” The budget proposes heavy tax cuts to the wealthy, which have time and again exploded the deficit. Today, MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell challenged Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) to say what the deficit impact of the GOP plan would be. Pence awkwardly tried to change the subject:
via Think Progress » Pressed By MSNBC, Pence Is Unable To Say What Deficit Would Be Under New GOP Budget.
How close is the United States of America to becoming a failed state?
How close is the United States of America to becoming a failed state?
Economies around the world are unravelling, and governments are failing.
Since 2005 the United States think-tank, the Fund for Peace and the magazine Foreign Policy, have been publishing an annual index called the Failed States Index.
“The index’s ranks are based on twelve indicators of state vulnerability – four social, two economic and six political. The indicators are not designed to forecast when states may experience violence or collapse. Instead, they are meant to measure a state’s vulnerability to collapse or conflict. All countries in the red, orange, or yellow categories display some features that make parts of their societies and institutions vulnerable to failure. Some in the yellow zone may be failing at a faster rate than those in the more dangerous orange or red zones, and therefore could experience violence sooner. Conversely, some in the red zone, though critical, may exhibit some positive signs of recovery or be deteriorating slowly, giving them time to adopt mitigating strategies.
via Chycho.com – Analysis and discussion about the world we live in..
Labor Leaders Disappointed by Lack of Working People’s Voices at Vermont Healthcare Reform Discussion
Labor Leaders Disappointed by Lack of Working People’s Voices at Vermont Healthcare Reform Discussion
BURLINGTON, Vt. – March 18 – Working people’s voices were not heard at the Obama Administration’s second regional Health Care Summit in Burlington, VT on March 17.
“Despite the fact that several union spokespersons attended the meeting, we were not called upon and unfortunately the voice of workers was shut out of the discussion,” said Peter Knowlton, president of the Northeast Region of the United Electrical Workers Union (UE). “When it came to the financial discussion, Gov. Douglas and Gov. Patrick [the two governors moderating the session] only called on wealthy special-interests from the worlds of business and professional circles.”
Sandy Eaton, a nurse who attended the forum stated that nurses’ voices went unheard as well. “Nurses were well represented, but our voices were not heard — and the term “nurse” or “hospital worker” was never mentioned in the two hour forum,” said Eaton who is a member of the executive board of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
Outside the auditorium where the summit was held, over 250 labor and community members rallied in support of HR 676 and single payer healthcare. “Our system needs fundamental reform,” said Dawn Stanger, President of the Vermont Workers Center-Jobs with Justice. Stanger, a UPS employee and member of Teamsters Local 597, was joined by dozens of unionized nurses who worked next door at Fletcher Allen Health Care, the largest hospital in Vermont.
“We need to build a movement to demand change,” Stanger told the crowd. The Vermont Workers Center is coordinating a major statewide “Healthcare Is a Human Right” rally on May 1 at the Vermont Statehouse, which will include U. S. Senator Bernie Sanders. The rally will oppose Vermont Governor Douglas’ proposed budget cuts to healthcare programs and support state and national single-payer legislation.
Two U.S. Senators Introduce Bill to Protect Streams From Mountaintop Removal
Two U.S. Senators Introduce Bill to Protect Streams From Mountaintop Removal
Two U.S. senators from coal-producing states introduced bipartisan legislation yesterday that would protect Appalachia from mountaintop removal coal mining.
The Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696), introduced by Senators Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), would amend the Clean Water Act to prevent the dumping of toxic mining waste from mountaintop removal coal mining into headwater streams and rivers.
“My goal is to put a stop to one of the most destructive mining practices that has already destroyed some of America’s most beautiful and ecologically significant regions,” said Senator Cardin, Chairman of the Water and Wildlife Subcommittee of the Committee on Environment and Public Works. “This legislation will put a stop to the smothering of our nation’s streams and water systems and will restore the Clean Water Act to its original intent.”
via Two U.S. Senators Introduce Bill to Protect Streams From Mountaintop Removal.
