Archive for April, 2009

Torture planning began in 2001, Senate report reveals

Torture planning began in 2001, Senate report reveals

Bush officials said they only tortured terrorists after they wouldn’t talk. New evidence shows they planned torture soon after 9/11 — and used it to find links between al-Qaida and Saddam.

Editor’s note: Download the entire Senate Armed Services Committee report here. Read about how the Bush administration may have pressured interrogators to use torture to extract information linking al-Qaida to Saddam Hussein here. Read about Donald Rumsfeld’s role in promoting harsh interrogation techniques here.

April 22, 2009 | WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee has just released an exhaustive review of torture under the Bush administration that, among other revelations, torpedoes the notion that the administration only chose torture as a last resort. Bush officials have long argued that they turned to coercive interrogations in 2002 only after captured al-Qaida suspects wouldn’t talk, but the report shows the administration set the wheels in motion soon after 9/11. The Bush White House began planning for torture in December 2001, set up a program to develop the interrogation techniques by the next month, and the military and the CIA began training interrogators in coercive practices in early 2002, before they had any high-value al-Qaida suspects or any trouble eliciting information from detainees.

As the report puts it, “The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.” The report undercuts the Obama administration’s case for leniency against the CIA, since the agency was pursuing abusive techniques even before Department of Justice lawyers had issued their supposed legal justification for the techniques in August 2002. The report also shows that the administration appears to have attempted to use the abusive techniques to shore up its case for war in Iraq. Interrogators employed the techniques, which are notorious for producing bad intelligence, to get detainees to make statements linking Iraq and al-Qaida.

via Torture planning began in 2001, Senate report reveals | Salon News.

CNN – Why Won’t Cons Admit Bush Didn’t Keep Us Safe on 9/11?, 4/20/09

David Sirota:

I appeared on CNN to discuss President Obama releasing CIA memos about torture. As you will see, Cheri Jacobus, a Republican strategist, claims George Bush kept us safe, but then repeatedly refuses to answer a very simple question: Did George W. Bush keep us safe on 9/11 during the worst terrorist attack in American history? And why did George W. Bush ignore CIA memos warning him of the attack? Watch until the end – you will see what I’m talking about.

For more on the memos showing the Bush administration was warned by intelligence agencies of plane hijackings, and specifically plots to crash planes into buildings, see here:

YouTube – CNN – Why Won’t Cons Admit Bush Didn’t Keep Us Safe on 9/11?, 4/20/09.

Prosecuting the Outgoing Administration: Take Heart and Have Courage

Prosecuting the Outgoing Administration: Take Heart and Have Courage

by David Swanson

We’ve pushed long and hard to put accountability, impeachment, prosecution, and the restoration of congressional power on the American table, and they’ve all just landed with a thud and splatter of gravy and cranberry dressing. So, eat up, take heart, and prepare to work harder than we have over the past several frustrating years of path breaking and pressure building.

Impeachment, specifically of torture memo author turned lifetime federal judge Jay Bybee ( http://impeachbybee.org ), is now supported by all the organizations that have backed impeachment of his bosses, plus: the New York Times, Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution Jerrold Nadler, Common Cause, Think Progress, and the Courage Campaign. Local Democratic parties in California have passed resolutions and are urging the state party to do so this week requesting the impeachment of Bybee.

The appointment of a Special Prosecutor ( http://prosecutebushcheney.org ) is now supported by all the groups that have always been there, plus the ACLU, Moveon.org, blogs including FireDogLake, and at least half-heartedly Amnesty International. On Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in Rayburn 2359, Attorney General Eric Holder (with whom Rep. Jerrold Nadler is meeting on this topic today) will testify before a subcommittee. At that time, After Downing Street, Democrats.com, ACLU, and FireDogLake will deliver petitions to Holder asking for a special prosecutor. Sign here. And go here to contact members of the subcommittee to ask them to ask Holder why, if waterboarding is torture, and if the evidence (including open admission by the former vice president) is public, and if the Convention Against Torture requires that we enforce our laws, he isn’t doing so. Congress members Conyers, Nadler, and Schakowsky have spoken out in support of a special prosecutor. Ask your representative and senators to do the same!

The AP is reporting that Obama is open to the possibility of partial enforcement of some laws and “bipartisan” Congressional investigations, and that law enforcement decisions are up to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Spain is keeping alive its attempt to indict six members of Bush’s torture team including Jay Bybee. Please phone the Spanish Embassy and thank and encourage them.

The long suspected blackmailing of Democratic congress members to support crimes and abuses has begun to be reported as documented fact in at least the case of Rep. Jane Harman.

The release of memos and the anticipated release of reports and additional pieces of evidence, combined with the passage of time, exacerbated by the Obama administration’s efforts to shelter its predecessors is helping to build what we have been laying the foundations for over the past few years.

There are a great many ways you can advance the cause of accountability, and they can all be found at

via Prosecuting the Outgoing Administration: Take Heart and Have Courage.

Japan hit by first trade deficit in 30 years

Japan hit by first trade deficit in 30 years

Japan suffered its first trade deficit in nearly 30 years in the year to March, highlighting the continuing vulnerability to external pressures of the world’s second largest economy.

Japan posted a trade deficit of Y725.3bn in fiscal 2008, the government said on Wednesday, marking its first full-year negative trade balance since 1980.

via FT.com / Asia-Pacific – Japan hit by first trade deficit in 30 years.

IMF slashes outlook for global economy

“By any measure, this downturn represents by far the deepest global recession since the Great Depression,”

OPS: Since the last Republican Great Depression…..since the last time the Republicans were in total control of our Government.

IMF slashes outlook for global economy

Fund predicts sluggish recovery in 2010

The global economy will contract sharply this year and recover only sluggishly in 2010, the IMF said on Wednesday, drastically downgrading the predictions it made just three months ago.

The IMF said the economy would contract by 1.3 per cent this year and grow by just 1.9 per cent the year after. It acknowledged this was a “substantial downward revision” of its predictions in January, when it said the global economy would grow by 0.5 per cent this year and spring back to 3 per cent growth in 2010.

“By any measure, this downturn represents by far the deepest global recession since the Great Depression,” the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook. “Even once the crisis is over, there will be a difficult transition period, with output growth appreciably below rates seen in the recent past.”

via FT.com / World – IMF slashes outlook for global economy.

Freddie Mac’s Kellermann found dead

Freddie Mac’s Kellermann found dead

Media say wife reported apparent suicide

David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead in the early hours of Wednesday morning in his suburban Virginia home, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman said.

Mr Kellerman’s wife reported an apparent suicide, according to local media accounts, but the police declined to comment on the cause of death, other than to say there was no evidence of foul play.

“It’s an active investigation,” said police officer Sabrina Ruck.

Mr Kellerman had worked for Freddie for more than 16 years, beginning in his mid-twenties as a financial analyst, according to his company profile.

Mr Kellerman took on the roll of acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac in September 2008, after the government placed the troubled mortgage giant under conservatorship and pushed out then CFO Anthony “Buddy” Piszel. The company is in the process of performing an external search for Piszel’s permanent replacement.

via FT.com / Companies / Financial Services – Freddie Mac’s Kellermann found dead.

Thievery Under the TARP

Thievery Under the TARP – by Robert Scheer

We are being robbed big-time, but you can’t say we haven’t been warned. Not after the release Tuesday of a scathing report by the Treasury Department’s special inspector general, who charged that the aptly named Troubled Asset Relief Fund bailout program is rife with mismanagement and potential for fraud. The IG’s office already has opened 20 criminal fraud investigations into the $700 billion program, which is now well on its way to a $3 trillion obligation, and the IG predicts many more are coming.

Special Inspector General Neil M. Barofsky charged that the TARP program from its inception was designed to trust the Wall Street recipients of the bailout funds to act responsibly on their own, without accountability to the government that gave them the money.

He pointed to the example of AIG, which has acted as a conduit of funds to the banks it had insured without being required to tell the government what it is doing: “Failure to impose this requirement with respect to the injection of yet another $30 billion into AIG would not only be a failure of oversight, but could call into question the credibility of the government’s efforts.”

AIG is just one example in a bailout that has left the financial conglomerates unsupervised as they spend taxpayer money in what the report termed a government program of “unprecedented scope, scale and complexity,” putting the public and the Treasury Department in the dark as to how the money is being used by the very tycoons who got us into this mess. “The American people have a right to know how their tax dollars are being used,” Barofsky wrote in the report, which sharply criticized the government for failing to hold financial institutions accountable.

via Thievery Under the TARP | CommonDreams.org.

What’s Up With the Governor of Texas?

What’s Up With the Governor of Texas?

by Jim Hightower

Texas politics has long been a source of great amusement for the people of our state, but it’s often a source of bafflement for people beyond our borders. So, sometimes there’s a need to explain what’s going on here, and this is one of those times. In this case, the explanation is simple: Our governor is a goober.

Texans have known this for some time, but Rick Perry – whose chief claim to fame had been that he has a spectacular head of hair – was unknown outside the state, so he was our little secret. Now, however, Perry’s gooberness has gone viral. He’s a YouTube phenomenon and a new darling of the GOP kingmaker, Rush Limbaugh.

He broke into national consciousness on April 15, when he spoke at one of the many “teabag” rallies that Republican operatives set up around the country to protest Barack Obama’s deficit spending. Appearing in Austin before a boisterous crowd of about a thousand people who were fuming about everything from gun control to the Wall Street bailout, the governor opened with this shot: “I’m sure you’re not just a bunch of right-wing extremists. But if you are, I’m with you.”

Then came the thought that earned him YouTuber-of-the-Day and a favorable mention from Lord Limbaugh: Texas just, By God, might secede from the union if Washington keeps messing with us.

No doubt many people in the other 49 states burst into applause at this notion, but it caused quite a bit of consternation among home folks, who rather like being both Texans and Americans. Was he serious? Apparently so. When reporters asked afterward about the legality of such a rash move, Perry pointed out that Texas had entered the union under a unique agreement that gave us the right “to leave if we decided to do that.” Good line, but utterly untrue. No such agreement ever existed.

via What’s Up With the Governor of Texas? | CommonDreams.org.

Obama: Beyond Savior or Trickster

Obama: Beyond Savior or Trickster

by Norman Solomon

As President Obama enters his fourth month in office, two tendencies among progressive-minded Americans seem most hazardous to the political health of the country. The gist of one approach is that Obama can’t do anything seriously wrong; the other is that he can’t do anything seriously right.

Among the tendencies, the first is more widespread and more dangerous. All kinds of atrocious policies — from Lyndon Johnson’s war on Vietnam to Jimmy Carter’s midterm swerve rightward to Bill Clinton’s neoliberal measures such as NAFTA, “welfare reform” and Wall Street deregulation — were calamities facilitated by acquiescence or mild dissent from many left-leaning Democrats.

Some historical analogies are acutely relevant, and the LBJ/Vietnam Obama/Afghanistan comparison is one of them. During the first couple of years after Johnson’s inauguration in January 1965, with few exceptions, liberal members of Congress and leaders of liberal-oriented groups routinely voiced support for the war escalation; others mumbled their misgivings as the president ordered more troops and firepower to Vietnam. Today, similar mumbling about Afghanistan attests to the repetition compulsion disorder of the U.S. warfare state.

Whatever can be said for avoidance of ruffling feathers in the new administration is greatly outweighed by the dire long-term effects. We can’t build a vibrant progressive movement — or strengthen a base capable of moving the country in progressive directions for the long haul — by winking and nodding at Democratic policies that would have drawn our sharp criticism if they were being implemented by a Republican administration.

via Obama: Beyond Savior or Trickster | CommonDreams.org.

Torturers Should Be Punished

Torturers Should Be Punished

by Amy Goodman

SPOKANE, Wash. – George W. Bush insisted that the U.S. did not use torture.

But the four Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel memos released last week by the Obama administration’s Justice Department paint a starkly different picture. The declassified memos provided legal authorization for “harsh interrogation techniques” used by the Bush administration in the years following Sept. 11, 2001. They authorized (as listed in the Aug. 1, 2002, memo by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee) “walling … facial slap, cramped confinement, wall standing, stress positions, sleep deprivation, insects placed in a confinement box, and the waterboard.”

