Archive for May, 2009
What Made Him Snap? Soldier Goes on Killing Spree in Baghdad ‘Stress Clinic’
What Made Him Snap? Soldier Goes on Killing Spree in Baghdad ‘Stress Clinic’ - By Penny Coleman, AlterNet
Yesterday’s attack was the deadliest by a fellow soldier since Bush’s wars began. The trauma of combat may be the source.
At 2 p.m. (Baghdad time) Monday, a U.S. soldier opened fire on his fellow troops at the Camp Liberty stress clinic.
The stress clinic is where service members are treated for psychological conditions. As of this writing, the military is reporting that the shooter killed five American soldiers, wounded three others and is now in custody. His name, his deployment history and his association with the clinic have not yet been released.
The incident, according to military sources, is the deadliest attack on troops by a fellow soldier since these wars began.
Since our invasion of Iraq, compelling analogies have been made to the war in Vietnam. Specifically, but not exclusively, we have again invaded a country in the name of freedom. We are again treating civilian populations as collateral damage. And we have again betrayed the soldiers who are fighting in our name, soldiers who were told they would be greeted as liberators, who were given inappropriate training and shamefully inadequate equipment and asked to risk their lives for reasons that have repeatedly shifted as each of the justifications for the invasion have been exposed as lies.
Fighting Rich Lobbyists to Save Health Care Reform Is AlterNet’s Top Take-Action Campaign of the Week
Fighting Rich Lobbyists to Save Health Care Reform Is AlterNet’s Top Take-Action Campaign of the Week - AlterNet.
Powerful medical lobbyists stand in the way of health care progress in the name of profits. We must put an end to it.
Our health care system is a structural rip-off that burdens American families and creates an unfair treatment gap based on people’s financial means. While many politicians have campaigned on the promise of health care reform, once elected they shirk their responsibilities, succumbing to pressure from powerful medical groups, insurance companies, and individuals such as anti-reform frontman Rick Scott. These powerful medical lobbyists use their influence to stand in the way of progress in the name of profits. We must put an end to it, and now is the best time to act.
According to research cited by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake (PDF), 70 percent of Americans — including almost 2 out of 3 Republicans — want major health care reforms, with the choice of a public insurance plan open to everyone added to the current mix of Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.
With significant grassroots pressure on members of Congress and the Obama administration to challenge the status quo, we might just be able to avert a looming public policy disaster.
Don’t Fall for the Health Industry Barons’ Empty Promises
Don’t Fall for the Health Industry Barons’ Empty Promises – Alternet
Obama is welcoming the health care lobby’s Trojan Horse — a pledge to cut the growth of costs to “only” 4.7 annually.
I am awed at people’s capacity for self-deception. On Monday, the Obama administration and SEIU joined with Big Health lobbyists to trot out a six-month old, non-specific, non-binding “promise” to cut the rate at which health care costs grow to “only” 4.7 percent annually.
This is very simple: the insurance, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries see the writing on the wall — American health care puts an unsustainable economic burden on families and employers, leaves 47 million people without coverage and results in some of the worst outcomes in the industrial world. Fearful of a growing movement towards real, substantive reform, they are trying to co-opt the process under the guise of “getting a seat at the table.”
There’s no news here — “voluntary” codes of conduct, self-regulation and industry-driven initiatives for the private sector to address complex policy issues have long been a standard tactic for heading off real regulation, real accountability measures, systemic reforms.
via Don’t Fall for the Health Industry Barons’ Empty Promises | PEEK | AlterNet.
Why Obama Is Low-Balling the Banking Crisis
Why Obama Is Low-Balling the Banking Crisis – By Robert Kuttner, Huffington Post.
It’s been suggested that Obama is focusing on Republican self-destruction and that he’ll get around to reforming Wall Street next year.
I recently spoke at a Federal Reserve conference in Chicago, on financial regulation. The keynote speaker was Ben Bernanke. Chairman Bernanke was unable to leave Washington, so he spoke live, via a giant TV screen, giving his speech a fittingly Orwellian cast.
This was the day that the results of the so called stress tests were released. Not surprisingly, Bernanke was upbeat, since restoring confidence was the whole political point of the stress-test exercise. No major bank was insolvent, and the 19 largest banks collectively needed to raise only about $75 billion in additional capital, although their losses might total as much as $599 billion. Citigroup, queen of the Zombie Banks, remarkably enough, was said to need only $5.5 billion in additional private capital. You could almost make up that paltry sum with executive bonuses.
At one point in his remarks, Bernanke, recounting just how rigorous the stress tests were, explained that “More than 150 examiners, supervisors, and economists” had conducted several weeks of examinations of the banks. That kind of let the cat out of the bag. If you do the arithmetic, that is about seven supervisors per bank, and all of the stress-tested 19 banks were hundred-billion and up outfits. When an ordinary commercial bank, say a $10 billion outfit, undergoes a far less complex routine examination of its commercial loan portfolio, it involves dozens of examiners.
via Why Obama Is Low-Balling the Banking Crisis | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet.
NAFTA led to an Economy Besieged by Hostile Takeovers
NAFTA led to an Economy Besieged by Hostile Takeovers
America’s economy is besieged by outsourcing and hostile takeovers of the nation’s most profitable companies while multinational corporate interests reap all the rewards.
America’s neighbors to the north are beginning to realize just what an abject failure the North American Free Trade Agreement really is. Due to “free trade,” China has become America’s largest trading partner, leaving Canada without a market for its more expensive products.
Now, their situation is eerily similar to America’s: an economy besieged by outsourcing, hostile takeovers of the nation’s most profitable companies and multinational corporate interests reaping all the rewards.
“Most Canadians should have realized by now that globalization, outsourcing, foreign take-overs of Canadian companies, the so-called free-trade agreements like NAFTA, no national industrial strategy and the deregulation of most of our industries have brought no tangible benefits to average Canadians,” A North Umberland Today editorial reads. “Only corporate elites benefited from the crisis while the rest of us find ourselves to be in a race to the bottom.”
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
China Invading America’s Green Technology
China Invading America’s Green Technology – Economy In Crisis
China’s presence in America’s green technology sector could potentially spell the end of America’s burgeoning alternative energies manufacturing sector before it even gets off of the ground.
China, not wanting to be left out of a potentially green American economy in the near future, is now outsourcing manufacturing of energy efficient products to the U.S. to gain an even stronger foothold in the largest consumer market in the world.
Apparently, Suntech, a Chinese company and the largest solar module manufacturer in the world is planning on opening up manufacturing plants in the U.S. as part of a plan to establish a long-term presence in the U.S.
The company has yet to decide on specific locations, but is actively seeking tax abatements and other incentives to relocate in America.
“We plan to make a decision within the next six months as to the location of our U.S. facility based on a variety of criteria, including local manufacturing incentives and long-term policy commitments that create vibrant local markets for our products,” said Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech’s Chairman and CEO.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
New York Fed Chairman Resigns
New York Fed Chairman Resigns – Economy in Crisis
Stephen Friedman resigned his post as chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank on May 7th after it was revealed that he had substantial holdings in government bailout recipient Goldman Sachs
Stephen Friedman resigned his post as chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank on May 7th after it was revealed that he had substantial holdings in government bailout recipient Goldman Sachs.
The New York Fed was the committee that approved Goldman’s request to become a commercial bank, and thus become eligible to receive handouts from millions of American taxpayers. His involvement with Goldman Sachs – as a member of its board of directors – was a conflict of interests and a blatant violation of Fed policy.
Freidman said that he resigned so as to avoid the distraction that could have been cast over the Federal Reserve System if this news becomes a political scandal. The American people will likely forgive, and forget, if they ever hear of this episode in the first place.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
To fix economy, fix China trade
To fix economy, fix China trade – Economy In Crisis
The nation needs to realize that this is no Eisenhower recession, caused by too much inventory. Rather, this meltdown was caused by structural imbalances in the global economy that no stimulus spending can fix
The following article originally appeared on BaltimoreSun.com.
To dig out of the “Great Recession,” Washington needs to challenge China on trade and currency manipulation – but President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner must recognize that Beijing only has the leverage Washington gives it.
The nation needs to realize that this is no Eisenhower recession, caused by too much inventory. Rather, this meltdown was caused by structural imbalances in the global economy that no stimulus spending can fix.
Dysfunctions on Wall Street notwithstanding, China and several other developing countries produce far more than they consume and enjoy huge trade surpluses, thanks to artificially undervalued currencies, export subsidies and import restrictions. Those require the Americans to consume far more than they produce and for the United States to amass huge trade deficits and foreign debt – otherwise, global demand falls short of supply and unemployment skyrockets.
Once Americans were no longer able to live beyond their means, the global economy collapsed, and President Barack Obama has volunteered the federal government as the borrower of last resort. Now China says Washington borrows too much. That’s like a drug pusher complaining about his clients’ addiction. Yet, Mr. Obama appeases Beijing by offering to share stewardship of the global economy with this renegade mercantilist.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Obama, where’s the pressure on health insurers?
Obama, where’s the pressure on health insurers? | Salon
If the president’s healthcare reforms don’t include the option of government-funded insurance, there’s no reason to think the private firms will really change their behavior.
By Robert Reich
May 12, 2009 | The only troubling thing about the President’s statements today concerning health care reform was what he did not say: that he wanted any health plan that emerges from Congress to include a public insurance option for Americans who do not want to buy private insurance. But without this option, there will be no pressure on private insurers to adopt all the other reforms to control costs or give all Americans access to affordable care.
Every other reform proposal announced to date — electronic medical records, comparative effectiveness research, prevention of chronic disease, payments for services rather than for outcomes, and so on — has been talked about for years. The reason none have been adopted is health providers and insurers can make more money without them. Only with a government plan that competes with private insurers, and offers Americans lower costs if the providers and insurers fail to reform themselves, will the system be genuinely reformed.
Hopefully, the President’s failure to mention a public insurance option today was not intended to signal to Congress that the White House is no longer especially interested in it. The Administration should quickly inform policymakers how important this option is as a spur to real change.
via Obama, where’s the pressure on health insurers? | Salon.
A judge without empathy is inhuman
A judge without empathy is inhuman - Salon
May 12, 2009 | As we await the next Supreme Court justice appointment, Barack Obama critics are rallying around the peculiar notion that empathy should not be a factor in interpreting the law. On May 1, the president said, “I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.”
When hosting Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America” radio show last Friday, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said, “I don’t need some justice up there feeling bad for my opponent because of their life circumstances or their condition and shortchanging me and my opportunity to get fair treatment under the law … I’ll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind.”
It’s astounding that a trait normally considered admirable — one usually sought out in choosing personal relationships, colleagues and associates — is now seen as synonymous with being emotional and partisan, as though being empathetic makes one less rational and reasonable. It’s understandable, given the deplorable nature of partisan politics, that conservative critics would come up with a unified denouncement of whomever Obama chooses. But why settle on an argument that flies in the very face of modern cognitive science and the understanding of how our brains function?
The anti-Obama rallying cry that a Supreme Court justice must rule by reason alone is ignorant of how our minds and bodies work.
via A judge without empathy is inhuman | Salon.
Microsoft in landmark bond issues
Microsoft in landmark bond issues – Financial Times
Bond market move raises $3.75bn
Microsoft passed a significant milestone in its financial history on Monday as it turned to the bond market for the first time, raising $3.75bn to add to its already sizeable cash pile.
The landmark long-term debt issue signals a further break with the company’s traditionally highly conservative stance towards its balance sheet, and the culmination of a six-year process since it first began to adapt its financial strategy to the increasing maturity of its business.
via FT.com / Companies / Technology – Microsoft in landmark bond issues.
Restoring Trust in Antitrust Enforcement
Restoring Trust in Antitrust Enforcement – Center For American Progress
A Progressive Vision for the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department
Antitrust enforcement is the cornerstone of a competitive marketplace. When that enforcement is docile or misdirected—as it was for much of the Bush administration—consumers suffer. During that administration the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice embraced a minimalist course; it acted largely to reduce the scope of enforcement and the use of antitrust statutes in private litigation. This minimalist approach was based in significant part on the “Chicago School” theory that antitrust enforcement makes mistakes more often than it helps correct market failures and markets almost always lead to the best result. When companies abuse market power to exclude competition, Chicago School proponents argue, the market will self-correct because market power is temporary and entry barriers are minimal.
This belief in the near-perfect market—and its proscriptive value—was severely shattered by the worst recession that the U.S. economy has seen in decades. The U.S. gross domestic product has recently declined at rates not seen since the first quarter of 1982, and the national unemployment rate has surged to 8.5 percent and continues to climb. Americans of all age groups, race, and education are being hit hard by this recession, and the economic outlook for the future remains bleak. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated that the number of Americans living in poverty will increase by as much as 10.3 million by the end of this recession.