Usury Country: Payday Loans Pushing Millions of Middle Class Americans Deeper into Debt
Usury Country: Payday Loans Pushing Millions of Middle Class Americans Deeper into Debt
Lawmakers and public officials in California, Ohio, South Carolina, Missouri, Washington and other states are attempting to crack down on the controversial practice known as payday lending. Payday loans are short-term loans or cash advances secured by a post-dated check. The annual interest rate for these loans can be as high as 400 percent, ten times the highest credit card rates. Today, it’s a $40 billion industry with more than 22,000 stores. We speak with journalist Daniel Brook about his Harper’s Magazine article, “Usury Country,” and with Ginna Green of the Center for Responsible Lending. [includes rush transcript]
Official says post office is running out of cash
Official says post office is running out of cash
The post office will run out of money this year unless it gets help, Postmaster General John Potter told Congress on Wednesday as he sought permission to cut delivery to five days a week.
“We are facing losses of historic proportion. Our situation is critical,” Potter told a House panel.
The agency lost $2.8 billion last year and is looking at much larger losses this year. Reducing mail delivery from six days to five days a week could save $3.5 billion annually, Potter said.
Potter also urged changes in how the post office pre-pays for retiree health care to cut its annual costs by $2 billion.
If the Postal Service does run out of money, the lingering question, Potter told the House Oversight post office subcommittee, is which bills will be paid and which will not. Ensuring the payment of workers’ salaries comes first, he said, but other bills may have to wait.
Potter first raised the possibility of delivery cutbacks in January, but the idea has not been warmly received in Congress.
via Official says post office is running out of cash | CourierPostOnline.com | Courier-Post.
Federal officials launching safety audit of American Airlines
Federal officials launching safety audit of American Airlines
Federal inspectors will soon begin poring over American Airlines’ operational data, manuals and other records as part of a lengthy review of safety at the Fort Worth-based carrier.
The in-depth examination comes at a time when a spate of aviation accidents, in- cluding a deadly crash in Buffalo, N.Y., and a spectacular water landing in New York City, has some passengers worried as they board airplanes.
The audit will begin next month, said American spokesman Tim Wagner. It will primarily involve a detailed review of safety data, including evaluation of maintenance and flight manuals, records and other documents, rather than inspections of airplanes, said Alison Duquette, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.
She said the agency is putting its team of investigators together and is working with American officials on how to best conduct the audit.
via Federal officials launching safety audit of American Airlines | Business | Star-Telegram.com.
In Fargo, a race against the river
In Fargo, a race against the river
RED RIVER VALLEY – Flood-fighters in and around Fargo, N.D., continued to fill sandbags, build dikes and plan for evacuations this morning after a dire new forecast called for the Red River to swell to its highest level ever by Saturday.
Authorities used airboats, helicopters and large military trucks to rescue dozens of trapped residents in the North Dakota towns of Oxbow and Abercombie. And if the rising river weren’t enough to heighten anxiety, 8 inches of snow blew in with ice and wind to handicap sandbagging efforts and close highways not already swamped with floodwater.
Snow was expected to continue in the area through this morning dropping an additional half-inch. Temperatures were expected to hit 25 degrees today, the weather service said.
“It’s uncharted territory,” Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said on Wednesday. “If nature has anything else to throw at us, it’d have to be a tornado.”
via In Fargo, a race against the river.
Wisconsin economic director to refuse $50 million project if obstacles to right to organize removed
Wisconsin economic director to refuse $50 million project if obstacles to right to organize removed
Scientists win Texas evolution debate
Scientists win Texas – Controversial measure fails
Proponents of an amendment that would mandate teachers explain the “strengths and weaknesses” of the theory of evolution to Texas high school students suffered a blowing defeat Thursday morning, when the measure failed during a preliminary vote. The vote was 7-7 and the amendment needed a simple majority in order to pass.