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the OLC under Bush “became a facilitator for illegal government conduct, issuing dozens of memos meant to permit gross violations of domestic and international law.”

The memos authorize what the International Committee of the Red Cross called, in a leaked report, “treatment and interrogation techniques … that amounted to torture.”

These torture techniques were developed by two psychologists based in Spokane, Wash.: James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. Their company, Mitchell Jessen & Associates, provided specialized training to members of the U.S. military to deal with capture by enemy forces. The training is called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. Mitchell and Jessen, both psychologists, were contracted by the U.S. government to train interrogators with techniques they claimed would break prisoners.

They reverse-engineered the SERE training, originally developed to help people withstand and survive torture, to train a new generation of torturers.

via Torturers Should Be Punished | CommonDreams.org.

Outsourcing on the Wane

OPS:  Maybe some good news

Outsourcing on the Wane

As the recession deepens and American companies face mounting pressure at home, many are deciding that it does not pay to outsource and instead are returning jobs to American soil.

America could soon see thousands of jobs returning as unemployment continues to rise and companies come under increased pressure to save American jobs, according to Daily News & Analysis India.

The latest American company to give up its outsourcing experiment is bailed out bank JPMorgan Chase. The bank, which handles customer service and administration of the state’s food stamp program announced on Friday that it would be closing both of its call centers in India that used to answer card-holder’s questions.

The move comes after lawmakers expressed outrage that the company was using a state contract to outsource work to the Third World while millions of Americans are suffering under the weight of job loss.

“It’s a very bad message, particularly in this economy but across the board, to have call centers operating out of India,” Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon told the Miami Herald on Friday. “They have agreed that they will immediately begin the process of rerouting the calls so that no Florida calls will be going to India.”

JPMorgan is just the latest American company to rethink its outsourcing strategy and decide to bring jobs back to the states.

On Friday, Delta Airlines also announced that it would be closing call centers in India. The world’s largest air carrier said that customer dissatisfaction was the most important factor in its decision.

“The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low and our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback,” Delta Airlines chief Richard Anderson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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

Small Businesses Fear Stimulus Will Hurt Them

Small Businesses Fear Stimulus Will Hurt Them

The government rarely meets its goals as far as awarding government contracts to small business goes.

Small business owners are increasingly worried about being squeezed out of government contracts that will be doled out as part of the $787 billion stimulus package. The fear stems from the fact that large corporations continue to eat up huge chunks of the allocated funds, according to CNNMoney.com.

The administration has proposed that 75 percent of the available contracts be awarded by August 2010. Small business owners and advocates claim that the deadline may favor larger businesses with the capabilities to handle numerous projects at once.

Small businesses currently employ over half of the nation’s workers and are responsible for 60 to 80 percent of the jobs created in America each year.

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

America is Victimizing its Own Independence

America is Victimizing its Own Independence

We talk about helping and encouraging global development, but if that development comes at the loss of America’s hard-earned prosperity then no one is really better off.

Officials with the United Steelworkers union have filed official grievances with the Obama administration, urging the president to enact tariff barriers against future imports of Chinese-made tires. The union is merely asking that the administration cap imports of Chinese tires at their 2005 level of 21 million annual units – less than half of the 2008 total of 46 million units valued at $1.7 billion.

Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers union, believes that the upsurge in Chinese imports is directly responsible for the slowdown at American factories – particularly industry icons like Goodyear Tire & Rubber.

The United Steelworkers union represents 15,000 tire workers at 13 plants nationwide.

It is a well-documented fact that China employs extensive government subsidies, currency manipulations, and import quotas on goods originating in the United States. The U.S. on the other hand employs virtually none in its own defense, and during the previous administration every opportunity to enact a restriction was ignored by the White House.

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

An Urgent Call to Action To All Americans

An Urgent Call to Action To All Americans

The people of this country need to make their voices heard, and the best way to go about doing this is to let others know why we are in our current economic situation.

The United States economy is falling apart at the seams. Too many banks made too many bad loans, and millions of Americans have found themselves at the mercy of an uncontrollable market plunge.

The government on every level subsidized the takeover of the American consumer market by importing goods and labor while encouraging the outsourcing of employment and production overseas. Our elected officials, as policy, have adopted methods which hurt Americans for the benefit of elite groups inside and outside this country.

The U.S. has lost dozens of entire industries, thousands of companies and millions of jobs due to unfair and unbalanced international trade relations. We have a national debt of $11.2 trillion and have lost $7.2 trillion in the last 40 years due to our trade deficit. Every year this country loses hundreds of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and much of its geo-political and economic leverage in our “free market,” “free trade” world.

The time has come to put a stop to this.

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

Waterboarding

I found this by Googling “waterboarding”.  Apparently a Vietnam era photo.  I guess the Bush/Cheney adventure wasn’t our first time at the rodeo

U.S. Might Not Try Pro-Israel Lobbyists

OPS:  Of course not – AIPAC is that dangerously influential.

U.S. Might Not Try Pro-Israel Lobbyists

Meanwhile, Rep. Harman Denies Offering to Influence Case

The U.S. government may abandon espionage-law charges against two former lobbyists for a pro-Israel advocacy group, officials said yesterday, as a prominent House lawmaker denied new allegations that she offered to use her influence in their behalf.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) accused the government of an “abuse of power” in wiretapping her conversations, following news reports that she had been recorded in 2006 on FBI wiretaps that officials at the time said raised questions of possible illegal conduct.

Harman’s expression of outrage added a political dimension to the prosecution of the two former lobbyists, who were charged in 2005 under a World War I-era espionage law with conspiring to give national defense information to journalists and Israeli Embassy officials.

With the trial set to begin June 2, the Justice Department is reviewing whether to proceed as planned or withdraw the indictments after a series of adverse court rulings, according to law enforcement sources and lawyers close to the case.

Defense attorneys recently subpoenaed a number of senior Bush administration officials, including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, former national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, and former high-level Defense Department officials Paul D. Wolfowitz and Douglas J. Feith.

Transcripts of the FBI wiretaps depict a possible trade of favors in which Harman expressed willingness to discuss the American Israel Public Affairs Committee prosecution with senior administration officials and, in return, backers of Israel would provide Democrats with additional campaign contributions and support Harman’s efforts to become chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

via U.S. Might Not Try Pro-Israel Lobbyists.

New Guinea Tribe Sues The ‘New Yorker’ For $10 Million

New Guinea Tribe Sues The ‘New Yorker’ For $10 Million

They challenge a story depicting them as rapists, murderers and pig thieves.

In an April 21, 2008, New Yorker story, “Vengeance Is Ours,” Pulitzer Prize-winning geography scholar Jared Diamond describes blood feuds that rage for decades among tribes in the Highlands of New Guinea. Diamond tells the story using a central protagonist: Daniel Wemp, member of the Handa clan, a blood-thirsty warrior bent on avenging his uncle’s death. That quest, writes Diamond, touched off six years of warfare leading to the slaughter of 47 people and the theft of 300 pigs.

Now Diamond’s protagonist is fighting Diamond. A two-page complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court on April 20 seeks $10 million from the New Yorker’s publisher, Advance Publications, claiming Diamond’s story falsely accused Wemp and fellow tribesman Isum Mandigo of “serious criminal activity” and “murder.”

via New Guinea Tribe Sues The ‘New Yorker’ For $10 Million – Forbes.com.

Freddie Mac official found dead

Freddie Mac official found dead

WASHINGTON – David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what broadcast reports said was an apparent suicide.

WUSA-TV and WTOP Radio reported that David Kellermann was found dead in his Northern Virginia home. The 41-year-old Kellermann has been Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer since September.

Sabrina Ruck, a Fairfax County police spokesman, confirmed to The Associated Press that Kellermann was dead, but she could not confirm that he committed suicide.

Kellermann’s death is the latest blow to Freddie Mac, a government controlled company that owns or guarantees about 13 million home loans. CEO David Moffett resigned last month.

McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae, which together own or back more than half of the home mortgages in the country, have been hobbled by skyrocketing loan defaults and have received about $60 billion in combined federal aid.

Kellermann was named acting chief financial officer in September 2008, after the resignation of Anthony “Buddy” Piszel, who stepped down after the September 2008 government takeover. The chief financial officer is responsible for the company’s financial controls, financial reporting and oversight of the company’s budget and financial planning.

Before taking that job, Kellerman served as senior vice president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer. He was with Freddie Mac for more than 16 years.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

via Reports: Freddie Mac official found dead.

Senate report: Bush admin. solicited torture ‘wish list,’ ordered ‘communist’ tactics

Senate report: Bush admin. solicited torture ‘wish list,’ ordered ‘communist’ tactics

Sen. Levin recommends Holder appoint a ‘distinguished individual or individuals’ to ‘establish accountability of high-level officials’

A report by the Senate Armed Services Committee released Tuesday night says that torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib prison and approved by officials in the George W. Bush administration were applied only after soliciting a “wish list” from interrogators.

President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. This act, the committee found, cleared the way for a new interrogation program to be developed in-part based on “Chinese communist” tactics used against Americans during the Korean War, mainly to elicit false confessions for propaganda purposes.

The committee’s report was made available in Dec. 2008, but was delayed by the Pentagon’s declassification program. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) concluded that the findings were enough to warrant serious consideration by the Department of Justice.

via Raw Story » Senate report: Bush admin. solicited torture ‘wish list,’ ordered ‘communist’ tactics.

Cheney pushed torture techniques to find Iraq, Qaeda tie: report

OPS: Get it?  We Tortured So That Bush Could Falsely Link Iraq And Al-Qaeda

Cheney pushed torture techniques to find Iraq, Qaeda tie: report

At the urging of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Bush administration used torture techniques against suspected terrorists in part of an effort to establish a tie between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, according to a report Wednesday.

“The Bush administration put relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist,” McClatchy Newspaper’s Jonathan Landay writes.

“Such information would’ve provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush’s main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003,” he adds. “No evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network and Saddam’s regime.”

via The Raw Story | Cheney pushed torture techniques to find Iraq, Qaeda tie: report.

Supreme Court strikes a blow for the Fourth Amendment (a.k.a. Scalia’s got your back, this time)

OPS:  Good news.

Supreme Court strikes a blow for the Fourth Amendment (a.k.a. Scalia’s got your back, this time)

Wait, what?

In an unusual reversal of roles today, traditionally right-wing Supreme Court Justices formed a majority in a decision which expands, in practice anyway, citizens’ Constitutional Fourth Amendment rights.

From the Criminal Lawyer blog:

In a stunning 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court today reversed its longstanding bright-line rule which had permitted warrantless car searches after an arrest, even when there was no concern for officer safety or the preservation of evidence. The case is Arizona v Gant.

Writing for the majority in this important decision, Justice Stevens held that the police may only search the passenger compartment of a vehicle, pursuant to the arrest of a recent occupant, if it is reasonable to believe that the arrested person might access the car while it’s being searched, or that the car contains evidence of the crime for which that person was arrested.

Interestingly, the votes were contrary to common stereotype. The majority, which limited police powers, included the two most right-wing justices in the popular mind, Scalia and Thomas. The minority, which would have expanded police powers, included two fairly liberal justices, Kennedy and Breyer.

“The high court’s conservative majority in recent years has generally sided with the police while cutting back on the rights of criminal suspects in car cases,” noted Reuters, reporting on the case in late March after the high court agreed to rule.

The events leading up to the court’s decision were summarized in the court’s decision, available here (PDF link).

via The Raw Story » Supreme Court strikes a blow for the Fourth Amendment (a.k.a. Scalia’s got your back, this time).

Lockheed accepts Pentagon’s decision to cut F-22.

Lockheed accepts Pentagon’s decision to cut F-22.

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed his intention to end production of the F-22 fighter jet, an expensive weapons system that has not flown a single mission in either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. The defense contractor Lockheed Martin had been pouring money into a “publicity campaign” and engaging in “congressional lobbying efforts” to maintain funding for the F-22. But, it appears Lockheed is now conceding that the days of the F-22 are numbered:

[Lockheed Chief Financial Officer Bruce] Tanner said Lockheed tried to fight for continuation of the F-22 program, but indicated the company had all but given up.

“We’ve had our chance to lobby this matter, we think we’ve had a full hearing of that discussion and we’re disappointed by the decisions, but we’ll accept those and go on,” he said.

via Think Progress » Lockheed accepts Pentagon’s decision to cut F-22..

