Archive for April, 2009
21 polo horses die at Fla. match; cause unknown
21 polo horses die at Fla. match; cause unknown
WELLINGTON, Fla. – Seven more Venezuelan polo horses sickened just before a Florida tournament died overnight, raising the death toll to 21, and officials said Monday they may have been killed by some type of poison.
Veterinarians were waiting for test results to determine the cause. The horses from the Lechuza Caracas team were being unloaded from their trailers Sunday afternoon when two collapsed and others acted dizzy and disoriented, according to the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Seven horses died at the scene and the rest while being treated elsewhere or en route to medical care.
A veterinarian who was at the scene said the tests will need to determine the trigger for what he believed was heart failure among the horses.
“Well clearly, it’s an intoxication, clearly there’s some sort of a poison,” Dr. James Belden told NBC.
Belden said it remains to be seen “whether it’s something in the environment or something that the horses were exposed to.” He said the routine in the horses’ stable ahead of the match was absolutely normal.
The polo grounds in Wellington, a wealthy equestrian and golfing community in central Palm Beach County, hosts the U.S. Open every year.
via 21 polo horses die at Fla. match; cause unknown.
Boehner: It’s ‘Almost Comical’ To Say Carbon Dioxide And Climate Change Are Dangerous Since Cows Fart A Lot
Top House Republican: Idea that CO2 is harmful is ‘comical’
In a boisterous exchange with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the top House Republican said that declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant was “almost comical” and repeated denials that humans are responsible for global warming.
“George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) quipped. “Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.
“So you don’t believe that greenhouse gases are a problem in creating climate change?” Stephanopoulos interjected.
“We’ve had climate change over the last 100 years — listen, it’s clear we’ve had change in our climate,” Boehner replied. “The question is how much does man have to do with it, and what is the proper way to deal with this? We can’t do it alone as one nation. If we got India, China and other industrialized countries not working with us, all we’re going to do is ship millions of American jobs overseas.”
The ABC host seemed a bit flummoxed, and struggled to nail down Boehner’s position on emissions.
“It sounds like from what you’re saying that you don’t believe that Republicans need to come up with a plan to control carbon emissions?” Stephanopoulos remarked. “You’re suggesting it’s not that big of a problem, even though the scientific consensus is that it has contributed to the climate change. ”
via Raw Story » Top House Republican: Idea that CO2 is harmful is ‘comical’.
Colorado preparing to mark Columbine, 10 years on
Colorado preparing to mark Columbine, 10 years on
Flags will fly at half-mast across Colorado on Monday as the region remembers the Columbine High School massacre, 10 years after the tragedy that left 13 people dead and 23 others wounded.
Relatives of victims and community leaders will gather to reflect on the horrors of April 20, 1999, when heavily-armed teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a bloody rampage through the halls of their high school.
On Sunday, a candelight vigil will be held at Littleton’s Columbine Memorial from 7:30 pm ahead of a ceremony on Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of a day that etched itself into America’s national psyche.
The massacre was one of the first mass-shootings ever to unfold on live television, with haunting images of injured students scrambling from windows as heavily armed police SWAT teams moved in beamed around the world.
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, who on Friday ordered flags on all public buildings across the state to fly at half-mast, said the massacre “will continue to live in our memories.”
via Raw Story » Colorado preparing to mark Columbine, 10 years on.
Gonzales Stopped FBI Probe Of Rep. Harman Because He ‘Needed Jane’ To Support Warrantless Wiretapping
Gonzales Stopped FBI Probe Of Rep. Harman Because He ‘Needed Jane’ To Support Warrantless Wiretapping
gonzo0409web.jpgCQ’s Jeff Stein reports that sometime before the 2006 elections, the National Security Agency wiretapped Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) offering a quid pro quo to unnamed Israeli agents: Harman would lobby the Justice Department to “reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee,” while the Israelis would lobby soon-to-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to name Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee.
While this story has been previously reported, “what is new,” Stein reports, is the court-approved NSA wiretap. Previous reports also said that an investigation of Harman was dropped because of “lack of evidence.” However, Stein reports that one official “with first-hand knowledge” of the case “called that ‘bull****’” and that “according to knowledgeable officials,” it was actually then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who intervened on Harman’s behalf to stop the FBI’s investigation in exchange for her help selling the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretap program:
“Screwing Their Brains Out”: Plato’s Retreat and the Rise of Swinging
“Screwing Their Brains Out”: Plato’s Retreat and the Rise of Swinging
A new film about Plato’s Retreat shows how the swinger’s club helped challenge gender stereotypes and regressive ideas about sex.
“Ten years earlier, everyone was rolling around naked at Woodstock, you know, and smoking pot and screwing their brains out in the meadows. This was just an indoor version that was accessible to New Yorkers.” Introducing the basic concept behind Plato’s Retreat, the artist and model Matuschka is smiling. A club for “swingers” that opened on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1977, Plato’s was part of the same disco-fevery, anything-goes milieu that produced Studio 54. Certainly, the sex was exciting, as well as controversial. But the club also represented an effort to think through the mores behind monogamy, to challenge assumptions and imagine an alternative.
A Healthful Diet? Don’t Forget the Fat
A Healthful Diet? Don’t Forget the Fat
It used to be that the mere mention of the word fat sent health conscious eaters into retreat mode. Fat was to be avoided at all costs, and the lower the amount one consumed, the better. Yet as health and weight problems rose simultaneously with the proliferation of goods such as fat-free salad dressings, light cookies, and low-fat peanut butter, it’s come to light that fat, the much maligned macromolecule, doesn’t deserve the reputation it’s been dealt.
As it turns out, the percentage of fat in our diet doesn’t dictate weight or health. A 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found almost identical rates of heart attack, stroke, heart disease, and weight control in women who followed a low-fat diet versus those who didn’t. Other studies have backed this up, finding no correlation between heart disease, cancer, or weight and percentage of fat in diet. What they did find, however, was that it’s not the amount of fat, but rather the type of fat a person eats that makes a difference.
That’s because not all fat is created equal. Some fats, like artificially created trans fats, are clearly deleterious for our health. But others are not only better for us, they are absolutely necessary for good health.
So which fats should be included in our diet and which ones should we avoid?
via A Healthful Diet? Don’t Forget the Fat.
Will Afghanistan Be Worse Than Vietnam? 7 Tough Questions to Ask Obama Before He Sinks Us Into a New Quagmire
Will Afghanistan Be Worse Than Vietnam? 7 Tough Questions to Ask Obama Before He Sinks Us Into a New Quagmire
These are the questions on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan that Obama should be asked at his press conferences.
It didn’t take long. Only 11 days after Barack Obama entered the Oval Office, a Newsweek cover story proclaimed the Afghan War “Obama’s Vietnam.” And there wasn’t even a question mark. As John Barry and Evan Thomas wrote grimly in that January piece, “[T]here is this stark similarity: in Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, we may now be facing a situation where we can win every battle and still not win the war — at least not within a time frame and at a cost that is acceptable to the American people.” In the two and a half months since that piece appeared, the President and his advisors have, in fact, doubled-down on what is increasingly the Af-Pak War — with the expanding fighting in Pakistan’s tribal borderlands helping to destabilize that regional nuclear power. As a result, it would hardly be surprising if “Obama’s Vietnam” became an ever more common refrain in the year ahead.
In a number of ways, however, the Af-Pak War couldn’t bear less of a relationship to the Vietnam one. After all, this time around there is no superpower enemy like the Soviet Union or regional power like China supporting and arming the Taliban (or, for that matter, like the United States, which supported and armed the mujahideen to give the Soviets their own “Vietnam” in Afghanistan in the 1980s). In Vietnam, the U.S. faced a North Vietnamese professional army, well-trained, superbly disciplined, and supplied with the best the Soviets and Chinese could produce, including heavy weapons; while the guerrilla organization we fought in South Vietnam, which Americans knew as “the Vietcong,” had widespread popular support, was unified, dedicated, well structured, and highly regimented.
An End to the War on Weed?
An End to the War on Weed?
Marijuana advocates believe legalization is on the horizon.
As a medley of border violence, recessionary pressure, international criticism and popular acceptance steadily undermines America’s decades-long effort to eliminate drugs and drug use, the U.S. movement to legalize marijuana is gaining unprecedented momentum.
Once derided and dismissed by lawmakers, law enforcers and the law-abiding alike, marijuana reform is sweeping the nation, although the federal government appears committed—at least for the time being—to largely maintaining the status quo.
A week after Attorney General Eric Holder announced in March that raids on state law-abiding medical marijuana dispensaries would end, the Drug Enforcement Agency effectively shut down a San Francisco dispensary, claiming it violated both state and federal laws.
But to paraphrase Victor Hugo, not even the strongest government in the world can stop an idea whose time has apparently come.
Indeed, support for legalization is at an all-time high, and continues to grow. In 1969, just 12 percent of Americans favored legalizing marijuana, the Holy Grail of cannabis advocates; this number had tripled by 2005, according to a Gallup poll. Barely three years later, another poll showed 44 percent of Americans support legalization.
via An End to the War on Weed? — In These Times.
Is There Any Wonder Some People Snap Like in Binghamton and at Columbine?
Is There Any Wonder Some People Snap Like in Binghamton and at Columbine? – By David Sirota
Our entire way of life — from our exploitative economy to our foreign policy — is violent.
As Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s posthumous infamy turns 10 on April 20, I wish I were surprised that Columbine-like shootings are still happening, or even that our national discussion about violence hasn’t yet matured past gun control and video games.
I wish I were surprised, but sadly, I’d be surprised if it were any different because we still refuse to ask the most uncomfortable questions.
Columbine was the “Pulp Fiction” of violence: not the first of its genre, but the model to which all contemporaries are compared. And lately, Columbine derivatives have been coming at a faster clip.
After each tragedy, it’s the same thing. Liberals want us to wonder why gun laws let anyone access deadly weapons. Conservatives insist we question why video games supposedly turn down-to-earth kids into murderers.
via Is There Any Wonder Some People Snap Like in Binghamton and at Columbine? | | AlterNet.
“People Shouldn’t Have to Live Like This”: The Real Story Behind “Tent City” — and How the Media Get It Wrong
“People Shouldn’t Have to Live Like This”: The Real Story Behind “Tent City” — and How the Media Get It Wrong
The media have finally discovered homelessness. Not surprisingly, they get the story wrong.
Over the past few months, reporters from around the world have flocked to the now-famous tent city in Sacramento, Calif. When they find out that 55-year-old John Kraintz has been living in a tent for almost seven years, they turn around and walk away.
“They don’t want to talk to me,” he says. “They’re searching for people who just lost their homes. It’s kinda tough to lose a home when you’ve never owned one. Sorry, but most of the people here have been homeless for a long time.”
A tall and lanky man with a long beard tied in a ponytail, Kraintz is one of 100-200 people who have been told to leave the homeless camp between Sacramento’s Blue Diamond Almond factory and the American River.
Kraintz and so many other homeless people like him have been living in scattered Sacramento encampments for years, but they’ve been largely ignored and hidden from public view. That is, until Lisa Ling, a reporter with the Oprah show, came to town in late February to focus on what Oprah Winfrey called the “new faces” of homelessness.
The show reported — inaccurately — that an estimated 1,200 people in Sacramento are living in tent cities after losing their jobs and homes. According to Loaves & Fishes, a privately funded group that has been feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless in Sacramento for 25 years, 1,226 people live on the streets of the city. Between 100 and 200 temporarily call tent city home.
Proposed Stem Cell Guidelines Make Sense
Stem Cell Sense
NIH research guidelines avoid some moral minefields.