The Texas Freedom Network, an organization that has been fighting against teaching the “strengths and weaknesses” evolution called the vote “a victory for sound science in the state of Texas,” on its blog just minutes after the vote.
via Scientists win Texas evolution debate | KXAN.com.
House Health Plan to Include Government-Run Option (Update1)
House Health Plan to Include Government-Run Option (Update1)
March 26 (Bloomberg) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House this year will consider health-care legislation including an option for a government-run program that would compete with private insurers.
“This is a big agenda, and I believe it should have a public option in it for it to be really substantial,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference in the U.S. Capitol.
Pelosi said she intends for the House to be “aggressive” in its approach to a health-care overhaul, which is a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s agenda this year. She defended a drive by House Democrats to put health-care legislation on a fast track under a budget proposal announced this week.
via House Health Plan to Include Government-Run Option (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.
E.J. Dionne Jr. – Cutting Deficit Will Require Tax Increases
Deficit Dodge Ball – By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Will Anyone Admit That Taxes Have to Rise?
The debate on the budget is phony, the howling on deficits a charade. Few politicians want to acknowledge that if you really are concerned about long-term deficits, you have to support tax increases.
That’s why the most significant moment of President Obama’s news conference on Tuesday was not his dodge of a question on AIG but his defense of the least popular tax increase in his budget: limits on the benefits wealthier taxpayers get for their charitable contributions and mortgage payments.
It has been a long time since a president was willing to defend raising taxes. You have to go back to Bill Clinton and his 1993 budget. The consequences for Democrats who voted for that budget — no Republicans did — were grave. Republicans swept the 1994 elections and held on to the House for 12 years. No wonder politicians are so phobic about taxes.
Obama himself is going only part of the way on tax increases. He is still arguing that he can fix things with hikes on just the top 5 percent of taxpayers.
via E.J. Dionne Jr. – Cutting Deficit Will Require Tax Increases – washingtonpost.com.
Bachus: AIG Stiffed Small U.S. Institutions, While Paying Off Foreign Banks in Full
Bachus: AIG Stiffed Small U.S. Institutions, While Paying Off Foreign Banks in Full
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) just raised a new objection to the AIG counterparty payments–specifically that while AIG used government money to pay off their CDS obligations dollar-for-dollar to major (sometimes foreign) financial institutions, it repaid smaller U.S. institutions that made secured loans to AIG subsidiaries at a rate of only about 20 to 30 cents on the dollar.
Video forthcoming, but Geithner had no immediate answer to the query, which, to amateur ears anyhow, sounds like an interesting one. We’ll follow up…..more
Realted Video:
Source: 12% Of GM Workers Accept Buyout
Source: 12% Of GM Workers Accept Buyout
$20,000 Offer, Plus $25,000 Toward A New Car, Taken By 7,500 Hourly Employees
(AP) About 7,500 General Motors Corp. workers have signed up to take buyout and early retirement incentives to leave the company, the automaker said Thursday.
Also, Chrysler LLC said Thursday it would extend its offers to entice blue-collar workers to leave the company. The old deadline was Friday.
At GM, about 12 percent of the company’s U.S. hourly work force of 62,400 decided to leave, most through early retirement offers.
GM offered $20,000 cash and a $25,000 voucher to buy a car to all of its hourly U.S. employees in an effort to further trim its blue-collar work force to match reduced sales.
via Source: 12% Of GM Workers Accept Buyout – CBS News.
Cuomo to Subpoena AIG on CDS
Cuomo to Subpoena AIG on CDS
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo plans Thursday to subpoena American International Group Inc. for information on its credit default swaps, people familiar with the matter say.
Mr. Cuomo is among the state authorities investigating the bonuses paid to executives in the financial products group at AIG.
He is subpoenaing the information as he tries to assess AIG’s claims that it needed the expertise of its employees to unwind certain contracts, these people say. He is concerned that in some cases AIG essentially made some investors whole, raising questions about what the staffers who got bonuses did.
