Archive for May, 2009
Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say
Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say
WASHINGTON — People in 34 states who live near 210 coal ash lagoons or landfills with inadequate lining have a higher risk of cancer and other diseases from contaminants in their drinking water, two environmental groups reported on Thursday.
Twenty-one states have five or more of the high-risk disposal sites near coal-fired power plants. The groups — the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice — said that a 2002 Environmental Protection Agency document that the agency didn’t release until March of this year adds information about toxic releases from these facilities to nearby water systems and data on how some contaminants accumulate in fish and deer and can harm the health of people who hunt and fish.
The report said that people who live near the most problematic disposal sites have as much as a 1-in-50 chance of getting cancer from drinking water contaminated by arsenic. The highest risk is for people who live near ash ponds with no liners and who get their water from wells.
The report said the ash ponds also produced an increased risk of damage to the liver and other organs from exposure to such metals as cadmium, cobalt and lead, and other pollutants.
Although the health information mainly came from an EPA study released in August 2007, the information was largely neglected and was too technical for most people to understand, the groups said. The report and a chart of the sites “takes the numbers and fleshes them out so the most dangerous units are identified,” said Lisa Evans, an attorney with Earthjustice.
via Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say | McClatchy.
Right-wing activist: Being gay is an ‘unhealthy’ lifestyle — like being obese.
Right-wing activist: Being gay is an ‘unhealthy’ lifestyle — like being obese.
The New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage (NJCPPM) is one of the right-wing groups pushing to stop marriage equality efforts in the state. Earlier this week, the group spoke to reporters about “traditional values,” during which time a NJCPPM associate said that being gay is “very unhealthy” — like being obese:
Jim White with the Knights of Columbus is a NJCPPM associate. He says, “Never until now has anyone thought that marriage should be between the people of the same sex. Frankly, the government does not have the right to meddle with marriage.” He adds, “It’s also a well-know[n] fact that the homosexual lifestyle or homosexual practice is very unhealthy. Government should discourage it and not elevate it to a level by calling it marriage. In an age where we worry about people being overweight and going after them and the government interfering in that, what is the government doing promoting a lifestyle that is inherently unhealthy?“
via Think Progress » Right-wing activist: Being gay is an ‘unhealthy’ lifestyle — like being obese..
Steele on judges with ‘empathy’: ‘I’ll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind!’
OPS: This is really sad.
Steele on judges with ‘empathy’: ‘I’ll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind!’
steele2Last week, when Supreme Court Justice David Souter said that he intended to retire, President Obama said that in naming a replacement, he would not only “seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity,” but also someone who has “empathy” for “the daily realities of people’s lives.” Conservatives quickly latched onto Obama’s use of the word “empathy,” lampooning it and claiming it is a “code word” for an “activist judge.” Guest hosting Bill Bennett’s radio show today, RNC chairman Michael Steele derided “crazy nonsense empathetic.” “I’ll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind!” said Steele. Listen here:
Duke Energy Quits The Right-Wing National Association Of Manufacturers Over Differences On Climate Policy
Duke Energy Quits The Right-Wing National Association Of
Manufacturers Over Differences On Climate Policy
NAM Logo The National Association of Manufacturers is a right-wing trade organization that refuses to address — or even acknowledge — man-made global warming. Last month, it protested the EPA’s decision to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, stating that the “clean air laws” are supposed to only focus on “local pollutants.” It has also funded climate change denier groups and heavily lobbied against any efforts to curb emissions.
The organization’s resistance to change is getting to be too much for its members. Today, Bloomberg reports that Duke Energy Corp., which owns utilities in the Southeast and Midwest, announced that it won’t be renewing its membership with NAM, in part because of NAM’s refusal to address global warming:
“We are not renewing our membership in the NAM because in tough times, we want to invest in associations that are pulling in the same direction we are,” Duke Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers said last month in an interview. The association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Republicans “ought to roll up their sleeves and get to work on a climate bill, but quite frankly, I don’t see them changing.”