BY LIMITING federal funding to research on stem cells derived from embryos that were created for reproductive purposes and that were slated for disposal, the National Institutes of Health’s draft guidelines, issued yesterday, offer an intelligent solution to an issue that demanded great sensitivity. While a decision with such deep moral and ethical considerations shouldn’t have been left to scientists alone, the NIH outcome is a good one.
President Obama issued an executive order last month that lifted the ban on federal funding of research on stem cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001, and he instructed the NIH to develop guidelines for the research. Because stem cells can be transformed into different kinds of cells, scientists (and quite a few hopeful patients and their loved ones) believe them to hold the key to cures for a host of debilitating diseases and conditions, such as Parkinson’s. But because stem cell lines are grown from human embryos, many people have ethical or religious objections to their use. President George W. Bush proposed a compromise that limited federal funding to a set of existing stem cell lines. But they proved too few, limiting potential research.
via Proposed Stem Cell Guidelines Make Sense – washingtonpost.com.
Bailed-Out AIG Pampers Execs While Denying, Delaying Claims of Contractors Injured in Iraq
Bailed-Out AIG Pampers Execs While Denying, Delaying Claims of Contractors Injured in Iraq
Investigation Finds Nearly Half of Insurance Claims are Challenged by Insurance Giant
Insurance giant AIG, the same company that rewarded its executives with millions in bonuses and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a spa retreat at an exclusive California resort and private jets, has been nickel and diming employees of private contractors injured in Iraq, with a pattern of denying and delaying their claims, a joint investigation between 20/20, the Los Angeles Times and the non-profit group ProPublica has found.
Watch the full story tonight on 20/20 at 10p.m. E.T.
In a joint investigation with 20/20, ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times analyzed some 30,000 claims filed by people working for American defense contractors overseas, covered by AIG under a federally-mandated program. Almost half – 43 percent – of the most serious cases were challenged by AIG, the analysis found, particularly those where claims were made for treatment of post traumatic stress disorder.
US Senate hearings slated on newspapers’ future
US Senate panel to look at future of newspapers
Senator John F. Kerry will hold hearings in Washington next week on the financial problems facing the newspaper industry, as dwindling advertising dollars push many US papers to the brink of closure.
The hearings by the Senate Commerce Committee, beginning April 30, are the latest effort in the nation’s capital to help out newspapers. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, introduced a bill last month that would enable newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits.
Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of a Commerce subcommittee, moved to spotlight the financial plight of newspapers after The New York Times Co. threatened earlier this month to shut down The Boston Globe unless its labor unions agree to $20 million in cost concessions, including pay and benefit cuts. The Globe is on track to lose $85 million this year, executives told labor representatives.
via US Senate hearings slated on newspapers’ future – The Boston Globe.
Erin Go Broke
Erin Go Broke
by Paul Krugman
“What,” asked my interlocutor, “is the worst-case outlook for the world economy?” It wasn’t until the next day that I came up with the right answer: America could turn Irish.
What’s so bad about that? Well, the Irish government now predicts that this year G.D.P. will fall more than 10 percent from its peak, crossing the line that is sometimes used to distinguish between a recession and a depression.
But there’s more to it than that: to satisfy nervous lenders, Ireland is being forced to raise taxes and slash government spending in the face of an economic slump — policies that will further deepen the slump.
And it’s that closing off of policy options that I’m afraid might happen to the rest of us. The slogan “Erin go bragh,” usually translated as “Ireland forever,” is traditionally used as a declaration of Irish identity. But it could also, I fear, be read as a prediction for the world economy
via Op-Ed Columnist – PAUL KRUGMAN – Erin Go Broke – NYTimes.com.
Why the Philadelphia Inquirer is in Bankruptcy
Why the Philadelphia Inquirer is in Bankruptcy
They hired Rick Santorum to write a column. $1,750 per column is chicken feed, but Santorum’s was a quota hire. They needed a Republican on the opinion pages, no matter the quality. Santorum has since turned in bad writing based in faulty logic and data in severe need of a fact check. Philadelphia Inquirer = FAIL.
Commentary By: Steven Reynolds
It is all about poor judgement. A couple of years ago Brian Tierney, a PR man clearly over his head running Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., the Inquirer’s parent, led a consortium that took control of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Tierney worked hard to turn the corporation behind, including renegotiating union contracts and enlivening the advertising base of both papers. But those of us in the know were ready for Brian Tierney, long a Republican operative, to put his right wing stamp on the papers, and he did so by hiring Rick Santorum, failed former Senator from Pennsylvania. That’s just a bad business decision.
Hiring Santorum to write a column that is never anything more than a meandering screed about how Democrats are flirting with the anti-Christ, attacking Santorum’s blessed traditional values, playing right into the hands of “Islamofascists, etc., is simply a poor choice. Santorum is not a good writer and his ideas are extremist and his use of logic is ill, and not a good “ill,” either. Santorum is basically of the Republican school of “if they disagree with me, then they are the enemy,” a school that is about as anti-American as it gets. But the Phildelphia Inquirer puts him on its editorial pages every two weeks, without editing or fact-checking, once every two weeks.
Friday in Clout we found out what the Philadelphia Inquirer pays Rick Santorum:
via All Spin Zone » Why the Philadelphia Inquirer is in Bankruptcy.
New Model for Online News
New Model for Online News
How to save journalism has become a major concern. More and more publications are either shuttering operations or ceasing print editions in an attempt to survive. Last week some veterans of the industry announced the latest model designed to rescue the troubled industry. From the April 14 press release:
Citing “the urgent need” for a comprehensive, immediate plan to address the downward spiral in the business of publishing original, quality journalism, experienced journalism and media industry executives Steven Brill, Gordon Crovitz, and Leo Hindery today announced the formation of Journalism Online, a company that will quickly facilitate the ability of newspaper, magazine and online publishers to realize revenue from the digital distribution of the original journalism they produce.
…
Brill, the founder of Court TV, The American Lawyer, and Brill’s Content, most recently founded and was CEO of Clear, the airport biometric fast-pass security card. He also founded the Yale Journalism Initiative.
As publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Crovitz grew WSJ.com to become the largest paid news site on the Web, with more than one million paying subscribers. Crovitz, who founded the news-database Factiva and is a member of the board of directors of ProQuest and an advisor to several early-stage technology and online media companies, has long experience in using digital technologies to help news publishers generate significant and highly profitable revenues from readers and users.
Hindery, a longtime media executive whose positions have included being CEO of cable giants TCI and AT&T Broadband, is managing partner of InterMedia Partners, a media industry private equity firm. He currently sits on the board of advisors of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Newsweek interviewed Brill about the new venture.
via New Model for Online News | discuss, debate, decide.
Thoughts on Pot vs. Alcohol from a Former Police Chief
Thoughts on Pot vs. Alcohol from a Former Police Chief
As 5:00 p.m. rolls around my interior clock starts chiming. I’ll have an ice-cold, bone-dry martini, thank you. Jalapeno olives and a twist. If the occasion calls for it (temperatures in the twenties, a hot political debate on the tube) I may substitute two fingers of Kentucky sour mash. Four-twenty? Doesn’t resonate. But with April 20 approaching and Waldos of the world gearing up to celebrate their favorite day of the year, it’s not a bad time to consider, yet again, the pluses and minuses of alcohol vs. cannabis.
First, a disclaimer: I am a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, but I don’t officially represent the organization in this forum. That said, I can’t very well check my affiliation, or beliefs, at the keyboard when I sit down to blog for HuffPost. We at LEAP are current and former cops and other criminal justice practitioners who have witnessed firsthand the futility and manifold injustices of the drug war. Our professional experiences have led us to conclude that the more dangerous an illicit substance–from crack to krank–the greater the justification for its legalization, regulation, and control. It is the prohibition of drugs that leads inexorably to high rates of death, disease, crime, and addiction.
Back to booze vs. pot. How do the effects of these two drugs stack up against specific health and public safety factors?
via Norm Stamper: 420: Thoughts on Pot vs. Alcohol from a Former Police Chief.
Theme song of the Party of NO
I’m Against It
By: Groucho Marx w/ Reginald Barlow
Horse Feathers 1932
I don’t know what they have to say,
It makes no difference anyway –
Whatever it is, I’m against it!
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I’m against it.
Your proposition may be good
But let’s have one thing understood –
Whatever it is, I’m against it!
And even when you’ve changed it or condensed it,
I’m against it.
I’m opposed to it –
On general principles I’m opposed to it!
Chorus:
He’s opposed to it!
In fact, in word, in deed,
He’s opposed to it!
For months before my son was born,
I used to yell from night till morn,
Whatever it is, I’m against it!
And I’ve kept yelling since I commenced it,
I’m against it!
McCaskill on impeaching Jay Bybee: ‘I think we have to look at it.’
OPS: Gee ya think?
McCaskill on impeaching Jay Bybee: ‘I think we have to look at it.’
This morning on Fox News, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said that, while she agreed with President Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA agents who carried out torture, more scrutiny needs to be directed at the “lawyers who gave this advice”:
What’s scary to me, Chris, is that one of them got a lifetime appointment on a federal bench. Yikes! You know, a lawyer that’s responsible for this kind of advice that clearly went too far in terms of stretching what our law is. It worries me that he’s sitting on the federal bench right now.
She then said she doesn’t want to “look in the rearview mirror.” Asked by host Chris Wallace whether she would favor the impeachment of the judge, Jay Bybee, McCaskill responded, “I don’t know. I think we have to look at it.” Watch it:
via Think Progress » McCaskill on impeaching Jay Bybee: ‘I think we have to look at it.’.
Napolitano stands by DHS report conclusion that right-wing extremist groups are targeting vets.
Napolitano stands by DHS report conclusion that right-wing extremist groups are targeting vets.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released a report finding that right-wing extremist groups inside the United States may be gaining new recruits and that they are targeting veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Since then, conservative critics — led by Fox News — have been up in arms, with some claiming that the report shows that the Obama administration is waging a “war on veterans.” Today on CNN, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said that she regrets the politicization of the report that has ensued, but stands by its conclusion:
NAPOLITANO: Here is the important point. The report is not saying that veterans are extremists. Far from it. What it is saying is returning veterans are targets of right-wing extremist groups that are trying to recruit those to commit violent acts within the country. We want to do all we can to prevent that.
Watch it:
UN Rapporteur On Torture: Obama’s Pledge Not To Pursue Torture Prosecutions At CIA Is Not Legal
UN Rapporteur On Torture: Obama’s Pledge Not To Pursue Torture Prosecutions At CIA Is Not Legal
When President Obama released the four of the Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) Bush-era torture memos last week, he issued a statement promising not to pursue torture prosecutions against CIA agents who relied on the memos to justify their use of torture tactics on terrorist suspects in U.S. custody. (Notably, Obama left open the possibility of prosecuting the torture architects.) “[I]t is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution,” Obama said.
But in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Manfred Nowak, explained that Obama’s grant of immunity is likely a violation of international law. As a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, the U.S. is obligated to investigate and prosecute U.S. citizens that are believed to have engaged in torture:
STANDARD: CIA torturers are according to U.S. President Obama not to be prosecuted. Is that decision supportable?
NOWAK: Absolutely not. The United States has, like all other Contracting Parties to the UN Convention Against Torture, committed itself to investigate instances of torture and to prosecute all cases in which credible evidence of torture is found.
Ralph Nader: The Greedsters Are Back!
It’s Time to Rumble
The Greedsters Are Back!
By RALPH NADER
How about a test of your injustice barometer?