2009 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners Beat ‘Insurmountable’ Odds

2009 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners Beat ‘Insurmountable’ Odds

SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 20, 2009 (ENS) — The 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize winners are grassroots environmental leaders from around the world who have fought mining companies, logging development, mounting piles of solid waste, toxic dumping and government indifference to tribal rights.

Now in its 20th year, the Goldman Environmental Prize is awarded annually to environmentalists from each of the world’s six inhabited continental regions. It is the largest award of its kind with an individual cash prize of $150,000 for the prize winner from each region. Multiple winners share the regional prize.

“This group of Goldman Prize recipients are as impressive as ever, taking on seemingly insurmountable struggles and achieving success,” said Goldman Prize founder Richard Goldman. “In this, our 20th year, we are pleased to bring attention to their courageous work.”

The winners will receive their awards at an invitation-only ceremony this afternoon at the San Francisco Opera House. They will also be honored at a smaller ceremony on Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

The 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize winners are:

via 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners Beat ‘Insurmountable’ Odds/title> Environment News Service (ENS).

Tough Guys Hayden and Mukasey Defend Torture, Decry Release of the OLC Memos: Why They’re Wrong

Tough Guys Hayden and Mukasey Defend Torture, Decry Release of the OLC Memos: Why They’re Wrong

Former Bush officials are trying to avoid accountability for their inhumane crimes. There is much you can do to make sure they don’t get away with it.

Editor’s Note: Since the release last week of Bush-era government memos authorizing torture against suspected terrorists, momentum has been building to hold the architects of these inhumane, illegal policies accountable. In a piece published on AlterNet, David Swanson notes that there are many things you can do to help spur legal action against officials and lawyers who greenlit torture and to make sure the Obama administration doesn’t sweep the issue under the rug. Writes Swanson:

Fox News’ Unhinged, Irrational Obama Attacks Stir up Violent Right-Wing Militants

Fox News’ Unhinged, Irrational Obama Attacks Stir up Violent Right-Wing Militants

Paranoid anti-government radicals used to have to rely on crude, inefficient methods of communication. Now they have Fox News.

Imagine if Fox News had been on the air back on February 28, 1993, just months into the new Democratic president’s first term, when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to serve warrants on David Koresh’s Branch Davidian compound, located on the outskirts of Waco, Texas. Agents arrived because federal authorities got a tip that Koresh and the followers of the misguided messiah were stockpiling weapons.

The authorities were right. Outgunned, ATF agents quickly met resistance from the Davidians, who had a .50-caliber rifle, machine guns, and more than a million rounds of ammunition at their disposal. The shootout lasted hours and became the longest in American law-enforcement history. In the end, four ATF agents were killed, and 16 were wounded. Inside the compound, five Davidians were killed and scores more injured, including Koresh, who was shot in the hip and the wrist. The gunbattle signaled the start of a 51-day standoff between Koresh and federal authorities.

Rupert Murdoch’s all-news channel didn’t debut in America until October 1996, but it’s chilling to consider the what-ifs of how today’s Fox News lineup of doomsday, anti-government prophets would have reacted to controversial and defining news events in the early 1990s — like Waco.

via Fox News’ Unhinged, Irrational Obama Attacks Stir up Violent Right-Wing Militants | Media and Technology | AlterNet.

13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat

13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat

The meat industry contributes to land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

My first post on the effect of eating meat on the environment provoked quite a bit of discussion, so in honor of Earth Day, I thought I should follow up with more information about how our natural resources (e.g., air, water, and soil) are depleted and devastated by animal agriculture.

Of course, Earth Day is also a good time to remember that animal agriculture only exists at astronomical levels because people are purchasing vast quantities of chicken, beef, pork, and fish. The market for meat (i.e., we, the consumers) drives the depletion and destruction.

via 13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat | Environment | AlterNet.

On Earth Day, Forget About the Planet — We’re the Ones Who Are Screwed

On Earth Day, Forget About the Planet — We’re the Ones Who Are Screwed – By Joseph Romm

Affection for our planet is misdirected and unrequited. We need to focus on saving ourselves. It’s time to dump Earth Day.

Dumping Earth Day has been on my mind for a year now — and all the more so today because the NYT magazine just published an interview with our Nobel-prize winning Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, in which he says:

I would say that from here on in, every day has to be Earth Day.

Well, duh!  Heck, we have a whole day just for the trees — and we haven’t finished them off … yet.  So if every day is Earth Day, than April 22 definitely needs a new name.

I don’t worry about the earth. I’m pretty certain the earth will survive the worst we can do to it. I’m very certain the earth doesn’t worry about us. I’m not alone. People got more riled up when scientists removed Pluto from the list of planets than they do when scientists warn that our greenhouse gas emissions are poised to turn the earth into a barely habitable planet.

Arguably, concern over the earth is elitist, something people can afford to spend their time on when every other need is met. But elitism is out these days. Only bitter environmentalists cling to Earth Day. We need a new way to make people care about the nasty things we’re doing with our cars and power plants. At the very least, we need a new name.

via On Earth Day, Forget About the Planet — We’re the Ones Who Are Screwed | Environment | AlterNet.

Army Chief of Chaplains Promotes Ministry That Called Navy Secretary Satanic

OPS:  Why hasn’t this clown been fired or Court Marshaled out?

Army Chief of Chaplains Promotes Ministry That Called Navy Secretary Satanic

On the heels of the recent story about Army Chief of Chaplains Maj. Gen. Douglas Carver ignorantly issuing a proclamation for a day of fasting for the Army on the first day of Passover, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) began receiving complaints about Maj. Gen. Carver’s endorsement and promotion of an organization called American Defenders of Freedom (ADOF). MRFF receives countless complaints and reports about our military’s senior officers endorsing and facilitating the missions and activities of various para-church groups and evangelical organizations that clearly violate both military regulations and the Constitution these officers took an oath to uphold, but this one is extra special.

ADOF is an evangelical Christian ministry that evangelizes and proselytizes military personnel by using the military’s chaplain corps to distribute prayer coins by the tens of thousands sporting the official U.S. military branch emblems — three out of the four branch emblems, that is. The Navy coin had to be redesigned last year because then Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter, who stepped down last month after staying on through the Obama transition, denied ADOF permission to use the Navy emblem on this evangelizing tool. According to the ADOF’s January 2008 newsletter, Secretary Winter’s respect for the constitutional and military prohibitions on this government promotion of religion was the work of Satan:

via Chris Rodda: Army Chief of Chaplains Promotes Ministry That Called Navy Secretary Satanic.

Obama Stands Nuremberg on Its Head

Obama Stands Nuremberg on Its Head – By Mike Farrell

President Obama’s decision to spare CIA torturers from prosecution stands the Nuremberg principles on their head. “Good Germans who were only following orders” are not exempt from the bar of justice. Individuals must be held responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Justice Robert Jackson, chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, declared in his opening statement to the tribunal that the men charged “represent sinister influence that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. They are living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power.”

The arrogance and cruelty of CIA officers who torture and brutalize helpless prisoners are not expunged just because, as Obama said, they “carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice.” Attorney General Eric Holder says it’s “unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department,” but he fails to note these very CIA agents requested said authority in order to engage in what all but the most insidious parsing of legal thought recognizes as torture.

As Justice Jackson said, “ … it was under the law of all civilized peoples a crime for one man with his bare knuckles to assault another.” When awakened, he said, “Plain people, with their earthly common sense, revolted at such fictions and legalisms so contrary to ethical principles. … ” He declared to the world that “[c]ivilization can afford no compromise with the social forces which would gain renewed strength if we deal ambiguously or indecisively with the men in whom those forces now precariously survive.”

via Truthdig – Reports – Obama Stands Nuremberg on Its Head.

Housing Bubble Smackdown: Bigger Crash Ahead

Housing Bubble Smackdown: Bigger Crash Ahead – by Mike Whitney

Huge “shadow inventory”

Due to the lifting of the foreclosure moratorium at the end of March, the downward slide in housing is gaining speed. The moratorium was initiated in January to give Obama’s anti-foreclosure program—which is a combination of mortgage modifications and refinancing—a chance to succeed. The goal of the plan was to keep up to 9 million struggling homeowners in their homes, but it’s clear now that the program will fall well-short of its objective.

In March, housing prices accelerated on the downside indicating bigger adjustments dead-ahead. Trend-lines are steeper now than ever before–nearly perpendicular. Housing prices are not falling, they’re crashing and crashing hard. Now that the foreclosure moratorium has ended, Notices of Default (NOD) have spiked to an all-time high. These Notices will turn into foreclosures in 4 to 5 months time creating another cascade of foreclosures. Market analysts predict there will be 5 MILLION MORE FORECLOSURES BETWEEN NOW AND 2011. It’s a disaster bigger than Katrina. Soaring unemployment and rising foreclosures ensure that hundreds of banks and financial institutions will be forced into bankruptcy. 40 percent of delinquent homeowners have already vacated their homes. There’s nothing Obama can do to make them stay. Worse still, only 30 percent of foreclosures have been relisted for sale suggesting more hanky-panky at the banks. Where have the houses gone? Have they simply vanished?

600,000 “DISAPPEARED HOMES?”

Here’s a excerpt from the SF Gate explaining the mystery:

“Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down.

“We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market,” said Rick Sharga, vice president of RealtyTrac, which compiles nationwide statistics on foreclosures. “California probably represents 80,000 of those homes. It could be disastrous if the banks suddenly flooded the market with those distressed properties. You’d have further depreciation and carnage.”

In a recent study, RealtyTrac compared its database of bank-repossessed homes to MLS listings of for-sale homes in four states, including California. It found a significant disparity – only 30 percent of the foreclosures were listed for sale in the Multiple Listing Service. The remainder is known in the industry as “shadow inventory.” (“Banks aren’t Selling Many Foreclosed Homes” SF Gate)

If regulators were deployed to the banks that are keeping foreclosed homes off the market, they would probably find that the banks are actually servicing the mortgages on a monthly basis to conceal the extent of their losses. They’d also find that the banks are trying to keep housing prices artificially high to avoid heftier losses that would put them out of business. One thing is certain, 600,000 “disappeared” homes means that housing prices have a lot farther to fall and that an even larger segment of the banking system is underwater.

via Housing Bubble Smackdown: Bigger Crash Ahead.

Rumsfeld: Architect of torture

Rumsfeld: Architect of torture

The secretary of defense began laying the groundwork for detainee abuse years before Abu Ghraib.

Editor’s note: Download the entire Senate Armed Services Committee report here. Read about how the Bush administration may have pressured interrogators to use torture to extract information linking al-Qaida to Saddam Hussein here. Read about how the Bush administration began planning for torture here.

April 22, 2009 | WASHINGTON — When Donald Rumsfeld heard about plans to force detainees at Guantánamo Bay to stand for hours on end, in order to soften them up and make them talk to U.S. interrogators, he made a joke about it. “I stand for 8-10 hours a day,” the then-defense secretary wrote on Dec. 2, 2002, at the bottom of a memo authorizing military officials to use extreme techniques against prisoners. “Why is standing limited to 4 hours?”

As a newly released Senate Armed Services Committee report makes clear, the effects of Rumsfeld’s cavalier attitude toward what the report calls “detainee abuse” — and what international law would probably call torture — didn’t just stop at the military prison on Cuba. The techniques Rumsfeld approved for use at Guantánamo oozed into prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq, undermining decades of U.S. policy about humane treatment of detainees and leading to some of the worst outrages of the Bush administration, including the Abu Ghraib abuses, which Salon has covered extensively.

via Rumsfeld: Architect of torture | Salon News.

Republicans push ‘sweeping’ restrictions on voting in last days of Fla legislature

Republicans push ‘sweeping’ restrictions on voting in last days of Fla legislature

Voting rights advocates were shocked after a Republican-dominated committee in the Florida House passed sweeping new election rules after allowing only six minutes of debate last Friday.

The 81-page bill, which among other things eliminates two forms of ID used mostly by elderly voters and restricts third-party voter registration, now moves to the House floor without any chance for public testimony.

A similar bill is on its way to the Senate after passing an elections committee on a 5-3 vote on party lines after being introduced for the first time despite only two weeks remaining in the state’s legislative session.

