Archive for April, 2009
Fish Feel Pain, Study Finds
Fish Feel Pain, Study Finds
When you hook a fish, does it hurt? Yes, a new study suggests.
Some researchers have previously concluded that fish react to painful stimuli without actually feeling pain in the conscious way humans do.
In the new study, researchers gave morphine to one group of fish, and injected the other group with a placebo (saline). Then the fish were treated to burning sensations that were expected to be painful but which did not damage any fish tissue.
Both groups reacted the same, by wriggling.
However, the fish that had been on morphine later went on about business as if nothing had happened. The fish that had gotten the saline were wary after the test.
“They acted with defensive behaviors, indicating wariness, or fear and anxiety,” said Joseph Garner, an assistant professor at Purdue University.
“The experiment shows that fish do not only respond to painful stimuli with reflexes, but change their behavior also after the event,” said Janicke Nordgreen, a doctoral student in the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. “Together with what we know from experiments carried out by other groups, this indicates that the fish consciously perceive the test situation as painful and switch to behaviors indicative of having been through an aversive experience.”
via Fish Feel Pain, Study Finds.
Drinking wine makes men live longer, says study
Drinking wine makes men live longer, says study
LONDON (AFP) – Drinking up to half a glass of wine per day can help you live up to five years longer — at least for men, according to a study published Thursday.
The impact also depends on the exact amount drunk — more than half a glass starts bringing life expectancy down again, according to researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
“Drinking wine was strongly associated with a lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and death from all causes,” said the study.
Effects varied, however: men who drink up to 20 grammes of any type of alcohol per day live for about two years longer than non-drinkers, while the length of time is slightly lesser for those drinking more than 20 grammes.
Those drinking only wine, and less than half a glass a day, lived some 2.5 years longer than those who drank beer and spirits, and almost five years longer than non-drinkers, said the study.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, was based on research on some 1,373 men between 1960 and 2000. It did not draw conclusions for women.
The researchers studied how much alcohol they drank and what type, in an attempt to assess the impact of their drinking habits on cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and from all causes.
They also tracked weight and diet and whether the men smoked.
via Drinking wine makes men live longer, says study.
Fleischer: ‘I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena.’
OPS: Are ya feelin lucky, punk? Well, are ya?
Fleischer: ‘I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena.’
Today during a panel discussion for the IFC Media Project, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer argued forcefully against launching an in-depth investigation of the Bush administration’s torture program. However, he said that if it does happen, he’s ready for them to bring it on:
He argued that neither Congress nor anyone else is up to the task, and that any investigation would “lead to acrimony and blame-gaming” and “devolve into the worst type of partisanship.” While noting that “no one likes to get a subpoena,” Fleischer said, “I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena. I’m proud of what we did to protect this country.” Those wanting to see Fleischer—or at least some of his former colleagues—on the witness stand include his fellow panelists Noonan, who called for a 9/11 Commission-style investigation, and Tina Brown, who quoted Senator Patrick Leahy’s contention that “before you can turn a page, you want to read it.” When moderator (and Media Project host) Gideon Yago brought up the idea of a special prosecutor, Fleischer sternly pointed out that “that assumes a crime has been committed.”
via Think Progress » Fleischer: ‘I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena.’.
Secession-ready Texas has received most federal disaster assistance of any state.
Secession-ready Texas has received most federal disaster assistance of any state.
Just weeks after declaring that Texas might secede from the union because “the federal government has become oppressive,” Gov. Rick Perry (R) today asked for more federal aid when he “issued a disaster declaration” because of the swine flu. Mother Jones’ Jonathan Stein found that, since the beginning of FEMA’s record-keeping, Texas has actually received the most federal assistance from FEMA than any other state:
A FEMA spokesman told Stein “that a major disaster declaration is issued when a governor ‘determines the state’s resources are overrun.’” FEMA reimburses at least 75 percent of the state’s recovery costs; currently, the federal govenrment is covering 100 percent of Texas’ Hurricane Ike recovery effort.
via Think Progress » Secession-ready Texas has received most federal disaster assistance of any state..
Jindal spares money for New Orleans Saints while slashing health care and education funding.
OPS: We know Jindal is a vacuous anchor-baby. But who VOETS for prople like this?
Jindal spares money for New Orleans Saints while slashing health care and education funding.
Recently, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) released his budget for next year, calling for cuts in higher education and health care for the uninsured and disabled in order to plug a $1.3 billion shortfall in revenue. Already, hospitals are laying off workers. Yet Jindal is managing to spare some funds for his favorite football team:
The Jindal administration wants to use $85 million of a state surplus as well as pay up to $6 million a year to keep the Saints football team in Louisiana, lawmakers said Wednesday. The deal, described by legislators briefed on the offer, would require the state to pay far less than the $23.5 million the team is receiving in annual cash inducements. … Several lawmakers were critical of the proposal, which coincides with a budget crunch threatening health care and higher education with substantial reduction.
Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.
Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the millions of leeches’ from Mexico.
Conservative talker Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely today by Boston’s WTKK-FM after using the current swine flu outbreak to attack Mexicans and immigrants. On his radio show, Severin blamed the swine flu on what he called “some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico”:
servin.jpgSo now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico — women with mustaches and VD — now we have swine flu. … We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of cimminalieans already here. [...]
[W]hen scoop up some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. … It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country. … Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.
Listen to a compilation of his remarks:
Who Betrayed ‘Objective’ Journalism?
Who Betrayed ‘Objective’ Journalism?
By Robert Parry
The mainstream U.S. news media often laments the decline of objective journalism, pointing disapprovingly at the more subjective news that comes from the Internet or from ideological programming whether Fox News on the Right or some MSNBC hosts on the Left.
But one could argue that the U.S. mainstream press has inflicted the severest damage to the concept of objective journalism by routinely ignoring those principles, which demand that a reporter set aside personal prejudices (as best one can) and approach each story with a common standard of fairness.
The truth is that powerful mainstream news organizations have their own sacred cows and tend to hire journalists who intuitively take into account whose ox might get gored while doing a story. In other words, mainstream (or centrist) journalism has its own biases though they may be less noticeable because they often reflect the prevailing view of the national Establishment.
How that translates into daily coverage is that an American news outlet often will demand a much lower threshold of evidence about serious accusations against a perceived U.S. enemy than an ally.
via Consortiumnews.com.
Economic Treason
Economic Treason
How did Chrysler, its employees, retirees, and suppliers become Wall Street’s slaves?
It began with a bad match. Daimler-Chrysler was an incompatible hyphenate, suffering from vastly different management styles, impossible-to-fuse dealer networks and very few sharable commonalities in technology, which led to Daimler’s willingness to unload Chrysler for a huge loss in 2007: Enter the three headed dog: Cerberus.
Background: Cerberus Capital Management, the very private Private Equity Fund was begun in 1994 by Drexel Burnham Lambert alumnus Steve Feinberg. Feinberg had avoided prosecution when so many of his supervisors and colleagues at that notorious Beverly Hills bond trading firm led by Michael Milken went down. (Milken, has spent most of his post-prison time on philanthropic work). Shoveling piles of cash to Republicans, Feinberg assembled a boardroom consisting of the compost heap of fetid Republican politics: Bush Sr.’s VP Dan Quayle, amongst others, is a director on the board, and Bush Jr’s Treasury Secretary John Snow is the Chairman of the Board ).
Republican über-donor J. Ezra Merkin joined
Cerberus to facilitate their disastrous investment in GMAC. Merkin is good at disastrous investments, having run the Gabriel Fund, for which he is presently under indictment for steering $2.4billion into Madoff Funds without the knowledge of investors – and that’s a lot of scratch to snuff out! But let’s keep it simple, because the incest between and amongst these financial players and politicians can be mind-numbing (and disease inducing).
via Economic Treason | The Smirking Chimp.
Rep. Steve Israel: Right-Wing Radio Spreads Flu Lies
Right-Wing Radio Spreads Flu Lies
The last thing our country needs is radio hosts spreading dangerous misinformation about the flu outbreak. But that’s exactly what we’re getting thanks to people like Michael Savage, Jay Severin and Neal Boortz. These right-wing demagogues are targeting America’s immigrant community and trying to turn a possible pandemic into politics.
This is simply deplorable and seriously dangerous.
A few days ago on his show, Michael Savage said, “Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico.” That is nothing more than fear-mongering and race-baiting in search of ratings. This is exactly the type of rhetoric that fuels discrimination and violence, and those violent acts are why last night the House voted to pass the Hate Crimes Bill. Apparently that wasn’t enough of a signal to these guys that they’ve lost and tolerance and unity have won, but we’ll keep fighting.
via Rep. Steve Israel: Right-Wing Radio Spreads Flu Lies.
8-year-old Saudi girl divorces 50-year-old husband
OPS: Interesting friends the Bush family has
8-year-old Saudi girl divorces 50-year-old husband
CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a “clear and unacceptable” violation of human rights.
The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known.
A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl’s mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then.
There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman’s consent is legally required, some marriage officials don’t seek it.
via 8-year-old Saudi girl divorces 50-year-old husband.
Revealed: full scale of vaccine blunders
Revealed: full scale of vaccine blunders
US authorities horrified by conditions at factory in BSE-tainted polio drug scare
The drug factory at the centre of the polio vaccine scandal has a history of contamination and production blunders, leading to fears that its vaccines against other diseases are unsafe.
The lives of thousands of old people and children have been put at risk by drug shortages caused by a catalogue of problems that have plagued the Medeva vaccines plant on Merseyside. One serious incident led to British soldiers being sent abroad without protection against Yellow Fever.
Last year, investigators from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were horrified by the conditions they found at the plant in Speke, near Liverpool, which also makes vaccines against flu, tuberculosis, tetanus and Hepatitis B.