You might think that the reckless, avaricious, giant corporations, having shrunk the economy, cost millions of jobs and then demanded that taxpayers be dunned for years into the future for multi-trillion dollar bailouts, would show contrition, regret, or self-restraint of their power over Washington.
Forget it. They’e baaack! Their greed and power are revving up big time to bring Washington and you the taxpayer, you the parent, you the consumer, you the worker, to your knees.
Here is a sample of the appalling dynamics of corporate greed and continuing over-reach each day in your nation’s capital.
1. Just when people thought the taxpayer-subsidized corporate student loan racket was ended by the Democrats, Sallie Mae, its cohorts and lobbyists, like Jamie S. Gorelick of FannieMae notoriety, are descending on Congress. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that replacing these subsidized loans with direct Department of Education lending will save $94 billion over the next ten years.
It is long overdue to end this gouging, college payola giving, obscenely overcompensated industry, and give students an efficient and reasonable lending system. Still, Sallie Mae, Citigroup, Bank of America and others are swarming over Congress to retain a big piece of the action. “Why do we even need private lenders?” correctly asks Congressman Timothy H. Bishop, a former provost of Southampton College.
2. ABC News reports that banks are hiking already high credit card rates and other bank-related fees: “The Banks have been given billions of dollars of tax money and only lend it out if customers are willing to pay extortion rights,” said Tony Cesnik, a Concord, California, resident. Cesnik adds: “The banks need a legal spanking. They are acting like spoiled brats!” Elizabeth Warren, Harvard law professor and chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel agrees: “We’re asking taxpayers to pay twice.”
via Ralph Nader: The Greedsters Are Back!.
A Duty to Resist
A Duty to Resist
A U.S. Sergeant in Wiesbaden is working for peace. Now she’s being investigated.
BERLIN – U.S. Sergeant Selena Coppa, 26, stationed in Wiesbaden, would have liked to participate in the Easter peace marches in Germany last weekend, but as an active-duty soldier, she is not allowed to demonstrate “on foreign soil”. Per Army regulations, GIs are allowed, however, to speak at other public events and with the press. Nevertheless, when Coppa wanted to with join with other anti-war veterans who spoke out at the anti-NATO conference in Strasbourg earlier this month, she received an order not to leave her post. Another direct order prevented her from participating in the “Winter Soldier” hearing of anti-war veterans in Freiburg on March 14th.
As an active duty soldier, Coppa does anti-war organizing under arduous conditions. In her courageous and outspoken blog http://activedutypatriot.blogspot.com/., she challenges the policies and practices of the current U.S. leadership and sometimes receives more than 100 comments from fellow soldiers. Some express deep respect; others are furious and threaten her, in one case even posting the home address of her mother. But she says that she has a duty, under oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, to resist.
Recently Coppa has been named a member of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW): the first to remain in active-duty service (her Army contract expires in 2011) and the only IVAW Board member in Europe. She hopes that being named to the Board while on active-duty will “inspire other soldiers to resist.”
Coppa founded and leads IVAW’s Active Duty Organizing project to “mobilize the military community to withdraw its support for the war.” It has been done before: GI resistance was an important factor in forcing the U.S. to withdraw from Vietnam. Inspired by the legendary 1971 hearing of Vietnam veterans, “Winter Soldier” that exposed U.S. war crimes, Coppa and other IVAW members organized a similar hearing in March 2008 near Washington called “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan.” Since then there have been regional hearings in the U.S., as well as in Freiburg last month.
via A Duty to Resist | CommonDreams.org.
Toward Climate Geoengineering?
Toward Climate Geoengineering?
With global atmospheric CO2 levels rising at about 2 ppm/year toward 388 ppm, or near-440 ppm CO2-e (including methane effects), John Holdren, in his first interview since being appointed as President Obama’s new science adviser, revealed in an interview with The Associated Press (April 8, 2009) “global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth’s air,” which “as an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort – It’s got to be looked at – We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table – One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. Holdren compared the way humanity is facing dangerous climate change to passengers in a car with bad brakes heading toward a cliff in a fog, saying, “The sensible passengers will certainly say: ‘Let’s put on the brakes, even if we don’t know it will save us. It may be too late. We don’t know exactly where the cliff is…. Let’s get on with it.’”
Holdren is not alone in considering geoengineering. The National Academy of Science is also looking at the subject in its new multidiscipline climate challenges program. The American Meteorological Society is preparing a statement on geoengineering, stating “it is prudent to consider geoengineering’s potential, to understand its limits and to avoid rash deployment.” The British parliament has discussed the idea.
via t r u t h o u t | Toward Climate Geoengineering?.
…an uptick in ark building – yep!
The Shipping News
If you’re looking for signs of the Apocalypse – and who isn’t? – here’s a good one. There’s an uptick in ark building.
You heard me. According to The Wall Street Journal, that Bible of the Financially Bilious, Hong Kong’s billionaire Kwok brothers are in the final stages of constructing the world’s first full-size replica of Noah’s Ark – 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. “Just the answer,” the Journal reports, “for the rising waters threatening the global economy.”
Unlike Noah’s aquatic zoo, the Kwok version will remain landbound, and its 67 pairs of animals are made of fiberglass, thus eliminating potential headaches arising from husbandry, hygiene and other housekeeping issues at sea. It also comes equipped with a restaurant and posh, rooftop resort hotel – just the thing to please the discerning plutocrat, for whom a luxury suite is probably the closest they’ll ever get to The Rapture.
via t r u t h o u t | The Shipping News.
FINDING SUCCESS IN FEDERAL STIMULUS SPENDING
FINDING SUCCESS IN FEDERAL STIMULUS SPENDING
by Jim Hightower
Time for another Gooberhead Award – presented periodically to those in the news who have their tongues running 100-miles-per-hour, but forgot to put their brains in gear.
Today’s Golden Goober comes with a special Foot-in-Mouth Cluster, because this awardee has added a large dose of hypocrisy to his gooberheadedness. He’s Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, who is trying to become a national political star in Republican circles by vehemently denouncing President Obama’s economic recovery plan. Obama’s massive stimulus program, he cries, constitutes an unwarranted government intrusion into a state’s economy, and it will “have dire consequences” for America.
Hot stuff. But, guess which state has been the biggest recipient of federal stimulus money in history? Right – Governor Jindal’s state. Even before Obama’s plan passed, Louisiana had received a record $51 billion in federal funds since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Far from suffering “dire consequences,” the state is enjoying an on-going building boom funded by those “intrusive” federal construction dollars. Everything from hospitals to sewers, schools to affordable housing, are being built, and Louisiana’s employment rate is now about the best in the country.
via Jim Hightower | FINDING SUCCESS IN FEDERAL STIMULUS SPENDING.
Q: What made Wall Street implode? A: They were making too much money to stop
Q: What made Wall Street implode? A: They were making too much
money to stop
Jim Hightower
Did you have a piggy bank when you were a child? Mine was a cheery, round pig–made of brown pottery, as I recall. For parents of that time, having their children feed pennies, nickels, and the occasional dime into these toy banks was a sweet lesson in frugality–a Kodak moment for many families.
Today, though, the term “piggy bank” has a wholly different connotation. America’s leaders are stuffing trillions of our tax dollars into such voracious Wall Street piggies as Bank of America, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs, and there’s nothing sweet about it. Each day’s news seems to bring ever more horrific stories of greed, incompetence, arrogance, excess, deceit, numbskullduggery, and inconceivable nincompoopery about this ongoing taxpayer bailout and exploding financial crisis.
After studying various theoretical models and applying careful mathematical analyses, the world’s finest economic thinkers have now concluded that what we have here is, to use the technical term, “a mess.” To help our readers get a better picture of it, this issue of the Lowdown offers some facts and tidbits, sets forth some Q & As, exposes a myth or two, explores a couple of reasons the stuff has hit the fan, calls out some culprits, and suggests a few steps towards financial sanity. Let’s get started!
via Hightower Lowdown | Q: What made Wall Street implode? A: They were making too much money to stop.
Factories dumping drugs into sewage
Factories dumping drugs into sewage
Samples taken contained opiates, a barbiturate and a tranquilizer
Federal scientists testing for pharmaceuticals in water have been finding significantly more medicine residues in sewage downstream from public treatment facilities that handle waste from drugmakers.
Early results from two pivotal federal studies compare wastewater at treatment plants that handle sewage from drugmakers with those that do not. The studies cover just a small fraction of the 1,886 pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities counted in a 2006 U.S. Census report.
In one study, samples taken at two treatment plants down the sewer line from drugmaking factories contained a range of pharmaceuticals — among them opiates, a barbiturate and a tranquilizer at “much higher detection frequencies and concentrations” than samples taken at other plants, according to preliminary research by the U.S. Geological Survey.
via Factories dumping drugs into sewage – More health news- msnbc.com.
Speakers: Changing food industry can help fix other problems
Speakers: Changing food industry can help fix other problems
President Barack Obama will need to confront the nation’s food issues sooner or later because they are key to solving three major problems in the nation — energy independence, the health crisis and climate change, author Michael Pollan said at last night’s Richmond Forum.
Agriculture and modern processing use 20 percent of the total fossil fuel consumed in the nation and produce more greenhouse gas than any other industry, Pollan told an audience at the Landmark Theater.
Pollan and fellow author Marion Nestle discussed the food chain in America and offered guidance on making choices that are healthier for people, the environment, animals and farm workers.
“When we eat from this modern industrial food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases,” said Pollan, who is also the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism.
Health-care spending in the U.S. has gone from 5 percent in the 1960s to 17 percent, while the amount Americans spend on food during that same time has decreased, from 18 percent to 10 percent, Pollan said.
via Speakers: Changing food industry can help fix other problems | Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Blind to be cured with stem cells
Blind to be cured with stem cells
BRITISH scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time.
The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells. It was pioneered by scientists and surgeons from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and Moorfields eye hospital.
This week Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical research company, will announce its financial backing to bring the therapy to patients.
The treatment will tackle age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness. It affects more than 500,000 Britons and the number is forecast to increase significantly as people live longer. The disease involves the loss of eye cells.
via Blind to be cured with stem cells – Times Online.
Overlords of US Torture Must Be Punished
Overlords of US Torture Must Be Punished
The exposure of President Obama’s order to release documents about violent interrogations could have a knock-on in Britain
by Alex Carlile
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay S Bybee presides with apparent comfortable authority over his high jurisdiction. The Ninth Circuit is the largest. The great cases of the West Coast states are argued out before him. His record as a lawyer is notable. He has to his name a distinguished volume on the Eighth Amendment: we can assume that seared in his mind are its words: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”.
Given numerical, historical and rhetorical proximity of the Ninth to the Eighth Amendment – “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” – one can be reasonably sure that this leading US judicial authority is an assiduous enforcer of the rights of the individual against the federal government; that he will ensure that torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment is not meted out against persons in custody; and that the government is brought to account whenever those great constitutional rights are under attack.
Or is there a huge “maybe” against Judge Bybee? If so, does it have transatlantic implications in the heart of Britain? In an extraordinary event of the past week, President Barack Obama, himself a distinguished American jurist, with a profound understanding of what he may now regard as his own Constitution, has exposed Bybee’s complicity in a terrifying case of double standards.
via Overlords of US Torture Must Be Punished | CommonDreams.org.
Politico’s Understanding of Journalistic Anonymity
Politico’s Understanding of Journalistic Anonymity
by Glenn Greenwald
In a Politico article discussing Obama’s decision to release the OLC torture memos, Mike Allen granted anonymity to “a former top official in the administration of President George W. Bush” to enable that official to do nothing other than attack Obama’s decision and accuse him of handing our critical secrets to Al Qaeda. Those anonymous quotes predictably attracted the only thing of value for Politico: a prominent, screaming Drudge link announcing that Bush officials accused Obama of helping the Terrorists.