AIG made whole investors who held battered securities that were insured by AIG. However, this payout was orchestrated by the Federal Reserve. The credit default swaps that caused much of AIG’s problems represent only part of what the group does.
via Cuomo to Subpoena AIG on CDS – WSJ.com.
Obama Backs Banks, Seeks to Block State Fair-Lending Crackdown
Obama Backs Banks, Seeks to Block State Fair-Lending Crackdown – By Greg Stohr
March 26 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration’s call for greater financial regulation may have its limits.
The administration late yesterday urged the Supreme Court to bar New York and other states from enforcing their fair- lending and other consumer-protection laws against federally chartered banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.
The legal brief, which adopts the Bush administration’s position, is a setback for consumer and civil-rights groups that had urged President Barack Obama’s team to switch positions. The filing puts the administration at odds with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo over the respective roles of state and federal regulators. The high court will hear arguments April 28.
“National banks are created by the government to serve federal purposes,” argued Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the Obama administration’s top courtroom lawyer. She said that “oversight of the banks is therefore principally entrusted to the United States.”
via Obama Backs Banks, Seeks to Block State Fair-Lending Crackdown – Bloomberg.com.
Rahm Emanuel’s profitable stint at mortgage giant
Rahm Emanuel’s profitable stint at mortgage giant
Short Freddie Mac stay made him at least $320,000
Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors by a top federal regulator.
One of those allegedly asleep-at-the-switch board members was Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel—now chief of staff to President Barack Obama—who made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint at Freddie Mac that required little effort.
As gatekeeper to Obama, Emanuel now plays a critical role in addressing the nation’s mortgage woes and fulfilling the administration’s pledge to impose responsibility on the financial world.
via Rahm Emanuel’s profitable stint at mortgage giant — chicagotribune.com.
Roubini Says Stocks Will Drop as Banks Go ‘Belly Up’ (Update2) – Bloomberg.com
Roubini Says Stocks Will Drop as Banks Go ‘Belly Up’ (Update2)
Stocks To Drop, Banks To Nationalize
March 26 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks will fall and the government will nationalize more banks as the economy contracts through the end of 2009, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted last year’s economic crisis.
“The stock market is a bit ahead of the real macroeconomic and financial news,” Roubini, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and the chairman of consulting firm Roubini Global Economics, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in
London today. “We’ll have some major banks going belly up that will need to be taken over.”
The global equity rebound in March that sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to its best monthly advance in 17 years is a “bear-market rally” and U.S. Treasury yields will “remain relatively low” as investors flock to the safest assets, Roubini said. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s new plan to remove toxic debt from financial companies won’t be enough for insolvent banks, he said.
via Roubini Says Stocks Will Drop as Banks Go ‘Belly Up’ (Update2) – Bloomberg.com.
Geithner To Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight Of Financial System
Geithner To Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight Of Financial System
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the financial system designed to impose greater regulation on major players like hedge funds.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers that the changes are needed to fix the flaws exposed by the current financial crisis, the worst to hit the country in seven decades.
The goal is to repair a system that has proven “too unstable and fragile,” he said.
“Over the past 18 months, we have faced the most severe global financial crisis in generations,” Geithner said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. “To address this will require comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game.”
via Geithner To Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight Of Financial System.
Obama fields ‘marijuana as cash crop’ question at town hall meeting
Obama fields ‘marijuana as cash crop’ question at town hall meeting
Many submitted online questions focused on marijuana; Obama jokes, ‘I don’t know what that says about the online audience’
“The White House is open for questions,” according to whitehouse.gov.
The AP reports, “Call it Round Two of the news conference, with a big Internet twist. President Barack Obama took questions from the White House press corps on Tuesday in a prime-time, East Room session that represented the most formal and time-honored of president-and-reporter interactions. On Thursday, he is taking to that same room for another public grilling — this time by regular folks armed with questions submitted via the Internet and in person, as part of a political strategy to engage Americans directly.”