This Bush recession is a wake-up call to re-examine, and even leave behind, the assumption that markets are self-correcting and have no need for regulation. To give just one example, the development of new and dangerous financial products has frequently led to unstable outcomes in the absence of proper regulation. In January 2009, the Congressional Oversight Panel determined:
via Restoring Trust in Antitrust Enforcement.
Pelosi Stayed Silent On Torture in ’03 Because ‘It Was Difficult Politically’
OPS: Pelosi must go too
Pelosi: Torture Protest Improper in ’03 – | Common Dreams
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned in early 2003 that the Bush administration was waterboarding terror detainees but didn’t protest directly out of respect for “appropriate” legislative channels, a person familiar with the situation said Monday
The Pelosi camp’s version of events is intended to answer two key questions posed by her critics: When, precisely, did she first learn about waterboarding? And why didn’t she do more to stop it?
Pelosi has disputed a CIA document, released last week, that shows she was briefed in September 2002 on the “particular” interrogation techniques the United States had used on Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. Pelosi has said she was told then only that the Bush administration was considering using certain techniques in the future – and that it had the legal authority to do so.
But there’s no dispute that on Feb. 4, 2003 – five months after Pelosi’s September meeting – CIA officials briefed Pelosi aide Michael Sheehy and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), then the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, on the specific techniques that had been used on Zubaydah – including waterboarding.
via Pelosi: Torture Protest Improper in ’03 | CommonDreams.org.
Franken Asks Court To Give Minnesota Governor A Direct Order
Franken Asks Court To Give Minnesota Governor A Direct Order – CQ Politics
Al Franken asked the Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday to affirm his victory in the 2008 Senate race and hand down a ruling that would direct Gov. Tim Pawlenty to certify him the winner.
“We think the law is clear,” said Franken’s lead attorney, Marc Elias, pointing to a state Supreme Court ruling on the matter in February that he said indicated “that the certification would issue after the state court process ended.”
The Minnesota “Supreme Court is the end of the state court process,” Elias noted.
The request came as part of Franken’s reply brief to Republican Norm Coleman’s appeal of a trial court decision that declared Franken the Senate winner by 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast on Nov. 4.
It seeks to pre-empt any attempts by Pawlenty, a Republican, to delay the certification should Coleman opt to appeal his case to the federal courts, something the one-term senator has not ruled out.
Noting that Pawlenty has “expressed some ambivalence or some confusion” over when he will need to sign the certification, Elias said the brief is “asking the court to reaffirm what it has already said so that Gov. Pawlenty will not have to worry about which way to turn here.”
State law requires the governor and secretary of State to sign the document before it is official.
via CQ Politics | Franken Asks Court To Give Minnesota Governor A Direct Order.
Administration Plans Tougher Antitrust Action
OPS: Good news….if it happens
Administration Plans to Strengthen Antitrust Rules – - NY Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s top antitrust official this week plans to restore an aggressive enforcement policy against corporations that use their market dominance to elbow out competitors or to keep them from gaining market share.
The new enforcement policy would reverse the Bush administration’s approach, which strongly favored defendants against antitrust claims. It would restore a policy that led to the landmark antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft and Intel in the 1990s.
The head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Christine A. Varney, is to announce the policy reversal in a speech she will give on Monday before the Center for American Progress, a liberal policy research organization. She will deliver the same speech on Tuesday to the United States Chamber of Commerce.
The speeches were described by people who have consulted with her about the policy shift. The administration is hoping to encourage smaller companies in an array of industries to bring their complaints to the Justice Department about potentially improper business practices by their larger rivals. Some of the biggest antitrust cases were initiated by complaints taken to the Justice Department.
via Administration Plans Tougher Antitrust Action – NYTimes.com.
Inside the panic at Reserve Fund -
Inside the panic at Reserve Fund - Crain’s
E-mail trail reveals world crashing down on Bruce Bent and son.
The evening of Sept. 15, 2008, was the worst of Bruce Bent II’s career. Panicked investors, who woke up that Monday morning to news of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, had yanked billions of dollars out of the money-market fund Mr. Bent ran with his father, money-market fund inventor Bruce Bent Sr. The business the Bent family had dedicated their lives to, Reserve Management Co., faced disaster if the run on their fund continued.
As the younger Mr. Bent, Reserve’s president, sifted through his e-mails, he reviewed a statement drafted by his marketing staff to calm investors. The final line proclaimed that Reserve was “confident in the underlying credit strength and quality” of its holdings, which included hundreds of millions in debt from Lehman and other free-falling institutions, including Washington Mutual and Merrill Lynch.
“Drop the last line,” he directed, “and then go with it.”
Unfortunately, this editing job represented one of the few times Mr. Bent or his father, the chairman of Reserve, were honest with shareholders in the three terrible days their firm spiraled downward, according to regulators.
via Inside the panic at Reserve Fund – Crain’s New York Business.
Credit Cardholders’ Bill Of Rights Hits Floor Tuesday: Read It
Credit Cardholders’ Bill Of Rights Hits Floor Tuesday: Read It
The Senate takes up the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights on Tuesday, a package sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) that seeks to rein in certain abusive credit card practices.
The bill comes more than a week after the financial industry dealt homeowners a blow by defeating an effort by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to allow owners to renegotiate mortgages in bankruptcy court. A dozen Democrats opposed the initiative, as did every Republican. The White House declined to push for the bill and it fell 15 votes short of the 60 needed to cut off a filibuster.
Both Republicans and Democrats say that the debate over credit card rules feels different. “Bankruptcy reform, important as it was, was sort of esoteric. If you went into O’Halloran’s Pub, the fellas aren’t saying to you, ‘What’s going on with bankruptcy reform?’” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told the Huffington Post. “But they might say, ‘What are you doing about my credit cards?’ The average person feels the second much more than the first, even though both are important.”
via Credit Cardholders’ Bill Of Rights Hits Floor Tuesday: Read It.
Lieberman breaks with Cheney: ‘We’re not less safe’ under Obama.
OPS: Whoa - Deputy Dawg sticks his neck out
Lieberman breaks with Cheney: ‘We’re not less safe’ under Obama. – Think Progress »
Yesterday on CBS’s Face the Nation, former Vice President Cheney repeated his claim that President Obama is making the country less secure. Notably, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who has largely agreed with Cheney on national security policy, disagrees. Today on MSNBC, Lieberman said the U.S. is not less safe under Obama:
LIEBERMAN: No, we’re not less safe. I suppose that’s the short answer, and probably as good as I can give. I disagree with some of the things the administration has done. Even in the closing of Guantanamo, they’re being very methodical at this point.
“Our guard is up,” he said. “On balance, we remain as safe as we can possibly be in a world in which there is Islamist extremists who want to attack us.” Watch it:
via Think Progress » Lieberman breaks with Cheney: ‘We’re not less safe’ under Obama..
Harold Ford: I Would Have Voted To Approve Torture
OPS: With Dems like these, who needs enemas
Harold Ford: I Would Have Voted To Approve Torture - Think Progress »
This weekend, former Vice President Cheney repeated his claim that torture “saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of lives.” Of those, like President Obama, who condemn torture as making America less safe, Cheney insisted, “in effect, we’re prepared to sacrifice American lives rather than run an intelligent interrogation program that would provide us the information we need to protect America.”
This evening on MSNBC, former Democratic congressman Harold Ford, Jr., adopted many of Cheney’s right-wing talking points to defend torture, saying he was “not as outraged as some are about” what happened at Guantanamo. He suggested that he even would have voted to approve torture in order to “prevent the destruction of an American city”:
FORD: You have to remember when this was occurring. This is 2002, 2003. The country was in a different place, in a different space. And if you were to say to me, as an American, put aside my partisanship, that we have an opportunity to gain information that would prevent the destruction of an American city, to prevent killings in American cities, and we have to use certain techniques, I’m one of those Americans that would have voted a certain way, Chris. And that polling said it might have been torture, but I’m not as outraged.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Harold Ford: I Would Have Voted To Approve Torture.
Harvest of Suicide
Harvest of Suicide
NEW DELHI – An epidemic of farmers’ suicides has spread across four Indian states – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Punjab – over the last decade. According to official data, more than 160,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997.
These suicides are most frequent where farmers grow cotton, and appear directly linked to the presence of seed monopolies. For the supply of cotton seeds in India has increasingly slipped out of the hands of farmers and into the hands of global seed producers like Monsanto. These giant corporations have begun to control local seed companies through buyouts, joint ventures, and licensing arrangements, leading to seed monopolies.
When this happens, seed is transformed from being a common good into being the “intellectual property” of companies such as Monsanto, for which the corporation can claim limitless profits through royalty payments. For farmers, this means deeper debt.
Seed is also transformed in this way from being a renewable regenerative resource into a non-renewable resource and commodity. Seed scarcity is directly caused by seed monopolies, which have as their ultimate weapon a “terminator” seed that is engineered for sterility. This means that farmers can’t renew their own supply but must return to the monopolist for new seed each planting season. For farmers, this means higher costs; for seed corporations, higher profits.
via Project Syndicate.
The Katrina Myth; the Truth about a thoroughly unnatural disaster
Few people understand what really happened in New Orleans or what caused it. Fewer still realize that they too may be living under a similar or an even greater threat. This video exposes the key myths and misunderstandings about the New Orleans flood.
YouTube – The Katrina Myth; the Truth about a thoroughly unnatural disaster.
Army’s Prescription to Combat Soldier Suicides: Christianity
Army’s Prescription to Combat Soldier Suicides: Christianity – By Jason Leopold
A recent edition of the U.S. Army’s suicide prevention manual advises military chaplains to promote “religiosity,” specifically Christianity, as a way to deter distraught soldiers from committing suicide, which in recent months, according to one veterans advocacy group, has reached epidemic proportions.
The Army Suicide Prevention Manual says “Chaplains… need to openly advocate behavioral health as a resource” to treat suicidal soldiers and instructs behavioral health providers “to openly advocate spirituality and religiosity as resiliency factors.”
“Spirituality looks outside of oneself for meaning and provides resiliency for failures in life experiences. Religiosity adds the dimension of a supportive community to help one deal with crises. Both embed themselves in a relationship with God, or a higher power, that provides an everlasting relationship. Bottom line, Soldiers should not base their reason for living in another human being!” says a slide included in the Army’s “Suicide Awareness for Soldiers 2008″ PowerPoint presentation.
The inclusion of Christianity and spirituality a new addition to the Army’s 2008 suicide prevention manual. A Pentagon spokesman did not return calls for comment.
via Army’s Prescription to Combat Soldier Suicides: Christianity.
Bank’s $180 Billion Credit Card Time Bomb
Bank’s $180 Billion Credit Card Time Bomb – by Dollars and Sense
If the economy stays on its present dismal course, banks can expect to lose $180 billion, according to analysts quoted in the New York Times. The figure is much higher than the government’s so-called “stress test” scenario of $82.4 billion in losses because the Fed presumed no increase from current unemployment rates, and because they didn’t count the losses from securitization of credit card debt. Yes, the banks bundled up credit card debt just like it did bad mortgages, selling and reselling it to investors and creating liabilities far in excess of value of the underlying loans.
The average US household has over $8,400 in credit card and other revolving debt. With unemployment rising, housing prices unlikely to climb back to bubble elevations, and consumers saving more, and Congress considering curbing the most egregious predatory practices of the industry, the glory days of credit card profits for banks appears to be over.
The banks are also slashing the credit available to consumers. According to Meredith Whitney, lenders are cutting back credit lines by $2.7 trillion over the next year, a 57% reduction of available credit from just two years ago. As consumers cut back their spending, the negative feedback loop will only accelerate.
via Dollars & Sense blog: Bank’s $180 Billion Credit Card Time Bomb | Dollars & Sense.
Rep. Doyle Says Climate Plan Will Subsidize Polluters For ‘Ten To Fifteen Years’
Rep. Doyle Says Climate Plan Will Subsidize Polluters For ‘Ten To Fifteen Years’
Mike DoyleAccording to Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), corporations would be subsidized for most of their global warming pollution for more than ten years, under terms being negotiated for the climate and energy bill being drafted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If this is true, the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act would violate a pledge by President Obama to fund tax cuts for working families through carbon market revenues and would generate massive windfall profits for polluters. Doyle said most of the pollution permits created for a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases would be given away:
While the exact numbers were still in flux, Doyle said, “The majority of the permits will be allocated (given away) at first.”
Asked what percentage would be sold to utilities, manufacturers and other firms, Doyle responded, “Not a big number initially…in the first 10 to 15 years.”