As the Miami Herald reports:

A House council hurriedly passed a sweeping rewrite of Florida election laws Friday after shutting down debate and public comment, prompting an uproar and cries of ”travesty” from opponents.

Like a similar Senate version, the House bill would ban two forms of voter ID at the polls now used mainly by older voters and require paid initiative-petition circulators to register with the state. It also would require people whose address changed in the month before an election to cast provisional ballots, prohibit anyone from interacting with voters in a floating 100-foot zone outside polling places and make it more difficult for third-party groups to register new voters.

via ISS – Republicans push ‘sweeping’ restrictions on voting in last days of Fla legislature.

Rutgers Law professor, N.J. peace group challenge constitutionality of Iraq invasion

Rutgers Law professor, N.J. peace group challenge constitutionality of Iraq invasion

A Rutgers University law professor argued in federal court in Newark today, on behalf of a New Jersey peace group, that President Bush violated the U.S. Constitution’s initial intent when he ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Frank Askin, founder of the constitutional litigation clinic at the Rutgers School of Law in Newark, said the framers clearly gave Congress — not the president — authority to declare war.

When lawyers and judges cite the original intent of the framers of the Constitution, they’re often marshaling conservative arguments. And Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, noted for his right-leaning views, is a leading figure in the stick-to-the-original-text school of jurisprudence.

But conservatives don’t hold a monopoly on the theory. Afterward, Askin even mentioned Scalia might take an interest in the arguments in the case.

via Rutgers Law professor, N.J. peace group challenge constitutionality of Iraq invasion – NJ.com.

If the WSJ is Calling for Bank Restructuring — Where is Obama Team Getting Its Advice?

OPS:  It may be explained in Groucho’s song from the 1932 movie Horse Feathers - “I don’t know what they have to say, It makes no difference anyway – Whatever it is, I’m against it!“ Still, it’s a good question to explore

If the WSJ is Calling for Bank Restructuring — Where is Obama Team Getting Its Advice?  – by Teryn Norris

In an editorial today criticizing the most recent Obama team announcement on bank recovery policy, the Wall Street Journal editorial board claimed it has supported bank restructuring for 2 years:

“The sounder strategy — and the one we’ve recommended for two years — is to address systemic financial problems the old-fashioned way: bank by bank, through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and a resolution agency with the capacity to hold troubled assets and work them off over time. If the stress tests reveal that some of our largest institutions are insolvent or nearly so, it’s then time to seize the bank, sell off assets and recapitalize the remainder. (Meanwhile, the healthier institutions would get a vote of confidence and could attract new private capital.)”

So the question must be raised: where on earth is the Obama administration getting its advice on bank policy at this point, and how is it continuing to justify its staunch opposition to swift nationalization? Even the Congressional Oversight Committee, in its latest April report, supports restructuring or liquidation of the banks. Geithners and Summers aren’t stupid (although one begins to wonder) — so the only plausible answer is politics.

Perhaps this all be part of a larger trend, captured by a recent memo in the NYT, “Despite Major Plans, Obama Taking Softer Stands”?

President Obama is well known for bold proposals that have raised expectations, but his administration has shown a tendency for compromise and caution, and even a willingness to capitulate on some early initiatives…

“The thing we still don’t know about him is what he is willing to fight for,” said Leonard Burman, an economist at the Urban Institute and a Treasury Department official in the Clinton administration. “The thing I worry about is that he likes giving good speeches, he likes the adulation and he likes to make people happy.” So far, he said, “It’s hard to think of a place where he’s taken a really hard position.”

via If the WSJ is Calling for Bank Restructuring — Where is Obama Team Getting Its Advice? | CommonDreams.org.

Drug Industry To Push Health Care For The Poor : NPR

OPS:  Interesting timing. They must be freighted out of their tiny little minds!

Drug Industry To Push Health Care For The Poor

NPR.org, April 20, 2009 · Later this week, the drug industry group PhRMA will announce a deal it has struck with the liberal advocacy group Families USA, backing increased government coverage under the Medicaid program for the poor.

During the last, unsuccessful effort to remake the health system, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America were among the most powerful opponents. Drug companies feared that the government would resort to price controls to limit costs, which would decrease or even eliminate their profit margins.

Now PhRMA will team up with Families USA to lobby Congress to expand Medicaid to cover everyone who meets the federal definition of poverty and those who make up to 33 percent more, which is about $14,000 a year in income for individuals. Adults without children, whether single or married, would qualify for the first time under the proposed expansion.

The duo will ask for a sliding scale of subsidies so that low-income people who make somewhat more than $14,000 will qualify for coverage, too.

via Drug Industry To Push Health Care For The Poor : NPR.

Sean Penn: Smiles for Smirks

Smiles for Smirks

via Sean Penn: Smiles for Smirks.

The World’s 10 Most Iconic Green Office Buildings – Ahoys

The World’s 10 Most Iconic Green Office Buildings

Despite tough economic conditions, large office complexes continue to be built in major cities throughout the world. ‘Green’ campaigners argue that such developments are inherently bad for the environment, and skeptics point out that by making sustainability central to their new office designs, many companies are simply attempting to offset their environmentally degrading activities elsewhere.

However, considering that large-scale offices will continue to be built, and in increasing numbers throughout the developing world, it is great to see that so many of the new ones are being designed with a low environmental impact in mind. This list comprises 10 existing and upcoming office buildings that are not only bold, beautiful and futuristic, but ‘green’ too.

Feel Tingling In The Wrist- It’s An Encounter with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Feel Tingling In The Wrist- It’s An Encounter with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Do you work in front of the computer for over 8 hours a day? Does your work require continuous use of the wrist and the wrist nerves without rest or at a stretch? Have you ever felt numbness of the wrist or pain in your hands or for that matter stinging sensations in your hand? Well if the answer to the earlier stated questions is “YES” then it is an indication that most probably you are suffering from the carpal tunnel syndrome. The first question which arises in your mind is that as to what is carpal tunnel syndrome

The carpal tunnel syndrome or the repetitive stress disorder as it is better known is a kind of crippling disability. Earlier when a little or no information was available about this disorder and people used to complain about the above symptoms then it was thought that they are making excuses for not doing the task assigned to them. But, according to statistics it was found out that around 5 million Americans complained about the pain and it was clear that all could not lie together! With such a large number of people complaining about the same disease in our nation was a cause for concern and cure for the same needed to be found out.

via Feel Tingling In The Wrist- It’s An Encounter with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome | Self Care Manual.

Cuddlin’ With Evil / Obama shakes hands with people we’re supposed to hate. Are we all going to die?

Cuddlin’ With Evil – by Mark Morford

Obama shakes hands with people we’re supposed to hate. Are we all going to die?

Clearly this is not the way we’re supposed to behave. Clearly this is not what we, as a formerly grumpy, petulant, first-world nation, expect from our president, from our attitude, from our typical chest-thumping, saber-rattling, kill-’em-all posture in the world.

See, what we do is, we stomp in. We huff and snort and make a portentous entrance full of cold swagger and terse, screw-you-if-you-disagree handshakes, ignoring the clammy mitts of those inflammatory commie jerks we don’t like because they’ve called us icky names in the past but whose illegal narcotics we will gladly purchase by the megaton and whose oil we’re going to go in and forcibly steal anyway ha ha sucker.

via Cuddlin’ With Evil / Obama shakes hands with people we’re supposed to hate. Are we all going to die?.

Senate Report Gives New Detail on Approval of Interrogation Techniques

Report Gives New Detail on Approval of Brutal Techniques

WASHINGTON — A newly declassified Congressional report released Tuesday outlined the most detailed evidence yet that the military’s use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects was approved at high levels of the Bush administration.

The report focused solely on interrogations carried out by the military, not those conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency at its secret prisons overseas. It rejected claims by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others that Pentagon policies played no role in harsh treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or other military facilities.

The 232-page report, the product of an 18-month inquiry, was approved on Nov. 20 by the Senate Armed Services Committee, but has since been under Pentagon review for declassification. Some of the findings were made public in a Dec. 12 article in The New York Times; a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld dismissed the report at the time as “unfounded allegations against those who have served our nation.”

via Senate Report Gives New Detail on Approval of Interrogation Techniques – NYTimes.com.

Health Insurance

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Earth Day

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.  All things connect.

- Chief Seattle, 1855

A Question That Matters More Than Ever: Did Bush Keep Us Safe on 9/11?

A Question That Matters More Than Ever: Did Bush Keep Us Safe on 9/11?

by: David Sirota

I appeared on CNN yesterday to discuss President Obama’s CIA speech, and his decision to release CIA torture memos. You can watch the clip here – and make sure to watch all the way to the end, because the debate gets into a historical question about 9/11 that now has more relevance for American foreign policy than ever.

As you’ll see, GOP strategist Cheri Jacobus claims that President Bush “kept us safe for nine years,” and President Obama is “a very popular president whose popular personally going in and sort of riding that wave of optimism.” Yes, that’s right – according to the GOP, Barack Obama is “riding a wave” created by George W. Bush.

Jacobus, of course, refuses to answer my question about whether Bush “kept us safe” on 9/11. That was a day that saw the worst terrorist attack in American history – an attack that the Bush administration was pretty explicitly warned about in memos and warnings.  And it’s not just 9/11. The Bush administration didn’t keep us safe during the anthrax attacks, and it’s Iraq invasion didn’t keep us safe, either (and that’s according to our intelligence agencies).

I’ll admit I was a bit incessant with my question, but I just feel we can’t let the Right try to fabricate a storyline and revise history about the Bush administration – and more generally, Bush administration policy – “keeping us safe,” especially not right now. With Obama trying to rebuild our diplomatic ties with the rest of the world and trying to engage some of our adversaries, the Right is already mounting a fearmongering campaign claiming that such a shift from Bush-ish isolationism will endanger America. And to validate their hysteria, they insist that Bushism made us safe – and any deviation from Bushism will endanger us.

via Open Left:: A Question That Matters More Than Ever: Did Bush Keep Us Safe on 9/11?.

Bright Automotive unveils 100 mpg hybrid truck

Bright Automotive unveils 100 mpg hybrid truck

NEW YORK (AP) — It sounds like a bright idea.

Anderson, Ind.-based startup Bright Automotive on Tuesday unveiled the IDEA, a 100-mpg plug-in hybrid electric van that it is looking to sell to fleet customers such as businesses and government agencies.

The automaker’s goal is to produce 50,000 vehicles a year starting in 2013. The ultimate outcome, it hopes, will be millions of dollars in savings in gasoline and drastically reduced emissions for fleet users.

“We are ready to provide the necessary automotive leadership our nation is calling for,” Chief Executive John Waters said in a conference call with reporters.

Waters, who developed the battery pack for General Motors Corp.’s first electric vehicle, the EV1, unveiled the IDEA on Capitol Hill in Washington. He said the company has applied for a $450 million loan from a Department of Energy program designed to help automakers develop fuel-efficient technology.

Waters hopes to begin production of the vehicle by 2012 and begin supplying to fleet customers the following year. He said the company is targeting fleet, rather than retail, customers, because fleet customers buy vehicles “on spreadsheets” in large quantities, which helps bring down the cost and eliminates the emotion present in car-buying.

via The Associated Press: Bright Automotive unveils 100 mpg hybrid truck.

Jonathan Alter sums up Dick Cheney pretty well

YouTube – The Ed Show – Jonathan Alter sums up Dick Cheney pretty well.

Bloomberg Responds To Giuliani On Same-Sex Marriage

YouTube – Bloomberg Responds To Giuliani On Same-Sex Marriage.

Turley: Obama May Be Shifting Blame to Holder So He Can Be The FALL GUY?

YouTube – Turley: Obama May Be Shifting Blame to Holder So He Can Be The FALL GUY?.

Inhofe Will Filibuster Judicial Nominee For Ruling Against Sectarian Prayers In Indiana Legislature

Inhofe Will Filibuster Judicial Nominee For Ruling Against Sectarian Prayers In Indiana Legislature

Yesterday on the Senate floor, Sen. James Inhofe announced that he intended to filibuster Obama’s nomination of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Inhofe’s announcement comes nearly three weeks after the Republican membership of the Senate Judiciary Committee boycotted Hamilton’s hearing claiming that “they had not been given sufficient time to prepare for the hearing.” Inhofe’s filibuster is surprising given the fact that Hamilton is generally viewed as representing “some of [Indiana's] traditionally moderate strain.”