“By 9 a.m. Thursday, the White House Web site had already logged more than 100,000 questions,” the AP adds. The president later said that 3.5 million people voted.
ABC News observed that “submitted questions are grouped by topic, including education, home ownership, health care reform and the budget.”
via The Raw Story | Obama fields ‘marijuana as cash crop’ question at town hall meeting.
Former McCain campaign chief endorses same-sex marriage.
OPS: Grampy probably needed oxygen when he heard this
Former McCain campaign chief endorses same-sex marriage.
Former McCain campaign chief strategist Steve Schmidt told the Washington Blade in an interview last week that he is “personally supportive” of same-sex marriage rights. Schmidt, who spoke to the Log Cabin Republicans at the Republican National Convention last year, added that he thinks Americans are “troubled” when they see Republicans “trying to stigmatize” the gay community:
via Think Progress » Former McCain campaign chief endorses same-sex marriage..
Bayh: My Group Of Blue Dogs ‘Literally Has No Agenda’ Other Than Blocking Obama’s
OPS: Un-phucking-beleivable. Haven’t Conservatives done enough damage to this Country and our Nation? Blue Dogs are the New Republicans. They need to be recalled and replaced. NOW!
Bayh: My Group Of Blue Dogs ‘Literally Has No Agenda’ Other Than Blocking Obama’s
Yesterday, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and several other progressive groups began running ads urging “moderate” Democratic members of Congress to “get on board with the president’s budget.” The ads are, in part, a response to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and 14 of his Democratic colleagues who are creating what they call a “moderate coalition that will meet regularly to shape public policy.” Bayh responded to the new ads late yesterday, telling Politico that his group of “moderates” should not be targeted because they have “no agenda”:
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is also unhappy with the friendly fire. Bayh…found himself targeted by an ad accusing him of “standing in the way of President Obama’s reforms.” “We literally have no agenda,” Bayh shot back. “How can they be threatened by a group that has taken no policy positions?”
Bayh’s claim that his group has no agenda is hard to believe. Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal explained yesterday, the group’s “stated goal is to…protect business interests.” Even before the group was officially formed, their efforts dampened a number of progressive policy proposals and they clearly have aspirations to expand their portfolio:
via Think Progress » Bayh: My Group Of Blue Dogs ‘Literally Has No Agenda’ Other Than Blocking Obama’s.
Sen Cardin (D-MD) is Today’s Stupidest Senator
Sen Cardin (D-MD) is Today’s Stupidest Senator
Bail out the newspaper industry? I’m here to say that is a bad idea, and I’m ashamed that it is a Democrat who suggested it. I’m going to blame the Republicans for it, because they didn’t put up strong enough competition in the Senate race in MD in 2006, so we ended up with lackluster Cardin. The GOP nominee was Steele.
Commentary By: Steven Reynolds
I cannot go into a long discussion about the death of the newspaper in the internet age. I’ve not the time nor the inclination to do so. Are all newspapers simply going to go under? I suspect there are some who will be able to adapt their model, and some who will not. Heck, I’m kind of a free market guy for a Democrat, but as much as I like sitting in bed with coffee and the newspaper in the morning, I’m not interested in bailing out the newspaper industry, as Senator Benjamin Cardin has proposed. From Reuters:
via All Spin Zone » Sen Cardin (D-MD) is Today’s Stupidest Senator.
Conservatives Size Up Sanford for 2012
Conservatives Size Up Sanford for 2012
South Carolina Governor Winning Support Among Big GOP Donors, Ron Paul Supporters
In the ongoing debate over the economic stimulus package, South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has made all the right enemies. The White House has brushed aside Sanford’s threat to turn down $700 million allotted for his state. Republicans in Sanford’s own state have hinted that they’ll override any attempt to veto the cash. Moderate California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gently mocked Sanford’s position. “I’ll take it,” Schwarzenegger told George Stephanopolous last month. “I’m more than happy to take his money or any other governor in this country that doesn’t want to take this money.”
via The Washington Independent » Conservatives Size Up Sanford for 2012.