The Center for American Progress “supports auctioning 100 percent of the greenhouse gas emission permits from day one under a cap-and-trade program” and using the auction revenues to assist workers and industries to make the transition to a low-carbon economy:
via Wonk Room » Rep. Doyle Says Climate Plan Will Subsidize Polluters For ‘Ten To Fifteen Years’.
Getting Unemployment Benefits To All Who Need Them
Getting Unemployment Benefits To All Who Need Them
According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. unemployment rate is now 8.9 percent. 13.7 million people are currently unemployed, a number which “has grown by 6 million over the last 12 months.” As MarketWatch noted, “of the 13.7 million people listed as officially unemployed, a record 27.2% have been out of work longer than six months.”
safetynet1With these numbers providing a backdrop, the Wall Street Journal had a piece today comparing the American unemployment insurance system to that of Europe, and the differences are pretty striking. (See chart on the right.) While going as far as Germany is probably going too far, there is definitely room for the U.S. to do more, given the current circumstances.
One step would be to address the pervasion of overly restrictive eligibility requirements for receiving unemployment benefits. As USA Today reported:
While 13.2 million people were unemployed in March, approximately 5.8 million were collecting unemployment benefits at the end of the month…That means less than half of those who were out of work and were actively trying to find a new job were receiving unemployment benefits.
via Wonk Room » Getting Unemployment Benefits To All Who Need Them.
New Doctors Coalition Adds Voices Of Physicians To Health Care Reform
New Doctors Coalition Adds Voices Of Physicians To Health Care Reform
Nikhil Wagle, MD, co-founder of Doctors for America.
physiciansAs doctors, we see the effects of our broken health system on our patients every single day. We have seen what happens when our patients are denied the care they need, or when they lack access to preventive care, or when they cannot afford their medicines. Doctors know what’s wrong with our health care system — and have ideas about how to fix it. And yet, when it comes to health reform, doctors voices have not been heard.
Doctors for America is working to change that. We are a grassroots organization that seeks to engage physicians in healthcare reform and give them a voice. Our current membership includes over 11,000 physicians from all 50 states, with more and more members every day. Our goal is to convey the ideas and experiences of physicians to achieve healthcare reform based on four key pillars:
1) affordable coverage
2) expanded access to care
3) high quality care
4) practice environments that allow physicians to focus on patient care.
via Wonk Room » New Doctors Coalition Adds Voices Of Physicians To Health Care Reform.
Fed Assured Banks They Don’t Have To Raise Amount Mandated By Stress Tests
OPS: then what the hell was this exercise for?
Fed Assured Banks They Don’t Have To Raise Amount Mandated By Stress Tests
Over at ThinkProgress, Faiz Shakir highlights a report showing that the nation’s 19 largest banks successfully lobbied to make their stress tests less stressful. For instance, the test results — which were released on Thursday — showed that Bank of America needs to raise about $34 billion in capital. But the original test, before the bank’s lobbying, found that BofA was $50 billion in the hole.
And that’s not all. According to a report in the Financial Times, the banks have been assured by the Federal Reserve that they don’t actually have the raise even the amount mandated by the less-stressful tests:
US banks have been given government assurances they will be allowed to raise less than the $74.6bn in equity mandated by stress tests if earnings over the next six months outstrip regulators’ forecasts, bankers said. The agreement, which was not mentioned when the government revealed the results on Thursday, means some banks may not have to raise as much equity through share issues and asset sales as the market is expecting. It could also increase the incentive for banks to book profits in the next two quarters.
via Wonk Room » Fed Assured Banks They Don’t Have To Raise Amount Mandated By Stress Tests.
Warren: Without Cram-downs, ‘There’s Nothing’ In Treasury’s Plan To Address Underwater Mortgages
Warren: Without Cram-downs, ‘There’s Nothing’ In Treasury’s Plan To Address Underwater Mortgages
According to the latest data, 21.9 percent of American homeowners are underwater, “a significant jump from the 17.6% of all homeowners who sat underwater in the prior quarter.” Despite this, a measure that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to cram-down mortgage payments for underwater homeowners — who owe more for their mortgage then their home is currently worth — failed to pass in the Senate two weeks ago.
According to Professor Elizabeth Warren — a bankruptcy expert and Chair of the TARP’s Congressional Oversight Panel — that leaves the Obama administration’s housing plan without an answer for underwater homeowners. In an interview today with The Wonk Room, Warren explained that without cram-down, it’s critical that the administration find something else to “get a floor in the housing market“:
Crony Capitalism: How The Financial Industry Gets What It Wants
Crony Capitalism: How The Financial Industry Gets What It Wants
The tilt of American policy in favor of the finance industry — reflected in the policies of recent Treasury Secretaries Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson and Robert Rubin — cannot be attributed to any one person or institution. The industry flexes unsurpassed muscle in the political system, backed by billions of dollars invested in candidates and lobbying, a vast grassroots lobbying network of local bankers, the growing centrality of finance in the national economy, and widespread acceptance among public officials of a pro-market, deregulatory philosophy.
“Both the end-stage Bush and new Obama administrations have been exceptionally fawning in their support of failed bankers,” William K. Black, associate professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, told the Huffington Post. “Crony capitalism is now common in U.S. finance.”
Since 2000, the finance sector has funneled a total of $2.84 billion directly into the political system, $961 million in donations to candidates and political parties, $1.88 billion in publicly disclosed lobbying expenditures to influence Congress and the executive branch.
via Crony Capitalism: How The Financial Industry Gets What It Wants.
Glass-Steagall Act: The Senators And Economists Who Got It Right
Glass-Steagall Act: The Senators And Economists Who Got It Right
The footage of him speaking on the Senate floor has become something of a cult flick for the particularly wonky progressive. The date was November 4, 1999. Senator Byron Dorgan, in a patterned red tie, sharp dark suit and hair with slightly more color than it has today, was captured only by the cameras of CSPAN2.
“I want to sound a warning call today about this legislation,” he declared, swaying ever so slightly right, then left, occasionally punching the air in front of him with a slightly closed fist. “I think this legislation is just fundamentally terrible.”
The legislation was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (alternatively known as Gramm Leach Bliley), which allowed banks to merge with insurance companies and investment houses. And Dorgan was, at the time, on a proverbial island with his concerns. Only eight senators would vote against the measure — lionized by its proponents, including senior staff in the Clinton administration and many now staffing President Obama, as the most important breakthrough in the worlds of finance and politics in decades.
via Glass-Steagall Act: The Senators And Economists Who Got It Right.
Jon Stewart to Make History Special
Jon Stewart to Make History Special
‘The Naturalized’ highlights the network’s most ambitious programming slate
Jon Stewart, who knows a thing or two about irony, will create a two-hour special on a perfect target—the U.S. naturalization process—for History Channel, to air in the fourth quarter.
Stewart’s show, The Naturalized, is among the highlights of History’s most substantial programming investment ever. The network’s robust slate of specials and series, to be announced May 14 at History’s upfront presentation, ranges from a sweeping 12-part series about the creation of America, to a critical examination of holiday traditions (and the anxiety they engender) by comedian Lewis Black.
The projects are among 16 new series and 13 new specials greenlit or in development for the 2009-2010 season.
via Jon Stewart to Make History Special – 2009-05-11 14:16:00 | Broadcasting & Cable.
Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape
Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape – - Salon.com
After Donald Rumsfeld testified on the Hill about Abu Ghraib in May, there was talk of more photos and video in the Pentagon’s custody more horrific than anything made public so far. “If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse,” Rumsfeld said. Since then, the Washington Post has disclosed some new details and images of abuse at the prison. But if Seymour Hersh is right, it all gets much worse.
Hersh gave a speech last week to the ACLU making the charge that children were sodomized in front of women in the prison, and the Pentagon has tape of it. The speech was first reported in a New York Sun story last week, which was in turn posted on Jim Romenesko’s media blog, and now EdCone.com and other blogs are linking to the video. We transcribed the critical section here (it starts at about 1:31:00 into the ACLU video.) At the start of the transcript here, you can see how Hersh was struggling over what he should say:
“Debating about it, ummm … Some of the worst things that happened you don’t know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib … The women were passing messages out saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened’ and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It’s going to come out.”
via Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape – War Room – Salon.com.
Will Coleman concede? “Hell no,” says RNC head
OPS: This is way beyond “sore looser”. This is now well into terrorism, crimes against democracy
Will Coleman concede? “Hell no,” says RNC head
If the state Supreme Court doesn’t declare Norm Coleman the winner of Minnesota’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, he’ll take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the head of the national Republican Party.
If the court, which hears arguments in the case on June 1, rules in favor of Al Franken, “then it’s going to the federal courts,” said Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Asked over the weekend if Coleman should concede to Franken if the Democrat is declared the winner, Steele replied, “no, hell no. Whatever the outcome, it’s going to get bumped to the next level. This does not end until there’s a final ruling that speaks to whether or not those votes that have not been counted should be counted. And Norm Coleman will not, will not jump out of this race before that.”
via Will Coleman concede? “Hell no,” says RNC head.
Former Enron CEO files high court appeal
Former Enron CEO files high court appeal – CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling has asked the Supreme Court to overturn his 2006 conviction for securities fraud, his attorney told CNN.
In a 50-page petition filed Monday, Skilling’s attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, said “pervasive media coverage” prevented his client from receiving a fair trial from a Houston jury.
“The widespread, persistent, and scathing demonization of Skilling by the Houston media far exceeded the editorial commentary” allowed by the high court in similar cases, said the appeal. Questionnaires submitted by potential jurors “confirmed the breadth and intensity of the hostility toward Skilling.”
Skilling, 55, is currently in federal prison. He was convicted on 19 counts of fraud and conspiracy relating to the collapse of the Texas-based energy services giant in late 2001.
via Former Enron CEO files high court appeal – The CNN Wire – CNN.com Blogs.
Swiftboaters Are Back, This Time To Block Healthcare Reform
Swiftboaters Are Back, This Time To Block Healthcare Reform
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Christine Bowman
As the standard joke goes, we have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that healthcare “industry leaders” told President Obama today they can find ways to slow the growth of healthcare costs by 1.5% or $2 trillion over 10 years. They’re ready to embrace “voluntary” controls:
The president met with representatives of leading health industry groups, including hospitals, drug makers and doctors, who have agreed to slow the explosive growth of healthcare spending over the coming decade.
They have embraced several cost-saving strategies already being promoted by Washington policymakers, such as simplifying billing, restructuring the way hospitals are paid and improving information technology. Details on how the $2 trillion could be saved, however, are lacking in a letter they provided to the White House.
(LA Times)
The bad news is, “industry leaders” also have launched an ad campaign designed to torpedo comprehensive reform by turning public opinion against it. These ads have been paid for by healthcare industrialist Rick Scott and his misnamed group, “Conservatives for Patients’ Rights.” Which patient rights are they offering to protect exactly? The right to remain uninsured? The right to go bankrupt and lose their homes due to inflated, unpayable hospital bills?
via Swiftboaters Are Back, This Time To Block Healthcare Reform | BuzzFlash.org.
Tennessee state senator calls guns in bars a ‘dreamy scenario’
Tennessee state senator calls guns in bars a ‘dreamy scenario’ – Raw Story »
Ordering a shot in a Tennessee bar may never be the same again.
The Tennessee House has passed a bill that would allow guns to be carried in bars where alcohol is served. Law abiding citizens should be allowed to carry guns in bars, Tennessee State Senator Doug Jackson told Fox’s Brian Kilmeade on Monday, calling armed drunks in bars a “dreamy scenario.”
“If we look at other states and their experiences, what we see are millions and millions of citizens that are allowed to do so and they do so without incident or problem,” said Jackson.
“You can sit back and dream up all sorts of scenarios in your mind,” he continued. “I would just point out that 40 states allow citizens to carry guns where alcohol is served. Thirty-three states have laws similar to Tennessee that allow guns to go where alcohol is served and they do so without incident.”
“Senator, you ever seen a bar fight?” asked Kilmeade.
via Raw Story » Tennessee state senator calls guns in bars a ‘dreamy scenario’.
REPORT: Why Bush’s ‘Enhanced Interrogation’ Program Failed
REPORT: Why Bush’s ‘Enhanced Interrogation’ Program Failed – Think Progress »
Yesterday, the Washington Post published an article on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Bush-era interrogation techniques. Greg Sargent flagged two paragraphs of the story revealing that the White House intends to release a 2004 CIA report that casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of Bush’s torture program:
Government officials familiar with the CIA’s early interrogations say the most powerful evidence of apparent excesses is contained in the “top secret” May 7, 2004, inspector general report, based on more than 100 interviews, a review of the videotapes and 38,000 pages of documents. The full report remains closely held, although White House officials have told political allies that they intend to declassify it for public release when the debate quiets over last month’s release of the Justice Department’s interrogation memos. [...]