Inhofe does not appear to have explained his decision to filibuster in front of his colleagues on the floor of the Senate. But in statements that he entered into the Congressional Record, Inhofe cited a 2005 ruling in Hinrichs v. Bosman in which Hamilton found that the Indiana House of Representatives may open proceedings with “non-sectarian prayers” only. Inhofe called it “insane” that the ruling would allow payers to invoke the name of “Allah” but not “Jesus”:

via Think Progress » Inhofe Will Filibuster Judicial Nominee For Ruling Against Sectarian Prayers In Indiana Legislature.

Paint It Green—with Recycled, Phony Rhetoric

Paint It Green—with Recycled, Phony Rhetoric

Market researchers seem to have decided that promoting the “green” attributes of your company or products will resonate with consumers.

There was certainly an overabundance of promotions in the lead-up to Earth Day this year. And, in terms of marketing, Earth Day alone is not enough. We now celebrate “Earth Week!”

You might think that a big-box retailer, calling itself “sustainable,” or “green,” hawking consumer goods that are mostly imported from distant third world nations, would be an oxymoron. But the folks at the Target Corporation, and other sophisticated merchants, apparently don’t think so.

What really stuck in my craw was Target’s Sunday advertising supplement, tooting their green horn, citing such arcane facts as, “Did you know that Target offers a gift card made from 40% recycled materials?”

It also included a promotion for their Archer Farms organic milk, at about $.50 less per carton than name-brand organic milk at other grocery stores, natural food cooperatives or Whole Foods.

Organic milk is green. Well, real organic milk, that is.

via Paint It Green—with Recycled, Phony Rhetoric | CommonDreams.org.

New Discovery Turns Garbage Into Gasoline

New Discovery Turns Garbage Into Gasoline

Though it does nothing to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint, a new discovery could yield domestic sources for gasoline for the energy-hungry, foreign-oil-addicted United States, at the least;

U.S. scientists have combined a discovery from a French garbage dump with breakthroughs in synthetic biology to come up with a novel method for turning plant waste into gasoline, without the need of any food sources.

A synthetic biology lab at the University of California San Francisco identified a compound able to use biomass to produce a gas that can be converted into a gasoline chemically indistinguishable from fossil-fuel based petroleum.

Their method allows for a variety of feedstocks to be used that are nonfood sources, such as agricultural waste products like corn stover and sugar cane bagasse.

This discovery leads to a good stopover point on the switch from combustion to fully electric automobiles. There are still carbon sequestration issues, and even though this discovery would not help global climate change at all, it is a promising step past the fragile energy construct of the past.

via New Discovery Turns Garbage Into Gasoline – Mike Kuykendall.

Norwegian lawyers to accuse Israeli leaders of war crimes

Norwegian lawyers to accuse Israeli leaders of war crimes

Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials could face legal action in Norway over the Gaza offensive after six Norwegian lawyers said Tuesday they would accuse them of war crimes.

The lawyers, who plan to file their complaint with Norway’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday, said they will call for the arrest and extradition of Olmert as well as former foreign affairs minister Tzipi Livni, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and seven senior Israeli army officers.

Under the Norwegian penal code, courts may hear cases involving war crimes and other major violations of human rights.

The lawyers released a statement accusing Israel of “massive terrorist attacks” in the Gaza Strip from December 27 last year to January 25, killing civilians, illegally using weapons against civilian targets and deliberately attacking hospitals and medical staff.

via Norwegian lawyers to accuse Israeli leaders of war crimes – Yahoo! News UK.

Were Other Congress People – Besides Harman – Also Blackmailed by the Bush Administration?

Were Other Congress People – Besides Harman – Also Blackmailed by the Bush Administration?

Washington’s Blog.

NEXT-GEN STUN GUNS TARGET CROWDS

NEXT-GEN STUN GUNS TARGET CROWDS

via Defense Tech: NEXT-GEN STUN GUNS TARGET CROWDS.

‘Same people defending torture’ ignored 9/11 warnings

Same people defending torture’ ignored 9/11 warnings

Marc A. Thiessen, President Bush’s former speechwriter, is defending torture in the Washington Post. Apparently, this is the level of clout Dick Cheney and George Bush have, when the only people out defending them are speechwriters and people who are implicated in torture.

Here is what Mr. Thiessen writes:

In releasing highly classified documents on the CIA interrogation program last week, President Obama declared that the techniques used to question captured terrorists “did not make us safer.” This is patently false. The proof is in the memos Obama made public — in sections that have gone virtually unreported in the media.

Right. The reason the section Mr. Thiessen cites has gone underreported is because it is written by the same fabulists within the DOJ who authored legal permission that gave the Executive Branch all but-dictatorial power. Plus, if Mr. Thiessen had actually ever read a CIA brief of any sort, he would understand how laughable his argument is. Here is the part of the DOJ memo he cites, which claims the CIA credits torture with keeping us safe since the attacks of September 11, 2001:

via The Raw Story » ‘Same people defending torture’ ignored 9/11 warnings.

Fresh Food Revolution

Fresh Food Revolution  by Mark Hertsgaard

When Michelle Obama began planting an organic garden on the South Lawn of the White House recently, there was no doubt she was sending a message, but the message was more subversive and far-reaching than most American media coverage recognized. On March 20, joined by a class of local fifth graders, the first lady lifted the first shovels of dirt onto a 1,100-square-foot plot that will feature fifty-five kinds of vegetables, including spinach, peppers, arugula, kale, collards and tomatoes (but no beets–the president reportedly does not like beets). Various herbs and berries will also be grown in the garden, which is fully visible to the thousands of tourists and other pedestrians that pass by the White House daily. (There will also be two boxes of bees for pollination.)

Michelle Obama’s stated message was simple and was clearly aimed at her fellow Americans: fresh food tastes better and is better for you, so kids and grown-ups alike should eat lots more of it. “A real, delicious heirloom tomato is one of the sweetest things you’ll ever eat,” she told the 10-year-olds, adding that freshly picked vegetables were what prompted her daughters to try new kinds of foods.

What made Obama’s message so subversive was something she left unsaid: the food most Americans eat nowadays is not fresh, tasty or healthy. The superiority of fresh ingredients may be obvious to Italians, but it is a truth most Americans long ago forgot, if they ever knew it in the first place. Over the past fifty years, the United States has been transformed into a fast food nation, in author Eric Schlosser’s phrase. What the typical American eats is not so much food as it is highly processed food derivatives that have traveled thousands of miles since leaving the farm, losing along the way most of the flavor and nutritional value they once possessed. To disguise such losses, food manufacturers overload products with fats, salts and sweeteners, especially corn syrup–additives that, along with the massive portions typically served in the United States, help explain why nearly one in three Americans is obese.

Now, by publicly championing fresh local food, Michelle Obama clearly hopes to entice Americans away from their junk food past to a healthier, more delicious future. And that is what makes her message so far-reaching. Change America’s eating habits and you can change the world.

via Fresh Food Revolution | CommonDreams.org.

CU scientists’ breakthrough could shrink computer chips

CU scientists’ breakthrough could shrink computer chips

Colorado engineers have found a way to shine a doughnut-shaped laser of light over a second light, thus trimming its edges and offering the hope that computer chips can be made five times smaller.It’s a potentially huge breakthrough because the entire global electronics industry, and much of the success of the American economy, relies on Moore’s Law, which says transistors and circuits will double in power every 18 months without increasing in size or cost.

The assumption that iPods and computers will continue to grow ever more powerful is running up against the limits of physics, a problem that if not solved could devastate the entire semiconductor industry.

University of Colorado Assistant Professor Robert McLeod and a team of engineering students used tightly focused beams of blue light on liquid molecules known as monomers to record lines and dots thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair on a substrate.

They then “chopped off the edges” of the lines using a halo of ultraviolet light, trimming the width of the structures significantly.

“We are essentially drawing a line with a marker on a nanotechnology scale and then erasing its edges,” said McLeod, who teaches in CU’s electrical, computer and energy engineering department.

via INDenverTimes » INDT Archive » CU scientists’ breakthrough could shrink computer chips | The No. 1 site for insight, perspective and news in Denver..

Matt Drudge Goes Into Hiding

Matt Drudge Goes Into Hiding

Days after Matt Drudge popped up to tell New York magazine about how he doesn’t enjoy having sex with men, The New Republic looks into his descent into Howard Hughes-like isolation.

As Gabriel Sherman puts it, Drudge fears the media, which for some reason want to know things about the man who basically decides what will be on cable television every night.

“I don’t know what the fuck is going on with him,” says an anonymous magazine editor who used to be IM pals with Drudge. “Maybe I’ve talked to him once in the past six months. Even with e-mails, I don’t get a response from the dude.” Now Drudge supposedly only talks to Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Andrew Breitbart, which is just an awful, awful life.

via Gawker – Matt Drudge Goes Into Hiding – Matt Drudge.

West Is Told to Expect Water Shortfalls

West Is Told to Expect Water Shortfalls

The Colorado River is a critical source of water for seven Western states, each of which gets an annual allotment according to a system that has sparked conflict and controversy for decades. But in an era of climate change, even greater difficulties loom.

The scope of those potential problems is detailed in a study being published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Tim P. Barnett and David W. Pierce of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography report that under various forecasts of the effects of warming temperatures on runoff into the Colorado, scheduled future water deliveries to the seven states are not sustainable.

The work builds on an earlier study by the researchers that looked at whether Lake Mead, the huge reservoir behind Hoover Dam, would eventually go dry. For the current study, they tweaked their model of river inflows and outflows and looked at the delivery shortfalls that would be needed to keep Lake Mead at the lowest functioning level. The modifications in the model “didn’t really change any of our answers,” Dr. Barnett said. “It just made the study a lot stronger.”

via Observatory – West Is Told to Expect Water Shortfalls – NYTimes.com.

Senator: OPR report will be ‘devastating’ to torture memo authors

Senator: OPR report will be ‘devastating’ to torture memo authors

Several members of the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel worked on memos authorizing torture, but particular attention has been focused on Jay Bybee, who is now a federal judge with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Since the release of the memos, calls have been coming from all quarters for his impeachment.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday, however, that he believes no action should be taken “until the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility finishes its investigation.”

“It is certainly possible that an impeachment inquiry is warranted — but I think that decision should probably wait,” Whitehouse stated. “They’ve been working on this for, I would say, more than a year now, and I expect it will be a very thorough report. … I think it can’t be more than a few weeks away.”

“There’s … every reason to believe this will be a devastating opinion,” Whitehouse commented.

via Raw Story » Senator: OPR report will be ‘devastating’ to torture memo authors.

Feingold: ‘Grounds for impeachment can be made’ against Bybee.

OPS:  Where is the National Lawyers organization?  Why aren’t they holding disbarment hearings independently?

Feingold: ‘Grounds for impeachment can be made’ against Bybee.

In 2003, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) voted against confirming OLC torture memo author Jay Bybee to the 9th Circuit Court, one of only 19 Democrats to do so. At the time, Feingold noted “the failure of the administration to provide any of his numerous OLC opinions to the Judiciary Committee for review.” Today, in the wake of the release of Bybee’s torture memos, Feingold said that there are certainly “grounds for impeachment” against Bybee:

feingold2.jpgThe idea that one of the architects of this perversion of the law is now sitting on the federal bench is very troubling. The memos offer some of the most explicit evidence yet that Mr. Bybee and others authorized torture and they suggest that grounds for impeachment can be made. Clearly, the Justice Department has the responsibility to investigate this matter further. As a Senator, I would be a juror in any impeachment trial so I don’t want to reach a conclusion until all the evidence is before me.

via Think Progress » Feingold: ‘Grounds for impeachment can be made’ against Bybee..

Bloomberg On Same-Sex Marriage: ‘Rudy Has A Right To His Views,’ But I Totally Disagree With Them

Bloomberg On Same-Sex Marriage: ‘Rudy Has A Right To His Views,’ But I Totally Disagree With Them

In a New York Post interview published yesterday, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani sharply criticized the push to legalize same-sex marriage in New York state:

“This will create a grass-roots movement. This is the kind of issue that, in many ways, is somewhat beyond politics,” said Giuliani, a two-term mayor who unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination last year. [...]