On Friday, the Department of Health was forced to recall Medeva’s oral polio vaccine after it was discovered that the firm had potentially been using BSE-infected material.
via Revealed: full scale of vaccine blunders | UK news | The Observer.
Breaking: Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire
Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire
NPR.org, April 30, 2009 · NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term.
The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction.
At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact he is in the younger half of the court’s age range with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision.
via Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire : NPR.
The CIA’s $1,000 a Day Specialists on Waterboarding, Interrogations
OPS: These guys need to be prosecuted also
As the secrets about the CIA’s interrogation techniques continue to come out, there’s new information about the frequency and severity of their use, contradicting an 2007 ABC News report, and a new focus on two private contractors who were apparently directing the brutal sessions that President Obama calls torture.
According to current and former government officials, the CIA’s secret waterboarding program was designed and assured to be safe by two well-paid psychologists now working out of an unmarked office building in Spokane, Washington.
via The CIA’s $1,000 a Day Specialists on Waterboarding, Interrogations – ABC News.
Anti-Torture Protesters Arrested In Droves Outside White House (VIDEO)
Sixty-one anti-torture protesters were arrested outside the White House on Thursday in a planned act of mass civil disobedience at the end of an event organized by Witness Against Torture and Amnesty International.
The protesters — wearing black hoods and orange jumpsuits — were part of a larger group of 150 that marched in a slow procession from the Capitol to Lafeyette Park across from the White House to protest the torture of detainees held in U.S. counter-terror efforts. Before the group of 61 triggered arrest by blocking the sidewalk outside the White House, speakers in Lafeyette Park demanded that the Obama administration close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and investigate and prosecute officials of the previous administration who crafted harsh interrogation policies.
“This is the 101st day of the Obama administration and Gitmo is still open. That’s why we’re here,” said organizer Frida Berrigan to the legion of detainees. “The only way to decisively break from the Bush administration is to indict those responsible” for torture.
One protester held a sign that played on Obama’s campaign slogans. It said, “The Audacity of Torture” and “The Audacity of War Crimes.”
via Anti-Torture Protesters Arrested In Droves Outside White House (VIDEO).
Cafferty File: Republican Party on brink of irrelevance?
OPS: let’s hope so, for the sake of the future of this country
YouTube – Cafferty File: Republican Party on brink of irrelevance?.
Karl Rove case witness killed in plane crash, sisters want answers
Karl Rove case witness killed in plane crash, sisters want answers
Web guru was potential witness in Ohio voting fraud case
Shannon Connell of Madison says her brother Michael rarely talked about work. She knew he ran an Ohio company called New Media Communications that set up websites for Republicans including former President George H.W. Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But it wasn’t until after he died last December, when the small plane he was piloting crashed, that she learned via the Internet of his tie to a voter fraud case and to allegations that presidential adviser Karl Rove had made threats against him.
“At first, it was really hard for me to believe Mike was dead because somebody wanted him dead,” says Shannon, a buyer for a local children’s resale shop. “But as time goes on, it’s hard for me not to believe there was something deliberate about it.”
A native of Illinois, Shannon moved to Madison in 2002, the same year as her sister, Mary Jo Walker. Walker, a former Dane County Humane Society employee, has similar concerns about their brother’s death: “It doesn’t seem right to me at all.”
via Karl Rove case witness killed in plane crash, sisters want answers – Isthmus | The Daily Page.
Starbucks profit drops 77% on charges for store closures
Starbucks profit drops 77% on charges for store closures
Seattle-based Starbucks said that, for the quarter ended March 29, its net income fell to $25 million, or 3 cents a share, from $108.7 million, or 15 cents a share a year ago.
Excluding the charges, Starbucks earned 16 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 15 cents a share.
via Starbucks profit drops 77% on charges for store closures – USATODAY.com.
US House votes credit card curbs
US House votes credit card curbs
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Thursday to rein in credit card companies accused of duping and gouging consumers already hurt by the paralyzing global recession.
Spurred by the US public’s anger at banks, lawmakers voted 357-70 for legislation aimed at curbing arbitrary interest rate increases and ensuring cardholders who pay bills on time do not face unfair penalties and fees.
The “Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights” also seeks to shield consumers from misleading small print in card contracts, empower cardholders to set their own credit limits, and require companies to fairly allocate payments.
“This bill will help level the playing field between the credit card issuers and consumers,” said Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney, the measure’s lead author. “This bill will ban some of the most outrageous abuses.”
The measure targets practices like marketing credit cards to minors and interest rate increases on existing balances, which would be banned, while requiring 45 days notice to raise interest rates on future purchases.
via AFP: US House votes credit card curbs.
GOP IT guru’s sisters question events surrounding his death
GOP IT guru’s sisters question events surrounding his death
The sisters of Michael Connell, a GOP IT consultant and former associate of Karl Rove who died in a plane crash last December, are now questioning the circumstances surrounding his death.
“Shannon Connell of Madison says her brother Michael rarely talked about work,” a local Wisconsin paper reported Thursday. “She knew he ran an Ohio company called New Media Communications that set up websites for Republicans including former President George H.W. Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But it wasn’t until after he died last December, when the small plane he was piloting crashed, that she learned via the Internet of his tie to a voter fraud case and to allegations that presidential adviser Karl Rove had made threats against him.
“‘At first, it was really hard for me to believe Mike was dead because somebody wanted him dead,” the paper quoted Shannon as saying. “But as time goes on, it’s hard for me not to believe there was something deliberate about it.”
“A native of Illinois, Shannon moved to Madison in 2002,” the paper adds, “the same year as her sister, Mary Jo Walker. Walker, a former Dane County Humane Society employee, has similar concerns about their brother’s death: ‘It doesn’t seem right to me at all.’”
via Raw Story » GOP IT guru’s sisters question events surrounding his death.
Letterman: “We Should Be So Far Ahead” On Electric Cars (VIDEO)
Letterman: “We Should Be So Far Ahead” On Electric Cars (VIDEO)
Letterman: I Was Afraid Tesla Roadster “Would Magnetize My Nuts”
The chairman of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, went on the Late Show with David Letterman last night to promote the Tesla Model S, another in his company’s line very cool-looking, very electric, very expensive cars. The Model S is slated to be sold in two years for around $49,900.
From Tesla’s site:
With a range up to 300 miles and 45-minute QuickCharge, the Model S can carry five adults and two children in quiet comfort – and you can charge it from any outlet, without ever stopping for gas.
Dave, an automotive buff, asks great questions even about environmental issues — like is an electric car really any better if coal is being used to generate some of the electricity?
Here, Dave interviews Elon Musk, chairman of Tesla Motors. Be sure to catch the moment around 8:15 when Dave says that the first time he drove a Tesla car, he was “worried that it would magnetize my nuts,” to which Musk nervously replies, “well, that’s true:”
via Letterman: “We Should Be So Far Ahead” On Electric Cars (VIDEO).
Banking lobby successfully defeats mortgage cram-down provision.
OPS: Of course Durbin was correct: The Banks OWN the Congress
Banking lobby successfully defeats mortgage cram-down provision.
Today, a proposal to change bankruptcy law and allow bankruptcy judges to cram-down mortgage payments for troubled homeowners failed in the Senate by a vote of 45-51. The provision, which was introduced as an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), required 60 votes to pass. In recent weeks, support for the measure evaporated in the face of furious lobbying by the banking and mortgage industries. Prior to the vote, Durbin — who this week said that bankers “are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill” — took to the floor to decry the banking industry’s influence in the cram-down debate:
At some point the senators in this chamber will decide the bankers shouldn’t write the agenda for the United States Senate. At some point the people in this chamber will decide the people we represent are not the folks working in the big banks, but the folks struggling to make a living and struggling to keep a decent home.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Banking lobby successfully defeats mortgage cram-down provision..
Lawsuit Charges Baxter Used Dangerous Ingredients In Vaccines To Increase Profits
Lawsuit Charges Baxter Used Dangerous Ingredients In Vaccines To Increase Profits
Questions remain over company chosen to develop swine flu vaccine
A scandal dating from January 2008, that is continuing to unfold, raises more disturbing questions over the safety of U.S. pharmaceutical company Baxter International’s vaccines.
Last year Baxter recalled almost all of its injections of the blood thinning heparin drug in the US after some patients experienced extreme – and in some cases fatal – allergic reactions, after being administered the products.
There were similar recalls by other manufacturers of Chinese-sourced heparin in Denmark, Italy, France Germany and Japan, but initial investigations found that only Baxter’s heparin vaccines were tainted.
The FDA has accused two Chinese manufacturers of being responsible for the production and shipment of the tainted vaccines, suggesting that a cheaper synthetic heparin mimic, subsequently identified as over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS), was used to decrease costs.
However, in January 2009 a new lawsuit was filed specifically against Baxter for it’s role in the scandal.
via Lawsuit Charges Baxter Used Dangerous Ingredients In Vaccines To Increase Profits.
Kucinich on Budget: I Will not Vote for the Expansion of War
Kucinich on Budget: I Will not Vote for the Expansion of War
WASHINGTON – April 29 – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today issued the following statement after voting against H.Con.Res 13, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for the fiscal year 2010:
“I am committed to doing everything I can to put our community and our nation on the path to economic stability. I led opposition to the bank bailout program TARP, I worked vigorously in favor of the stimulus package, and I have worked to save the automotive, steel and aerospace industries in America.
“I will not vote for a budget that ties military spending to the operational funding of our government. This year, the budget includes $130 billion for war funding. We are ramping up the war in Afghanistan, and have yet to find an end to the war in Iraq. Recent media reports indicate that we may double our troop levels in Afghanistan by 2010. This budget helps to authorize that expansion, and I will not endorse a budget that sends more of our brave men and women to a war without an end in sight.”