The Dirty Dozen : Rolling Stone
The Dirty Dozen
Meet the bankers and brokers responsible for the financial crisis – and the officials who let them get away with it
The Enabler
ALAN GREENSPAN
WAS Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1987-2006)
WHAT HE DID Pushed for sweeping power to regulate Wall Street — and then failed to use it. Fueled “irrational” bubble with low interest rates.
WORST MOVE Called derivatives like CDOs “extraordinarily useful”; regulating them would be a “mistake.”
NOW ADMITS He was “partially” wrong to not impose tougher oversight.
The Pioneer
SANDY WEILL
WAS CEO of Citigroup (1998-2003)
WHAT HE DID Created the first too-big-to-fail company, Citigroup. Led the boom in subprime mortgages.
RECENTLY Celebrated $45 billion taxpayer bailout of Citi by taking Mexican vacation on Citigroup jet, complete with $13,000 carpets, pillows made from Hermés scarves, and Baccarat crystal glassware.
more………………..
via The Dirty Dozen : Rolling Stone.
I.R.S. to Offer Deal to Tax Evaders
I.R.S. to Offer Deal to Tax Evaders
The Internal Revenue Service, under pressure to bring in money to the faltering economy, plans to give offshore tax evaders a big break.
The agency has drafted a plan that significantly lowers a penalty that applies to wealthy Americans who hide money overseas in secret accounts, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday. The plan is intended to lure out of hiding scores of wealthy people who must come forward and declare their accounts in order to take advantage of the lower penalty.
The plan was developed amid a widening investigation into wealthy American clients of UBS but will apply to clients of other banks as well.
Under the plan, according to the person briefed on the issue, the I.R.S. will reduce an onerous penalty for not filing a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account, known as an Fbar — something offshore tax evaders have not done.
via I.R.S. to Offer Deal to Tax Evaders – NYTimes.com.
China Calls for the End of the Dollar as the Global Currency
China Calls for the End of the Dollar as the Global Currency
The dollar has been put in this position by our own mismanagement and poor leadership, but the last thing the U.S. needs is to have its currency supplanted.
The Chinese government and banking authorities are not taking the worldwide economic downturn lightly. They have already used this opportunity to gobble up assets around the world and now they hope to increase their stake in the international arena. As it currently stands China is one of the world’s most rapidly ascending economies – and the third largest overall.
Nonetheless, the Chinese have no real seat at the table when it comes international currency regulation. They are relegated to manipulating other world currencies, especially the U.S. dollar, because they are not included in most discussions.
However, that setup may soon change. When the Group of 20 meets in London on April 2, they will be presented with a bold new idea from the Chinese delegation. The governor of the People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, has called upon the global community to replace the dollar with an international currency. Governor Xiaochuan has singled out the Washington D.C.-based International Monetary Fund as the vehicle through which this new currency system will be set up.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
America Worse than Mediocre in International Education
America Worse than Mediocre in International Education - Craig Harrington
In a globalized world where competition is fierce, we cannot afford to let the future doctors, scientists, engineers, professors and teachers of this country fall behind.
The topic of education may seem secondary in light of our current economic crisis. In reality, the American educational system played a large part in the tailspin and it also carries the potential to help us find our way out.
The United States was once a world leader in education, by many accounts the Baby Boomer generation was the best trained and most well-educated population in the world. However, our standards have since fallen precipitously and the United States is now worse than mediocre by international standards. We are still home to the largest conglomeration of truly “world class” universities, but the public educational system leading up to college is staggeringly poor.