Although some useful information was produced, the report concluded that “it is difficult to determine conclusively whether interrogations have provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks,” according to the Justice Department’s declassified summary of it.
via Think Progress » REPORT: Why Bush’s ‘Enhanced Interrogation’ Program Failed.
Gov. Perdue: Georgia Can’t Afford Supply-Side Economics During The Recession
OPS: This illustrates something I’ve been saying for years: Conservatives simply are not wired for empathy – they cannot do it. Until one of their deranged ideologies finally jumps up and bites them in their own personal asses – they simply are incapable of getting it.
Gov. Perdue: Georgia Can’t Afford Supply-Side Economics During The Recession - Think Progress »
perdue2During the debate over the economic stimulus — while most state budgets were deeply in the red — the House GOP unanimously opposed the recovery package, arguing in favor of more tax cuts for the wealthy. Highlighting a schism in the party, however, several GOP governors, such as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gov. Charlie Crist (FL), and John Huntsman (UT), readily accepted the federal aid.
In a comment marking a break with the Reagan-embracing hard right, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) raised skepticism about the GOP philosophy of using supply-side tax cuts to plug budget deficits:
In essence, Perdue said the economic theories espoused by Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp — that lower taxes actually generate more government revenue — are a gamble that don’t have a place in Georgia. Not in hard times.
Here’s what Perdue said, as aired on Friday: “Georgia’s a balanced budget state. And it’s very difficult to do the stimulus-type bills in a state that’s starved for revenue and cash at the same time. So that kind of destroys a supply-side theory within a state government.”
Listen here:
via Think Progress » Gov. Perdue: Georgia Can’t Afford Supply-Side Economics During The Recession.
Seemingly Forgetting That She Works For Fox News, Van Susteren Decries ‘Surprise’ Ambush Interviews
Seemingly Forgetting That She Works For Fox News, Van Susteren Decries ‘Surprise’ Ambush Interviews - Think Progress »
On Saturday, Politico’s Carol E. Lee wrote a blog post describing her failed attempt to interview “first dude” Todd Palin at Tammy Haddad’s brunch before the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. “Todd Palin was being led around the brunch by Fox’s Greta Van Susteren, who is apparently his host AND handler,” wrote Lee.
According to Lee, Van Susteren “intervened” when she “started to chat” with Palin, telling the reporter that the brunch was “off the record.” Writing on her blog the next day, Van Susteren expressed her outrage at being described as Palin’s “handler,” claiming that she was just showing “good manners” by stepping in when Palin was “ambushed by a surprise interview“:
The 2030 New Concept Car- A Modern and Green Car
The 2030 New Concept Car- A Modern and Green Car
(more photos at link)
I really like the idea of this car. However they would have to rid the world of the existing cars before putting something like this out on the road. This has death written all over it if hit by anything bigger than a Hummer.
The car is simply the concept of 2030 and it was envisaged by the designer Mihai Moldovan Stamati who wants a green and happy future, and who can blame them? We all want a future like this and solar-powered cars can bring us the joy that we need.
via Epicfunny| The 2030 New Concept Car- A Modern and Green Car.
High health costs hit women hardest
High health costs hit women hardest || Reuters
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Most working-age women in the United States have too little health coverage, and often forgo needed care because of cost, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They found that seven out of 10 women have no insurance, not enough insurance or are in debt because of medical bills.
“More families are making difficult choices between needed health care, making payments on mortgages or credit card debt and purchasing basic necessities,” said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a private health policy group that conducted the research.
President Barack Obama renewed his push for healthcare reform on Monday at a joint appearance with the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the American Hospital Association. The trade groups have pledged to reduce the annual growth of health spending by 1.5 percentage points, which they say will save $2 trillion over 10 years.
via High health costs hit women hardest | U.S. | Reuters.
Home sold off for $20,000 after credit card debt
Home sold off for $20,000 after credit card debt | The Courier-Mail
A BRISBANE couple lost their $315,000 home over a credit card debt of $8000, only finding out after the home was sold for $20,000 at a bailiff’s auction.
The first they knew about it was when the new owner, who had to pay the couple’s outstanding $220,000 mortgage, phoned them and said: “Get out.”
Legal Aid Queensland lawyer Catherine Uhr said the couple were not given notice of the auction in January.
“All this married couple got back from the $20,000 that was paid for their house was a cheque for less than $5000, because of costs,” said Ms Uhr, of the Consumer Protection Unit.
Legal Aid Queensland says it is just one of several cases of debt collection companies moving to sell Queenslanders’ homes at bailiffs’ auctions to recover credit card debts of less than $10,000.
LAQ says debt collection companies buy small credit card debts off lenders, often obtaining judgment for payment of the debt in a New South Wales court, then getting enforcement warrants for bailiffs’ auctions in Queensland courts.
via Home sold off for $20,000 after credit card debt | The Courier-Mail.
Green Shoots? Don’t Speak Too Soon
Green Shoots? Don’t Speak Too Soon
In spite of some spring sprouts in the US economy, we should prepare for another dark winter
by Joseph E. Stiglitz | CommonDreams.org
As spring comes to America, optimists are seeing “green sprouts” of recovery from the financial crisis and recession. The world is far different from what it was last spring, when the Bush administration was once again claiming to see “light at the end of the tunnel”. The metaphors and the administrations have changed, but not, it seems, the optimism.
The good news is that we may be at the end of a free fall. The rate of economic decline has slowed. The bottom may be near – perhaps by the end of the year. But that does not mean that the global economy is set for a robust recovery any time soon. Hitting bottom is no reason to abandon the strong measures that have been taken to revive the global economy.
This downturn is complex: an economic crisis combined with a financial crisis. Before its onset, America’s debt-ridden consumers were the engine of global growth. That model has broken down, and will not be replaced soon. For, even if America’s banks were healthy, household wealth has been devastated, and Americans were borrowing and consuming on the assumption that house prices would rise forever.
via Green Shoots? Don’t Speak Too Soon | CommonDreams.org.
Is Obama Naive About the For-Profit Health Industry’s Commitment to Real Reform?
Is Obama Naive About the For-Profit Health Industry’s Commitment to Real Reform? by M.S. Bellows, Jr. | CommonDreams.org
Optimism is a virtue; it leads us to see the best in people despite their worse sides, and to envision a better future even when we can clearly see the obstacles we currently face. But blind optimism is no virtue. Naive or overeager optimism can lead us to ignore the fact that most people have mixed motives, and to envision a bright future so clearly that we are blind to the obstacles that stand between a hard now and a better then. Wise optimists trust – but verify; they have faith in the better, but do not ignore the worse, angels of human nature.
On Sunday afternoon, two senior Obama Administration officials called a telephonic press conference to announce a huge, positive new development in the healthcare reform effort. When I say senior, I mean pretty darn senior. And they seemed genuinely, sincerely excited about this mysterious new development – excited enough to buzz every national journalist’s BlackBerry with an invitation to the conference call in the middle of Mother’s Day. They considered the development significant enough to declare an embargo, forbidding journalists to write about it until 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Because the President himself will be announcing this development officially tomorrow morning, they made the call – arranged by the White House press office – “on background,” asking not to be identified by name or position.
The big news? Just this: a coalition of health insurance, hospital, pharmaceutical company, and physician trade groups, plus a major union, will promise the President Monday that they will reduce the rate of future growth in the cost of healthcare by 1.5% per year for the next decade.
That’s it. And the President will be announcing it himself Monday morning, presumably with equal excitement.
via Is Obama Naive About the For-Profit Health Industry’s Commitment to Real Reform? | CommonDreams.org.
Afghan Parliament Wants Law to Curb Foreign Troops
Afghan Parliament Wants Law to Curb Foreign Troops
KABUL – Afghan lawmakers on Monday demanded legal restrictions on foreign forces fighting in their country, to prevent further civilian deaths, then closed for half a day to protest the latest casualties from U.S. air strikes.
The attacks on homes packed with civilians, during a protracted battle last week, have damaged ties with Washington and stoked popular anger about the presence of western troops, over rising non-combatant deaths.
Debate about innocent casualties dominated the morning’s session and the delegates said they had given the government one week to come up with a way of regulating foreign fighters.
“To prevent the bombardment and killing of our people, the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) has decided the government must come up with a plan, within one week, to regulate the foreign forces,” said Wolesi Jirga secretary Abdul Sattar Khawaasi.
via Afghan Parliament Wants Law to Curb Foreign Troops | CommonDreams.org.
America’s “Money Machine”
America’s “Money Machine”
Reviewing Ellen Brown’s “Web of Debt:” Part II – by Stephen Lendman
This is the second of several articles on Ellen Brown’s remarkable book titled “Web of Debt….the shocking truth about our money system, (how it) trapped us in debt, and how we can break free.” It’s a multi-part snapshot. Reading the entire book is strongly recommended – easily obtainable through Amazon or Brown’s www.webofdebt.com site.
Bankers Capture the Money Machine – Fighting for the Family Farm
In the 1890s, “keeping the family homestead was a key political issue” given that foreclosures and evictions “were occurring in record numbers,” much like today. The “Bankers Manifesto of 1892″ spelled it out – a willful plan “to disenfranchise farmers and laborers of their homes and property,” again like today except that now our very freedom and futures are at stake as sinister forces aim to steal them by turning America into Guatemala and lock it down by police state repression.
The panic of 1893 caused an earlier depression – severe enough to establish a precedent of street protests, the result of the first ever march on Washington. Businessman/populist Jacob Coxey led his “Coxey’s Army (of around 500) from Massilon, Ohio (beginning March 25, Easter Sunday) to the nation’s capital to demand jobs and a return to debt and interest-free Greenbacks. Local police intervened. The marchers were disbanded. Coxey was arrested. He spent 20 days in jail for disturbing the peace and violating a local ordinance against walking on the grass. However, he was never charged, then released, and is now remembered for his heroics.
He began a tradition later sparking suffragist marches; unemployed WW I veterans for their “Bonus Bill” money; numerous anti-war and earlier civil rights protests; in 2004, one million in the nation’s capital for women’s rights, and the previous day thousands protesting IMF-World Bank policies.
via America’s “Money Machine”.
Three Worst Reasons to Delay Putting Cheney in Prison
Three Worst Reasons to Delay Putting Cheney in Prison
by David Swanson
#1: Cheney says that he and Bush ordered torture but did nothing wrong.
On Sunday, Cheney said: “The fact of the matter is that these [torture] techniques that we’re talking about are used on our own people. In the SERE program that in effect trains our people with respect to capture and evasion and so forth, and escape, a lot of them go through these same exact procedures.”
If this were true, participants in the SERE program would be kidnapped and tortured by people willing to kill them. They would be waterboarded believing they might be drowned. This would be done upwards of 100 times. They would be hung by their wrists, beaten, electroshocked, deprived of sleep, stripped naked and exposed to cold, attacked by dogs, slammed against walls, kept in isolation, and in many cases killed, in many other cases driven insane.
“Once we [waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times] he produced vast quantities of invaluable information about al Qaeda,” Cheney said, while failing in multiple interviews to cite a single example of such information that has not already been debunked. The same people fall for this sort of claim as fell for this one: “Iraq continues to conceal quantities, vast quantities, of highly lethal material and weapons to deliver it.” (Colin Powell, January, 2003). In both cases, the supposed evidence is classified. In both cases, the existence of that evidence and truth of the claim would do absolutely nothing to legalize the action being defended, be it aggressive war or torture.
#2: Harry Reid said last week that if we wait six more months for the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report to whitewash the torture story, it’ll be easier then to avoid legally required prosecutions of people like Cheney.
via Three Worst Reasons to Delay Putting Cheney in Prison.
Conservatives Leading the World Headlong into the 18th Century
Conservatives Leading the World Headlong into the 18th Century
by Prof. John Kozy
Those dastardly French! What arrogance! In 1789, they tried to destroy the Ancien Régime (read Old Order).
The Old Order is an aristocratic, social, and political system that prevailed in Europe between the 14th and 19th centuries. In it, power is held by the monarchy, the clergy, and the aristocracy, and society is divided into three Estates—the nobility, the clergy, and the rest of the people who are powerless. The Ancien Régime retains the privileges of both the nobility and aristocracy that existed in feudal times, and the people, whose lives have the value of mere livestock, exist only for the benefit of the state. The Ancien Régime is also militaristic, aggressive, and imperialistic. Wars are common, and between the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI, France fought in at least 27 of them. But wars, then and now, are expensive, and France financed them with debt. When Louis XVI ascended the throne, the nation neared bankruptcy, and the people were impoverished. These circumstances provoked the French Revolution. Its aim was not merely to change the government’s form, it was to change the nature of society. Its battle cry was Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité. The revolution was no mere political uprising; it was a social uprising whose aim was to entirely destroy the Old Order’s social structure, to abolish the privileges of the clergy, aristocracy, and nobility, and to uplift the value of and empower common people. The French didn’t entirely succeed, but they did create the conditions for the eventual emergence of social democracies in Europe.