###
via Kucinich on Budget: I Will not Vote for the Expansion of War | AfterDowningStreet.org.
Maddow and Turley on Obama Claiming Torture Generated Info
Maddow and Turley on Obama Claiming Torture Generated Info
[snip]
Here’s the section on state secrets:
Michael Scherer of TIME?
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. During the campaign, you criticized President Bush’s use of the state secrets privilege, but U.S. attorneys have continued to argue the Bush position in three cases in court. How exactly does your view of state secrets differ from President Bush’s? And do you believe presidents should be able to derail entire lawsuits about warrantless wiretapping or rendition if classified information is involved?
OBAMA: I actually think that the state secret doctrine should be modified. I think right now it’s overbroad.
But keep in mind what happens, is we come in to office. We’re in for a week, and suddenly we’ve got a court filing that’s coming up. And so we don’t have the time to effectively think through, what exactly should an overarching reform of that doctrine take? We’ve got to respond to the immediate case in front of us.
There — I think it is appropriate to say that there are going to be cases in which national security interests are genuinely at stake and that you can’t litigate without revealing covert activities or classified information that would genuinely compromise our safety.
But searching for ways to redact, to carve out certain cases, to see what can be done so that a judge in chambers can review information without it being in open court, you know, there should be some additional tools so that it’s not such a blunt instrument.
And we’re interested in pursuing that. I know that Eric Holder and Greg Craig, my White House counsel, and others are working on that as we speak.
via Maddow and Turley on Obama Claiming Torture Generated Info | AfterDowningStreet.org.
Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds
Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis.
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 in 10 of them did.
The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants, and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.
via Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds – The CNN Wire – CNN.com Blogs.
Will NorthCom take over in Swine Flu Outbreak?
Will NorthCom take over in Swine Flu Outbreak?
By Matthew Rothschild,
The swine flu outbreak raises a lot of fears.
Here’s one you might not have thought of yet: The Pentagon may be taking over more and more of our civil society in this crisis.
Back in 2002, President Bush created NorthCom, the Pentagon’s Northern Command, which has jurisdiction over the United States.
And NorthCom has been running preparedness drills in the event of a flu pandemic for at least the past three years.
Making things more alarming, NorthCom got assigned its own fighting unit six months ago—the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, which had spent much of the last five years battling things out in Iraq.
The assignment of that fighting unit alarmed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “This is a radical departure from separation of civilian law enforcement and military authority and could, quite possibly, represent a violation of law,” said Mike German, ACLU national security policy counsel.
via Will NorthCom take over in Swine Flu Outbreak? | The Progressive.
Chrysler will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Obama: Chrysler Getting A “New Lease On Life”
Chrysler will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
WASHINGTON — Chrysler will file for bankruptcy after talks with a small group of creditors crumbled just a day before a government deadline for the automaker to come up with a restructuring plan, President Barack Obama said Thursday.
The Obama administration said it had long hoped to stave off bankruptcy for the nation’s third largest automaker, but it became clear that a holdout group wouldn’t budge on proposals to reduce Chrysler’s $6.9 billion in secured debt. Clearing those debts was a needed step for Chrysler to restructure by the Thursday deadline.
via Chrysler will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Men Treated For Localized Prostate Cancer Could Benefit From Pomegranate Juice Consumption
Men Treated For Localized Prostate Cancer Could Benefit From Pomegranate Juice Consumption
ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2009) — Pomegranate juice may slow the progression of post-treatment prostate cancer recurrence, according to new long-term research results being presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). Researchers found that men who have undergone treatment for localized prostate cancer could benefit from drinking pomegranate juice.
The two-stage clinical trial followed a total of 48 participants over six years. Eligible participants had a rising PSA after surgery or radiotherapy, a PSA greater than 0.2 ng/ml and less than 5 ng/ml and a Gleason score of 7 or less. These patients were treated by drinking eight ounces of pomegranate juice daily. Currently, in the sixth year of treatment, active patients who remain on the study have a median total follow-up of 56 months. These participants continue to experience a significant increase in PSA doubling time following treatment, from a mean of 15.4 months at baseline to 60 months post-treatment, with a median PSA slope decrease of 60 percent, 0.06 to 0.024.
via Men Treated For Localized Prostate Cancer Could Benefit From Pomegranate Juice Consumption.
FLASHBACK 2003: BUSH SIGNS THE TORTURE PROCLAMATION
FLASHBACK 2003: BUSH SIGNS THE TORTURE PROCLAMATION……..in what may as well have been BLOOD!
Because right when Bush read this off his prompters HE KNEW,FULL WELL,THAT AMERICANS,and our PROXY agents were TORTURING INNOCENT PEOPLE AT THAT TIME.
And so did Cheney with his death-squads.
Read well.
Remember well.
And I dare you not to weep or vomit or BOTH,as you read this in HINDSIGHT.
And Obama let’s the torture CONTINUE STILL?
I cannot stomach HYPOCRISY.
THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR TORTURE.
Because we then,become like those we DESPISE:
“THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
June 26, 2003
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Flyer: All prom dates must be of opposite sex
Flyer: All prom dates must be of opposite sex
Reversed after outrage
This via Detroit News columnist Deb Pryce:
A flyer announcing this year’s prom at Jim Hill High School in Jackson, Miss., stated upfront what at many schools is usually a far more subtle message to gay students: “All dates must be of the opposite sex.”
The flyer, posted around the school, fortunately caught the eye of Brittany Crowell, a heterosexual senior who, thanks to her volunteer work at the American Civil Liberties Union, knows the rights of her gay friends.
The 17-year-old took one of the flyers to the ACLU, which wrote to the principal and district superintendent to explain that banning same-sex dates from the prom would violate the court-recognized constitutional rights of gay students.
Two days later, Brittany spotted a “revised announcement” on bulletin boards: Gone were all four references to allowing only dates of the opposite sex. (School officials declined my repeated requests for comment.)
via Raw Story » Flyer: All prom dates must be of opposite sex.
FBI E-Mail Says Bush Authorized Abuse of Iraqis
FBI E-Mail Says Bush Authorized Abuse of Iraqis
Senior FBI agents stationed in Iraq in 2004 claimed in an e-mail that President George W. Bush signed an executive order approving the use of military dogs, sleep deprivation and other harsh tactics to intimidate Iraqi detainees.
The FBI e-mail — dated May 22, 2004 — followed disclosures about abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and sought guidance on whether FBI agents in Iraq were obligated to report the U.S. military’s harsh interrogation of inmates when that treatment violated FBI standards but fit within the guidelines of a presidential executive order.
According to the e-mail, Bush’s executive order authorized interrogators to use military dogs, “stress positions,” sleep “management,” loud music and “sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc.” to extract information from detainees in Iraq, which was considered a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Bush has never before been directly linked to authorizing specific interrogation techniques at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib. Bush has admitted, however, that he personally signed off on the waterboarding of three “high-value” prisoners.
via FBI E-Mail Says Bush Authorized Abuse of Iraqis.
Is Obama Reading Andrew Sullivan? References Similar Torture Post During Presser
Is Obama Reading Andrew Sullivan? References Similar Torture Post During Presser
Is Barack Obama reading blogs, particularly the site of one of his campaign’s most committed supporters, Andrew Sullivan?
At his press conference on Wednesday evening, the president defended his decision to end the use of torture on detainees, by citing an article he had recently read, in which it was noted that during World War II, Winston Churchill refused to use such tactics on the spies captured by the British.
“I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees,” said Obama. “And Churchill said, ‘We don’t torture,’ when the entire British — all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat.”
Which article he was referencing was a mystery to both the press corps and members of Obama’s own communications team who, in the minutes after the press conference, professed to being in the dark.
via Is Obama Reading Andrew Sullivan? References Similar Torture Post During Presser.
Study: More suicides under Conservative rule
More suicides under Conservative rule: Study
Wednesday, 18 September, 2002
The suicide rate increases under Conservative governments, research suggests.
Australian scientists found the suicide rate in the country increased significantly when a Conservative government was in power.
And an analysis of figures in the UK seems to suggest a similar trend.
The Australian team analysed suicide statistics for New South Wales between 1901, when the federal government was established, and 1998.
Click here to see suicide rates under British prime ministers
They then looked at the political regimes dominating both state and federal governments in New South Wales, which have consistently been under either Labour or Conservative control.
The researchers took into account periods of drought and World War II, because of their economic and psychological impact.
Suicide rates were higher during periods of drought and lower during WWII.
,,,more
via BBC NEWS | Health | More suicides under Conservative rule.
Swine Flu Gets New Name By WHO
Swine Flu Gets New Name By WHO
GENEVA — The World Health Organization said confirmed swine flu cases rose to 257 worldwide Thursday and announced it will would stop using the term “swine flu” to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs.
The global body said the number of confirmed cases in Mexico rose to 97 from 26, with seven deaths. The WHO confirmed tally from the United States now stands at 109, with one death.
Other confirmed cases include 19 in Canada, 13 in Spain, eight in Britain, three each in Germany and New Zealand, two in Israel and one each in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
via Swine Flu Gets New Name By WHO.
Rice: Nazis were less of a threat to the U.S. than al Qaeda; SCOTUS wouldn’t let us try detainees.
OPS:: Not just the following statement but The amazing depth of the insanity of the Reich wing is becoming more and more apparent
Rice: Nazis were less of a threat to the U.S. than al Qaeda; SCOTUS wouldn’t let us try detainees.