Linda Darling-Hammond, President-elect Barack Obama’s chief educational advisor, and Arne Duncan, the administration’s choice for Secretary of Education, have highlighted several areas in which the United States must advance. Humanities, philosophy and other subject areas are relatively subjective to individual countries, but math and science are considered to be universal. Every country has its own history, culture and language, but aluminum is always the 13th element on the periodic table and the square root of 81 will always be 9, no matter where home is.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Launching Lifeboats Before the Ship Sinks
Launching Lifeboats Before the Ship Sinks - Paul Craig Roberts, with video by Craig Harrington
The Federal Reserve says that its purchase of $1 trillion in existing bonds is part of its plan to revive the economy. Is the Fed rescuing banks from their bond portfolios prior to the destruction of bond prices by inflation?
Editor’s Note: The following article was contributed by Paul Craig Roberts and may not reflect the views or opinions of EconomyInCrisis.org. Feedback is welcome.
On March 19, The New York Times reported: “The Fed said it would purchase an additional $750 billion worth of government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities, on top of the $500 billion that it is currently in the process of buying. In addition, the Fed said it would buy up to $300 billion worth of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months.”
The Federal Reserve says that its purchase of $1 trillion in existing bonds is part of its plan to revive the economy. Another way to view the Fed’s announcement is to see it as a pre-emptive rescue. Is the Fed rescuing banks from their bond portfolios prior to the destruction of bond prices by inflation?
The answer to this question probably lies in the answer to the question of how the unprecedented sizes of the FY 2009 and FY 2010 federal budget deficits will be financed. Neither the U.S. savings rate nor the trade surpluses of our major foreign lenders are sufficient.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Pioneering historian John Hope Franklin dies at 94
Pioneering historian John Hope Franklin dies at 94 – By MARTHA WAGGONER
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — John Hope Franklin, a towering scholar and pioneer of African-American studies who wrote the seminal text on the black experience in the U.S. and worked on the landmark Supreme Court case that outlawed public school segregation, died Wednesday. He was 94.
David Jarmul, a spokesman at Duke University, where Franklin taught for a decade and was professor emeritus of history, said he died of congestive heart failure at the school’s hospital in Durham.
Born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma where he was often subjected to humiliating racism, Franklin was later instrumental in bringing down the legal and historical validations of such a world.
As an author, his book “From Slavery to Freedom” was a landmark integration of black history into American history that remains relevant more than 60 years after being published. As a scholar, his research helped Thurgood Marshall and his team at the NAACP win Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that barred the doctrine of “separate but equal” in the nation’s public schools.
via The Associated Press: Pioneering historian John Hope Franklin dies at 94.
The Lessons of History
The Lessons of History
by John Hope Franklin
Editor’s note from The Nation: The great historian John Hope Franklin passed away this morning at the age of 94. The first African-American department chair at a white institution and the first African-American president of the American Historical Association, Franklin, the author of the seminal From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans, was an integral part of the team of scholars who assisted Thurgood Marshall to win Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that outlawed the “separate but equal” doctrine in the nation’s public schools. Here we repost a powerful speech by Franklin we published originally at The Nation.com in 2006. It came on the occasion of his receipt of the Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Award from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
It is a signal honor to receive the Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Award from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Franklin D. Roosevelt was my hero when I was in college, and I shall always remember my unsuccessful effort to chase him down during my senior year in the attempt to enlist his aid. As president of the student body, I sought the aid of President Roosevelt as the students protested the lynching of a young African American lad who had been seized from a house near the campus, taken to an adjoining county, castrated, and lynched for an alleged crime for which he had already been exonerated in a court of law. I was unable to reach President Roosevelt at his Warm Springs retreat. More accurately, the president of my college did not fulfill his promise to put me in touch with President Roosevelt.
Historian John Hope Franklin delivered the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Lecture at the New-York Historical Society on October 17. It is published here as part of The Nation’s ongoing Moral Compass series, highlighting the spoken word.