Andrew Sullivan was the first to note what an absurd and journalistically baseless grant of anonymity this was. Citing Sullivan’s post, I also criticized Allen’s use of anonymity both here and on Twitter. At his Washington Post blog, Greg Sargent then printed an email from Allen answering Sargent’s request for a response to the criticisms. That response revealed what has long been clear: most establishment journalists do not even pretend any more to have any standards for when anonymity is granted; they’ll give it to whoever wants it without needing any real reason for doing so, especially if the person wanting it is politically influential.
After reading Allen’s painfully vapid justification for what he did (and after remembering that Allen described the conduct authorized by the OLC memos as “aggressive interrogation practices critics decried as torture”), I was unable to restrain myself (admittedly, I did not try very hard) from launching further Twitter assaults aimed at Allen and Politico. Allen then announced on Twitter that he was, at that very moment, working on an article explaining what he did and why, which only prompted further Twitter outbursts from me, by then almost certainly approaching TOS-violating levels of Twitter-stalking.
via Politico’s Understanding of Journalistic Anonymity | CommonDreams.org.
Just $6bn Will Save a Generation from Starvation, says UN
Just $6bn Will Save a Generation from Starvation, says UN
G8 agriculture ministers try to halt ‘spiral of hunger’ created by drought, falling prices and credit crunch
Agriculture ministers from the world’s richest countries are holding an unprecedented meeting this weekend as the United Nations warns that hunger threatens to “spiral out of control” in the wake of the financial crisis.
The three-day meeting, which opened in Italy yesterday, will address a growing food crisis as harvests threaten to slump at a time when record numbers of people are already hungry. Crops are being hit by a combination of bad weather, falling food prices and farmers’ being refused credit to buy seeds and fertilisers.
It is the first time that the agriculture ministers of the G8 leading economies have held such a meeting, and they have invited their counterparts from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Argentina and Egypt to join them in Treviso “to work out a common route to lead us out of the crisis and respond to the world food emergency”.
via Just $6bn Will Save a Generation from Starvation, says UN | CommonDreams.org.
John Williams’ Shadow Government Stats
last update 4.03.09
The SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated “discouraged workers” defined away during the Clinton Administration added to the existing BLS estimates of level U-6 unemployment.
The New Nattering Nabobs of Negativism Are Gunning For Obama’s Judicial Nominees: A Republican Strategy That We Must All Hope Fails
The New Nattering Nabobs of Negativism Are Gunning For Obama’s Judicial Nominees: A Republican Strategy That We Must All Hope Fails
By JOHN W. DEAN
There is a high-stakes game for the future of the federal judiciary currently underway, albeit, at this time, still quietly being played out behind-the-scenes. Over a month ago, the New York Times revealed the then-imminent selection by the Obama Administration of “a small stream of nominees to the federal appeals courts” throughout the nation. The story even floated a few names of potential nominees. But little has happened since then.
Thus far, there has been no stream of nominees; indeed, barely a trickle. No one keeps score better than the Alliance for Justice, which reports three Obama nominees so far: Gerald Lynch for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Andre Davis for the Fourth Circuit, and David Hamilton for the Seventh Circuit.
It Is Time to Dissolve All Central Banks, a Cancer on their Nations’ Real Economies
It Is Time to Dissolve All Central Banks, a Cancer on their Nations’ Real Economies
As previously noted, the Federal Reserve has failed on its own terms. Specifically, it has failed to provide the counter-cyclical influence on the economy which is its very justification for existing in the first place.
Moreover, prominent Wall Street economist Henry Kaufman says that the Federal Reserve is primarily to blame for the financial crisis:
“I am convinced that the misbehavior of some would have been much rarer — and far less damaging to our economy — if the Federal Reserve and, to a lesser extent, other supervisory authorities, had measured up to their responsibilities …
Kaufman directly criticized former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for not using his position to dissuade big banks and others from taking big risks.
“Alan Greenspan spoke about irrational exuberance only as a theoretical concept, not as a warning to the market to curb excessive behavior,” Kaufman said. “It is difficult to believe that recourse to moral suasion by a Fed chairman would be ineffective.”
Partly because the Fed did not strongly oppose the repeal in 1999 of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, more large financial conglomerates that were “too big to fail” have formed, Kaufman said, citing a factor that has made the global credit crisis especially acute.
“Financial conglomerates have become more and more opaque, especially about their massive off-balance-sheet activities,” he said. “The Fed failed to rein in the problem.”…
“Much of the recent extreme financial behavior is rooted in faulty monetary policies,” he said. “Poor policies encourage excessive risk taking.”
Even the head of the Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco – during a talk on how runaway bubbles can lead to depressions – admitted:
Fed monetary policy may also have contributed to the U.S. credit boom and the associated house price bubble …
This is on top of the widely recognized fact that the Fed helped cause the Great Depression with its faulty monetary policy.
via It Is Time to Dissolve All Central Banks, a Cancer on their Nations’ Real Economies.
General Motors Expecting to Cut More Jobs
General Motors Expecting to Cut More Jobs
General Motors has operations all around the world and has thousands of workers in Canada, but the first people to get the axe are Americans
New CEO Fritz Henderson has announced bold new plans for General Motors’ turn around, and it will start with more of what they have unsuccessfully been trying for years – laying off workers.
The automaker has until June 1, 2009 to reach agreements with its creditors to avoid government enforced bankruptcy and one proposed plan is to close 14 of the remaining 47 U.S. locations and terminate perhaps 20,000 additional jobs. Henderson said, “There is no question that as we look to revise our plan to cut deeper and go faster …there will be further reductions in manpower.”
Henderson took over for Rick Wagoner after the former CEO was forced out by the Obama administration after continually failing to address the problems at the Detroit giant. There is real speculation that GM will still not be able to fulfill the government’s standards to put together a stronger business model. According to Henderson, there is still a very real chance of bankruptcy.
The Treasury has already loaned the company $13.4 billion, and demands more action on the part of General Motors if they hope to get more funding.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
America’s Future Depends On Learning From Past Mistakes
America’s Future Depends On Learning From Past Mistakes – by Jeff Bennett and Craig Harrington
Americans are traveling down a road previously traversed by Latin Americans; promoting imports over exports, falling deep into debt while losing any ability to promote and create jobs through manufacturing.
In April 2009 the outstanding national debt is over $11.2 trillion, and the balance of traded deficits for the last four years have been $711 billion (2005), $753 billion (2006), $700 billion (2007), and $681 billion (2008) larger than at any point in U.S. history. Coupled with these debts is the fact that the United States has lost well over 16,600 jobs since 1978, and continues to shed them at a regular pace.
These facts do not show a strong, independent nation, instead, one dependent on the financing of foreign banks, paralleling Latin America’s past.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Brazil Deforestation To Be Monitored By Satellites
Brazil Deforestation To Be Monitored By Satellites
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil is expanding satellite monitoring of deforestation to the entire nation.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc says that until now, such monitoring was a “one-note” song about the Amazon. He says other flora-rich areas such as the Patanal and the Atlantic rain forest will soon come under satellite protection.
Minc announced the measure Thursday at the World Economic Forum on Latin America in Rio de Janeiro.
Satellite coverage helps officials track deforestation and send more agents into areas at risk.
Officials hope the system will be fully functional within a year.
via Brazil Deforestation To Be Monitored By Satellites.
How Does An Ecosystem Function Below A Glacier?
How Does An Ecosystem Function Below A Glacier?
WASHINGTON — Hidden in the bone-chilling dark beneath an Antarctic glacier, a colony of strange bacteria is thriving. Scientists investigating the flow of blood-red water from beneath the glacier discovered the bacteria, which have survived for millions of years, living on sulfur and iron compounds, they report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science.
“Among the big questions here are: ‘How does an ecosystem function below glaciers?’, ‘How are they able to persist below hundreds of meters of ice and live in permanently cold and dark conditions for extended periods of time, in the case of Blood Falls, over millions of years?” said lead researcher Jill Mikucki of Harvard University.
Blood Falls, flowing from beneath Taylor Glacier, has long evoked curiosity because of its color. The researchers determined that iron compounds provide the color, and in the process of their research they discovered bacteria in the water, an extremely salty pool.
via How Does An Ecosystem Function Below A Glacier?.
Green-Ish Drinks Offer Cleaner Consciences In April
Green-Ish Drinks Offer Cleaner Consciences In April
Earth Day approaches — let’s drink!
Right?
OK, maybe not the first thing you’d usually think. But celebrating the planet can involve a little alcohol, and if you’re not into sustainable beer, maybe this is more your speed:
VeeV, which claims to be the first green spirits brand — I look forward to the comments on this one — is offering to donate a dollar to rainforest protection for each “Treetini” cocktail made with their Acai booze purchased in the month of April. That’s an interesting variation on the Earth Day Deal.
What’s a Treetini? Happily, the folks at VeeV are fuzzy on this, and have left it mostly in the hands of bartenders across the country. Here are a few drinks that bars have made with the stuff:
more……….
via Green-Ish Drinks Offer Cleaner Consciences In April.
We’ll See a Cadillac Volt in 2011. Or Not
We’ll See a Cadillac Volt in 2011. Or Not
General Motors reportedly will build the Cadillac Converj, a range-extended electric vehicle based on the Chevrolet Volt, and have it in showrooms within two years.
Maybe.
Motor Trend, citing an unnamed “well-placed source,” says GM brass have approved the project and want it on the road by the end of 2011, assuming the company turns its finances around. But Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell tells Wired.com that Motor Trend is wrong.
“We’re pleased that reaction to the Cadillac Converj concept is strongly positive,” he said. “But there is no change in its status — it’s a concept under consideration, and that remains the case.”
Motor Trend sticks by its report and says, “Our source offers a number of details that lend credence to the probability of (the project’s) approval.”
The question is why wouldn’t GM build the Converj, assuming it finds the money to do so?
GM has always said the Voltec drivetrain — which uses an electric motor to drive the wheels and a 1.4-liter gasoline engine to recharge the battery — will be the basis of a range of models. Spokesman Robert Peterson recently told us the company is looking ahead to “generation 2 and generation 3″ of the technology but wouldn’t say what those cars might be. The Converj, which GM unveiled at the Detroit auto show, makes sense for a few reasons.
via We’ll See a Cadillac Volt in 2011. Or Not | Autopia from Wired.com.
5 Ways To Monitor Energy And Money Use
5 Ways To Monitor Energy And Money Use
We all know we need to use less energy to save money. But we work best with goals — how much energy, exactly, should we save? Easier to work in dollars, right?
Well, Michael Graham Richard over at Planet Green reports that there’s an easy conversion:
Eric Drexler, a great scientist and engineer who also recently started blogging, noticed something interesting about the average electricity rate in the US ($0.115 per kilowatt-hour): One watt for one year costs one dollar.
Why is this interesting? Because most of us aren’t really good at estimating our energy usage and what part of our electricity bill comes from what.
So, armed with that knowledge, here’s how to get started monitoring the speed at which money and energy are leaving your home.
via 5 Ways To Monitor Energy And Money Use.
US To Boycott UN Conference On Racism
US To Boycott UN Conference On Racism
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will boycott “with regret” a U.N. conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting’s final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said Saturday.
The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against U.S. participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who had hoped that President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, would send an official delegation.
The administration had wanted to attend the April 20-25 meeting in Geneva, although it warned in late February it would not go unless significant changes were made to the draft text.