Speaking with a group of Stanford students Monday, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that al Qaeda is a greater threat to the United States than Nazi Germany was because Germany “never attacked the homeland of the United States.” In a defensive exchange with a student, she also insisted that the Bush administration had always wanted to hold trials for detainees, but the Supreme Court wouldn’t let them:
RICE: Now, the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] also had access to Guantanamo. And they made no allegations about interrogations in Guantanamo. What they did say was that indefinite detention, where people didn’t know whether they’d come up for trial — which is why we tried under the military commissions system to let people come up for trial. Those trials were stayed by who? Who kept us from holding the trials?
STUDENT: I can’t answer that question.
RICE: Do your homework first. … It was the Supreme Court.
Watch it:
Study Predicts 8 Million Homes Could be Foreclosed by 2012
Study Predicts 8 Million Homes Could be Foreclosed by 2012
Executive Summary
1. What Results Do You Want?
Creating economic opportunity for families ensures that they can earn adequate income and build assets, and thereby avoid hardships including hunger, living in substandard housing, and untreated illness. These hardships are especially harmful for children, who are more likely to experience long lasting negative outcomes in the areas of health, social and emotional development, educational attainment, and employment.[i]
The economic well-being of children and their parents are inextricably linked, so successful policy strategies will promote opportunities for parents and opportunities for children at the same time. See more information on priorities and indicators in this area.
2. How Are Your Kids?
Over 2 million home mortgage foreclosures were initiated in 2008,[ii] and almost 800,000 more were initiated in the first third of 2009.[iii] By 2012, an estimated 8 million or more foreclosures could result from the current crisis.[iv] Children suffer when their family faces an economic crisis and home loss. Research indicates that children who face home loss are more likely to move from school to school. This school mobility is associated with poor educational outcomes and behavioral problems, and family economic stress is associated with poor health outcomes for children.[v] See data for your state on home foreclosure rates and on the total number of homes with foreclosure filings, plus guidance for understanding root causes, creating projections, and setting targets.
via PolicyForResults.org – Executive Summary.
Cramdown Vote: Banks Bought Senators On The Cheap
Cramdown Vote: Banks Bought Senators On The Cheap
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced legislation in the Senate Thursday which would allow homeowners in bankruptcy to renegotiate — or cramdown — mortgages with banks. His corresponding amendment to the House-passed bankruptcy reform bill is scheduled to be voted on at 2:30. (Read the whole thing.)
The measure is widely expected to fail, as crucial Democratic senators, whose votes are needed to overcome a filibuster, have publicly declared their opposition.
Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Jon Tester have indicated they plan to vote against the amendment. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who supported the bill last time around, expressed reluctance to back it this time. The banking industry has lobbied relentlessly against the reform.
On Monday night, Durbin concluded that the banks “frankly own the place.”
The place came (relatively) cheap.
via Cramdown Vote: Banks Bought Senators On The Cheap.
OP-ED: Time to Get Tough On Credit Card Companies
OP-ED: Time to Get Tough On Credit Card Companies
Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a credit card reform bill – an important step toward cracking down on the deceptive and abusive practices that are standard operating procedure for the credit card companies.
To be sure, it’s a far cry from where we were twenty years ago, when I first began waging what was then a lonely fight. Today, we have the President on our side. Recognizing that credit card reform is essential to our economic recovery, President Obama pledged last week to get credit card reform “done in short order.”
The need is obvious. A recent survey of the country’s 12 largest credit card issuers by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 93 percent of surveyed cards allowed the issuer to raise interest rates at any time for any reason. And the results are clear; between March 2007 and February 2008, credit card companies raised interest rates on nearly one out of every four accounts – about 70 million cardholders who were charged $10 billion in extra interest. According to CreditCard.com, the average outstanding credit card debt for households with a credit card was $10,679 at the end of 2008.
via OP-ED: Time to Get Tough On Credit Card Companies (CT News Junkie).
Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana
Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana
ABC News-Washington Post Poll: 49 Percent Support Gay Marriage, New High
Support for gay marriage, legalizing illegal immigrants and decriminalizing marijuana all are at new highs. Three-quarters of Americans favor federal regulation of greenhouse gases. Two-thirds support establishing relations with Cuba.
But hold tight.
If some views that may be perceived as liberal are ascendant, so are some conservative ones: Opposition to gun control is also at a new high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. There’s continued broad support for tighter border controls. And contrary to President Obama, half of Americans wouldn’t flatly rule out torturing terrorism suspects.
Click here for a PDF with charts and questionnaire.
It’s a country, in short, in which no fixed ideological orthodoxy holds sway, and attitudes on hot-button issues can and
via Changing Views on Gay Marriage, Gun Control, Immigration and Legalizing Marijuana – ABC News.
Bernanke, Paulson Indictment Pending?
Bernanke, Paulson Indictment Pending?
New York, NY — According to sworn testimony obtained by the New York State Attorney General, Former Treasury Secretary “Hank” Paulson and Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke appear to have conspired to defraud Bank of America shareholders by ordering BofA Chairman Ken Lewis to conceal the fact that buying the then- failing Merrill Lynch would cause material financial harm to BofA.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Department chief Henry Paulson pressured Bank of America Corp. to not discuss its increasingly troubled plan to buy Merrill Lynch & Co. — a deal that later triggered a government bailout of BofA — according to testimony by Kenneth Lewis, the bank’s chief executive.
Mr. Lewis, testifying under oath before New York’s attorney general in February, told prosecutors that he believed Messrs. Paulson and Bernanke were instructing him to keep silent about deepening financial difficulties at Merrill, the struggling brokerage giant.
via Turner Radio Network: Bernanke, Paulson Indictment Pending?.
GOP Leaders Shut Steele Out Of New Initiative To Revive The Party
GOP Leaders Shut Steele Out Of New Initiative To Revive The Party
Last night, CNN reported that leaders of the GOP are launching an initiative called the National Council for a New America as a “new effort to revive the image of the Republican Party.” The party heavyweights spearheading the group include the House and Senate Republican leadership, including Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA); former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney; former Florida governor Jeb Bush; and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
Though the letter announcing the National Council promised an “open policy debate” with “not a Republican-only forum,” Cantor disputed the notion that the initiative is actually a move to shift the party away from far-right ideas. Speaking on CNN last night, Cantor admitted it is “not so much a rebranding effort,” but an avenue to “begin to lay out the solutions that Republicans have.” Watch it:
via Think Progress » GOP Leaders Shut Steele Out Of New Initiative To Revive The Party.
Top Dems rebel on Specter
Top Dems rebel on Specter
Senior Senate Democrats are objecting to the deal Majority Leader Harry Reid made with Sen. Arlen Specter, saying they will vote against letting the former Republican shoot to the top of powerful committees after he switches parties.
Several Democrats are furious with Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) for agreeing to let Specter (Pa.) keep his seniority, accrued over more than 28 years as a GOP senator. That agreement would allow Specter to leap past senior Democrats on powerful panels — including the Appropriations and Judiciary committees.
“I won’t be happy if I don’t get to chair something because of Arlen Specter,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sits on the Appropriations Committee with Specter and is fifth in seniority among Democrats, behind Chairman Daniel Inouye (Hawaii) and Sens. Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa). “I’m happy with the Democratic order, but I don’t want to be displaced because of Arlen Specter,” she said.
Specter’s first full day in Washington after turning the Capitol upside down with his decision to switch parties suggested a lonely future awaits in the upper chamber.
While he received a formal welcome Wednesday to the Democratic Party at the White House from President Obama and Vice President Biden, senior Senate Democrats exchanged phone calls to voice their objections to Reid’s gambit and one lawmaker said Specter should be happy with a committee seat at the “end of the dais.” Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and two other members of the Senate Republican leadership asked Specter to refund campaign donations.
via TheHill.com – Top Dems rebel on Specter.
Securing America’s Energy Independence Through Energy Diversification
Securing America’s Energy Independence Through Energy Diversification
The Lessons of the Past and the Direction for the Future
This time a year ago, the United States and the world were reminded of the devastating costs of a global energy crisis. Consumers, businesses, and industry leaders alike watched helplessly as crude oil prices skyrocketed to $147 per barrel, and the domestic consequences were reminiscent of the energy crisis of the late 1970s. Consumers suffered, costs of living soared, the auto industry contracted, proponents of domestic drilling gained momentum, and global oil companies raked in record profits.
But unlike in the aftermath of the first two energy crises, innovation and efficiency—not just conservation—have now taken the spotlight as the solution. In the past, as oil prices fluctuated, so did our commitment to energy independence. Not so today. With advancements in technology, conflicts in the Middle East, and the clear threat of climate change, America’s energy interests are no longer based on swings in oil prices. Efforts to reduce oil consumption and to develop alternative energy continue to grow, and they must do so.
Without energy diversification, the United States will grow even more dependent on volatile regimes to feed America’s insatiable appetite for oil, and it will finance this dependence by leveraging our nation’s precious treasury. Twenty years of inaction have jeopardized our nation’s security, and we simply cannot repeat our mistakes. We must develop sustainable sources of energy and tighten fuel-efficiency controls.
via Securing America’s Energy Independence Through Energy Diversification.
Global Starvation Ignored by American Policy Elites
Global Starvation Ignored by American Policy Elites
By Peter Phillips
A new report (9/2/08) from The World Bank admits that in 2005 three billion one hundred and forty million people live on less that $2.50 a day and about 44% of these people survive on less than $1.25. Complete and total wretchedness can be the only description for the circumstances faced by so many, especially those in urban areas. Simple items like phone calls, nutritious food, vacations, television, dental care, and inoculations are beyond the possible for billions of people.
Starvation.net logs the increasing impacts of world hunger and starvation. Over 30,000 people a day (85% children under 5) die of malnutrition, curable diseases, and starvation. The numbers of unnecessary deaths has exceeded three hundred million people over the past forty years.