This revolution alarmed the monarchs of the remaining Old Orders in Europe. The French were engaged in an ideological revolution hoping to launch a new era in world history; the remaining European monarchies saw the revolution as a life-and-death ideological struggle and sought to reverse it. Austria declared war on France, Napoleon emerged to fight it, and when he was eventually defeated by the armies of the other European powers, many of the worst features of the Old Order were reestablished in France. But even some Frenchmen sought to reverse it. One was François Auguste René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand who began to publish a journal in which he coined the term “conservative,” and ever since, that term has meant conserving as much as possible of the old economic, social, and political order with all of its privileges for the established.
via Conservatives Leading the World Headlong into the 18th Century.
Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America
Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America
by Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The following report provides background analysis on industrial hog farming and the transmission of swine flu
To consult the report (pdf), click the link below:
Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America
A Project of The Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
A Report of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production
via Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America.
White House forecasts higher budget deficit
White House forecasts higher budget deficit
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Monday increased its forecast for the U.S. budget deficit for this year by $89 billion, reflecting the recession, a raft of new unemployment claims and corporate bailouts.
A fresh estimate of the deficit showed it coming in at $1.84 trillion — representing a massive 12.9 percent of gross domestic product — in the current 2009 fiscal year that ends on September 30. A prior White House forecast released in February projected a deficit of $1.75 trillion, or 12.3 percent of GDP.
The report may add to the political challenges facing President Barack Obama as he seeks to push through a new healthcare plan and other big domestic initiatives.
via White House forecasts higher budget deficit | Reuters.
Krugman fears lost decade for US due to half-steps
Krugman fears lost decade for US due to half-steps
* Krugman warns of lost decade of growth for U.S., euro zone
* Nobel laureate bemoans half-measures on economy, banks
* China needs stronger yuan but should keep capital controls
By Alan Wheatley, China Economics Editor
BEIJING, May 11 (Reuters) – The United States risks a Japan-style lost decade of growth if it does not take aggressive action to stimulate its economy and clean up its banking system, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said on Monday.
“We’re doing half-measures that help the economy limp along without fully recovering, and we’re having measures that help the banks survive without really thriving,” Krugman said.
“We’re doing what the Japanese did in the nineties,” he told a small group of reporters during a visit to Beijing.
He said it was not clear that China would suffer sub-par growth as a consequence of the fallout of the present crisis.
via Krugman fears lost decade for US due to half-steps | Reuters.
World’s Happiest Places
World’s Happiest Places - Forbes.com
Social Democracies
A new report reveals where people feel most positive about their lives.
Where in the world do people feel most content with their lives?
According to a new report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based group of 30 countries with democratic governments that provides economic and social statistics and data, happiness levels are highest in northern European countries.
Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands rated at the top of the list, ranking first, second and third, respectively. Outside Europe, New Zealand and Canada landed at Nos. 8 and 6, respectively. The U.S. did not crack the top 10. Switzerland placed seventh and Belgium placed tenth.
In Depth: World’s Happiest Places
The report looked at subjective well-being, defined as life satisfaction. Did people feel like their lives were dominated by positive experiences and feelings, or negative ones?
To answer that question, the OECD used data from a Gallup World Poll conducted in 140 countries around the world last year. The poll asked respondents whether they had experienced six different forms of positive or negative feelings within the last day.
via World’s Happiest Places – Forbes.com.
White House To Declassify “Holy Grail” Torture Report That Could Undercut Cheney
White House To Declassify “Holy Grail” Torture Report That Could Undercut Cheney
There’s a big piece of news about Dick Cheney and torture buried toward the end of this big Washington Post piece about the torture wars.
Specifically: The White House has decided to declassify and release a classified 2004 CIA report about the torture program that is reported to have found no proof that torture foiled any terror plots on American soil — directly contradicting Cheney’s claims. The paper cites “allies” of the White House as a source.
Dem Congressional staffers tell me this report is the “holy grail,” because it is expected to detail torture in unprecedented detail and to cast doubt on the claim that torture works — and its release will almost certainly trigger howls of protest from conservatives. Tellingly, neither the CIA nor the White House knocked down the story in response to my questions, with spokespeople for both declining comment. Here’s the key nugget from the Post piece:
Government officials familiar with the CIA’s early interrogations say the most powerful evidence of apparent excesses is contained in the “top secret” May 7, 2004, inspector general report, based on more than 100 interviews, a review of the videotapes and 38,000 pages of documents. The full report remains closely held, although White House officials have told political allies that they intend to declassify it for public release when the debate quiets over last month’s release of the Justice Department’s interrogation memos…
Although some useful information was produced, the report concluded that “it is difficult to determine conclusively whether interrogations have provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks,” according to the Justice Department’s declassified summary of it.
via White House To Declassify “Holy Grail” Torture Report That Could Undercut Cheney | The Plum Line.
Prosecuting Torture: Is Time Really Running Out?
Prosecuting Torture: Is Time Really Running Out?
“My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon
The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run.”
- Bruce Springsteen, “Livin’ in the Future”
When the highest officials of our nation flung open the gates of law and morality and let the wild dogs of torture run, they set in motion a constellation of potentially-indictable federal crimes. While I do not think a grand jury investigation into those violations should be publicly initiated right now, (for strategic reasons discussed here), I do agree entirely with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse that the Attorney General must not rule out prosecutions for these violations. In the May 4, 2009, National Law Journal, the Democrat from Rhode Island writes: “The factual record … has not been fully developed and reviewed – and no good prosecutor would make a final determination until all the facts are in.” As usual, the former US Attorney has it exactly right. No responsible prosecutor would do that and, indeed, as long as the record is unfolding, the Attorney General wouldn’t be able to render any meaningful final “verdict” of no prosecution even if he wanted to. (And, certainly, no potential defendant could hold him to it.) So – regardless of what the prognosis for prosecution appears to be on any given day – it is critical to keep those revelations coming, as well as to support proposals for a non-partisan commission that will publicly air all the facts, and, most important, not give up on eventual indictments.
So Many Crimes, but How Much Time?
via t r u t h o u t | Prosecuting Torture: Is Time Really Running Out?.
Obama lauds industry offer to cut health costs
Obama lauds industry offer to cut health costs
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday portrayed the health care industry‘s promise to cut $2 trillion in costs over 10 years as “a watershed event” in the long search for a solution to the millions of uninsured.
Whether that is true won’t be readily known as debate begins in Congress over sweeping health care legislation. What is known now is that the move puts the industry groups involved firmly inside the process of expanding coverage, with the hope they can steer the final product toward something that doesn’t restrict their profitability.
“I will not rest until the dream of health care reform is achieved in the United States of America,” Obama declared in the White House’s State Dining Room as he announced the voluntary offer made to the White House Monday by a consortium of hospitals, insurance companies, drug makers and doctors.
They told Obama they would slow rate increases by 1.5 percentage points a year by improving coordination, focusing on efficiency and embracing better technology and regulatory reform.
Government economists say the shaved costs would create breathing room to help provide health insurance to an estimated 50 million Americans who now do not have it.
It’s a substantial change from the time in the early 1990s when President Bill Clinton took on health care reform, only to see industry leaders fight back hard, ultimately killing the White House proposal before it could gain any traction.
via Obama lauds industry offer to cut health costs.
Why inequality is fatal
Why inequality is fatal - : Nature Magazine
Why are our chances of reaching a great age so affected by wealth and status? The obvious answer is that more income buys better health. But it is a lot more subtle than that, as shown three decades ago by the Whitehall Study, in which epidemiologist Michael Marmot examined the death rates of British civil servants. To the surprise of many, he found that his subjects — all in continuous paid employment and with equal access to health care — were more likely to die in any given year if they were in a lower- grade job than a higher one. Marmot concluded that the employment hierarchy itself created status-dependent stress that affected the workers’ health.
In their new book, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett extend this idea with a far-reaching analysis of the social consequences of income inequality. Using statistics from reputable independent sources, they compare indices of health and social development in 23 of the world’s richest nations and in the individual US states. Their striking conclusion is that the societies that do best for their citizens are those with the narrowest income differentials — such as Japan and the Nordic countries and the US state of New Hampshire. The most unequal — the United States as a whole, the United Kingdom and Portugal — do worst.
via Access : Why inequality is fatal : Nature.
A Look Back: Hedge Funds
A Look Back: Hedge Funds
By Russ Baker
Sometimes, here at WhoWhatWhy, we find it useful to see what was said, back in the good old days, about the institutions that later became so reviled. Along these lines, we refer you to an April 2007 New York Magazine cover package, “Behind the Hedge” —a primer on hedge funds and the (almost all) men who inhabit that world. It’s an examination, chortle, cautionary word, and celebration of the glories of excess, all in one.
A couple of excerpts:
In a sign of hedge funds’ growing clout in other spheres, in late January, Senator Chuck Schumer called twenty or so of the top hedge-fund managers and invited them to the Upper East Side Italian restaurant Bottega del Vino. It was supposed to be a friendly chat—Schumer’s message was, you talk to us about what’s going on, and nobody has to worry about too much interference from regulators. It’s chilling to think of all that secret power assembled in one place, like the Cosa Nostra Apalachin summit in 1957. . . . The combined assets under management of those attending had to have been $200 billion. [Emphasis added.]
Um, and this….
A recent report by the European firm Dresdner Kleinwort points out that if 4 percent of assets under management go to fees, and another 4 to 5 percent is spent on trading commissions and interest, hedge funds would need to pull in 20 percent annually to justify their costs. That forces them to take ever greater risks. [Emphasis added.]
Then, this….
via WhoWhatWhy: Groundbreaking Investigative Journalism That Explores the Truth Behind Current Events.
Banks raise $7.5bn to repay Tarp funds
OPS: We are inside a Bull bubble inside a Bear Market and they want to repay in stock?! cute. Problem is that Geithner will probably let them do it.
Banks raise $7.5bn to repay Tarp funds
Capital One among groups to offer stock
By Alan Rappeport - Financial Times
Three US banks that passed government stress tests last week announced stock offerings on Monday in an effort to raise capital to repay federal funds.
Capital One Financial, a leading issuer of credit cards, US Bancorp, the regional bank based in Minnesota, and BB&T, which operates banks mostly in the south-eastern US, between them raised $7.55bn by issuing new shares.
via FT.com / Companies – Banks raise $7.5bn to repay Tarp funds.
China Armed for Cyber Warfare Against U.S. video
China Armed for Cyber Warfare Against U.S. video
A cyber attack could surface months after secure documents were collected and analyzed.
Craig Harrington – Economy In Crisis
We all know the problem presented by our crippling economy to national defense. Chinese industrial, financial, and economic policy has intentionally undermined the United States in its effort to capture the consumer market and exert pressure on Washington.
However, the economy is not the only place where Chinese efforts are directed at undermining U.S. security and stability. The Chinese are rapidly modernizing their military, and conscription efforts in that country have created the world’s largest standing army as well as an enormous reserve and paramilitary force.
There are two Chinese for every one American who has some degree of military training and equipment. There are six Chinese for every one American eligible for service.
Nonetheless, this only tells a tiny part of the problem. A pitched battle between the world’s two economic giants is highly unlikely. What we could expect to see is the development of another cold war, this time between the U.S. and China.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Elected Officials Selling out America: Pat Tiberi
Elected Officials Selling out America: Pat Tiberi
Republican Pat Tiberi, representing Ohio’s 12th congressional district, is part of the problem and not the solution
Dustin Ensinger - Economy In Crisis
Editor’s Note: The following article is the fourth installment in an expository series which outlines important issues facing the U.S. economy and reveals your elected officials voting records. Please write to your elected officials and demand that they represent their constituents, instead of succumbing to the whims of big business.
In the not-so-distant past, Ohio was a manufacturing powerhouse, churning out massive amounts of steel and iron, plastic and rubber products, cars, trucks and auto parts that fueled the national economy.
Just 14 years ago – in 1995 – General Motors was Ohio’s largest private employer. By 2007, Wal-Mart had earned that distinction.
It is no coincidence that this dramatic transformation occurred during the height of globalization which featured the creation of the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
And, although he was not in Congress to vote on those issues, Republican Pat Tiberi, representing Ohio’s 12th congressional district, is part of the problem and not the solution.
Since winning his congressional seat in 2001, Tiberi has voted against imposing trade barriers to protect domestic manufacturers 67 percent of the time. During that same period, he voted against subsidies for domestic industries 67 percent of the time.