Some revisions _ including the removal of specific critical references to Israel and problematic passages about the defamation of religion _ were negotiated for which State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the administration was “deeply grateful.”
But he said the text retains troubling elements that suggest support for restrictions on free speech and an affirmation of the findings of the first World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 that the U.S cannot endorse.
“Unfortunately, it now seems certain these remaining concerns will not
via US To Boycott UN Conference On Racism.
Bank Regulators Clash Over U.S. Stress-Tests Endgame
Bank Regulators Clash Over U.S. Stress-Tests Endgame
April 18 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury and financial regulators are clashing with each other over how to disclose results from the stress tests of 19 U.S. banks, with some officials concerned at potential damage to weaker institutions.
With a May 4 deadline approaching, there is no set plan for how much information to release, how to categorize the results or who should make the announcements, people familiar with the matter said. While the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other regulators want few details about the assessments to be publicized, the Treasury is pushing for broader disclosure.
The disarray highlights what threatens to be a lose-lose situation for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: If all the banks pass, the tests’ credibility will be questioned, and if some banks get failing grades and are forced to accept more government capital and oversight, they may be punished by investors and customers.
“There are plenty of ways to go wrong here,” said Wayne Abernathy, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association in Washington. “It might have sounded good at the time, but now looking back, it has far more risk than benefit.”
The banks haven’t been consulted on how the information will be released and have raised the issue with the Treasury, three industry officials said on condition of anonymity.
via Bank Regulators Clash Over U.S. Stress-Tests Endgame (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.
Venezuela To Restore Ambassador To US
Venezuela To Restore Ambassador To US
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Hugo Chavez said Saturday that he is restoring Venezuela’s ambassador in Washington, voicing hopes for a “new era” in relations after exchanging greetings with U.S. President Barack Obama at a regional summit.
Venezuela’s socialist president told reporters at the Summit of the Americas that he will propose Roy Chaderton, his current ambassador to the Organization of American States, as the country’s new representative in a move toward improving strained ties with Washington.
The announcement crowns a week in which Obama rejected two centuries of U.S. “heavy-handedness” toward Latin America and raised hopes for a rapprochement with Cuba, with which it severed ties 48 years ago. Venezuela under Chavez has become a close ally of Cuba.
Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, in September in solidarity with leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales, who ordered out the top U.S. diplomat in his country for allegedly helping the opposition incite violence.
Washington reciprocated by kicking out both nations’ ambassadors.
via Venezuela To Restore Ambassador To US.
High Court Poised To Closely Weigh Civil Rights Laws
High Court Poised To Closely Weigh Civil Rights Laws
Cases Heard as Nation Debates Race
The Supreme Court has an opportunity to reaffirm or reshape the nation’s civil rights laws as it faces a rare confluence of cases over the next two weeks, including a high-profile challenge brought by white firefighters who claim they lost out on promotions because of the “color of their skin.”
The cases also touch on the Voting Rights Act, the need to provide English classes for immigrant children and, more tangentially, discriminatory mortgage lending.
The most emotionally charged case is from the New Haven, Conn., firefighters, whose complaints define the real-life quandary that sometimes accompanies government efforts to ensure racial equality.
The firefighters accuse city officials of violating civil rights laws and the Constitution by throwing out a promotions test on which they performed well but no blacks scored high enough to be eligible. The city responds that relying on test results with such wide racial discrepancies could have violated federal law and left them open to being sued by minorities.
via High Court Poised To Closely Weigh Civil Rights Laws – washingtonpost.com.
The Confessions of Eliot Spitzer
Spitzer in Exile
When your résumé says ‘disgraced ex-governor,’ what do you do next?
There is no success so exquisite as the kind you find in Manhattan and no disgrace so excruciating as the kind you find on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Residents of the rarefied blocks north of the Plaza Hotel and east of Central Park marvel at the smallness of their neighborhood, how each day they run into friends—strolling through the park, marching down the wide avenues, sitting in thewell-lit restaurants. This familiarity is a comfort to the neighborhood’s better sorts, the knowledge that most anyone they know, most anyone who matters, might be about to round the corner. For pariahs, it is torture, a torture they have no choice but to endure. They can hole up in the country for the weekend … but the children must go to school. They can send the laundry out, they can order food in … but even the airiest apartments turn stuffy after a while. Eventually, they have to go out, onto the street.
via The Confessions of Eliot Spitzer | Newsweek Politics | Newsweek.com.
Boehner Cites Cow Farts To Downplay Global Warming (VIDEO)
Boehner Cites Cow Farts To Downplay Global Warming (VIDEO)
Minority Leader John Boehner described the overwhelming scientific consensus that carbon dioxide is contributing to climate change as “comical” during an appearance on Sunday, noting that cow flatulence contributes CO2 to the environment all the time.
Appearing on ABC’s This Week, the Ohio Republican was asked what to describe the GOP plan to dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, “which every major scientific organization said is contributing to climate change.”
Boehner replied: “The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know when they do what they do you’ve got more carbon dioxide.”
“It’s clear we’ve had change in our climate,” he added. “The question is how much does man have to do with it and what is the proper way to deal with this? We can’t do it alone as one nation.”
via Boehner Cites Cow Farts To Downplay Global Warming (VIDEO).
Jobless Rate Climbs in 46 States, With California at 11.2%
OPS: As always….. They are quoting the U3 rather than the more accurate U6. It’s much worse than they are letting on. more here – and here
Jobless Rate Climbs in 46 States, With California at 11.2%
California and North Carolina in March posted their highest jobless rates in at least three decades, as unemployment increased in all but a handful of states during the month, the Labor Department said Friday.
California’s unemployment rate jumped to 11.2% in March, while North Carolina rose to 10.8%, the highest for both since the U.S. government began a comprehensive tally of state joblessness in 1976.
The state-by-state employment figures showed only a few states avoiding the deterioration seen nationwide. Unemployment rose in 46 states during the month, and 12 states plus the District of Columbia posted unemployment rates in March that were significantly higher than the 8.5% nationwide figure the government released earlier this month.
via Jobless Rate Climbs in 46 States, With California at 11.2% – WSJ.com.
Strip-searches at schools go to Supreme Court
Strip-searches at schools go to Supreme Court
Savana Redding was strip-searched in the nurse’s office because a vice principal suspected she might be hiding extra-strength ibuprofen.
In an Arizona case, administrators were worried about campus safety, while the student just felt humiliated.
By David G. Savage
April 19, 2009
Reporting from Safford, Ariz. — When Savana Redding, now 19, talks of what happened to her in eighth grade, it is clear that the painful memories linger.
She speaks of being embarrassed and fearful and of staying away from school for two months. And she recalls the “whispers” and “stares” from others in this small eastern Arizona mining town after she was strip-searched in the nurse’s office because a vice principal suspected she might be hiding extra-strength ibuprofen in her underwear.
via Strip-searches at schools go to Supreme Court – Los Angeles Times.
F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases
F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases
Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. The move, intended to help solve more crimes, is raising concerns about the privacy of petty offenders and people who are presumed innocent.
Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants.
The F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its growth rate from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs — which now stand at more than 500,000 cases — to increase.
Law enforcement officials say that expanding the DNA databanks to include legally innocent people will help solve more violent crimes. They point out that DNA has helped convict thousands of criminals and has exonerated more than 200 wrongfully convicted people.
via F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases – NYTimes.com.
Report: FBI plans massive expansion of DNA database
One step forward – Goose Step back
OPS: The goose step of Fascism is louder and faster than ever. And Obama and the Democrats are not going to even slow it down. Who is really in control? 
Report: FBI plans massive expansion of DNA database
The Federal Bureau of Intelligence will expand its DNA database to include samples taken from individuals who have not been convicted of crimes, the New York Times reported Saturday afternoon.
“Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts,” wrote reporter Solomon Moore. “But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will also collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants.
“The F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its rate of growth from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs — which now stand at more than 500,000 cases — to increase.
“Law enforcement officials say that expanding the DNA databanks to include legally innocent people will help solve more violent crimes. They point out that DNA has helped convict thousands of criminals and has exonerated more than 200 wrongfully convicted people.”
via Raw Story » Report: FBI plans massive expansion of DNA database.
American officials predict dangerous insurgency, collapse of Pakistani government
OPS: The question then becomes – Who gets the Nukes? Will this be the justification for pulling out of Iraq and moving it all to Pakistan? Pakistan: Obama’s Vietnam?
American officials predict dangerous insurgency, collapse of Pakistani government
The forecast for the Pakistani state is troubled at best, according to multiple senior intelligence sources and analysts. Many are predicting an imminent collapse, contingent on continued American assassinations in the region.
An anonymous intelligence official with long experience in Pakistan told McClatchy News that “it’s a disaster in the making on the scale of the Iranian revolution,” and that “the implications of this are disastrous for the U.S. The supply lines [from Karachi to U.S. military bases] in Kandahar and Kabul from the south and east will be cut, or at least they’ll be less secure, and probably sooner rather than later. That will jeopardize the mission in Afghanistan, especially now that it’s getting bigger.”
Another Pentagon adviser speaking on condition of anonymity told McClatchy, “The place is beyond redemption. I think Pakistan is moving toward a situation where the extremists control virtually all of the countryside and the government controls only the urban centers,” he continued. “If you look out 10 years, I think the government will be overrun by Islamic militants.” The experts interviewed for the article insisted that their views weren’t “worst case scenarios” but were “realistic expectations” for the coming months.
via The Raw Story | American officials predict dangerous insurgency, collapse of Pakistani government.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month.
Marcy Wheeler digs through the recently-disclosed Office of Legal Counsel memos authored by the Bush Justice Department and finds these startling statistics: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. Wheeler concludes, “The CIA wants you to believe waterboarding is effective. Yet somehow, it took them 183 applications of the waterboard in a one month period to get what they claimed was cooperation out of KSM. That doesn’t sound very effective to me.”
via Think Progress » Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month..
NYT editorial calls for impeachment of Judge Jay Bybee.
NYT editorial calls for impeachment of Judge Jay Bybee.
In his capacity as former head of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Jay Bybee’s “name appears as the author of the August 1, 2002 memo justifying and authorizing clear acts of torture by the CIA.” For his willingness to engage in torturous legal reasoning, Bybee was awarded a lifetime seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by President Bush. The Senate confirmed him with a 74-19 vote. The New York Times writes that the newly-released OLC torture memos make it appropriate for Congress to reconsider its decision to approve Bybee:
These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution. Congress should impeach him.
The California Democratic Party, which is holding its convention next weekend, will consider “a resolution from grassroots activists calling for Jay Bybee’s impeachment.”
via Think Progress » NYT editorial calls for impeachment of Judge Jay Bybee..
Meghan McCain: ‘Most of the old school Republicans are scared shitless’ of the future.
Meghan McCain: ‘Most of the old school Republicans are scared
shitless’ of the future.
In an address to the Log Cabin Republicans yesterday, Meghan McCain said that her recent public disagreements with conservative figures including Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham have reinforced her belief that most “old school Republicans” are “scared shitless” of the future. McCain said that the Republican party must challenge “the mold and the notions of what being a Republican means” by embracing what she called being a “progressive Republican“:
mmccain1.jpgSo tonight, I am proud to join you in challenging the mold and the notions of what being a Republican means. I am concerned about the environment. I love to wear black. I think government is best when it stays out of people’s lives and business as much as possible. I love punk rock. I believe in a strong national defense. I have a tattoo. I believe government should always be efficient and accountable. I have lots of gay friends. And yes, I am a Republican.