These are the people who David Rothkopf in his book Superclass calls the unlucky. “If you happen to be born in the wrong place, like sub-Saharan Africa, …that is bad luck,” Rothkopf writes. Rothkopf goes on to describe how the top 10% of the adults worldwide own 84% of the wealth and the bottom half owns barely 1%. Included in the top 10% of wealth holders are the one thousand global billionaires. But is such a contrast of wealth inequality really the result of luck, or are there policies, supported by political elites, that protect the few at the expense of the many?
via Global Starvation Ignored by American Policy Elites | Project Censored.
Rice Channels Nixon: Since The President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal
Rice Channels Nixon: Since The President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal
Recently, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with some students at Stanford University, where she is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute. When a student asked whether Rice had authorized torture, she refused to take responsibility, saying only that she “conveyed the authorization of the administration.” She added that, “by definition,” once the president authorized “enhanced interrogations,” they were automatically legal:
Q: Is waterboarding torture?
RICE: The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations under the Convention Against Torture. So that’s — And by the way, I didn’t authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency, that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department’s clearance. That’s what I did.
Q: Okay. Is waterboarding torture in your opinion?
RICE: I just said, the United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.
The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur, who obtained the video, said Rice “absolutely pulls a Nixon” in her answer. Watch it (Rice’s answers come at 0:57):
via Think Progress » Rice Channels Nixon: Since The President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal.
Steele tells conservatives to stop pointing fingers on bailouts: “Do the ‘my bad’ and move forward.”
OPS: republicans taking responsibility?! Steele is gone for sure now.
Steele tells conservatives to stop pointing fingers on bailouts: “Do the ‘my bad’ and move forward.”
Much of the right-wing “outrage” against the Obama administration has been over its willingness to grant “bailouts” to Wall Street companies. In fact, the RNC is currently encouraging supporters “to speak out against the bailouts.” Today on MSNBC, however, RNC Chairman Michael Steele candidly admitted that it is “disingenuous” for conservatives to blame Democrats for bailing out Wall Street, since the original bailouts were approved by President Bush:
STEELE: Look, we can’t go back out and start pointing fingers at Democrats and saying look how bad they’re performing, look at what they’re doing with the economy when we jump-started this thing. We were the ones that put the $700 billion on the table and said, all right, let’s start nationalizing the banking system. So now, for us to stand back and go, oh, that’s a bad thing to do is disingenuous. So let’s own up, do the my bad, and move forward.
Watch it:
Happy The Hippo Seeks Female Companionship
OPS: Anyone have Neal Horsley‘s phone number?
Happy The Hippo Seeks Female Companionship
WASHINGTON — Happy the hippo could soon be a lot happier.
The National Zoo‘s solitary male Nile hippopotamus is heading to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where his new home will include a pool, a sandy beach and two potential girlfriends, Puddles and Patty.
Zoo officials say they’re sad to see Happy go, but that Milwaukee will offer him a great life.
Happy is 28 and weighs about 5,500 pounds. He has to leave the National Zoo because his home is being eliminated for the expansion of the zoo’s elephant exhibit.
The Milwaukee zoo, meanwhile, is beginning a roughly $10 million expansion of its hippopotamus exhibit, part of which will allow visitors to watch hippos swimming underwater.
Happy is expected to move to Milwaukee this summer.
via Happy The Hippo Seeks Female Companionship.
More Huge Ice Chunks Break Away From Antarctica
More Huge Ice Chunks Break Away From Antarctica
BERLIN — Massive ice chunks are crumbling away from a shelf in the western Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said Wednesday, warning that 1,300 square miles of ice _ an area larger than Rhode Island _ was in danger of breaking off in coming weeks.
The Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Researchers believe it was held in place by an ice bridge linking Charcot Island to the Antarctic mainland.
But the 127-square-mile (330-square-kilometer) bridge lost two large chunks last year and then shattered completely on April 5.
“As a consequence of the collapse, the rifts, which had already featured along the northern ice front, widened and new cracks formed as the ice adjusted,” the European Space Agency said in a statement Wednesday on its Web site, citing new satellite images.
via More Huge Ice Chunks Break Away From Antarctica.
US Wants Mandatory Cuts In Greenhouse Gases Across The Globe In Major Environmental Policy Shift
US Wants Mandatory Cuts In Greenhouse Gases Across The Globe In Major Environmental Policy Shift: AP
UNITED NATIONS — The Obama administration, in a major environmental policy shift, is leaning toward asking 195 nations that ratified the U.N. ozone treaty to enact mandatory reductions in hydrofluorocarbons, according to U.S. officials and documents obtained by The Associated Press.
“We’re considering this as an option,” Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Adora Andy said Wednesday, emphasizing that while a final decision has not been made it was accurate to describe this as the administration’s “preferred option.”
The change _ the first U.S.-proposed mandatory global cut in greenhouse gases _ would transform the ozone treaty into a strong tool for fighting global warming.
via US Wants Mandatory Cuts In Greenhouse Gases Across The Globe In Major Environmental Policy Shift: AP.
Swedish bank rescue expert doubts U.S. efforts will work
Swedish bank rescue expert doubts U.S. efforts will work
While the U.S. has funneled tens of billions of dollars to embattled banks such as Citigroup, Sweden temporarily took over two banks late last year and then sold them back to private investors at a roughly 50% profit three months later, says Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg.
U.S. officials should confront the financial industry’s political power and seize temporary ownership of troubled banks, Borg says. Otherwise, error-prone bankers will be bailed out at taxpayer expense.
“We can’t let them get away with the fact that they’ve been reckless,” Borg told a group of economists while attending the recent International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings here.
During a crisis in the early 1990s, Sweden successfully rehabilitated its banking system via temporary nationalization. The government divided the industry into healthy banks and troubled institutions. It pumped capital into the healthy ones, while punishing their shareholders, and held onto the troubled assets until their values recovered.
Borg says that approach better protected taxpayers than the current U.S. strategy.
via Swedish bank rescue expert doubts U.S. efforts will work – USATODAY.com.
The US should cut military spending in half
OPS: Here is the graph that explains why
The US Should Cut Military Spending In Half
Defense Secretary Gates’s military budget cuts are too conservative.
By Benjamin H. Friedman
April 29, 2009 “CSM” — Washington – Hawks depicted the cuts that Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently proposed for the Pentagon’s weapons programs as a savage assault on the military industrial complex. They insisted that Secretary Gates would leave us prostrate before future rivals.
Counterinsurgency enthusiasts, meanwhile cheered Mr. Gates’s willingness to swap high-tech platforms for capabilities suited to the unconventional conflicts we are fighting.
The truth is that the Gates proposal is both too cautious and inadequate. After all, Gates isn’t cutting non-war-related military spending; he’s raising it slightly, to a whopping $534 billion.
If he has his druthers, the next military budget will look much like this one: It will still serve excessive objectives. We will still defend allies that can defend themselves, fight in other people’s civil wars in a vain effort to “fix” their states, and burn tax dollars to serve the hubristic notion that US military hegemony is what keeps the world safe.
To really keep us safe, we should slash defense spending. Americans should prepare for fewer wars, not different ones. Far from providing our defense, our military posture endangers us. It drags us into others’ conflicts, provokes animosity, and wastes resources. We need a defense budget worthy of the name. We need military restraint. And that would allow us to cut defense spending roughly in half.
Two points demonstrate how unambitious the Gates proposal is.
via The US should cut military spending in half : Information Clearing House – ICH.
McDonald’s loses trademark battle in Malaysia
McDonald’s loses trademark battle in Malaysia
Court says McCurry restaurant gets to keep its name
When it comes to its famous trademarks, McDonald’s Corp. is known for McFightin’. But it came up a loser Wednesday in Malaysia, where a court ruled that an Indian restaurant can keep the name McCurry.
The case highlights a never-ending battle for big consumer-products companies: staving off alleged attempts to hijack their marquee brands.
“When you get a [trade] mark like McDonald’s or Coca-Cola or 7-Eleven, it’s a constant policing effort,” said Craig Fochler, a trademark lawyer at Foley & Lardner in Chicago. And McDonald’s has a “history of being very aggressive” when it believes someone is trespassing on its trademarks, he said.
The Oak Brook-based fast-food giant took offense at McCurry Restaurant, a Malaysian joint that maintains its name is an abbreviation for Malaysian Chicken Curry. McDonald’s considers the “Mc” prefix to be its intellectual property.
via McDonald’s loses trademark battle in Malaysia — chicagotribune.com.
Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild
Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild
Genetic data indicate this outbreak won’t be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.
As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.
In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.
“Let’s not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.
His remarks Wednesday came the same day Texas authorities announced that a nearly 2-year-old boy with the virus had died in a Houston hospital Monday.
via Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild — chicagotribune.com.
Navy Will Attempt to Down Spy Satellite
Navy Will Attempt to Down Spy Satellite
Bush Orders Destruction, Citing Hazardous Fuel
A Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean will try an unprecedented shoot-down of an out-of-control, school-bus-size U.S. spy satellite loaded with a toxic fuel as it begins its plunge to Earth, national security officials said yesterday
via Navy Will Attempt to Down Spy Satellite – washingtonpost.com.
Jeb Bush joins forces with Romney, McCain
Jeb Bush joins forces with Romney, McCain
Jeb Bush and other top Republican officials and lawmakers plan to announce on Thursday that they will have a series of town hall-style meetings about ideas for shaping the country, starting this weekend. Their goal is to highlight conservative policy ideas and draw contrasts with Democratic President Barack Obama.
Democrats have said Republicans don’t have any new ideas and only say “no” to Obama’s agenda. House and Senate Republicans want to rebut that claim.