“Marriage, I believe, both traditionally and legally, has always been between a man and a woman and should remain between a man and woman,” said Giuliani, who has been married three times.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stood by Paterson’s side when the governor made his announcement about the marriage equality legislation on April 16. Today, ThinkProgress sat down with the mayor and asked him to respond to his predecessor’s comments:

via Think Progress » Bloomberg On Same-Sex Marriage: ‘Rudy Has A Right To His Views,’ But I Totally Disagree With Them.

RFK Jr. Blasts Obama as ‘Indentured Servant’ to Coal Industry

RFK Jr. Blasts Obama as ‘Indentured Servant’ to Coal Industry

Critics Say Clean Coal Is a Boondoggle; ‘Clean Coal Is a Dirty Lie’

“Clean coal is a dirty lie,” says environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who calls President Barack Obama and other politicians who commit taxpayer money to develop it “indentured servants” of the coal industry.

Despite a series of expensive false starts and failures, President Obama proposed $3.4 billion in stimulus legislation to fund continued research on “clean coal” projects.

“Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes, it does not exist,” says former Vice President Al Gore.

The coal industry has been running a multi-million dollar advertising blitz to promote the theory that coal can be made clean, using one of Obama’s campaign speeches in its television commercials.

via RFK Jr. Blasts Obama as ‘Indentured Servant’ to Coal Industry – ABC News.

Bailing out America’s toxic banks won’t solve this economic crisis

Economics in a bubble – Dean Baker

The cheerleaders for America’s toxic boom want us to bail out US banks. They were wrong then – and are wrong now

t is often said that the there are few forces as destructive as the power of bad economics. Rarely has this been more clearly demonstrated than in the current crisis.

While the bankers’ greed fed the housing bubble, the incompetence and corruption of the economics profession allowed the world’s largest financial bubble to grow unchecked, until its inevitable collapse wrecked the economy. Remarkably, the economists who got everything wrong as the bubble was expanding, are still being given the opportunity to get everything wrong as we try to dig out from the wreckage.

Even though most of the “best” economists in the world did not see it, the story of the bubble and its collapse was in fact extremely simple. The recovery from the stock market crash in 2001 was driven by the growth of the housing bubble.

In the United States, the unprecedented run-up in house prices fueled the economy by causing a construction boom, and even more importantly, a consumption boom, as the saving rate fell to zero. While many prominent economists lectured the country on the need to save and to end spendthrift ways, those who knew economics pointed to the well-known housing wealth effect.

via Dean Baker: Bailing out America’s toxic banks won’t solve this economic crisis | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

ACLU Response to Former Vice-President Cheney’s Call for Release of Bush Torture Documentation

ACLU Response to Former Vice-President Cheney’s Call for Release of Bush Torture Documentation

NEW YORK – April 21 – In response to the recent release of four torture memos, Vice-President Dick Cheney has called for further disclosure of documents regarding interrogation policy under the Bush administration. The torture memos were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project:

“Mr. Cheney is correct to propose that the public should have more information about the CIA’s torture program, but disclosure should be comprehensive. The new administration should begin by declassifying documents that would shed light on the role of Mr. Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials in authorizing that program.

“For eight years, Mr. Cheney served as a cheerleader for torture, stating on national television that waterboarding was a ‘no brainer’ and encouraging CIA interrogators to ‘work the dark side.’ The public has a right to know the extent of Mr. Cheney’s role in authorizing the CIA to use methods that the United States once prosecuted as war crimes. CIA interrogators who broke the law should be held accountable for their conduct, but it would be unacceptable if only CIA interrogators were held accountable for actions that were authorized by Mr. Cheney and other Bush administration officials.”

More information about the release of the torture memos and the ACLU’s work fighting torture can be found online at: www.aclu.org/olcmemos

via ACLU Response to Former Vice-President Cheney’s Call for Release of Bush Torture Documentation | CommonDreams.org.

Obama and torture: he must not set a precedent by ignoring prosecution

Obama and torture: he must not set a precedent by ignoring prosecution

The memos are inescapable proof that the Bush administration not only used torture but encouraged it wholeheartedly. President Obama is not taking the high road by avoiding prosecution of those responsible. According to UN expert on torture, Manfred Nowak, Obama himself is in violation of international law by his decision not to prosecute those who have engaged in torture.

When he appeared at the CIA yesterday for his pep talk, he told the agency not to be ‘discouraged’. And that admitting mistakes will make the US stronger in the long view. All well and good. But where is the accountability then for those who saw to it that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times, despite the fact that his interrogators felt he was not being truthful?

And what about Abu Zubaydah? The New York Times reported that CIA senior officials had been told that Zubaydah had said everything he could have by his interrogators, and yet the CIA continued its ‘harsh’ and enhanced techniques of torturing him, which included slamming him against the wall and confining him in a box. In other words, had the CIA not been protected to the teeth by the Administration is doing such hideous work, it might have stopped the torture once it was evident that no more information could be gathered.

It also appears from that same report that senior officials were convinced of Zubaydah’s stature in the al-Qaeda’s chain of command, despite evidence to the contrary, and the fact that the important information he divulged happened early in his capture. Was this another delusion on the order of the one

via NY Foreign Policy Examiner: Obama and torture: he must not set a precedent by ignoring prosecution.

US Senator calls on judge who wrote interrogation memos to quit

US Senator calls on judge who wrote interrogation memos to quit

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A leading Democratic lawmaker called Tuesday for federal appeals court judge Jay Bybee to resign over his part in giving legal backing to Bush-era interrogation tactics widely seen as torture.

“The decent and honorable thing for him to do would be to resign. If he is a decent and honorable person he will resign,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy told reporters.

Leahy’s comments came after US President Barack Obama left the door open to prosecuting Bush-era officials who authorized harsh questioning of terrorism suspects in a series of memos made public last week.

Republicans angrily opposed any such move and highlighted comments by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Sunday that seemed to rule out prosecuting the lawyers who drew up legal justifications for the controversial tactics.

“What happened to him talking about not looking backward, about looking forward?” said Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada.

“I think it’s a huge mistake,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

“If we start criminalizing legal advice given to a past president advice you may disagree with, that’s on the margins of legal thought in your opinion, you’ve really harmed the presidency,” he told reporters.

via AFP: US Senator calls on judge who wrote interrogation memos to quit.

Harman ‘Disappointed’ NSA Wiretapped Her, After Allowing Warrantless Wiretapping

YouTube – Harman ‘Disappointed’ NSA Wiretapped Her, After Allowing Warrantless Wiretapping.

Most Shameful & Pathetic Performance By An American Leader In My Lifetime!

Lawrence O’Donnell bitch slaps Pat Buchannan again.

YouTube – Most Shameful & Pathetic Performance By An American Leader In My Lifetime!.

New EPA regulations on global warming pollutionare they enough?

New EPA regulations on global warming pollutionare they enough? Thom talks with Phil Radford, the new Executive Director of Greenpeace

YouTube – New EPA regulations on global warming pollutionare they enough?.

U.S. tax dollars still being spent in sweatshops

Thom Hartmann

U.S. tax dollars still being spent in sweatshops Bjorn Claeson, Executive Director of Sweatfree Communities joins Thom about this new report

YouTube – U.S. tax dollars still being spent in sweatshops.

Putting Finance Capitalism ”Back in Its Box”

Putting Finance Capitalism “Back in Its Box”

So writes Philip Augar in an April 13 Financial Times (FT) op-ed. He’s a former UK investment banker/broker and author of The Death of Gentlemanly Capitalism, The Greed Merchants, and most recently Chasing Alpha: How Reckless Growth and Unchecked Ambition Ruined the City’s Golden Decade. More on his newest book below.

He quotes Nicolas Sarkozy, a questionable choice, at the G 20 summit saying “The all-powerful market that is always right is finished,” then on departure adding “a page has been turned.” For Augar, that depends on whether a “free-market” successor is constructed, something “entrenched interests in America and Britain would be well-advised to encourage if they wish to remain centre stage.”

Things unraveled after Bretton Woods collapsed – the post-war monetary system of convertible currencies, fixed exchange rates, free trade, the dollar as the world’s reserve currency linked to gold, and those of other nations fixed to the dollar. Absent that, Chicago School economists “persuade(d) the Reagan and Thatcher administrations to adopt laissez faire policies and deregulation.” We then printed money freely, spent and lived beyond our means, and created an illusion of prosperity and wealth that led to the current crisis.

Earlier, academics and consultants embraced “free markets” and built a “coherent” business strategy on them. Regulation-freed investment bankers sold “the whole package” to CEOs. Once “derivatives theory (and securitization took hold, they) opened the door to share options and performance-based compensation (followed by) three decades in which tooth-and-claw capitalism ruled supreme.” In other words, anything goes, checks and balances are out the window, let buyers beware, but look what it brought us.

via Putting Finance Capitalism ”Back in Its Box”.

Leahy Would Ensure Those Whose Fraud Led To Economic Meltdown Are ‘Held To Account’

Leahy Would Ensure Those Whose Fraud Led To Economic Meltdown Are ‘Held To Account’

The Senate Monday began debate on the bipartisan Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA), legislation that will increase the tools available to help prosecutors combat fraud, particularly financial fraud which contributed to the current economic crisis.

The bill (S 386) was introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Feb. 5. The measure cleared the committee on March 5. The Senate is expected to debate the legislation throughout the week.

“At its core, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act authorizes the resources necessary for the Justice Department, the FBI, and other investigative agencies to respond to this crisis,” says Leahy. “Only by reinvigorating our anti-fraud measures and giving law enforcement agencies the tools and resources they need to root out fraud can we ensure that fraud can never again place our financial system at risk and victimize so many Americans.”

via On The Hill: Leahy Would Ensure Those Whose Fraud Led To Economic Meltdown Are ‘Held To Account’.

Supreme Court Puts New Limits on Vehicle Searches

OPS:  The moral to the story  is to keep it in the trunk from now on

Supreme Court Puts New Limits on Vehicle Searches

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday put new limits on the circumstances under which police officers who lack a search warrant can search a vehicle immediately after the arrest of a suspect.

Officers who lack a warrant may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle after an occupant is arrested only if it is reasonable to believe that the person arrested could still gain access to the vehicle, or if the vehicle contains evidence relevant to the arrest, the court said.

In a 5-to-4 ruling that cut across the liberal versus conservative stereotypes of the current lineup of justices, the court affirmed a ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court, which overturned the conviction and three-year prison sentence against Rodney J. Gant of Tucson on a drug charge.

via Supreme Court Puts New Limits on Vehicle Searches – NYTimes.com.

Priest Charged In ‘Spiritual Massage’ Case

Priest Charged In ‘Spiritual Massage’ Case

Priest Charged With Unlawful Sexual Behavior

SALINAS, Calif. — A Salinas priest is accused of giving a boy beer, brandy and “spiritual massages” starting when the victim was a 14-year-old, prosecutors said in court Monday.

The Rev. Antonio Cortes, 41, who is a priest at St. Mary of the Nativity Catholic Church, is charged with unlawful sexual behavior and providing alcohol to a minor.Cortes made his first appearance in court Monday. He was supposed to enter a plea but is still looking for an attorney.

Cortes was arrested Thursday after the now 16-year-old victim walked into the Salinas police station and accused the priest of providing him with alcohol and then molesting him.

Dozens of Cortes’ supporters packed the courtroom Monday and some said they think the priest is being set up for financial gain.”People are desperate right now. The economy is bad right now and you will see more of these (allegations) all around,” said Carlos Casapia, who believes Cortes is being set up.

via Priest Charged In ‘Spiritual Massage’ Case – Denver News Story – KMGH Denver.

Obama’s Real Plan in Latin America

Obama’s Real Plan in Latin America – by Shamus Cooke

At first glance Obama seems to have softened U.S. policy toward Latin America, especially when compared to his predecessor. There has been no shortage of editorials praising Obama’s conciliatory approach while comparing it to FDR’s ”Good Neighbor” Latin American policy.