The following year, 1935, I acquired a new hero in the person of Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. in whose seminar I was enrolled. At the very first meeting of the class, Professor S., as we were to call him affectionately, invited his seminar to his home. There I met his family, including Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. who, by this year, 2006, has been my valued friend for more than seventy years. My relationship with the family placed me in a good position to observe and admire Arthur’s meteoric rise in the academy and subsequently in the world of public service. One can only say that he has been as distinguished and diligent as a public servant as he has been as an original and outstanding scholar in the academic world.
I wish to talk, albeit briefly, about what appears to be happening in the world and, especially, what seems to be happening in our country as we face one of the most difficult periods in our history. Those in a position to speak for the country and to outline its current mission insist that we citizens are undertaking to share with the world the blessings of a free and prosperous society and to spread democracy throughout the world. Under the most favorable circumstances, this would be a remarkable mission; and it is not too much to argue that these are not the most ideal times for such an undertaking. Before we enter upon such an ambitious mission it is well to remember that we ourselves are still in the process of becoming democratic, and it has taken us more than two hundred years to arrive at this stage. A democracy is a government where power is vested in the people, all of the people, and one in which the power is directly exercised by the people all of whom enjoy social and political equality.
via The Lessons of History | CommonDreams.org.
Let’s Stop Wall Street Loan-Sharking
OPS: As Thom Hartmann like to proclaim: Bernie Sanders is American’s Senator
Let’s Stop Wall Street Loan-Sharking
by Bernie Sanders
The “Masters of the Universe” on Wall Street – through their greed, recklessness and illegal behavior – have plunged this country into a deep recession causing millions of Americans to lose their jobs, their homes, their savings and their hope for the future. In order to fully understand the cause of this fiasco, I have introduced legislation calling for a thorough investigation of the financial meltdown and the prosecution of those CEOs who broke the law. The culture of greed, fraud and excessive speculation must come to an end.
In the midst of this financial disaster, one of the great frustrations that I hear from my constituents is that while taxpayers are spending hundreds of billions bailing out major financial institutions, and while these big banks are getting near-zero interest rate loans from the Fed, these very same financial institutions are now charging Americans 20 percent or 30 percent interest rates on their credit cards. In fact, one-third of all credit card holders in this country are now paying interest rates above 20 percent and as high as 41 percent – more than double what they paid in interest in 1990. Recently, some major institutions such as Bank of America have informed responsible cardholders that their interest rates would be doubled to as high as 28 percent, without explaining why the increase was taking place
Let’s be clear. At a time when many Americans in the collapsing middle class use credit cards for groceries, gas and college expenses, what Wall Street and credit card companies are doing is not much different from what gangsters and loan sharks do when they make predatory loans. While the bankers wear three-piece suits and don’t break the knee caps of those who can’t pay back, they are still destroying people’s lives.
via Let’s Stop Wall Street Loan-Sharking | CommonDreams.org.
Barack Obama May Delay Signing up to Copenhagen Climate Change Deal
Barack Obama May Delay Signing up to Copenhagen Climate Change Deal – by Patrick Wintour
Barack Obama may be forced to delay signing up to a new international agreement on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of the year because of the scale of opposition in the US Congress, it emerged today.
Senior figures in the Obama administration have been warning Labour counterparts that the president may need at least another six months to win domestic support for any proposal.
Such a delay could derail the securing of a tough global agreement in time for countries and markets to adopt it before the Kyoto treaty runs out in 2012.
American officials would prefer to have the approval of Congress for any international agreement and fear that if the US signed up without it there would be a serious domestic backlash.
Stephen Byers, co-chairman of the International Climate Change Taskforce, said: “The Copenhagen climate change talks in December will come at a difficult moment. The timing couldn’t really be worse for the Obama administration. It is vital that this is recognised by the international community. If need be, we should be prepared to give them more time – not to let them off the hook and escape their responsibilities, but ensure they are politically able to sign up to effective international action which reflects the scale of the challenge we face.”
via Barack Obama May Delay Signing up to Copenhagen Climate Change Deal | CommonDreams.org.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