They’re forming a policy group called the National Council for a New America. It will include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain.
via Jeb Bush joins forces with Romney, McCain.
Donkey ‘suicide’ bombing is latest tactic against patrols
Donkey ‘suicide’ bombing is latest tactic against patrols
A senior British Army officer and six other military personnel survived attack when a tethered donkey laden with explosives was detonated as their armoured vehicle passed in southern Afghanistan.
The huge explosion showered the soldier standing on “top cover” out of the Mastiff’s turret with donkey entrails and blood, and the sight was so gruesome that the rest of those in the vehicle thought he had been mortally wounded in the blast, south of Garmsir in southern Helmand province.
”I’m all right, I’m all right,” he shouted, according to one of the officers at the incident who spoke to The Times, giving the first account of the incident.
”We’d spotted the donkey tethered to a tree as we were on our way down south to monitor an operation that had been going on that day, but thought nothing of it. There are donkeys around everywhere,” the officer said.
via Donkey ‘suicide’ bombing is latest tactic against patrols – Times Online.
Shorter Sentences Sought for Crack
Shorter Sentences Sought for Crack
Administration Tells Congress It Favors Ending Disparity With Powder Cocaine
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said it favors shorter jail sentences for crimes involving crack cocaine, a stance likely to spark a debate with law-enforcement officials who have opposed easing the penalties.
Under current law, a person caught with 500 grams of powder cocaine gets the mandatory minimum sentence of five years, while it takes only five grams of crack cocaine to trigger the same sentence. Critics of the law have long maintained that it unfairly targets African-American communities, where crack is more prevalent.
via Shorter Sentences Sought for Crack – WSJ.com.
Geithner Wins The Night: Not One Question For Obama On Banks
OPS: Yeah – how the hell did THAT happen? We are in the middle of the largest Bank-heist in the history of money and not one question? Durbin is correct. 
Geithner Wins The Night: Not One Question For Obama On Banks
Barack Obama may have been the host of a prime-time press conference on Wednesday evening, but it was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who had the best night.
Thirteen questions and four follow-ups were asked during the roughly hour-long affair. Not one touched on the administration’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, the trillions being doled out by the Federal Reserve, rising compensation levels at Wall Street firms, or the forthcoming stress tests to determine the solvency of the banks.
The closest thing to a bank or financial-industry question came at the end, when the Wall Street Journalism Jonathan Weisman asked what the government’s plans were as the current, largest shareholder of “large mortgage giants and, potentially, “a car company.”
All of which is not to suggest that the slate of inquiries were unimpressive. There were, as generally acknowledged by usually critical members of the non-called-upon press corps, some important topics addressed.
via Geithner Wins The Night: Not One Question For Obama On Banks.
CNN Story On Obama’s “Swagga” The Most Embarrassing Ever? (VIDEO)
CNN Story On Obama’s “Swagga” The Most Embarrassing Ever? (VIDEO)
We all expect a bit of fluff from cable news considering they have 24 hours a day to fill and there are only so many events to be “rocked” by, but when we hit a point at which CNN is spending Obama’s 100th day in office “assessing his swagga” something is amiss.
T.J. Holmes sat down with four men who were never identified by name or title (as if we weren’t supposed to care about who they were, just that they were black) to talk about Obama’s “swagga.” They were sweet and did the best they could with such a ridiculous topic, but anchor Kyra Phillips was way over the top. She asked for the theme song to “Shaft” to be played, she talked about Obama’s “flava” and she insisted on getting a fist bump at the end. Here are her choicest moments…
WATCH:
via CNN Story On Obama’s “Swagga” The Most Embarrassing Ever? (VIDEO).
Iraq: Britain Ends Combat Operations
Iraq: Britain Ends Combat Operations
LONDON — British troops ended six years of combat operations in Iraq on Thursday, beginning to withdraw from the southern city of Basra after a bloody and costly mission that was deeply unpopular at home.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised his military’s accomplishments and sacrifices, speaking after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at Brown’s Downing Street office in London.
“Today marks the closing chapter of the combat mission in Iraq,” Brown said, adding that Britain’s remaining 3,700 troops had begun to leave their base on the outskirts of Basra.
Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, 179 British service personnel have been killed in Iraq. In Basra, the British military held a ceremony to honor those who died _ reading aloud the names of all of those killed.
via Iraq: Britain Ends Combat Operations.
Biden: I Told Family To Avoid Planes, Subway Over Swine Flu (VIDEO)
Biden: I Told Family To Avoid Planes, Subway Over Swine Flu (VIDEO)
WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says he’s advising his own family to avoid “confined places” — to stay off commercial airlines and even subways — because of the new swine flu.
Biden said Thursday if one person sneezes on a confined aircraft, “it goes all the way through the aircraft.” Going beyond official advice from the federal government, Biden said of his family’s personal precautions: “That’s me.”
Asked on NBC’s “Today” show whether the government should close the border with Mexico to try to slow the spread of the flu, Biden says health authorities advise that would be impractical because the swine flu has already spread to the U.S. and several other nations. Instead, he says people should focus on confined places where the flu could spread quickly, such as airplanes, malls and classrooms.
Biden spokesperson Elizabeth Alexander released a statement shortly after the appearance, clarifying his remarks:
via Biden: I Told Family To Avoid Planes, Subway Over Swine Flu (VIDEO).
Chrysler to proceed with bankruptcy: administration official
OPS: You knew this was coming – How else to break the Unions?
Chrysler to proceed with bankruptcy: administration official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chrysler LLC will proceed with Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection now that talks with debtholders have broken down, an administration official said on Thursday.
via Chrysler to proceed with bankruptcy: administration official.
Globalization Generates Losers
Globalization Generates Losers
Bankruptcy filings among IT workers skyrocketed in the past year as they are displaced by H-1B visas.
A recent study conducted jointly by researchers at New York University’s and the University of Pennsylvania’s business schools dispelled the myth that the hiring of H-1B visa workers by American companies has little to no effect on the wages of their American colleagues in the same fields.
The study found that the use of H-1B visa workers by U.S. companies drives down the wages of American IT workers by as much as six percent.
“We simply sought to dispel the myth that globalization generates no losers,” the researchers wrote.
Not only does the hiring of H-1B visa workers drive down the wages of their American counterparts, the practice also displaces many American workers, an especially sore subject in this current economic turmoil.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Outsourcing the Green Jobs the Stimulus was Supposed to Create
Outsourcing the Green Jobs the Stimulus was Supposed to Create
Since the beginning of the year 22,000 green technology jobs have been outsourced to India.
While some in congress and the White House are feverishly trying to stem the tide of job loss by imposing H-1B visa hiring restrictions, forcing “buy American” clauses on government contractors and moving America’s economy into the 21st Century with a whole host of newly created “green jobs,” American companies have thwarted those efforts.
According to the Brown-Wilson Group’s 2009 Green Outsourcing Report, since the beginning of the year 22,000 green technology jobs have been outsourced to India.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the report was the fact that not only are thousands of jobs – jobs which are supposed to be the wave of the future – being outsourced to India, but that the “green collar jobs” left in America are not high quality.
“In the U.S., green stimulus plan is creating low-wage installation and construction jobs,” the report found. India, on the other hand, which is well known for its low wages and lack of skill generally found in its workforce, is the beneficiary of the higher paying, highly skilled jobs.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
The Educational Crisis
OPS: “sidetracked”? What actually happened was that Conservatives got their hands on the educational system.
The Educational Crisis
In the past our K-12 policies created students who were capable of building the economic juggernaut that we became. Then the U.S. got sidetracked with other things and allowed 25 countries to surpass us in education.
The United States economy is falling apart for many reasons. We import more than we export, we have deregulated financial markets to the point of complete disarray, we have allowed our manufacturing sector to fall apart, and we have consolidated our wealth with the elites and left everyone else behind.
The collapse of this economy has many levels and nuances, some causes were preventable some were not. But one thing that was absolutely preventable is the decline of our educational system. Thomas Friedman’s Tuesday op-ed column in The New York Times has brought this issue back to the forefront.
This country was lulled into a false sense of security and superiority while the credit and housing bubbles grew, but we have since realized just how bad our situation really is.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress
Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress
- Glenn Greenwald
Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station this week, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.” The blunt acknowledgment that the same banks that caused the financial crisis “own” the U.S. Congress — according to one of that institution’s most powerful members — demonstrates just how extreme this institutional corruption is.
The ownership of the federal government by banks and other large corporations is effectuated in literally countless ways, none more effective than the endless and increasingly sleazy overlap between government and corporate officials. Here is just one random item this week announcing a couple of standard personnel moves:
Former Barney Frank staffer now top Goldman Sachs lobbyist
via Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
Russia takes control of rebel borders with Georgia
Russia takes control of rebel borders with Georgia
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia took formal control over the de-facto borders of Georgia’s rebel regions on Thursday a week before NATO military exercises in Georgia that President Dmitry Medvedev said amounted to a challenge from the West.
Medvedev signed pacts giving Russia direct control over the borders of the tiny rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which were both recognized by Moscow as independent states after a brief war between Russia and Georgia last year.
Russia has sharply criticized NATO military exercises that are due to begin on May 6 in Georgia, a crucial transit route for Caspian Sea oil and gas to Europe.
via Russia takes control of rebel borders with Georgia | International | Reuters.
Candidate for Georgia governorship says he’d kill his own son to secede
Candidate for Georgia governorship says he’d kill his own son to secede
Horsley: I’ll kill my own son to secede; Wants abortion doctors killed, admitted sex with mule and a watermelon…
A longshot Georgia candidate for governor who’s already admitted having sex with a mule before finding God says he’s ready to sacrifice his own son in an effort to get his state to secede from the union.