Despite the fact that the Log Cabin Republicans advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian interests in the Republican party, McCain only tangentially addressed her own views on gay rights. She expressed her hope that all people could live “in full equality with each other.”
Hayden: The Torture Memos Show The ‘Outer Limits’ That ‘Any American’ Would Go To In Interrogations
OPS: The Degenerate, attempting to justify their sociopathic insanity
Hayden: The Torture Memos Show The ‘Outer Limits’ That ‘Any American’ Would Go To In Interrogations
Today on Fox News Sunday, former CIA director Michael Hayden blasted President Obama’s decision to release the Bush-era torture memos. Hayden claimed that he and other former CIA directors opposed making the documents public because it would compromise future interrogations of detainees by letting them know the “outer limits” of what the United States does:
HAYDEN: At the tactical level, what we have described for our enemies in the midst of a war are the outer limits that any American would ever go to in terms of interrogating an al Qaeda terrorist. That’s very valuable information. Now, it doesn’t mean we would always go to the outer limits, but it describes the box within which Americans will not go beyond. To me, that’s very useful for our enemies, even if as a policy matter, this President at this time had decided not to use one, any or all of those techniques. It reveals the outer limits. That’s very important.
Watch it
More than Nuremberg: Thousands Prosecuted for War Crimes After World War II
More than Nuremberg: Thousands Prosecuted for War Crimes After World War II
While the example of the Nuremberg Trials is used often these days to describe what prosecutions might look like, few seem to remember that the prosecution of war criminals after World War II was much larger and took place over a longer period of time than most people realize. This is important when one considers the context of President Obama’s granting of immunity to lower-level CIA interrogators (if they acted in “good faith” upon “authoritative” legal advice).
What even a cursory examination of historical precedent demonstrates is that after World War II prosecution of war criminals and accessories to war crimes were not limited to the famous Nuremberg 22 high-level Nazis, nor the few hundred or so prosecuted through the Nuremberg tribunals, but thousands of accused throughout Europe.
What follows is a brief lesson in how these prosecutions occurred, who was involved, and where and when they took place. It may surprise you that the United States, for instance, has an Office of Special Investigations (OSI) at the US Department of Justice. Its mission was to hunt down war criminals and bring them to justice. Established only in 1979, the OSI has a sterling record:
via Invictus: A blog on U.S. Politics and the Fight Against Torture.
Human tide of misery flees the anarchy of Somalia
Human tide of misery flees the anarchy of Somalia
The world watches the pirates at sea, while the people on land create the world’s largest refugee camp
The lucky ones come with their families, others appear out of the thorn bushes, walking alone. Five hundred Somalis are now arriving at this bleak Kenyan outpost every day. They join a population of 267,000 and counting, in a facility built to shelter just 45,000. While the world has been captivated by the high seas drama of Somalia’s pirates, this human tide has swollen the ranks of Dadaab, turning it into the world’s largest refugee camp.
The new arrivals sit in their hundreds under a makeshift tarpaulin, trying to keep perfectly still in temperatures that reach 40C in the shade. It speaks volumes for the horrors unfolding in Somalia that people will abandon their homes, risk arbitrary arrest, death or starvation to reach the desolate welcome on offer in this corner of northern Kenya.
These people are proof of the human cost of the accelerating collapse of Somalia, yet their fate attracts nothing like the global interest that surrounds Somali piracy and its threat to commerce. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) that runs Dadaab urgently needs new money from international donors and new land from the Kenyan government. Neither has been forthcoming. The annual budget for this camp is $19m (£13m) – roughly half the annual operational cost of a single warship patrolling the Indian Ocean in search of modern-day Blackbeards.
The story of Dadaab is in some senses the story of modern Somalia. Its three camps, Hagadera, Ifo and Dagahaley, were built to house those who fled when the last functioning central government – that of socialist dictator Siad Barre – collapsed in 1991. The camps soon reached their initial capacity and as the mother country just 50 miles to the north has sunk deeper and deeper, so the number of refugees has risen and risen. An entire generation of children has grown up knowing Dadaab as their only home. There have been 14 failed governments since then, Somalia is in a state of anarchy and Dadaab is facing an extraordinary influx. Last August the land ran out and the UN had to declare the camps full. It has not stopped the desperate masses arriving.
via Human tide of misery flees the anarchy of Somalia.
Cocaine Highways: Post-NAFTA, Most Drugs Cross U.S. Borders in Trucks
OPS: well hell…. how else can they keep up with demand?
Cocaine Highways: Post-NAFTA, Most Drugs Cross U.S. Borders in Trucks
Mexican Cartels Using Huge Fleet of 18-Wheelers, Only 5% Inspected at Border Crossing
Most of the drug shipments smuggled into the United States by the Mexican cartels are hidden in trucks that drive across U.S. border checkpoints in plain sight, with little fear of inspection, U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News.
Only about 5 percent of trucks coming into the country from Mexico are inspected, according to U.S. officials.
Watch “World News with Charles Gibson” tonight at 6:30pm ET and “Nightline” at 11:30pm ET for Brian Ross’ full report.
“It is just too costly and too slow given the volume of trucks to actually try to stop and inspect each and every truck,” said Juan Zarate who dealt with the issue in the Geroge W. Bush White House as Deputy National Security Director.
via Cocaine Highways: Post-NAFTA, Most Drugs Cross U.S. Borders in Trucks – ABC News.
Child Obesity Is Linked to Chemicals in Plastics
Child Obesity Is Linked to Chemicals in Plastics
Exposure to chemicals used in plastics may be linked with childhood obesity, according to results from a long-term health study on girls who live in East Harlem and surrounding communities that were presented to community leaders on Thursday by researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
The chemicals in question are called phthalates, which are used to to make plastics pliable and in personal care products. Phthalates, which are absorbed into the body, are a type of endocrine disruptor — chemicals that affect glands and hormones that regulate many bodily functions. They have raised concerns as possible carcinogens for more than a decade, but attention over their role in obesity is relatively recent.
The research linking endocrine disruptors with obesity has been growing recently. A number of animal studies have shown that exposing mice to some endocrine disruptors causes them be more obese. Chemicals that have raised concern include Bisphenol A (which is used in plastics) and perfluorooctanoic acid, which is often used to create nonstick surfaces.
However, the East Harlem study, which includes data published in the journal Epidemiology, presents some of the first evidence linking obesity and endocrine disruptors in humans.
via Child Obesity Is Linked to Chemicals in Plastics – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com.
Court Blocks Alaska Offshore Drilling on Environmental Grounds
Court Blocks Alaska Offshore Drilling on Environmental Grounds
WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2009 (ENS) – Three conservation groups and a native village in Alaska declared victory today as the federal government’s attempt to expand oil and gas drilling off the Alaska coast was vacated by a U.S. appeals court in Washington, DC.
The three judge panel ruled that the Bush-era Department of the Interior failed to consider the impact of drilling on the ocean and on marine life before it began the process in August 2005 of expanding an oil and gas leasing program in the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas.
The court ordered the Interior Department, headed currently by Secretary Ken Salazar, to analyze the proposed leasing areas to determine the risk of environmental damage before moving ahead with lease sales.
The judges sided with the Center for Biological Diversity, Alaska Wilderness League, Pacific Environment and the Native Village of Point Hope, who argued that the 2007-2012 Outer Continental Shelf Leasing Program would turn sensitive areas into polluted industrial zones.
via Court Blocks Alaska Offshore Drilling on Environmental Grounds.
A question for Democrats
OPS: The answer, for Blue Dogs and DLC Democrats, is No. They are Republicans disguised as Democrats
A question for Democrats
ARE HUMAN RIGHTS still a Democratic priority?
To Democrats of a certain age, such a question might seem incomprehensible. After all, it was a Democrat, John F. Kennedy, whose inaugural address proclaimed “to friend and foe alike” that Americans would resist “the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed.” It was another Democrat, Jimmy Carter, who made support for human rights an explicit foreign-policy concern, declaring at his inauguration: “Because we are free we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere.” It was Senator Henry Jackson and Representative Charles Vanik – Democrats both – whose landmark Jackson-Vanik amendment helped win freedom for tens of thousands of Soviet dissidents and refuseniks.
But somewhere along the way, Democratic priorities seem to have changed.
For example: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could have used her recent trip to China to vigorously defend human rights – to make it clear to those who rule the world’s largest dictatorship that the new administration in Washington cares about the liberty and dignity of China’s people. Instead, she more or less announced in advance that talking to Beijing about human rights was pointless, since “we pretty much know what they’re going to say.” Besides, she told reporters, human rights must not “interfere” with more important issues, such as the economic crisis or climate change.
China got the message. As Clinton arrived in Beijing, dozens of pro-democracy dissidents were placed under virtual house arrest. True to her word, the secretary of state made no fuss about the regime’s brutality.
Not long thereafter, the White House picked Charles Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council. A longtime Beijing sycophant, Freeman had defended the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, publicly regretting only that Chinese authorities didn’t crack down even sooner. (He later withdrew his name from consideration.)
via A question for Democrats – The Boston Globe.
The Bigots’ Last Hurrah
The Bigots’ Last Hurrah
By Frank Rich
WHAT would happen if you crossed that creepy 1960s horror classic “The Village of the Damned” with the Broadway staple “A Chorus Line”? You don’t need to use your imagination. It’s there waiting for you on YouTube under the title “Gathering Storm”: a 60-second ad presenting homosexuality as a national threat second only to terrorism.
The actors are supposedly Not Gay. They stand in choral formation before a backdrop of menacing clouds and cheesy lightning effects. “The winds are strong,” says a white man to the accompaniment of ominous music. “And I am afraid,” a young black woman chimes in. “Those advocates want to change the way I live,” says a white woman. But just when all seems lost, the sun breaks through and a smiling black man announces that “a rainbow coalition” is “coming together in love” to save America from the apocalypse of same-sex marriage. It’s the swiftest rescue of Western civilization since the heyday of the ambiguously gay duo Batman and Robin.
Far from terrifying anyone, “Gathering Storm” has become, unsurprisingly, an Internet camp classic. On YouTube the original video must compete with countless homemade parodies it has inspired since first turning up some 10 days ago. None may top Stephen Colbert’s on Thursday night, in which lightning from “the homo storm” strikes an Arkansas teacher, turning him gay. A “New Jersey pastor” whose church has been “turned into an Abercrombie & Fitch” declares that he likes gay people, “but only as hilarious best friends in TV and movies.”
Yet easy to mock as “Gathering Storm” may be, it nonetheless bookmarks a historic turning point in the demise of America’s anti-gay movement.
via Op-Ed Columinst – The Bigots’ Last Hurrah – NYTimes.com.
Did Auto Czar Steve Rattner Help Scam New York Pensioners?
Did Auto Czar Steve Rattner Help Scam New York Pensioners?
Steve Rattner, the money manager who is Obama’s top adviser on bailing out the auto industry, is uncomfortably close to a criminal investigation into the New York state pension fund, newspapers reported today.
In October 2004 Rattner, the private equity investor and former New York Times reporter who is leading (if not quite the “czar” of) the Obama administration’s task force to save the auto industry, met with David Loglisci, the recently-indicted chief investment officer of the New York General Pension Fund to solicit an investment in his private equity fund Quandrangle, according to news reports in today’s New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. By January Rattner’s fund had allegedly signed a written agreement to give a 1.1% cut of whatever investment Quadrangle received from the fund to Henry Morris, the (also recently indicted) former aide to the disgraced former state comptroller Alan Hevesi. A few days later, as if to sweeten the deal, Rattner agreed to meet with Loglisci’s brother and wound up investing $88,841 for the DVD distribution rights to a movie that had grossed barely a third of that during its brief release in theaters through a Quadrangle affiliate called GT Brands. (The brother produced the movie, Chooch.) Three weeks later, Loglisci the CIO “personally informed” Rattner that Quadrangle would be getting a $100 million investment from the pension fund — and over the next two and a half years Morris would in turn collect over a million dollars in “finders fees” for the transactions.