“Increasing open but fair trade can provide a timely and meaningful boost to our nation’s economy and foster job creation here at home,” he wrote in a 2008 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging her to support “free trade” agreements with Panama and Columbia. “Tens of millions of jobs across every sector of our economy are supported by trade.”
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Government Stimulus Masking Long-Term Economic Decline
Government Stimulus Masking Long-Term Economic Decline – Economy In Crisis
Prosperity has always been derived from building things and selling them, but the U.S. government long ago decided to forsake industry and champion Wall Street.
Craig Harrington
The Obama administration came into office facing one of the greatest economic crises in American history. According to Richard McCormack of manufacturingnews.com, the stimulus and bailout plans may have made the entire situation worse.
The United States has pushed $700 billion in nationwide bank bailouts, another $787 billion in the stimulus package, and perhaps a trillion more other handouts to insurers, special banks, and lenders. When the Federal Reserve’s programs are included, by some estimates, there will have been4 $3 trillion worth of spending in the past 12 months.
The net result of all of these measures has not yet corrected the economic plunge in the United States. The reason it has yet to correct it is because all of this money has completely ignored the problem.
Prosperity has always been derived from building things and selling them, but the U.S. government long ago decided to forsake industry and champion Wall Street. Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and other industrial towns were given a choice. They could either adopt a banking mindset, or they would be allowed to deteriorate.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Rep. Pete Sessions: Obama wants to ‘diminish employment’ in order to consolidate power.
OPS: Insane, or simply brain-dead? You be the judge. Either way, THIS is your modern Conservative movement in…inaction.
Rep. Pete Sessions: Obama wants to ‘diminish employment’ in order to consolidate power.
At the beginning of April, a Fox News poll asked respondents whether they believed that President Obama “wants the financial crisis to continue so government can take over more businesses and grow the federal government.” Only 23 percent said that they thought Obama wanted it to continue, but that minority view was recently endorsed by a top-ranking Republican official. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), the chairman of the NRCC, told the New York Times that he believes President Obama aims to “‘diminish employment and diminish stock prices‘ as part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy to consolidate power”:
His counterpart at the House Republicans’ committee, Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, may indeed face an uphill fight with his argument that Mr. Obama is not trying to create jobs. In an interview, Mr. Sessions cited rising unemployment in asserting that the administration intended to “diminish employment and diminish stock prices” as part of a “divide and conquer” strategy to consolidate power.
Mr. Sessions, in his seventh term, said Mr. Obama’s agenda was “intended to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it.” By next fall, he predicted, voters may regain appreciation for the era of Republican governance when “many dreams were achieved,” the size of the economy doubled and employment and financial markets hit record levels.
When and How will Franken-Coleman Contest Be Resolved?
When and How will Franken-Coleman Contest Be Resolved? – Washington Post
MinnPost political blogger Eric Black took your questions about the ongoing legal dispute between Minnesota Senate candidates Al Franken and Norm Coleman, and the political pressures surrounding the case.
Read Eric’s blog: Eric Black Ink
____________________
Eric Black: Greetings earthlings.
This is Eric Black of MinnPost.com and EricBlackInk.
I’ve been covering and analyzing the Franken/Coleman campaign/election/recount/court contest and now Minnesota Supreme Court appeal. We are now in the pause between the filing of Norm Coleman’s appeal brief, and the filing of Al Franken’s, which is due Monday.
via When and How will Franken-Coleman Contest Be Resolved? – washingtonpost.com.
Harry, Louise and Barack
OPS: agree, Krugman is back in corporate-shill mode again
Harry, Louise and Barack – Paul Krugman – NYTimes
Is this the end for Harry and Louise?
Harry and Louise were the fictional couple who appeared in advertisements run by the insurance industry in 1993, fretting about what would happen if “government bureaucrats” started making health care decisions. The ads helped kill the Clinton health care plan, and have stood, ever since, as a symbol of the ability of powerful special interests to block health care reform.
But on Saturday, excited administration officials called me to say that this time the medical-industrial complex (their term, not mine) is offering to be helpful.
Six major industry players — including America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a descendant of the lobbying group that spawned Harry and Louise — have sent a letter to President Obama sketching out a plan to control health care costs. What’s more, the letter implicitly endorses much of what administration officials have been saying about health economics.
Are there reasons to be suspicious about this gift? You bet — and I’ll get to that in a bit. But first things first: on the face of it, this is tremendously good news…..more on story at link.
via Op-Ed Columnist – Harry, Louise and Barack – NYTimes.com.
BF Comments:
How Much Was Fox Paid to Shill Bush’s War Crime in Iraq?
How Much Was Fox Paid to Shill Bush’s War Crime in Iraq?
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
The Fox network conspired with Bush’s criminal regime to profit from the US plunder of Iraq. Fox was and will continue to be Bush’s ‘propaganda ministry’ for as long as there is money to be made depicting dead Iraqis who had nothing whatsoever to do with 911. 911 was an inside job.
Who is most motivated to lie about a crime? Simply, the guilty! The biggest lies about any crime are told by those who perpetrate the crime. Fox was clearly motivated and, predictably, told the biggest whoppers about both Iraq wars. The biggest gains and the biggest whoppers are found among Bush, his co-conspirators and the Fox Network. Murdoch should be subpoenaed and compelled to testify before a federal grand jury.
Millions now support the prosecution of Bush for war crimes and mass murder. But what of his enablers and co-conspirators? What charges should be brought against the murderous liar –Rupert Murdoch –the modern incarnation of Hearst. How many members of the Fox board, how many executives, how many on-camera shills conspired with Bush to spread the bald-faced lies that made mass murder ‘photogenic’ and, therefore, possible and palatable to an American society hooked on images of things and bodies blowing up.
It boils down to a legal term: quid pro quo –the word given a ‘transaction’, an agreement that an item or a service is returned for something of value. Certainly, throughout Bush’s war of aggression against Iraq, a war crime in which some 4000 US service personnel were sacrificed upon a bald faced lie, the relationship between Fox and Bush has been symbiotic and conspiratorial.
Fox is thus motivated to convince you that ‘conspiracies’ do not exist though most US case law and SCOTUS decisions have to do with conspiracies of one sort or another. There is probable cause that Bush and Fox achieved agreement upon a quid pro quo! Members of the Fox board of directors and key executives should be considered war criminals just as was Goebbel during the Third Reich.
To be fair, FOX has not confined its venal reporting style to a decade that will be recalled as the era of Bush atrocities and war crimes! Fox was under investigation by the ITC (independent television commission) back in the 90s, specifically nine complaints by viewers Sky Digital satellite, controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Fox’s jingoistic support of Bush war, however, begs to be investigated by a federal panel with the power of the subpoena. It is of little consolation to millions of victims of Bush’s war of aggression in Iraq that if Fox is found to have breeched ITC ‘impartiality rules’, it could be forced out! Simply –Fox does not give a shit.
Fox does not merely slant the new; it makes it up! Keith Olbermann and Robert Greenwald exposed the truth about Fox lies.
via The Existentialist Cowboy: How Much Was Fox Paid to Shill Bush’s War Crime in Iraq?.
Revolt in UK sprouts in cyberspace
Will we accept MP excuses? Don’t bank on it
It was a culture problem, we’re told. Everyone was doing it. That excuse didn’t work with the banking crisis and it certainly won’t work now.
Whether on the economy or the expenses disaster, things have gone horribly, horribly wrong for the government. Both issues have seen a blame game played out before the nation’s media. Both have seen ministers shrug their collective shoulders, desperately pointing the finger elsewhere.
The defence isn’t likely to work in either case come the election.
Case number one, m’lud: the economy. Ministers understandably licked their lips nervously when it took a nosedive last year. The Treasury committee’s inquiry in recent months resembled a trial, with journalists, ministers and bankers summoned to plead ‘it wasn’t our fault’.
But regulatory failure hopelessly tainted the credibility of government arguments to this effect. It was a culture thing, ministers pleaded. Everyone thought debt was no longer dangerous. Please don’t blame us.
That’s the argument which will, more or less, decide the next election. A quick look at the opinion polls shows just how miserable things look for the government to this effect.
via Talking Politics – Yahoo! News UK.
Rising Inequality vs. the American Dream
Rising Inequality vs. the American Dream - Political Affairs Magazine
Data on income and wealth from the US show that as the American economy develops, both income and wealth become increasingly concentrated into the hands of the richest Americans.
If you feel that you are not receiving your share of America’s treasure, then you are not alone. Data on income and wealth from the US show that as the American economy develops, both income and wealth become increasingly concentrated into the hands of the richest Americans. For example, since 1967 the share of income earned by each quintile of households defined by income, except the quintile of highest income earners, has fallen (see graph 1.) This means that you are probably one of the many income earners, a full 80 percent, who has seen your share of our bountiful American output fall. This is explicit when you compare the top 20 percent of income earners to the bottom 80 percent (see graph 2.) In fact, not only has the share of income earned by the bottom 80 percent of households fallen, but the income earned by the top 20 percent has reached parity with that of the entire bottom 80 percent of income earners!
Wealth data suggest the same trend as income data. Since 1989 the share of total US wealth owned by the wealthiest 10 percent has increased from 67 percent to 71 percent (see graph 3.) Even if you assume away the apparent trend of increasing wealth inequality, ten percent of the US population holding around 70 percent of the wealth is plainly obscene.
These graphs of income and wealth data support the hypothesis that the free-market economy in America produces rising inequality as it develops over time. Fewer and fewer Americans enjoy the benefits of growth that the US economy produces. If the trend continues, and there is no evidence to suggest that it will not, the share of income earned by the highest fifth of households will climb to over 60 percent of total US income within the next 30 years (see graph 4.) This is because the data suggest that the inequality trend has been accelerating over time. Another alarming statistic is the share of income taken by the top five percent of households in terms of income. This share has risen from around seventeen percent of total US income in 1967 to around 21 percent in 2007. Following this trend thirty years out, the share of total US income taken by this top five percent could reach into the high twenties. This would produce even more alarming statistics in the distribution of wealth, pushing the percent of total wealth commanded by the top 10 percent even higher than the current 70 percent.
via Political Affairs Magazine – Rising Inequality vs. the American Dream.
Joe Cutbirth: How Can Texas Ask Women to Pay for Rape Kits?
OPS: well, here’s a hint – you don’t have to be a sociopath to be a Republican – but it makes your day go easier
How Can Texas Ask Women to Pay for Rape Kits? - HufPo
Journalists occasionally shine light on a public policy that is so disgusting it literally stuns you – just takes your breath away and leaves you speechless.
Your first thought is they’ve made a mistake. Or this is ratings hype. It can’t be true.
After the initial shock wears off, you realize it actually is happening – that it’s the system – and it hurt real people today; and it will hurt others the same way tomorrow, and others the day after that, and others the day after that. And you just want to urp.
That happened today when I saw this clip on CNN (from Houston station KPRC) that showed the attorney general of Texas (my home state) is sending letters to women who have been raped threatening their credit will be ruined unless they pay for the part of the criminal investigation known as the rape kit.
via Joe Cutbirth: How Can Texas Ask Women to Pay for Rape Kits?.
Banks Brace for Credit Card Write-Offs
OPS: …meaning: they’ll be demanding more money from the tax payers
Banks Brace for Credit Card Write-Offs - – NYTimes
It used to be easy to guess how many Americans would have problems paying their credit card bills. Banks just looked at unemployment: Fewer jobs meant more trouble ahead.
The unemployment rate has long mirrored banks’ loss rates on card balances. But Eddie Ward, 32 and jobless, may be one reason that rule of thumb no longer holds. For many lenders, losses are now starting to outpace layoffs.
Mr. Ward, of Arkansas, lost his job at a retail warehouse in April and so far has managed to make minimum payments on his credit card debt, which he estimates at $15,000 to $20,000. Asked whether he thinks he will be able to pay off his balance, he said, “Not unless I win the lottery.”
In the meantime, he said, “I’m just doing what I can.”
Experts predict that millions of Americans will not be able to pay off their debts, leaving a gaping hole at ailing banks still trying to recover from the housing bust.
via Banks Brace for Credit Card Write-Offs – NYTimes.com.
Reports – Becoming What We Seek to Destroy
Becoming What We Seek to Destroy
The bodies of dozens, perhaps well over a hundred, women, children and men, their corpses blown into bits of human flesh by iron fragmentation bombs dropped by U.S. warplanes in a village in the western province of Farah, illustrates the futility of the Afghan war. We are not delivering democracy or liberation or development. We are delivering massive, sophisticated forms of industrial slaughter. And because we have employed the blunt and horrible instrument of war in a land we know little about and are incapable of reading, we embody the barbarism we claim to be seeking to defeat.