Neal Horsley made national headlines when he posted the names, phone numbers and addresses of abortion doctors online. His “Nuremberg Files” website also crossed off the names of doctors as they were killed.
Now he’s ready to make new news. In an interview published late Wednesday, he indicated he’d kill his own son to dissolve the United States (in an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade).
via Raw Story » Candidate for Georgia governorship says he’d kill his own son to secede.
Bayh And Landrieu Side With Banking Lobby, Against Homeowners
Bayh And Landrieu Side With Banking Lobby, Against Homeowners
Yesterday, Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) both voiced their opposition to the cram-down bill that may come up for a vote in the Senate this week.
With their respective decisions, Bayh and Landrieu are siding with a slew of special interests — including bailed out banks, goaded by Republicans into not compromising — and standing in the way of economic recovery. As Politico reported, “the primary reason for the banks’ success is simple: money. The industry spent $56 million lobbying Congress last year alone. That can buy a lot of advocates who can win face time with lawmakers to plead the industry’s case.” And that case seems to be taking root.
“My concern about this is that in our appropriate zeal to help the four or five percent of Americans who might be faced with bankruptcy, we don’t unduly raise the costs of homeownership on the 95 percent who never will,” said Bayh, who supported the legislation last year. Implying that cram-down will raise mortgage rates for all homeowners is the Mortgage Bankers Association’s favorite talking point, but it’s simply not true. Incidentally, Indiana has the 13th highest foreclosure rate in the country.
via Wonk Room » Bayh And Landrieu Side With Banking Lobby, Against Homeowners.
High School Math And Reading Scores Have Been Stagnant Since The 1970’s
High School Math And Reading Scores Have Been Stagnant Since The 1970’s
Reading (1971-2008): reading1
Math (1973-2008): math1
Today, the National Assessment of Educational Progress released its 2008 Nation’s Report Card, which provides a look at long term trends in the educational achievement of American students.
The report reveals some pretty depressing information. For instance, while both 9 and 13 year-olds made modest gains in math and reading, high school students have been stuck in neutral since the 1970’s (which is when the first assessments were made):
These results eerily mirror America’s college graduation and retention rates, which have also both been stagnant for two decades.
via Wonk Room » High School Math And Reading Scores Have Been Stagnant Since The 1970’s.
Conrad Hits GOP’s Small Business Claim: Under Your Definition, Dick Cheney Is A Small Business Owner
Conrad Hits GOP’s Small Business Claim: Under Your Definition, Dick Cheney Is A Small Business Owner
One of the right wing’s favorite pieces of misinformation regarding President Obama’s budget is that the tax increases he plans to enact on the top two income tax brackets will destroy small businesses. The New York Times’ Caucus blog noted that Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) “moved aggressively on Wednesday to counter Republican complaints” in a very original manner:
To prove the Democrats’ point – that only a minute portion of actual small business owners would face a tax increase under the budget plan – Mr. Conrad displayed a poster on the Senate floor featuring a large photograph of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney, who has been vocally critical of the Obama administration, would qualify as a small business owner under the Republicans’ definition, Mr. Conrad said, even though only about $180,000 of Mr. Cheney’s more than $3 million in income in 2007 came from small business interests.
Conrad then “let loose a final dagger“: “I would say, that’s a tortured definition,” he said.
A Tsunami of Hunger Looms on the Horizon
A Tsunami of Hunger Looms on the Horizon – By Nick Turse,
The new working poor, as well as more families with young children, are threatening to overwhelm New York City’s last hunger safety net
A crisis is brewing and Carlos Rodriguez sees it in ever longer lines. “More work boots with plaster or paint on them,” he says. “Guys clearly coming in from the work site.”
A spokesperson for the Food Bank for New York City, Rodriguez has experienced tough times before, but not like this. “It takes a lot of pride for a New York construction worker to stand on the soup kitchen line. That’s something I never saw, even during 9/11, during that recession.”
Here, on a quiet, tree-lined section of 116th Street in Manhattan, it’s possible to see the financial crisis that has the planet in its grip up close and personal. The new working poor, as well as more families with young children, are threatening to overwhelm New York City’s last hunger safety net.
And the hungry lining up on this street today may be only a harbinger of things to come. Behind them, in an increasingly hard-pressed city, a potential tsunami of need threatens to swamp the entire system. The one million-plus needy New Yorkers of today could, according to those experienced in feeding the poor, explode into tomorrow’s three million hungry mouths with nowhere else to turn.
Three million — and right in the heart of the country’s financial capital.
via A Tsunami of Hunger Looms on the Horizon | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet.
President Obama, We Want the Truth About the Bush Administration
OPS: not just truth – also ACCOUNTABILITY
President Obama, We Want the Truth About the Bush Administration
Confronting our own misdeeds is a measure of our character. And yes, the whole world is watching
His interest, President Barack Obama says, is “the achievement of a full, frank and just acknowledgement of the facts.”
His topic was the delicate question of what to call the slaughter of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians at the hands of Turkey during World War I, a festering historical sore no American president can genuinely hope to heal.
But Obama’s professed desire for a complete and just accounting raises the question: If it’s good for the Armenians, why isn’t it good for Americans? Why can’t we also have a “full, frank and just acknowledgement” of the facts surrounding torture and other moral horrors that were carried out in our name during the Bush administration’s global war on terror?
History demands it.
via President Obama, We Want the Truth About the Bush Administration | | AlterNet.
Fox News Continues to Hallucinate About a Socialist/Fascist Menace — And It’s Causing Real Damage
Fox News Continues to Hallucinate About a Socialist/Fascist Menace — And It’s Causing Real Damage
Fox news’ insane rants about the impending onset of socialism/fascism has trickled into mainstream media. This is extremely dangerous.
Last week, conservative factions within the Republican National Committee circulated an e-mail urging party leadership to brand as a “socialist” anyone who advocates even moderate changes to the government’s role in society.
It’s clear that the overlords at Fox News Channel already got that memo and decided to ratchet the volume up a notch — to 11.
According to Politico, RNC member James Bopp Jr. proposed a resolution that would acknowledge that President Obama wants “to restructure American society along socialist ideals” and call upon the Democratic Party to rename itself the “Democrat Socialist Party.”
“Just as President Reagan’s identification of the Soviet Union as the ‘evil empire’ galvanized opposition to communism,” Bopp wrote, “we hope that the accurate depiction of the Democrats as a Socialist Party will galvanize opposition to their march to socialism.”
5 Hot New (Old) Racial Stereotypes [VIDEO]
5 Hot New (Old) Racial Stereotypes [VIDEO]
In the first 100 days of the Obama administration, our national conversation on race opened up and flourished, bringing about a discourse in which all voices are heard on equal terms, to discuss and dismantle the racial disparities in economics, health, education, law enforcement, the environment, etc., that hold our world society back from true justice.
I’m lying! The same crap kept happening as has always happened. Those in power, the people whose voices hold so much potential to effect change, largely talked about race only as far as it would get them something, like a continuation of their power. Some tried to hide it better, but most were too lazy to even do that, or maybe there was just no point in developing new memes when the old ones are still paying dividends.
So, that being the case, what are the hot new (old) racial stereotypes being (re)introduced this season that all the jet-setting racial-coding oppressive power elite are pushing? Why, they look weirdly similar to the oppressive racial-coding memes from last season, and the season before that! And the mere fact that I managed to put this list together without a single clip from Rush Limbaugh or Fox News should show how entrenched these ideas are. In no particular order, let’s check it out!
via 5 Hot New (Old) Racial Stereotypes [VIDEO] | RaceWire.
Enraged About Corporate Greed? Kidnap Your Boss
OPS: wouldn’t that have a tendency to taint your next annual review?
Enraged About Corporate Greed? Kidnap Your Boss
The French have taken to bossnapping — “sequestering” their bosses while keeping them comfortable and safe — to protest economic unfairness.
In answer to their own economic crisis, the French have taken up “bossnapping.”
Here’s how it works: An executive of a company, perhaps the CEO, stands before a group of his employees, puts his hands together, sighs, and then, with regret as smooth as brie, explains the fact that downsizing is needed to meet the exigencies of economic crisis (read: the preservation of profits in downturn).
The employees get pissed off — and bum-rush the boss. They trap him in his office, barricade the door, feed him espresso and baguette, and demand a fair deal.It’s a sort of soft-touch storming of the Bastille.
And lo, it works. A few weeks back, this happened at the FM Logistics Co. in Woippy, France, as 125 workers charged into a meeting of five company managers and held the poor creatures hostage for a day. At least 475 workers at FM Logistics, which is owned by Hewlett-Packard Co., were facing the specter of “redundancy” as HP sought to move its printer packaging operations to the cheaper labor pool in Malaysia.
via Enraged About Corporate Greed? Kidnap Your Boss | | AlterNet.
Dick Cheney’s Torture Hypocrisy
Dick Cheney’s Torture Hypocrisy
by Joseph C. Wilson IV
Dick Cheney has called for declassifying memos he claims will vindicate the Bush administration’s torture policy. Now former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV urges the former vice president to extend his demand for transparency to his still-secret testimony in the Scooter Libby obstruction of justice case.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s reemergence on the political stage after his ignominious departure on Inauguration Day, eschewing the traditional handshake with his successor and the new president, is nothing if not ironic. The most secretive individual in American politics is now calling for the selective release of documents that remain classified in one of his own files marked “Detainees.” We have also learned that a principal reason for having tortured senior al Qaeda detainees was not, in fact, to defend the Homeland, but rather to build the case for war with Iraq based on alleged ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Despite literally hundreds of waterboarding sessions, there was no evidence developed that such a link existed. But that did not stop Cheney. He and others in the Bush administration simply asserted a link even though they knew one did not exist.