Those, at least, are the allegations of a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the SEC against Morris, Loglisci and two of their associates in the latest development in the protracted pay-to-play probe of New York state pension funds. The lawsuit only makes reference to a “Quadrangle executive” but the Times and the Journal quote sources confirming the executive is Rattner. Both papers also specify that Rattner is not himself a target of the probe, and that he told the administration about the investigation when he took the job.
The scheme was so brazen — and so unsophisticated when compared, say, with the convoluted network of middlemen through whom Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich funneled public funds into his personal coffers — that it’s hard to imagine Rattner, a billionaire with lifelong political ambitions and more connections than any one person could ever legitimately milk for profits, would go along with it in “good faith.” There’s also some careful wording to the suit that suggests Rattner was acting with some element of deliberation.
via Did Auto Czar Steve Rattner Help Scam New York Pensioners? | TPMMuckraker.
Quote of the Day
“It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
- Henry Ford*
* He was correct about banking, but let’s not forget that Ford was an anti-semitic Nazi supporter
Volcker says economy recovery a long slog
Volcker says economy recovery a “long slog”
NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – Paul Volcker, senior economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Saturday that the U.S. economic recovery will be a “long slog” but that the rate of decline “is going to slow.”
The United States may not be in a Great Depression but it is “in a great recession for sure,” following the economy’s unprecedented tumble in late 2008, Volcker said at a financial markets conference at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Volcker, a former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, did not give a time-frame on his expectations for when the United States will pull out of the recession that started in December 2007.
Most economists believe the economy hit its lowest point in the fourth quarter of 2008, when gross domestic product shrank at an annual rate of 6.3 percent, or in the just-ended first quarter.
“None of us has seen a decline in economic activity at the rate of speed seen late last year,” Volcker said.
For now, troubles in the financial system continue to plague the economy, and vice versa.
“The lack of a good strong recovery works against a strong financial system,” he said. The financial system “is not quite comatose, but it’s on life support.”
via Volcker says economy recovery a long slog | U.S. | Reuters.
Anti-Gay Group Sends Letter To Colbert Thanking Him For Mocking Them
Anti-Gay Group Sends Letter To Colbert Thanking Him For Mocking Them
If you’ve been fortunate enough to see the bizarre issue ad put out last week by the National Organization for Marriage, which contends that heterosexuals are threatened by a coming scourge of gay-wedding tornadoes, then you’ve likely already accepted as a given that the people behind NOM are not terribly intelligent individuals.
But, as if seized with the need to demonstrate this further, the organization has sent Stephen Colbert a letter of thanks for producing a commercial parody that depicts the NOM membership as closeted, dim nitwits (watch that video HERE).
Apparently, they believe that Colbert has helped their cause, somehow. This is, as they say, ADORBS:
“I’ve always thought Stephen Colbert was a double-agent, pretending to pretend to be a conservative, to pull one over Hollywood. Now I’m sure,” said Maggie Gallagher, President of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
via Anti-Gay Group Sends Letter To Colbert Thanking Him For Mocking Them.
Hybrid Hummer Promises 100 Miles per Gallon | Autopia from Wired.com
Hybrid Hummer Promises 100 Miles per Gallon
he Hummer is the poster child of excess consumption and inefficiency, but a Utah company is converting the much-maligned SUVs into a range-extended electric vehicle good for 100 mpg and a range of 40 miles.
Raser Technologies will unveil the Raser H3 on Monday in Detroit. It promises a 90 mph top speed, off-road capability and a lithium ion-battery you can recharge in as little as three hours. What’s more, the company says the drivetrain can be installed in other trucks and it hopes to have 2,000 converted vehicles on the road by the end of next year.
That’s a tall order, and there is no shortage of companies promising us wonder cars with miraculous fuel economy and impressive range. But Raser is taking a different approach. It isn’t building a car from scratch like Aptera Motors or Lightning Hybrids. Instead, it’s essentially cribbing from the Chevrolet Volt and Fisker Karma to convert existing vehicles with off-the-shelf parts.
“We’ve taken the worst environmental offender on the road and made it greener than a Prius,” David West, the company’s vice president of marketing, told Wired.com. “It truly is incredible to see and hear a Hummer that truly hums.”
But why start with a Hummer?
via Hybrid Hummer Promises 100 Miles per Gallon | Autopia from Wired.com.
Gresham Barrett, GOP Congressman, Booed Off Stage At Tea Party (VIDEO)
Gresham Barrett, GOP Congressman, Booed Off Stage At Tea Party (VIDEO)
“Several Republican members of Congress spoke at Tea Party protests around the country on Wednesday,” CNN reported. “Some were applauded. Others heckled. But only one, it appears, was booed relentlessly for the entire duration of his speech: Rep. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina.”
Barrett faced the ire of the tea party protesters because his vote last year for the $700 billion, Bush administration-backed financial bailout. Now, the Republican congressman is prepping for a South Carolina gubernatorial run in what is expected to be a competitive GOP primary.
If the tea party protesters were any reflection of Republicans in the state, he’s got an uphill climb. The conservative S.C. blog, the Palmetto Scoop, captured the moment:
Protesters screamed “go home” and blew air horns during the duration of Barrett’s five minute speech. Some even turned their backs to him.
Messages on dozens of signs and hundreds of fliers also expressed a similar contempt for “Bailout Barrett.”
via Gresham Barrett, GOP Congressman, Booed Off Stage At Tea Party (VIDEO).
Bank Profits Mask Peril Still Lurking
Bank Profits Mask Peril Still Lurking
Citi Makes Money, but Defaults Still Climbing
Citigroup announced a surprisingly strong first-quarter profit yesterday, the latest bank to report a sharp improvement from the disastrous final months of 2008
The earnings bloom, however, is probably a false spring, according to bank executives and financial analysts. Banks rise and fall with the economy. As prosperity recedes, more people and companies are defaulting on loans. The nation and its banks still face grave challenges, they said.
“We don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Edward “Ned” Kelly, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, said in an interview, referring to the state of the economy. His company, the most troubled of the large banks, reported that defaults increased during the first quarter on nearly every kind of consumer loan.
via Bank Profits Mask Peril Still Lurking – washingtonpost.com.
Limbaugh’s Proof That Torture Works: McCain Was ‘Broken By The North Vietnamese’
Limbaugh’s Proof That Torture Works: McCain Was ‘Broken By The North Vietnamese’
On his radio show yesterday, Rush Limbaugh responded to the Obama administration’s release of four of the OLC torture memos with a full-throated defense of of torture and its effectiveness for gathering useful intelligence. As evidence of the effectiveness of torture, Limbaugh noted that — in his speech to the Republican National Convention last summer — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said the North Vietnamese “broke” him while he was a POW. Limbaugh suggested that in saying the North Vietnamese “broke” him, McCain was saying that torture worked:
LIMBAUGH: The idea that torture doesn’t work– that’s been put out from John McCain on down– You know, for the longest time McCain said torture doesn’t work then he admitted in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last summer that he was broken by North Vietnamese. So what are we to think here?
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Limbaugh’s Proof That Torture Works: McCain Was ‘Broken By The North Vietnamese’.
The War Crimes Act of 1996: Bush, Cheney and the Boys could be Indicted under US Law
The War Crimes Act of 1996: Bush, Cheney and the Boys could be Indicted under US Law
The War Crimes Act of 1996, a federal statute set forth at 18 U.S.C. § 2441, makes it a federal crime for any U.S. national, whether military or civilian, to violate the Geneva Convention by engaging in murder, torture, or inhuman treatment.
The statute applies not only to those who carry out the acts, but also to those who ORDER IT, know about it, or fail to take steps to stop it. The statute applies to everyone, no matter how high and mighty.
18 U.S.C. § 2441 has no statute of limitations, which means that a war crimes complaint can be filed at any time.
The penalty may be life imprisonment or — if a single prisoner dies due to torture — death. Given that there are numerous, documented cases of prisoners being tortured to death by U.S. soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan (see for example this report), that means that the death penalty would be appropriate for anyone found guilty of carrying out, ordering, or sanctioning such conduct.
A.I.G. Denying Healthcare to Americans Wounded in the War
Injured war zone contractors fight to get care
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington — Civilian workers who suffered devastating injuries while supporting the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan have come home to a grinding battle for basic medical care, artificial limbs, psychological counseling and other services.
The insurance companies responsible for their treatment under taxpayer-funded policies have routinely denied the most serious medical claims. Those insurers — primarily American International Group (AIG) — recorded hundreds of millions of dollars in profits on this business.
via FORGOTTEN WARRIORS: Injured war zone contractors fight to get care – Los Angeles Times.
UN torture investigator: Obama has broken International law
UN torture investigator: Obama has broken International law
UN official suggests US courts can still try accused torturers
The United Nation’s top torture investigator has suggested it is illegal under International law for President Barack Obama to announce that the United States government has no intention of prosecuting low-level CIA officers who carried out torture sanctioned by the Bush Administration.
President Barack Obama’s release on Thursday of four Bush administration memos sanctioning torture has been widely praised. However, word that government will go so far as to offer a fully-paid legal defense for agents who applied torture techniques to terror war prisoners has triggered loud criticism.
“Like all other contracting states to the UN convention against torture, the US has committed to conduct criminal investigations of torture and to bring all persons to court against whom there is sound evidence,” Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, told Austrian weekly paper Der Standard.
“They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear,” Nowak told the paper. “The fact that you carried out an order doesn’t relieve you of your responsibility.”
“In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manfred Nowak [...] said the United States had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
via Raw Story » UN torture investigator: Obama has broken International law.
Steele Offers New Conspiracy Theory, Alleges Government Is Spying On Anti-Abortion Rally
OPS: It must be a requirement now that you have to be insane to join the Republican Party
Steele Offers New Conspiracy Theory, Alleges Government Is Spying On Anti-Abortion Rally
Last night on Fox News, host Sean Hannity and his guest RNC Chairman Michael Steele ranted and raved about a Department of Homeland Security report “requested by the Bush administration” which warned of increasing incidents of “rightwing radicalization and recruitment.”
Hannity responded by implying that President Obama is a possible terrorist threat. “If you’re pro-life, you’re viewed as the potential extremist,” he complained, but “you can start your career in the home of an unrepentant terrorist and hang out with a guy named Jeremiah Wright.” “I don’t want to beat an old horse here,” said Hannity, who incessantly harps on Obama’s affiliations. “But I’m telling you if anyone hung out with radicals that needs to be investigated by Homeland Security,” he said, cutting himself off before explicitly stating that the President of the United States is a terrorist threat.
Michael Steele, who spoke at an anti-abortion rally in Indiana this past week, said he was “sure” that the government spied on the event:
Teen sues S.C. on stimulus standoff
A Chapin High School senior has filed a lawsuit asking the S.C.
Supreme Court to decide who — Gov. Mark Sanford or the Legislature — controls $700 million in disputed federal stimulus money.
In an indication it could act swiftly, the court ordered S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster to respond to the lawsuit by Monday.
Casey Edwards, the 18-year-old who filed the lawsuit Thursday, said S.C. students and schools are suffering from budget cuts and would benefit from the money.