We are morally no different from the psychopaths within the Taliban, who Afghans remember we empowered, funded and armed during the 10-year war with the Soviet Union. Acid thrown a girl’s face or beheadings? Death delivered from the air or fields of shiny cluster bombs? This is the language of war. It is what we speak. It is what those we fight speak.
via Truthdig – Reports – Becoming What We Seek to Destroy.
Silence on torture troubling
Silence on torture troubling
At long last, a prominent Christian conservative has called waterboarding what it is: torture. Last week, Richard Land, an official with the Southern Baptist Convention, said the practice is unethical and “violates everything we stand for.”
“There are some things you should never do to another human being, no matter how horrific the things they have done. If you do so, you demean yourself to their level,” said Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
His comments, though belated, are welcome. He breaks a telling silence about torture among the most politically active leaders of the religious right, who had a tendency to endorse all decisions and embrace all practices of former President Bush. Indeed, Land had nothing to say about waterboarding when Bush was still in office, though many reports confirmed the administration’s use of the practice years ago.
via Silence on torture troubling | ajc.com.
Nasa’s most dangerous shuttle mission ever prepares to blast off to fix Hubble Telescope
Nasa’s most dangerous shuttle mission ever prepares to blast off to fix Hubble Telescope
Nasa is set to dispatch seven astronauts on its most dangerous ever shuttle mission as it attempts to rescue the $7 billion Hubble Space Telescope from meltdown.
Led by former US Navy fighter pilot Scott Altman, 49, a one-time stunt flier for actor Tom Cruise in the film Top Gun, the crew of Atlantis will repair and upgrade the orbiting observatory, risking a potentially deadly space-junk collision that could leave them stranded 350 miles above Earth.
The mission, which is costing Nasa $1.4 billion and is due to blast off from Florida tomorrow, is considered so perilous that it was once cancelled by space agency chiefs who feared that it could cost the astronauts their lives.
‘Game-Changing’ Health Plan to be Presented
OPS: The Parasitic Dinosaurs are now willing to present a plan “…to reduce the growth of health costs for the next 10 years, which — if effective…” 
Insane. PR stunt to divert the discussion and head off alternatives. and CQ is pumping it as a big deal 
‘Game-Changing’ Health Plan to be Presented
Major representatives of the health care industry will present a plan to President Obama on Monday to reduce the growth of health costs for the next 10 years, which — if effective — could save the nation $2 trillion or more, White House officials estimate.
Two senior administration officials said the plan is to be put before Obama at a White House meeting by five trade associations representing health insurers, hospitals, drug companies, doctors and medical device makers. The proposal was brokered, the officials said, by Service Employees International Union, a large labor union closely allied with Obama, and its top health policy official, Dennis Rivera.
The White House believes the proposal could grease the rails for one of Obama’s top priorities: a health care overhaul that would promise insurance coverage for nearly every American and reduce health costs. However, it is not clear how or if the proposal will help lawmakers drafting overhaul legislation.
White House officials, giddy over the development, organized an unusual Mother’s Day conference call with reporters to describe the proposal ahead of Monday’s formal announcement. They spoke on condition of anonymity for reasons that were not explained.
“Politically, I can tell you this is a major and unprecedented move by this group of very sophisticated trade associations and groups in town, some of which have been major opponents of health reform in the past,” one official said. “We view this as a game-changer, when it comes to the discussion about health reform.”
via CQ Politics | ‘Game-Changing’ Health Plan to be Presented.
Cheney Confirms Iran-Contra Cover-Up
OPS: Is there a statute of limitations on Treason?
Cheney Confirms Iran-Contra Cover-Up
In a new article by Stephen “W.W. Beauchamp” Hayes, former Vice President Cheney gripes extensively about the Obama administration. It’s exactly what you’d expect. But what you might not expect is that Cheney (seemingly inadvertently) confirms that there was a massive cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal by the Reagan administration:
“I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn’t going to happen this time.”
Considering that two national security advisers (Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter) and the Secretary of Defense (Caspar Weinberger) were some of the “little guys” who were prosecuted for Iran-Contra, it’s obvious who Cheney is talking about as hanging them out to dry: President Reagan and Vice President Bush.
Here’s how Robert Parry describes the conclusions of Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh:
According to Firewall, the cover-up conspiracy took formal shape at a meeting of Reagan and his top advisers in the Situation Room at the White House on Nov. 24, 1986. The meeting’s principal point of concern was how to handle the troublesome fact that Reagan had approved illegal arms sales to Iran in fall 1985, before any covert-action finding had been signed. The act was a clear felony — a violation of the Arms Export Control Act — and possibly an impeachable offense.
via A Tiny Revolution: Cheney Confirms Iran-Contra Cover-Up.
MSNBC’s David Shuster Lets Loose On Fox News
MSNBC anchor David Shuster calls Fox News Channel “disgraceful” on a recent interview with progressive radio host Stephanie Miller on her radio show. “It’s insanity over there,” he says. “The stuff that comes out of Sean Hannity’s mouth has been infuriating.”
YouTube – MSNBC’s David Shuster Lets Loose On Fox News.
Coffee, sugar prices may ‘explode’
OPS: Is it really supply – or is it the speculators – again?
Shortages stir coffee and sugar prices
Caffeine addicts face higher prices for their daily fix as the wholesale cost of both coffee and sugar rise sharply because of poor crops and robust demand.
“We are in a dangerous situation,” Andrea Illy, chief executive of Italy’s leading coffee company, told the Financial Times, warning that prices could “explode” due to supply shortages.
His comments echo those of other industry players – and point to a sharp shift in sentiment among analysts.
Until recently, it was widely assumed that the global economic crisis would damp consumption and prices for coffee. However, that forecast proved wrong, since demand for coffee has remained high, even while consumers have moved from cafés to home drinking.
International coffee prices last week hit a seven-month high, rising to $1.28 per pound, up 22 per cent from their December low, in New York trading.
via FT.com / MARKETS / Commodities – Shortages stir coffee and sugar prices.
Boston Trolley Drivers Banned From Carrying Cellphones While Working
OPS: …of course this should be true for anyone operating any motorized vehicle.
Cellphone Ban After Boston Trolley Crash
BOSTON — The chief of the Boston area’s transit authority said on Saturday that he would prohibit train, bus and trolley operators from carrying cellphones and other personal electronic devices while working.
The announcement of the policy change came a day after the authorities said that a 24-year-old trolley operator ran a red light while he was text messaging and crashed into another trolley, injuring 49 people.
“They’re not to have it on their person,” Daniel A. Grabauskas, the general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said of the devices. “They’re not to bring it in the cab of the train or on board the bus. They’re to leave it at home, leave it in their car, leave it in their locker or leave it with someone else”
Mr. Grabauskas said that under the policy change, operators who were found with cellphones or other personal electronic devices while on duty would be dismissed immediately.
via Boston Trolley Drivers Banned From Carrying Cellphones While Working – NYTimes.com.
Experts say GM bankruptcy is almost inevitable
OPS: Of course it is – It’s always been about busting the unions and starving the beast
Experts say GM bankruptcy is almost inevitable
DETROIT – For General Motors Corp., the task at hand is so difficult that experts say a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is all but inevitable.
To remake itself outside of court, GM must persuade bondholders to swap $27 billion in debt for 10 percent of its risky stock. On top of that, the automaker must work out deals with its union, announce factory closures, cut or sell brands and force hundreds of dealers out of business — all in three weeks.
“I just don’t see how it’s possible, given all of the pieces,” said Stephen J. Lubben, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who specializes in bankruptcy.
GM, which has received $15.4 billion in federal aid, faces a June 1 government deadline to complete its restructuring plan. If it can’t finish in time, the company will follow Detroit competitor Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy protection.
Although company executives said last week they would still prefer to restructure out of court, experts say all GM is doing now is lining up majorities of stakeholders to make its court-supervised reorganization move more quickly.
via Experts say GM bankruptcy is almost inevitable.
White House Forecasts No Job Growth Until 2010
OPS: Remember the Republican mantra in the early years of the invasion and occupation of Iraq? “6 more months….6 more months…all we need is 6 more months.” That went on for many years.
White House Forecasts No Job Growth Until 2010
Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Vice President Cheney vigorously defended the Bush administration’s torture policies and his belief that by rejecting them, President Obama is raising “the risk to the American people of another attack.” Cheney said that the Bush administration’s interrogation policies will one day be viewed as “one of the great success stories of American intelligence.”
“I think that when we talk about — or anybody talks about — hitting bottom, what we really have to understand is that the bottom is a kind of an undefined concept here,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
According to figures released on Friday, the unemployment rate in April was 8.9 percent, its highest level in a quarter-century. The so-called underemployment rate, which counts people who are working part time because their hours have been cut and those who have given up looking for jobs, reached 15.8 percent.
via White House Forecasts No Job Growth Until 2010 – NYTimes.com.
Kristol Issues Another Correction: I Was Wrong To Blame Obama For Stock Market Declines
OPS: Billy-boy hasn’t been right about anything. What’s new?
Kristol Issues Another Correction: I Was Wrong To Blame Obama For Stock Market Declines
In discussing the state of the economy this morning on Fox News Sunday, conservative commentator Bill Kristol noted that the stock market has performed reasonably well over the last several months. “The market’s up 35 percent in the last two months, which is pretty amazing,” Kristol said. He then noted that those Republicans — including himself — who were “chortling” about the stock market’s significant decline just after President Obama’s inauguration would now be forced to admit that they were wrong:
Republicans who were chortling over that 20 percent drop in the stock market the first month or two of [Obama's] administration are going to be, fairly enough, hoist on our own petard by the fact that now Obama’s getting this big stock market rally. … I — no one should base anything on this forecast — but in my view the short term is surprisingly bullish, but medium-long term very worrisome.
Watch it:
Cheney May Be Willing To Testify Under Oath About Torture Program
OPS: Why the hell does he have to be ‘willing’ ? Just do it.
Cheney May Be Willing To Testify Under Oath About Torture Program
Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Vice President Cheney vigorously defended the Bush administration’s torture policies and his belief that by rejecting them, President Obama is raising “the risk to the American people of another attack.” Cheney said that the Bush administration’s interrogation policies will one day be viewed as “one of the great success stories of American intelligence.”
When host Bob Schieffer asked Cheney whether he would be willing to testify to Congress under oath, Cheney initially hedged, but then indicated that he would be willing to do so:
SCHIEFFER: Would you go back and talk to the Congress?
CHENEY: Certainly. I’ve made it very clear that I feel very strongly that what we did here was exactly the right thing to do. And if I don’t speak out, then where do we find ourselves, Bob? Then the critics have free run, and there isn’t anybody there on the other side to tell the truth. So it’s important — it’s important that we…
via Think Progress » Cheney May Be Willing To Testify Under Oath About Torture Program.
Ted Kennedy Abandons Liberals on Health Care Reform
OPS: Crap. That’s probably about it then. Corporations will continue to win the major issues.
Ted Kennedy Abandons Liberals on Health Care Reform
This is probably the worst sign yet for the public health insurance plan. Ted Kennedy has abandoned liberals on the issue of his career. On his senate website, Ted Kennedy no longer publicly supports providing all Americans with the choice of a public health insurance option. He continues the trend started by the Obama administration of trying to whitewash over support for a public plan.
Only a week ago, Ted Kennedy’s website still promoted giving all Americans the choice of signing up for Medicare. Now, under the issue of “health care” there is no longer any reference to offering people the choice of a public health insurance plan.
I highly respect Ted Kennedy and his long career of fighting for what he believes in. But now is the time for health care reform. Important health care reform legislation is being written as we speak. To see Kennedy quietly abandon a core principle of the progressive agenda is very disappointing.
See what Ted Kennedy’s website said about health care reform last week and now.
via The Walker Report: Ted Kennedy Abandons Liberals on Health Care Reform.
Obama Retains Bush-Era Regulation Gutting Protections for Polar Bear
Obama Retains Bush-Era Regulation Gutting Protections for Polar Bear
Secretary Salazar to Maintain Special Exemptions to Polluters
WASHINGTON – May 8 – “Secretary Salazar’s failure to rescind this regulation only serves to cement the Bush administration’s legacy of ignoring global warming science, thus putting the polar bear at further risk of extinction,” said Melanie Duchin, Greenpeace’s global warming campaigner in Alaska. “Regrettably, it seems to reflect an emerging willingness by the Obama administration to ignore clear scientific imperatives on global warming in the face of industry pressure.” Statement by Melanie Duchin, Greenpeace USA, on the Department of Interior’s Retention of Bush Administration Regulation Weakening the Endangered Species Act
Background: On March 11, 2009, President Obama signed legislation giving Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar the authority to immediately rescind, with the stroke of a pen, two Bush regulations that fundamentally undermine protections for the polar bear and thwart the regulation of greenhouse gas pollution. On April 28, Secretary Salazar rescinded one rule reinstating the consultation process between agencies allowing science a role in decision-making on potential impacts to endangered species.
via Obama Retains Bush-Era Regulation Gutting Protections for Polar Bear | CommonDreams.org.