The disinformation campaign to manipulate public opinion in favor of the [Iraq] invasion, the torture program, and the illegal exposure of a clandestine CIA agent—my wife, Valerie Plame Wilson—were linked events.
via Dick Cheney’s Torture Hypocrisy – Page 1 – The Daily Beast.
Mexico’s Swine Flu and the Globalization of Disease
OPS: It’s time to start calling this what it is: The NAFTA Flu.
Mexico’s Swine Flu and the Globalization of Disease
Mexico has long been considered the laboratory of globalization. Now a potentially deadly virus has germinated in that laboratory, finding ideal conditions to move quickly along a path toward global pandemic.
Those conditions include: a rapid transition from small livestock production to industrial meat farms after NAFTA established incentives for foreign investment, the failed decentralization of Mexico’s health system along lines established by multilateral lending banks, lax and non-enforced environmental and health regulations as the Mexican government was forced to downsize, the increased flow of goods and persons across borders, and restricted access to life-saving medicines due to NAFTA intellectual property monopolies for pharmaceutical companies.
Mexico under Medical Siege
The swine flu alert in Mexico rose to a level four this week, meaning that it is spreading human-to-human and shows a significant increase in the risk of becoming a pandemic. Schools are closed until at least May 6. The Mexico City government shut down the city’s 35,000 restaurants on Monday. Countries including Canada, Argentina, and several European nations have cancelled flights between Mexico in an effort to contain the spread of the new flu, although Keiji Fukuda of the WHO noted, “closing borders or restricting travel has really little effect in stopping the movement of this virus” now that cases are appearing across the globe.
via Americas MexicoBlog: Mexico’s Swine Flu and the Globalization of Disease.
Obama: ‘I believe waterboarding was torture, and it was a mistake’
OPS: OK Mr President, but now you’re obligated to prosecute.
Obama: ‘I believe waterboarding was torture, and it was a mistake’
US president cites Churchill’s refusal to resort to torture during the Blitz as he rejects use of interrogation technique
Barack Obama has rejected the former US vice-president Dick Cheney’s defence of waterboarding, citing the refusal of the then British prime minister, Winston Churchill, to resort to torture even at the height of the Blitz in the second world war.
At a White House press conference to mark his first 100 days in office, the president addressed issues ranging from concern over Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal falling into militant hands to Bush administration torture policies.
Obama said he was comfortable with his decision to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techiques used at Guantánamo Bay and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secret detention centres around the world under his predecessor George Bush.
via Obama: ‘I believe waterboarding was torture, and it was a mistake’ | World news | guardian.co.uk.
quote Menchen
Nobody ever went broke
underestimating the intelligence of the American public
-H. L. Mencken
Obama is Damn Lucky to Have Lunatics for Political Opponents
Obama is Damn Lucky to Have Lunatics for Political Opponents
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
“[S]imply opposing our approach on every front is probably not a good political strategy,” said President Obama last night in a circuitous answer to the direct question which now looms bigger than the budget: “Is the Republican Party in the desperate straits that Arlen Specter” — and roughly 300 million others — “seems to think it is?”
That was sound advice from a man who conspicuously knows a few things about good political strategy — I particularly liked the understated “probably not” part — yet Obama withheld it until the final phrase of his final answer to NBC’s Chip Reid’s follow-up question about “the state of the Republican Party.”
It was as though the president was thinking: This is so bloody evident, I can’t believe I’m having to say it; but there, there you go — satisfied?
via Obama is Damn Lucky to Have Lunatics for Political Opponents | BuzzFlash.org.
7 Mexican cops shot dead in 60-minute span
7 Mexican cops shot dead in 60-minute span
Drug ballads are played over police scanners after series of Tijuana attacks
TIJUANA, Mexico – Seven police officers were assassinated over the course of about an hour in what authorities said Tuesday was a coordinated effort that followed months of relative calm in a border city stricken by drug-fueled violence. Two other officers and a convenience-store employee were injured.
Several people were held briefly for questioning after Monday night’s attacks and released, said Jose Manuel Yepiz, spokesman for the Baja California state attorney general’s office.
“There is very strong indignation in the police force,” Julian Leyzaola, Tijuana’s public safety secretary, told a news conference. “We do not know the motive. We do not know where these attacks came from.”
via 7 Mexican cops shot dead in 60-minute span – Focus on Mexico- msnbc.com.
Mexico shuts many government offices, businesses
Mexico shuts many government offices, businesses
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s government is temporarily suspending all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business as the number of confirmed swine flu cases jumped.
Health Secretary Jose Cordova says nonessential federal government offices will be closed from May 1-5. He said all nonessential private businesses must also close for that period but essential services like transport, supermarkets, trash collection, hospital will remain open.
Cordova told a news conference late Wednesday that confirmed swine flu cases have risen to 99, including eight dead.
Treasury Secretary Agustin
via The Associated Press: Mexico shuts many government offices, businesses.
Fox not granted a question at Obama’s press conference.
OPS: Good.
Fox not granted a question at Obama’s press conference.
In tonight’s press conference, Obama spent nearly a full hour answering questions from reporters, who represented media organizations such as the Detroit News, the Associated Press, BET, and all three cable networks — ABC, NBC, and CBS. One outlet that didn’t get a question? Fox News, whose affiliate was the only network station that decided not to air the prime-time news conference. Obama called on Fox News White House Correspondent Major Garrett in his previous two press conferences.
via Think Progress » Fox not granted a question at Obama’s press conference..
Obama Hits Back Against Bybee’s Defense: ‘Legal Rationales’ For Torture Memos Were ‘A Mistake’
Obama Hits Back Against Bybee’s Defense: ‘Legal Rationales’ For Torture Memos Were ‘A Mistake’
In tonight’s press conference, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked President Obama if he believes “that the previous administration sanctioned torture,” in light of Obama’s recent release of Bush-era torture memos. Obama refrained from saying the Bush administration committed criminal acts, but he said, “I do believe that it [waterboarding] is torture.” The President added that the legal guidance that Bush lawyers provided were a “mistake”:
QUESTION: Do you believe the previous administration sanctioned torture?
OBAMA: I believe that waterboarding was torture. And I think that the — whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake.
Watch it
“AFL-CIO Excludes Single Payer from Its Health Care Survey”
AFL-CIO Excludes Single Payer from Its Health Care Survey
In an attempt to find out what union members think about the health care crisis and its solution, the AFL-CIO recently asked union members and supporters to complete a health care survey: <www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/survey/
index_survey.cfm?source=hc_survey_wfn>.
The problem with the survey is that it does not present the full range of opinions union members have, and nowhere in the survey is single payer, or Medicare for All, or HR 676 even mentioned as an option. Question #21 in the survey offers only variations on keeping for-profit insurance companies in the center of health care:
via Andy Coates, “AFL-CIO Excludes Single Payer from Its Health Care Survey”.
NW Florida college cancels hangar project, fires president
NW Florida college cancels hangar project, fires president
A controversial airport project for a Northwest Florida college is abandoned by the Board of Trustees and the college president fired in the wake of the indictment of former House Speaker Ray Sansom.
NICEVILLE — The trustees of Northwest Florida State College abandoned a $6 million airport project Tuesday and fired the school’s longtime president, who has been indicted over the deal.
The $6 million comes from a state college construction fund, though it is unclear when the money will become available for use on other projects.
The school trustees made both moves reluctantly, in part under pressure to act from Gov. Charlie Crist, as the small Panhandle school remains at the core of a political scandal that already has cost Destin’s state Rep. Ray Sansom his position has House speaker.
via NW Florida college cancels hangar project, fires president – Florida – MiamiHerald.com.
Naomi Klein: ‘The Wall Street Bailout Is the Greatest Heist in Monetary History’
Naomi Klein: ‘The Wall Street Bailout Is the Greatest Heist in Monetary History’
Editor’s Note: Naomi Klein is the award-winning author of the international bestsellers The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. She writes a regular column for The Nation magazine and The Guardian newspaper that is syndicated internationally by The New York Times Syndicate. Her articles have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Globe and Mail and The New York Times. She wrote and co-produced “The Take,” an award-winning feature documentary about Argentina’s occupied factory movement.
As all the pieces of all the world’s economy started crashing around our heads, I realized that the person I most wanted to ask about it all was Naomi Klein, whom I had met briefly last year when Laurie Anderson put together a protest evening at St. Anne’s. Naomi Klein’s books, No Logo and The Shock Doctrine, examined the roots of what is happening now. Here’s what she had to say about the present crisis. -JJB
JOAN JULIET BUCK: You must be having some very intense reactions to everything that’s happening right now.
NAOMI KLEIN: It’s an adventure reading the paper every morning.
JOAN: Where does that leave the end of history?
via Naomi Klein: ‘The Wall Street Bailout Is the Greatest Heist in Monetary History’ | wowOwow.
US ‘losing control’ in Afghanistan
US ‘losing control’ in Afghanistan
Richard Armitage, a former US deputy secretary of state, has told Al Jazeera that the conflict in Afghanistan may be “spinning out of control”.
“The situation in Afghanistan may be spinning out of control more quickly than we are gaining control and it’s of course exacerbated by their next-door neighbour Pakistan,” Armitage, who served in the administration of George Bush, the former US president, said on Tuesday.
He also said Barack Obama, Bush’s successor, got it “a little backwards” sending thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan before his administration completed a review of US policy on the region.
“I was a little taken aback by the fact that we surged 17,000 soldiers to Afghanistan before we completed the review – that seemed to be a little backwards,” he said.
Obama said in February he was deploying an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to take on a resurgent Taliban.
via Al Jazeera English – Americas – US ‘losing control’ in Afghanistan.
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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. 