In a statement, Sanford — who has gained national attention for his anti-stimulus position amid speculation he might run for president in 2012 — called the challenge a “politically-driven press spectacle … rather than a suit with any actual merit.”
For weeks, Sanford and lawmakers have been at odds over whether to include $350 million in federal money in the state’s budget for the year that starts July 1. More than 80 percent of that money must be spent on K-12 and colleges, according to federal rules.
An additional $350 million can be spent the following year.
via Teen sues S.C. on stimulus standoff – Breaking News – The State.
No Hoax: Pass Employee Free Choice Act To Revive Economy
No Hoax: Pass Employee Free Choice Act To Revive Economy
Americans are paying big time now for decades of buying into a hoax.
And it wasn’t sub-prime mortgages.
It was the conservative contention that government is evil and inept. Swallowing that absurd assertion resulted in relaxation and elimination of supposedly onerous and unnecessary government regulations – from the ones that prevented banks from growing too big to fail to those that protected union organizers from illegal corporate obstruction tactics.
Unfettered, Wall Street speculators went on a rampage of reckless wagering that ultimately knocked the wind out of the world economy’s bubble. With unrestrained corporate threats and interference, union membership declined to 12 percent, although 58 percent of non-managment workers surveyed said they’d like to join a union.
Now, that reviled institution – government – is the only one big and strong enough to rescue the economy that perpetration of the hoax devastated. How ironic. The government must also restore the ability of the American people to organize unions at their workplaces, if they so choose, by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.
President Barack Obama has said he wants to make government cool again. He stood on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. on the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and talked about why the 16th President supported the union and why concerted action is so effective. Speaking of the hoax, he said, “Such knee-jerk disdain for government – this constant rejection of any common endeavor – cannot rebuild our levees or our roads or our bridges.”
Common endeavor is the power of unions, whether they be unions of states or labor unions. That is why corporations across America so fear the Employee Free Choice Act. It would ease forming a labor union. It would allow workers – rather than CEOs – to decide whether to create a labor union by collecting signatures from a majority of workers or by a secret ballot election.
via Political Affairs Magazine – No Hoax: Pass Employee Free Choice Act To Revive Economy.
Child Labour in the United States vs. child labour in Bangladesh:
Child Labour in the United States vs. child labour in Bangladesh: How far have we come in 100 years?
While reviewing the following information about child labour, let’s take a look at some photographs of what child labour looked like in the United States at the turn of the last century, and what it looks like in some parts of the world at present. Regarding the photographs, to the left are photos of child labour in the United States from 1908 to 1912 by Lewis W. Hine, and to the right, photographs of present day child labour in Bangladesh by G.M.B. Akash. Click images to enlarge and expand, and visit the referenced sites for additional photos and information.
“More than 200 million children in the world today are involved in child labour, doing work that is damaging to his or her mental, physical and emotional development. Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it. Child labour persists even where it has been declared illegal, and is frequently surrounded by a wall of silence, indifference, and apathy. But that wall is beginning to crumble. While the total elimination of child labour is a long-term goal in many countries, certain forms of child labour must be confronted immediately. Nearly three-quarters of working children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour, including trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work. The effective abolition of child labour is one of the most urgent challenges of our time.”
via Chycho.com – Analysis and discussion about the world we live in..
Nightmares made law – how the Bush administration fixed a policy of abuse
OPS: Wrong conclusion about the interrogators. “We were only following Orders” Obama SHOULD go after those that did this to send a message to future ‘small-fry’
Nightmares made law
Obama is right not to target CIA interrogators. The torture memos show where blame truly lies
The four secret US department of justice opinions released this week are jaw-dropping in their detail. They reveal how far the Bush administration was prepared to go in sanctioning interrogation techniques that plainly amount to torture.
The long-awaited publication of the August 2002 memo, signed by Jay Bybee but largely written by John Yoo, authorises 10 previously unlawful interrogation techniques. These include slapping, stress position and sleep deprivation, right up to waterboarding. It is doubtful a more shocking legal opinion has ever been written. It even purports to analyse if incarcerating a detainee in a small box with an insect for company would amount to mental torture (it depends what you tell him about its sting).
This is the stuff of dark nightmares, the rubber-stamping of policy rather than legal advice in the sense usually understood. It indicates how far the Bush administration fell, the kind of reasoning that infected a raft of policies and to which the British government often turned a blind eye. It has caused untold damage to US national security, and to its reputation.
When the memo was written, the administration had already fixed a policy of abuse, and the torture had already started. Lawyers were needed to provide the “golden shield” against prosecution. The memo did not benefit from the usual consultations; the many lawyers who would have objected were simply cut out of the process. A small group of lawyer-ideologues became participants in international crime, acts for which any state may, under the 1984 torture convention, exercise criminal jurisdiction. The evidence suggests complicity with the consequences that flowed from these flawed opinions – which went on to underpin CIA and military interrogations in Guantánamo, Iraq and beyond in the rendition programme.
VIDEO: How The WTC Towers Fell
VIDEO: How The WTC Towers Fell
Presentation at the University of Manitoba
by Richard Gage
Richard Gage will be speaking in Montreal, Saturday, April 18, 2009, at the Centre Saint Pierre, 7pm.
VIDEO at LINK
via VIDEO: How The WTC Towers Fell.
Bailout Indignation
Bailout Indignation
How about a test of your injustice barometer?
by Ralph Nader
You might think that the reckless, avaricious, giant corporations, having shrunk the economy, cost millions of jobs and then demanded that taxpayers be dunned for years into the future for multi-trillion dollar bailouts, would show contrition, regret, or self-restraint of their power over Washington.
Forget it. They’re baaack! Their greed and power are revving up big time to bring Washington and you the taxpayer, you the parent, you the consumer, you the worker, to your knees. Here is a sample of the appalling dynamics of corporate greed and continuing over-reach each day in your nation’s capital.
1. Just when people thought the taxpayer-subsidized corporate student loan racket was ended by the Democrats, Sallie Mae, its cohorts and lobbyists, like Jamie S. Gorelick of FannieMae notoriety, are descending on Congress. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that replacing these subsidized loans with direct Department of Education lending will save $94 billion over the next ten years.
It is long overdue to end this gouging, college payola giving, obscenely overcompensated industry, and give students an efficient and reasonable lending system. Still, Sallie Mae, Citigroup, Bank of America and others are swarming over Congress to retain a big piece of the action. “Why do we even need private lenders?” correctly asks Congressman Timothy H. Bishop, a former provost of Southampton College.
via Bailout Indignation | CommonDreams.org.
Mr. President, War Crimes Must Be Investigated
Mr. President, War Crimes Must Be Investigated – by Ruth Rosen
The memos about torture released by the Obama administration are horrifying to read. Nothing new, here, but they are like a punch in the stomach all over again. This is my country? This is the nation that stands for freedom and decency?
I understand why President Obama doesn’t want to prosecute those who believed they were acting under laws written by the Justice Department. But that is not the only policy he and other Democrats can pursue.
First, the men who wrote those memos should be investigated for disbarment. They acted in ways that are unconscionable and unprofessional, to put it mildly.
Second,, neither the President nor Congress should investigate these crimes. They must be pursued by a special independent investigator who has no political ax to grind. Now you may well ask, who approves of torture? Well, hardly anyone, except those in the Bush administration who justified or directed these war crimes.
Third, how can we allow a sitting federal judge to remain on the bench–for life– when he provided legal justification for torture? I speak here, of course, of Stephen L. Bybee, who should resign or be impeached.
Why do I feel so strongly about this? Because the country I care so much about has breached some of the most important international conventions in modern history and yet no major leaders have been held accountable. If the investigation goes straight to Vice-President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush, then so be it.
via Mr. President, War Crimes Must Be Investigated | CommonDreams.org.
Israel Stands Ready to Bomb Iran’s Nuclear Sites
Israel Stands Ready to Bomb Iran’s Nuclear Sites
by Sheera Frenkel
JERUSALEM – The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new government.
Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the attack.
Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public
for the retaliation that Israel could face.
“Israel wants to know that if its forces were given the green light they could strike at Iran in a matter of days, even hours. They are making preparations on every level for this eventuality. The message to Iran is that the threat is not just words,” one senior defence official told The Times.
Officials believe that Israel could be required to hit more than a dozen targets, including moving convoys. The sites include Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges produce enriched uranium; Esfahan, where 250 tonnes of gas is stored in tunnels; and Arak, where a heavy water reactor produces plutonium.
The distance from Israel to at least one of the sites is more than 870 miles, a distance that the Israeli force practised covering in a training exercise last year that involved F15 and F16 jets, helicopters and refuelling tankers.
via Israel Stands Ready to Bomb Iran’s Nuclear Sites | CommonDreams.org.
Has Cheney been Murdering Americans?
Has Cheney been Murdering Americans?
Madison, WI (OpEdNews) April 12, 2009 –The stunning revelation from our nation’s premiere investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, that Vice President Dick Cheney was running an “executive assassination ring” directly under his control and outside of the normal chain of command has raised the specter that the Vice President of the United States may have been murdering Americans. As a scholar who has invested a considerable effort in the investigation of the death of US Senator Paul Wellstone, this comes as no surprise. I and other experts with whom I have collaborated long since concluded that the crash that took his life and those of his wife, daughter, three aides and two pilots was brought about deliberately, where Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Karl Rove are the principal suspects. Other cases in which assassination appears all too probable include those of NFL star Pat Tillman and of 9/11 activist Beverly Eckert.
According to Paul Joseph Watson, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) did not originate with Cheney but was founded in 1980, which suggests that it may have been initiated by our then-Vice President George H. W. Bush, a former Director of the CIA. It consists primarily of Delta Force soldiers and SEALs, who are stationed at Pope Air Force Base and at Fort Bragg, NC. According to Watson, this assassination unit is still active under President Obama. The very existence of an operation of this kind raises questions of the utmost seriousness about democracy in America. What has become of this country when the expression of your political convictions and the pursuit of what you think best for this nation runs the risk of bringing about your termination? When our elected officials, like Hitler and Stalin, have the power to decide whether we live or die depending on their whims, this country has ceased to be the home of the brave or the land of the free.
via OpEdNews » Has Cheney been Murdering Americans?.
Republicans are getting paranoid over extremism threat report
Paranoid style in Republican politics
A new report on rightwing extremism has Rush Limbaugh and others crying that the government is out to get them
This week the US department of homeland security (DHS) released a routine intelligence assessment to federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The internal report, entitled “Right wing Extremism: the current economic and political climate is fuelling a resurgence in radicalisation and recruitment,” pointed to a number of factors such as the ailing economy, rising unemployment, a black president and immigration reform movements which could potentially spur on extremist individuals and groups.
While the report admits that it has no intelligence about specific plans for acts of violence at present, it’s good to see the DHS doing its job: assessing and monitoring potential threats to the security of the nation. That’s a positive thing, right?
Well, not for some Republicans, who managed to get hold of the report this week, sparking a ferocious conservative backlash. In fact, more alarming than the report itself has been the conservative response to it. Right-leaning pundits and politicians have been out in force on TV, on the radio and online, vehemently criticizing the report which, for some reason, they see as nothing more than Obama-manufactured propaganda aimed at demonising conservatives and opening the door for anti-conservative policies. This is despite the fact that the report was ordered and prepared during the Bush administration, well before Obama took office.
Michelle Malkin has called the report “a sweeping indictment of conservatives”. Rush Limbaugh has decried the report as a portrayal of “standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives” while Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, tweeted that “the person who drafted the outrageous homeland security memo smearing veterans and conservatives should be fired.”
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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. 