It’s important to remember, however, that FDR’s vision of being neighborly meant that the U.S. would merely stop direct military interventions in Latin America, while reserving the right to create and prop up dictators, arm and train unpopular regional militaries, promote economic dominance through free trade and bank loans, conspire with right-wing groups, etc…

And although Obama’s policy towards Latin America has a similar subversive feeling to it, many of FDR’s methods of dominance are closed to him. Decades of U.S. “good neighbor” policy in Latin America resulted in a continuous string of U.S. backed military coups, broken-debtor economies, and consequently, a hemisphere-wide revolt.

Many of the heads of states that Obama mingled with at the Summit of the Americas came to power because of social movements born out of opposition to U.S. foreign policy. The utter hatred of U.S. dominance in the region is so intense that any attempt by Obama to reassert U.S. authority would result in a backlash, and Obama knows it.

Bush had to learn this the hard way, when his pathetic attempt to tame the region led to a humiliation at the 2005 Summit, where for the first time Latin American countries defeated yet another U.S. attempt to use the Organization of American States (O.A.S.), as a tool for U.S. foreign policy.

But while Obama humbly discussed hemispheric issues on an “equal footing” with his Latin American counterparts at the recent Summit of Americas, he has subtly signaled that U.S. foreign policy will be business as usual.

The least subtle sign that Obama is toeing the line of previous U.S. governments — both Republican and Democrat — is his stance on Cuba. Obama has postured as being a progressive when it comes to Cuba by relaxing some travel and financial restrictions, while leaving the much more important issue, the economic embargo, firmly in place.

via Obama’s Real Plan in Latin America.

Dem Rep Harman Did Urge Times Not To Publish Wiretapping Expose!

Dem Rep Harman Did Urge Times Not To Publish Wiretapping Expose!

Whoa. Dem Rep Jane Harman did in fact urge The New York Times not to publish its big expose of Bush-era warrantless wiretapping, apparently before the 2004 election, potentially changing the election’s outcome and the course of history, according to a statement from the paper.

As I noted here yesterday, one key revelation in that big CQ Politics scoop is that Harman may have privately tried to kill the story in 2004. Yesterday Times executive editor Bill Keller said that Harman hadn’t spoken to him or influenced his decision.

But now Times spokesperson Catherine Mathis sends over a more detailed statement from Keller explaining what really happened:

Congresswoman Harman spoke to Washington Bureau Chief Phil Taubman in late October or early November, 2004, apparently at the request of General Hayden. She urged that The Times not publish the story. She did not speak to me, and I don’t remember her being a significant factor in my decision. In 2005, when we were getting ready to publish, Phil met with a group of congressional leaders familiar with the eavesdropping program, including Ms. Harman. They all argued that The Times should not publish. The Times published the story a few days later.

via Dem Rep Harman Did Urge Times Not To Publish Wiretapping Expose! | The Plum Line.

Obama: Holder Will Decide Whether To Prosecute Torture Authors, Supports Bipartisan Truth Commission

Obama: Holder Will Decide Whether To Prosecute Torture Authors, Supports Bipartisan Truth Commission

Recently, the White House has sent mixed signals about whether it supports investigations into the Bush administration officials who authored the torture policies.

On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that “those who devised the policies…should not be prosecuted.” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs admitted yesterday the White House was failing to hold anyone “accountable” for torture. However, today the New York Times’ Peter Baker and Scott Shane reported that aides to Obama “did not rule out legal sanctions for the Bush lawyers who developed the legal basis for the use of the techniques.”

In the Oval Office this afternoon, the AP’s Jennifer Loven put the question directly to Obama. He refused to rule out prosecutions of the Bush lawyers who created the legal underpinnings for torture, saying it was a question he would leave up to Attorney General Eric Holder:

via Think Progress » Obama: Holder Will Decide Whether To Prosecute Torture Authors, Supports Bipartisan Truth Commission.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorses Bybee impeachment hearings: ‘I think that is a proper response.’

Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorses Bybee impeachment hearings: ‘I think that is a proper response.’

Over 5,000 of you have taken action in calling for Congress to commence impeachment hearings against Jay Bybee. This afternoon, ThinkProgress spoke with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) about the campaign. She told us:

schakowskyI would support impeachment hearings for Judge Bybee. … We’ve already seen that he’s willing to interpret the laws in ways that are counter to the fundamental values of our country. I think that is a proper response.

via Think Progress » Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorses Bybee impeachment hearings: ‘I think that is a proper response.’.

Top bailed-out firms continue lobbying

Top bailed-out firms continue lobbying

Top bailed-out firms spent more than $9 million lobbying in Q1 while getting federal money

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top 10 recipients of the government’s $700 billion financial bailout spent about $9.5 million on federal lobbying during the first three months of the year.

The biggest spender was bailed-out automaker General Motors Corp., which devoted $2.8 million to lobbying in the first quarter of 2009. It has received $13.4 billion in government loans and could get $5 billion more, according to a government report released Tuesday.

Failed insurance giant American International Group Inc. and banks Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. each reported spending more than $1 million to influence the government as they lived off federal money this year. AIG has gotten $40 billion from the bailout fund, while Citigroup has received $50 billion and JPMorgan $25 billion.

The lobbying activity was revealed publicly in reports required to be filed with Congress. This year’s first quarterly report was due Monday.

via Top bailed-out firms continue lobbying – Yahoo! Finance.

Feingold Unloads On Peggy Noonan: “Never Heard Anything Quite As Disturbing”

Feingold Unloads On Peggy Noonan: “Never Heard Anything Quite As Disturbing”

Senator Russ Feingold, one of the harshest critics of the Bush administration’s nation security policies, says he can not bring himself to support President Obama’s apparent decision not to investigate or prosecute illegalities from those years.

“Part of what troubles me are the lawyers — we should see their law school degrees — who consciously wrote these memos justifying and explaining full well those outrageous arguments,” the Wisconsin Democrat said on Tuesday in reference to the Bush-era torture memos released last week. “I cannot join the president, or his spokesman, or [chief of staff] Rahm Emanuel, who said we aren’t going [to prosecute these people]. I can’t. I just disagree with them.”

Later, the Senator took a swipe at some of the rationalizations for avoiding prosecution that have been voiced by Washington lawmakers and pundits.

“If you want to see just how outrageous this is, I refer you to the remarks made by Peggy Noonan this Sunday,” he said, referring to the longtime conservative columnist’s appearance on ABC’s This Week. “I frankly have never heard anything quite as disturbing as her remark that was something to the affect of: ‘well sometimes you just have to move on.’”

via Feingold Unloads On Peggy Noonan: “Never Heard Anything Quite As Disturbing”.

WTF CNN?! What are you really saying re: prosecuting torture?

OPS:  Corporate Media lining up to protect the Bush Crime Family

WTF CNN?! What are you really saying re: prosecuting torture?

via Daily Kos: WTF CNN?! What are you really saying re: prosecuting torture?.

President’s Credit Crackdown

YouTube – President’s Credit Crackdown.

The Pulitzer-winning investigation that dare not be uttered on TV

The Pulitzer-winning investigation that dare not be uttered on TV

Glenn Greenwald

The New York Times’ David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Barstow uncovered. Here is how the Pulitzer Committee described Barstow’s exposés:

Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.

By whom were these “ties to companies” undisclosed and for whom did these deeply conflicted retired generals pose as “analysts”? ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox — the very companies that have simply suppressed the story from their viewers. They kept completely silent about Barstow’s story even though it sparked Congressional inquiries, vehement objections from the then-leading Democratic presidential candidates, and allegations that the Pentagon program violated legal prohibitions on domestic propaganda programs. The Pentagon’s secret collaboration with these “independent analysts” shaped multiple news stories from each of these outlets on a variety of critical topics. Most amazingly, many of them continue to employ as so-called “independent analysts” the very retired generals at the heart of Barstow’s story, yet still refuse to inform their viewers about any part of this story.

via The Pulitzer-winning investigation that dare not be uttered on TV – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Is Picking a Mate Just Genetics?

Is Picking a Mate Just Genetics?

Scientists Say Genes May Dictate Mate Selection, at Least for Fruit Flies

So after looking for years you finally found your perfect mate. Was it good judgment on your part, helped along by a lot of romance, or was it just a case of cold genetics?

It may well be that your genes, not your superior taste when it comes to the opposite sex, made the choice for you. But even your genes can get it wrong. At least if you are a fruit fly.

A team of scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, have been trying for a number of years to figure out the role genes play in mate selection.

Of course, they would prefer to study the same thing in humans, but there seems to be an ethical problem with having people mate with strangers to produce children for scientific research.

via Is Picking a Mate Just Genetics? – ABC News.

Taming Humanity’s Urge to War

Taming Humanity’s Urge to War

Must lethal conflict be an inevitable part of human culture?

SALT LAKE CITY—As deep as scientists peer into human history and prehistory, they have found evidence of violence. That was the bad news from 17 researchers in anthropology and other fields at “The Evolution of Human Aggression: Lessons for Today’s Conflicts” conference, held at the University of Utah at the end of February. The good news is that much can be done to reduce lethal conflict in the world today. As participant Frans B. M. de Waal of Emory University put it, humans are not “destined to wage war forever.”

De Waal, who studies primates, noted that observations of lethal group encounters among chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives, have promulgated the fatalistic belief that “war is in our DNA.” But chimps are also “peacemakers,” de Waal pointed out; they reconcile after fights by hugging, mouth and hand kissing, mutual grooming and food sharing. Humans engage in such behavior, too, de Waal said, flashing a photograph of John McCain and George W. Bush embracing—albeit with hideously insincere grins—after their bitter primary contest in 2000.

via Taming Humanity’s Urge to War: Scientific American.

Mammoth Study Finds New Genes for Mental Retardation

Mammoth Study Finds New Genes for Mental Retardation

An intense scouring of the X chromosome has turned up nine new genes tied to X-linked mental retardation, a group of conditions marked by severe cognitive impairment. The study also surprisingly indicates that more than 1% of the estimated 800 genes on the X chromosome have no function in the body. “[The work] sets the stage for the next frontier in human and medical genetics,” says Han Brunner, an expert in congenital conditions at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands who was not involved in the research.

Mental retardation afflicts 2% to 3% of the general population, and researchers have linked a small proportion of these cases to a faulty X chromosome. In addition to cognitive problems, patients with X-linked mental retardation (XLMR)–which includes fragile x syndrome (ScienceNOW, 24 May 2007)–may also suffer from epilepsy, macrocephaly (an enlarged head), and reproductive defects. XLMR is far more common in boys, as they only inherit one X chromosome and thus don’t have the backup copy that girls do.

Traditional genetic methods, such as looking at family trees and sequencing individual genes, have linked defects in 80 genes on the X chromosome to XLMR, but the discovery rate has slowed, suggesting that those techniques have reached their limit. So, in the current study, 18 research teams from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Germany turned to a new computer program called AutoCSA, which ramps up the amount of DNA that can be sequenced at one time. The researchers sequenced 720 out of about 800 genes on the X chromosome, comparing 208 individuals with XLMR with unaffected family members. In all, the effort took 6 years and would have been “unthinkable” using traditional methods, says Patrick Tarpey, a molecular geneticist at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, U.K., who was part of the collaboration.

via Mammoth Study Finds New Genes for Mental Retardation — Thomas 2009 (420): 1 — ScienceNOW.

D.C. Reporters Just Make Shit Up, Part 1,489,890,992,384

D.C. Reporters Just Make Shit Up, Part 1,489,890,992,384

David Sirota

I was reading this [link fixed], the zillionth “analysis” of political populism from a Washington, D.C.-based reporter, when I came upon this pretty perfect example of how Beltway journalists just make shit up:

The country today is different. America has an enormous middle class that is heavily invested in the financial system and is hardly about to organize for its overthrow…People who have lost half the value of their 401(k) plans, in other words, want to regain it by having the economy rebound, not by seizing the assets of ExxonMobil Corp.

If this reporter was even the slightest bit interested in whether this banalia was true, he would have spent all of 5 seconds on the Google and found that actually, empirical public opinion data shows that Americans are quite supportive of “seizing the assets” of oil companies like ExxonMobil.

As USA Today reported a few months ago, a windfall profits tax — a tax to seize oil company assets — is wildly popular, according to its surveys. This was the same finding as ABC News’ earlier poll. Indeed, even the conservative-leaning Rasmussen found that just 47 percent of Americans oppose complete and total nationalization of the entire oil industry.

via OpEdNews » D.C. Reporters Just Make Sh*t Up, Part 1,489,890,992,384.