Obama’s bad stem cell compromise
Obama’s bad stem cell compromise
Obama traded his word on stem cell research for a political deal, sacrificing ‘therapeutic cloning’ research necessary to help millions suffering from Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other illnesses.
Ijust had a birthday, and to honor such occasions, my sister always gives me silver. Not just any silver: It’s our parents’ simple wedding flatware pattern, which Margaret collects for me, a piece at a time. Over the years that the slender boxes have appeared, I’ve wondered if any of it is from the full service for 12 that I pulled in a suitcase through Manhattan’s Diamond District and sold one dreadful day 25 years ago.
It had been my assignment to sell it — that, and a ring of Margaret’s, one of mine and, right off our mother’s finger, her engagement ring and platinum wedding band. The sum received was probably a quarter of their monetary worth, and nothing near their emotional value, but it financed two more weeks of home care for our mother, an Alzheimer’s disease patient. After five years of caring for her at home, we had run through the family savings.
via Obama’s bad stem cell compromise – Los Angeles Times.
Mathematical Proof Kerry won
Mathematical Proof Kerry won! Regardless of How Numbers are Sliced and Diced
It is instructive to view the 2004 National Exit Poll timeline. There were three updates prior to the Final.
This analysis shows the effects on Kerry’s share of voters who did not vote in 2000 (DNV) along with changes in the returning Gore/Bush mix of the 2004 electorate. Kerry’s share of the DNV group declined steadily from 62% at 4pm to 54% in the Final.
The Final was forced to match the recorded vote with an impossible 43/37% Gore/Bush returning voter mix. Bush voters could not have comprised 43% (52.6m) of the 2004 electorate since there were only 50.46 million Bush voters in 2000. Approximately 2.5m died so there were at most 48m returning Bush voters – indicating that at least 4.5m were phanto
Kerry led the NEP timeline up to the Final with 51-52%.
Kerry won every returning voter mix / 12:22am vote share scenario, except for the Final 43/37% and 54% DNV.
Bush needed an impossible 42% minimum returning Bush voter mix and Final NEP vote shares to win.
via Mathematical Proof Kerry won.
Army war games for future conflicts
Army war games for future conflicts
CARLISLE BARRACKS, Pa. (Army News Service, May 6, 2009) – The year is 2018 and North Korea has just crossed the DMZ, its Army camouflaged among refugees forced across the border into South Korea. It has nuclear weapons and has launched cyber attacks against the U.S. and South Korea.
The scenario is one of four the Army, its sister services, governmental and nongovernmental agencies and multinational forces are confronting here this week during Unified Quest 2009, the Army’s future game and the chief of staff’s mechanism to examine conflicts the Army might face in 10 years and the capabilities it could need.
Sponsored by Training and Doctrine Command, players included representatives from Forces Command, the Air Force, Navy and Marines, Special Operations Command, the State Department and other countries. Students from the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., were on hand to help develop responses to the challenges.
“Unified Quest examines the future operational environment to frame the issues and help inform the leadership of decisions they will need to make, specifically the chief of staff of the Army,” said Lt. Col. Paul Coyle, of TRADOC’s joint warfare branch. He noted that the decisions Gen. George W. Casey Jr. makes now in his budget requests will affect how the Army operates in 2018, and that research and development for capabilities the Army might need should begin now.
via Army war games for future conflicts.
Paragliders Give Cops an Eye in the Sky
In one Florida community, cops are not just walking the beat, they are soaring high above it.
The Palm Bay Police Department in Florida has become the first in the nation to put its officers in powered paragliders, the ultra-light flying machines usually associated with adventure sports, not police work.
Police Chief Bill Berger says they are a way for the department to have a bird’s eye view of the semi-rural city at minimal cost.
“Because we don’t have a lot of roadway here, this gives us the ability to basically take short cuts,” said Berger.
Four officers are training to fly the powered paragliders, including Lt. Mark Renkins, who has flown recreationally for several years.
“It doesn’t replace a helicopter or a fixed-wing [airplane],” said Renkins. “But it gives the department some aerial capability, when it had none at all.”
via Paragliders Give Cops an Eye in the Sky – ABC News.
The Nature of the Current Financial Crisis: The System is designed to exert Total Control over the Lives of Individuals
The Nature of the Current Financial Crisis: The System is designed to exert Total Control over the Lives of Individuals
The Report from Iron Mountain Revisited
by Richard C. Cook
What impresses me in the current financial crisis is the near-total failure of so-called progressives to appreciate the magnitude of what is going on or the level of intelligence behind it. How many will say, for instance, that the crash was deliberately engineered by the creation, then destruction, of the investment bubbles of the last decade?
When the financial system creates bubbles it drives up the cost of assets far beyond their true value in producing or storing wealth. When the bubbles burst the value of the assets plummets. Those with ready cash then buy them up on the cheap. When the dust settles more wealth has been concentrated in fewer hands. The rich get richer, and ordinary people are left in a deeper condition of indebtedness, poverty, and pressure to perform to the liking of the financial masters.
Progressives think the system needs to be “reformed.” Maybe the banking system needs to be re-regulated or even nationalized. Maybe it should be possible for families facing loss of their homes to get a lower monthly payment from a bankruptcy court. Maybe the government instead of the private sector should administer student loans.
What we fail to acknowledge is that the system itself is totalitarian. This means that it is designed to exert total control over the lives of individuals. We are accustomed to use this label when thinking of anachronisms of history like communism or fascism. We do not understand that globalist finance capitalism and the government which protects, enables, or even regulates it are also totalitarian.
What has happened in the last year as the financial system has seemingly gone belly-up, and is coming back only through massive government bailouts, is part of a pattern that has been around for decades if not centuries. How the controllers work was laid out in 1967 when Dial Press published a leaked copy of The Report from Iron Mountain. This was a study put together by a team of academics and analysts who met at the underground facility in New York that was home to the Hudson Institute.
The report began by identifying war as the central organizing principle of society. It stated, “War itself is the basic social system, within which other secondary modes of social organization conflict or conspire. It is the system which has governed most human societies of record, as it is today.”
Senators Urge Obama to Block Release of New Detainee Abuse Photos
OPS: This atrocity was done in our name, by our ‘elected’ officials and with our tax dollars. We have a right and an obligation to see these photos.
Senators Urge Obama to Block Release of New Detainee Abuse Photos
Civil libertarians are condemning a call by two influential U.S. senators for the White House to block the impending release of photographs showing detainees being abused by U.S. military personnel at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and at other American detention facilities in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The plea to intervene to stop the expected May 28 release of the photos came in a letter Thursday to President Barack Obama from Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham.
“The release of these old photographs of past behavior that has now been clearly prohibited will serve no public good, but will empower al-Qaeda propaganda operations, hurt our country’s image, and endanger our men and women in uniform,” the Senators wrote.
Release of the photos is expected in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“We urge you in the strongest possible terms to fight the release of these old pictures of detainees in the war on terror, including appealing the decision of the Second Circuit in the ACLU lawsuit to the Supreme Court and pursuing all legal options to prevent the public disclosure of these pictures,” the senators wrote.
via Senators Urge Obama to Block Release of New Detainee Abuse Photos.
Chain Reaction
Chain Reaction
How the U.S.-UAE nuclear deal could set off a Middle East arms race.
Most of my nonproliferation colleagues think that having the United States help build a nuclear power reactor for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a great idea. I think it is a big mistake.
The U.S.-UAE civilian nuclear cooperation agreement was signed in the closing days of the George W. Bush administration and praised by advocates as a “model” for future agreements with Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and other states. President Barack Obama will have to decide in the next few weeks whether to send the deal to Congress for final approval. Wary of a repeat of the Dubai Ports World fiasco, the emirates have launched a $1.6 million lobbying campaign to bring U.S. lawmakers on board. They’ve enlisted many of my friends in the effort.
One former colleague, now a consultant for the UAE, sends me regular updates filled with good news about this multibillion-dollar deal. Her latest e-mail quotes an op-ed by Elliott Abrams, deputy national security advisor during the Bush administration, promising that the deal “will show the way forward in responsible, transparent uses of nuclear energy — at the very moment when the world must confront Iran’s defiance.” I remember Abrams’s assurances about the invasion of Iraq and cringe.
via Foreign Policy: Chain Reaction.
Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits
Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits
WASHINGTON — In its effort to overhaul health care, Congress is planning to give employers sweeping new authority to reward employees for healthy behavior, including better diet, more exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation.
A web of federal rules limits what employers and insurers can do now.
Congress is seriously considering proposals to provide tax credits or other subsidies to employers who offer wellness programs that meet federal criteria. In addition, lawmakers said they would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior among employees.
Two Democratic senators working on comprehensive health legislation, Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee, and Tom Harkin of Iowa, have taken the lead in devising such incentives.
via Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits – NYTimes.com.
African Poverty Rises as Global Crisis Erodes Gains
African Poverty Rises as Global Crisis Erodes Gains (Update1)
May 10 (Bloomberg) — The global financial crisis has eroded benefits from decades of economic reform in Africa, pushing many countries back into poverty, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the African Development Bank said in a joint report.
Per-capita income in Africa will probably decline for the first time since 1994 this year, compared with average income growth of 3.3 percent between 2001 and 2007, Louis Kasekende, chief economist of the African Development Bank, told reporters in Dakar, Senegal today.
The global recession has slashed demand for commodities, cutting growth in countries such as Angola, Africa’s second- biggest oil producer, and Zambia, the continent’s largest copper producer. That is threatening to undo the benefits of economic reforms undertaken by African countries, such as trimming budget deficits and curbing inflation, which helped to sustain economic growth in the world’s poorest continent at an average of 5 percent a year for half a decade, the OECD and the African Development Bank said in the report.
“The financial crisis, which has now become an economic crisis, has eroded benefits accumulated over the years of reform,” the OECD and ADB said in a statement. In their report the two organizations projected Africa’s growth rate at 2.8 percent, adding that with “a bias on the downside, many people will fall back into poverty.”
via African Poverty Rises as Global Crisis Erodes Gains (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.
Today’s GOP Qualifies as a “Cult”
Today’s GOP Qualifies as a “Cult”
the GOP of today meets 14 out of 15 of the core characteristics of a cult.
I saw a great post over at Steve Benen’s blog today on how the GOP of today meets 14 out of 15 of the core characteristics of a cult. Check out some of the items from the checklist put out by the International Cultic Studies Association’s entitled ‘Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups‘:
The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).
The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, [torture,] lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.
via Library Grape: Today’s GOP Qualifies as a “Cult”.
Tall Tales from Spain
Tall Tales from Spain
Conservatives turn to Spanish study to misinform Americans and Congress about clean-energy independence and new clean-energy jobs, write James Heintz and Andrew Light.
Spain, over the past several years, has pursued an ambitious renewable energy program designed to turn it around from dependence on foreign sources of energy. The country is now lauded as a global leader in alternative energy technologies such as wind, biogas, and, more recently, concentrated solar thermal. But you wouldn’t know any of this if you listened to conservatives in the United States who have latched onto a paper by a team of Spanish researchers.
The paper, by Professor Gabríel Calzada Álvarez and colleagues, was featured this past Monday at an event at the Heritage Foundation. It inaccurately claims there were job losses in Spain due to government investments in clean-energy solutions and then doubles down by mistakenly claiming that subsidizing renewable energy investments led to higher energy prices in the country. Both assertions are based on flawed analysis, yet once again conservatives took this message to Congress to make these misleading points, this time led by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Unemployed—and Staying That Way
Unemployed—and Staying That Way
The pace of job losses has leveled off but the unemployment rate continued to rise rapidly in April. While employers have stopped shedding workers at an accelerating rate, the sheer number of unemployed workers continues to accelerate and the overall jobs picture remains grim. Long-term unemployment is at an all-time high and nominal wage growth has come to a halt. For those unlucky enough to have lost their job, a new one appears to be increasingly difficult to find.
Employers shed 539,000 jobs in April, and while this is down from the past few months, it remains the ninth-largest one-month fall in employment since the end of World War II, indicating that the troubles in the labor market are far from over. The economy has shed 5.7 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007; nearly half of those (2.7 million) occurred in the past four months.
The unemployment rate is now 8.9 percent, a 26-year high and an increase of 0.4 percentage points in April alone. Six million additional people became unemployed over the past year—more than any other year since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began tabulating this data just after World War II—and there are now a total of 13.7 million people unemployed—more than at any other time on record.
via Unemployed—and Staying That Way.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