Harman’s Wiretap Woes and the AIPAC Clique

Harman’s Wiretap Woes and the AIPAC Clique

How ironic that I made my decision to challenge Jane Harman in 2006 after watching her Meet the Press interview in which she lambasted the New York Times for breaking the story about the Bush administration’s massive illegal wiretapping.  “Oh my God,” I told my husband, who was doing Sunday sit-ups in front of the television set, “this woman needs to be challenged — on the wiretaps, on the war, and on her collusion with the Bush mob.”

By the time I poured my coffee and cranked up my cell phone, I was off and running, campaigning as an insurgent Democratic Party peace candidate in the 36th congressional district.

Now we see another page in the script, if we believe reporter Jeff Stein that Harman’s sycophantic defense of the FISA violations was part of the deal: she, in return for then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ help in halting an FBI investigation into Harman’s deal-making with American Israeli Public Affairs Committee would do her best to defend and deflect attention from the illegal wiretaps.  The fact that Harman, herself, was wiretapped, perhaps with good reason, is simply serendipitous poetry.

And now it gets interesting.  Will the Democratic Party establishment ignore this latest development in a longstanding corruption scandal?  With Harman’s next primary more than a year away, ignoring her quid-pro-quo may seem to be a viable strategy.  But if ignoring it doesn’t work, then the party establishment may need to distract people with something even more insidious than a Democratic Party congresswoman in bed with agents of a foreign power.  Diverting attention elsewhere could make establishment Democrats do something they have been reluctant to do — prosecute the Bush administration torturers, shine the spotlight on those who gave the orders and provided legal cover to waterboard and worse.  This is the kind of cover a progressive Democrat could relish.

via OpEdNews » Harman’s Wiretap Woes and the AIPAC Clique.

Iraqis outraged over Blackwater’s slow exit from the country.

Iraqis outraged over Blackwater’s slow exit from the country.

In January, the Iraqi government announced that it would “not issue a new operating license to Blackwater Worldwide,” which is now known as Xe, and that the company would have to be out of the country “as soon as a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee finishes drawing up guidelines for private contractors.” But the AP reports today that the company is “still protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq, even though the company has no license to operate there and has been told by the State Department its contracts will not be renewed two years after a lethal firefight that stirred outrage in Baghdad.” Some victims of that firefight are angry that the company has yet to leave:

via Think Progress » Iraqis outraged over Blackwater’s slow exit from the country..

Feinstein to Obama: Torture prosecutions should still be on the table.

Feinstein to Obama: Torture prosecutions should still be on the table.

In recent days, President Obama has reiterated his pledge to oppose prosecutions of individuals responsible for torture under the Bush administration. However, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) yesterday wrote to the President and asked him to keep the door open to prosecutions. From the text of the letter, obtained by ThinkProgress:

I am writing to respectfully request that comments regarding holding individuals accountable for detention and interrogation related activities be held in reserve until the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is able to complete its review of the conditions and interrogations of certain high value detainees.

via Think Progress » Feinstein to Obama: Torture prosecutions should still be on the table..

Cheney: ‘It’s Important Not To Personally Attack The New President. I’ve Never Done That’

OPS: News Flash from an Alternate Universe

Cheney: ‘It’s Important Not To Personally Attack The New President. I’ve Never Done That’

Since leaving office, Vice President Cheney has launched unrelenting and baseless attacks on President Obama — a stark contrast from his former boss, President Bush. Last month, he told CNN that Obama is “making some choices that…raise the risk to the American people of another attack,” referring to the President’s decisions to close Guantanamo and end torture. He then suggested Obama was deceiving the American public:

Q: Is the president of the United States trying to brazenly deceive the American people?

CHENEY: Well, I think they’ve taken liberties, if you will, with the arguments.

In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last night, Cheney continued his diatribe against the President. Echoing a frequent right-wing talking point, Cheney said Obama was “so busy apologizing for past U.S. behavior” abroad in recent weeks, and he criticized Obama’s conversations with Hugo Chavez. Some highlights from the interview:

via Think Progress » Cheney: ‘It’s Important Not To Personally Attack The New President. I’ve Never Done That’.

Ranking Senate partisans

Ranking Senate partisans -  The Hill

Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are the easiest senators to work with, while Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) are the most partisan members of the upper chamber, according to a survey conducted by The Hill.

The Hill asked all 99 seated senators which member of the opposing party they most enjoyed partnering with on legislation. The senators were also quizzed (on a not-for-attribution basis) about their least favorite.

The answers reveal a Senate with surprising alliances, close friendships and some personal resentments.

After Kennedy, the most bipartisan Democrats are Sens. Tom Carper (Del.), Chris Dodd (Conn.), Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa).

Following Collins on the GOP side are Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Richard Lugar (Ind.) and John McCain (Ariz.).

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) did not make the top five despite voting for President Obama’s economic stimulus package. Collins and Snowe were the only other Republicans in Congress to back that bill.

Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) regularly buck their party, but neither cracked the top five.

Obama has vowed to change the tone of Congress, urging members of both parties to put “childish” politics aside. The president’s call for bipartisanship has generated mixed results, with partisanship flaring during the recent budget debates in the House and Senate.

Working across the aisle sometimes depends on ideology, but not in every case. For example, New York Democrat Charles Schumer will, at times, join forces with South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham. And staunch conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said he misses working with Obama in the Senate.

via TheHill.com – Ranking Senate partisans.

U.S. credit card firms seek to limit crackdown

U.S. credit card firms seek to limit crackdown

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. credit card companies are expected to use a White House meeting to put their best foot forward, despite an avalanche of negative publicity, aiming to blunt a congressional push for tougher regulations.

Fees and interest rates will be topics at the meeting set for Thursday between 14 credit card company executives, President Barack Obama, National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers, and other government officials.

Executives from Bank of America Corp, American Express Co, Citigroup Inc, Wells Fargo & Co, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Capital One Financial Corp, MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc are expected to be at the meeting.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday the discussion will include the transparency of the credit card companies’ lending practices, and the interest rates and fees they charge.

“The president believes that we can increase transparency involved, cut down on these deceptive practices, and ensure that any system that is involving fees is done in a way that is fair,” Gibbs said.

via U.S. credit card firms seek to limit crackdown | U.S. | Reuters.

Oracle in $7.4bn swoop on Sun

Oracle in $7.4bn swoop on Sun

Deal set to shake up corporate IT market

Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison unveiled a surprise $7.4bn offer for Sun Microsystems on Monday, turning Sun’s collection of widely-used but undervalued software properties into the next targets for his wholesale consolidation of the software industry.

The agreed offer, which followed closely on the heels of a failed IBM bid for Sun, threw the spotlight squarely onto Sun’s Java, a programming language developed in the mid-1990s to counter Microsoft’s growing dominance of the software industry.

While Sun’s failure to make money from Java has long been a frustration for its shareholders, Mr Ellison declared it “the single most important software asset we have ever acquired” – and at a price, after deducting Sun’s net cash, that is only around half the amount that he paid for PeopleSoft, Oracle’s most famous software acquisition.

News that Sun was being bought mainly for its software assets also confirmed the long decline of the server and storage hardware business for which it is better known. A former star of the technology industry, Sun’s value soared above $100bn at the height of the tech boom as its servers became the workhorses of the early internet years. its shares collapsed, however, as a new generation of lower priced technology took hold, and Sun struggled in recent years to justify its continued high cost base and heavy research and development spending.

via FT.com / Companies / Technology – Oracle in $7.4bn swoop on Sun.

Business needs to speak out against greed

Business needs to speak out against greed  – By Matt Miller

via FT.com / Comment / Opinion – Business needs to speak out against greed.

Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations

Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations

WASHINGTON — Pressure mounted on President Obama on Monday for more thorough investigation into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, even as he tried to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice.

Mr. Obama said it was time to admit “mistakes” and “move forward.” But there were signs that he might not be able to avoid a protracted inquiry into the use of interrogation techniques that the president’s top aides and many critics say crossed the line into torture.

And while Mr. Obama vowed not to prosecute C.I.A. officers for acting on legal advice, on Monday aides did not rule out legal sanctions for the Bush lawyers who developed the legal basis for the use of the techniques.

The president’s decision last week to release secret memorandums detailing the harsh tactics employed by the C.I.A. under his predecessor provoked a furor that continued to grow on Monday as critics on various fronts assailed his position. Among other things, the memos revealed that two captured Qaeda operatives were subjected to a form of near-drowning known as waterboarding a total of 266 times.

via Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations – NYTimes.com.

Daniel Andreas, FBI’s Newest ‘Most Wanted’ Terrorist, Is American

Daniel Andreas, FBI’s Newest ‘Most Wanted’ Terrorist, Is American

WASHINGTON — For the first time, an accused domestic terrorist is being added to the FBI’s list of “Most Wanted” terror suspects.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California.

Authorities describe San Diego as an animal rights activist who turned to bomb attacks and say he has tattoo that proclaims, “It only takes a spark.”

A law enforcement official said the FBI was to announce Tuesday that San Diego was being added to the “Most Wanted” terrorist list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the announcement ahead of time.

via Daniel Andreas, FBI’s Newest ‘Most Wanted’ Terrorist, Is American.

New York Times Company Reports $74.5 Million Q1 Loss, Worse Than Analysts Expected

New York Times Company Reports $74.5 Million Q1 Loss, Worse Than Analysts Expected

The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher’s advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media.

The owner of The New York Times, The Boston Globe and 15 other daily newspapers said Tuesday that it lost $74.5 million, or 52 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. That compared with a loss of $335,000 at the same time last year, which was break-even on a per-share basis.

The results in the most recent quarter included charges totaling 18 cents per share to cover the costs of jettisoning employees and other one-time accounting measures.

Even with those charges stripped out, the loss was much worse than analysts expected. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted the New York-based company would lose 4 cents per share.

Revenue for the period dropped 19 percent to $609 million _ about $22 million below the average analyst estimate.

via New York Times Company Reports $74.5 Million Q1 Loss, Worse Than Analysts Expected.

“Daily Show” Takes On Torture Supporters (VIDEO)

“Daily Show” Takes On Torture Supporters (VIDEO)

Last week the Department of Justice released memos detailing techniques used for interrogation of terrorism suspects aka torture memos. This decision by President Obama has been lauded by some, but several members of the Bush administration and their supporters have been making the rounds on Fox News and the Sunday talk shows saying it was a huge mistake. A former Bush administration official told Politico:

“It’s damaging because these are techniques that work, and by Obama’s action today, we are telling the terrorists what they are. We have laid it all out for our enemies. This is totally unnecessary…Publicizing the techniques does grave damage to our national security by ensuring they can never be used again…”

Jon Stewart took on these men and women last night saying, “Do you really have to waterboard somebody 183 times? Doesn’t the efficacy go down? I assume after 90 waterboardings the guy’s thinking ‘you’re not really drowning me.’”

via “Daily Show” Takes On Torture Supporters (VIDEO).

GM Spent $2.8M Lobbying Government In The First Quarter

OPS: so which elected officials received the $2.8 mil in bribes?

GM Spent $2.8M Lobbying Government In The First Quarter

NEW YORK — General Motors Corp. spent $2.8 million lobbying the U.S. government in the first three months of 2009, while the company was surviving on $13.4 billion in federal loans, according to a government filing.

The Detroit automaker said it spent the money lobbying a range of issues, including the economic stimulus package, environmental, consumer safety and health issues.

The automaker’s lobbying costs fell 15 percent from the $3.3 million it spent in the fourth quarter of 2008, but are up from the $2.7 million it spent in the third quarter, according to filings.

GM spokesman Greg Martin said the company did not spend any of its lobbying budget on obtaining government assistance, nor did it spend any of the federal aid it has received thus far on lobbying.

“We’re a part of arguably one of the most regulated industries and we provide a voice in complex policy discussions,” Martin said. “We meet strict reporting requirements.”

GM said it lobbied on a wide array of issues. It listed the economic stimulus package passed earlier this year, as well as climate change, the Clean Air Act and automotive safety issues such as air bags, alcohol detection systems and child passenger safety issues.

via GM Spent $2.8M Lobbying Government In The First Quarter.