Real Unemployment at Record High – 15.8%
OPS: It’s about time more media was talking about this. To see the detail and graphs of this data, click the Charts & Graphs button at the top of this page
Real Unemployment at Record High
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the “official” unemployment rate for April is 8.9%, a stunning jump from 4.8% just a year earlier. It is the highest jobless rate since the glory days of the Reagan Revolution in 1983. The country lost 539,000 jobs last month, which reporters are scrambling to put a happy face on by saying that “analysts had predicted a loss of 600,000,” although this difference is more than offset by the 72,000 temporary government jobs associated with the 2010 census.
Over 4 million million jobs have been lost in the past six months, and over 5 million during the last 16 straight months of job losses. However, to get back to pre-recession/depression rate (if things magically started recovering like last week) we would need to add 7 million jobs, to account for the growth in the population.
The real story, of course, is much grimmer. The official BLS rate (shown in line U3 of the monthly reports) only counts those actively seeking work.
Line U6 of that same report, however, gives a more accurate picture of the state of unemployment. This rate stands at 15.8% for April 2009, up from 8.9% a year earlier. (All the info comes from the BLS website).
The U6 number includes the following:
via Dollars & Sense blog: Real Unemployment at Record High | Dollars & Sense.
Global warming flood in Wasilla forces Palin to cancel correspondents dinner appearance.
Global warming flood in Wasilla forces Palin to cancel correspondents dinner appearance.
Because of a climate disaster, global warming skeptic Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) has been forced to cancel her attendance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The Wall Street Journal reports that an “unusually warm spring thaw in Alaska is causing some of the state’s worst flooding in decades, with rising rivers wiping out an entire village and bombarding another town with ice chunks as big as houses”:
Gov. Sarah Palin on Thursday was scheduled to fly over the stricken areas after canceling a planned trip to the East Coast for primarily state business. The governor on Wednesday had declared a disaster for the flooded areas, including the Susitna River, which runs through her hometown of Wasilla near Anchorage.
What Did Pelosi Know About Torture And What Could She Have Done About It?
What Did Pelosi Know About Torture And What Could She Have Done About It?
ABC News reported last night that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was “was briefed on the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002,” according to a documents prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The documents appear to contradict Pelosi’s previous claims that she did not know that the Bush administration had employed the “enhanced interrogation techniques” authorized by the Office of Legal Counsel.
In a February 25 interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Pelosi explained what she knew about the Bush administration’s use of torture, saying that she had been briefed but was not told that the techniques had been used:
PELOSI: They did not brief us that these enhanced interrogations were taking place. They were talking about an array of interrogations that they might have at their disposal. … We were never told they were being used. … The inference to be drawn from what they told us was that these are things that we think could be legal. … But they never told us that they were being used.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » What Did Pelosi Know About Torture And What Could She Have Done About It?.
Sessions flip-flops: Gay Supreme Court nominee would be a ‘big concern.’
Sessions flip-flops: Gay Supreme Court nominee would be a ‘big concern.’
Earlier this week, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) made headlines when he said he was open to a gay Supreme Court nominee. “I don’t think a person who acknowledges that they have gay tendencies is disqualified per se for the job,” he said. Yesterday on Fox News, Sessions initially sounded accepting of a gay nominee, saying, “Republicans do not believe in identity politics.” But he immediately qualified his statement, adding that a gay nominee would be a “big concern”:
Q: On the question of a gay nominee, one person is noted as saying that he believes it is a bridge too far to have a gay nominee.
SESSIONS: Well, I think that would be a big concern that the American people might feel — might feel uneasy about that. It is a matter for the president to decide.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Sessions flip-flops: Gay Supreme Court nominee would be a ‘big concern.’.
Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas
OPS: goddamnit – we’re STILL paying them to send jobs out of the country. Here’s the question no one is asking – It was raised by Peter B Collins today subbing for Thom Hartman: (paraphrased) Are we – the US Tax Payer – bailing out GM’s US operations, or, the Entire Global Operations of this Trans-National Vampire? It would appear that the US tax payer is now supporting GM’s workers in Mexico, China, Canada…. Every where but HERE!. A light needs to be shined under this rock.
Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas
The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company’s new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.
According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double
via Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas – washingtonpost.com.
Max Keiser: Capitalism is eating itself in America
OPS: Another must see from Keiser. Keiser says it loud and clear. If you have never heard from this guy – find out why he’s not allowed on American TV
“…They’re going after the last crumbs on the table as the American economy implodes.”
YouTube – Capitalism is eating itself in america Max Keiser.
Savage now says he was joking about autism
Savage now says he was joking about autism
SUMMARY: Asked about his 2008 statement that “I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” Michael Savage said it was “said in jest.”
On the May 7 edition of CNN’s American Morning, co-host Kiran Chetry asked radio host Michael Savage about his July 16, 2008, statement that “I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” Savage then said to Chetry: “That’s an absurd statement that was said in jest. They understand that.” After Media Matters for America highlighted his comments, which generated extensive criticism, Savage claimed that the comments were “take[n] out of context,” a claim Media Matters rebutted.
via Savage now says he was joking about autism | Media Matters for America.
EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace
EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace
The European Commission wants the US to dissolve all government links with the body that ‘governs’ the internet, replacing it with an international forum for discussing internet governance and online security.
The rules and decisions on key internet governance issues, such as the creation of top level domains (such as .com and .eu) and managing the internet address system that ensures computers can connect to each other, are currently made by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private, not-for profit corporation based in California which operates under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce.
The decisions made by ICANN affect the way the internet works all around the world.
EU information society commissioner Viviane Reding on Monday (4 May) suggested a new model for overseeing the internet from October this year, when the Commerce Department agreement runs out.
She called on US President Barack Obama to fully privatise ICANN and set up an independent judicial body, described as a “G12 for internet governance,” which she described as a “multilateral forum for governments to discuss general internet governance policy and security issues.”
“I trust that President Obama will have the courage, the wisdom and the respect for the global nature of the internet to pave the way in September for a new, more accountable, more transparent, more democratic and more multilateral form of Internet Governance,” she said via a video message posted on her commission website.
The expiry of the agreement between ICANN and the US government “opens the door for the full privatisation of ICANN, and it also raises the question of to whom ICANN should be accountable,” she said.
via EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace.
Credit Card Battleground
Credit Card Battleground – Card Companies Resisting Reforms
by Danny Schechter
Will The US Senate Pass Long Needed Reforms Of Credit Card Abuses?
I recently was advised by American Express, a company whose credit cards I pay in full each and every month, and with whom I have been a paying “member” since l981 that my credit card limit is being cut. I have become unworthy.
I took it personally until I realized I am but one of millions of card holders who are being dropped or cut back worldwide as the card pushers experience a higher default rate and millions max-out. American Express, by the way recently, reorganized as a “bank holding company” to qualify for a government bailout. AMEX received several billion dollars from that TARP program that we were told was created to get lending going again. Hmm….
As the card companies began to experience the losses and uncertainties that their customers have long experienced, they began operating in a more predatory manner, jacking up fees and putting the collection pressure on. In England, the government mandated that credit card companies give customers more time to pay—extending payment due dates by a month. In this country, the companies want us to miss those due dates so they can tack on forever escalating late charges and interest payments. These credit card costs have gone UP even as interest rates—the amount they pay for money– goes DOWN.
This has become a major political issue. Consumer’s Union reports that “ President Obama is throwing his support behind major credit card reform, and the House just overwhelmingly passed its bill by a vote of 357 to 70!
But the Senate is bitterly divided…The Senate may vote next week on its bill to curb these random rate hikes and fees. But the bank lobby is swarming Washington , claiming if they can’t randomly hike your interest rate, consumers will suffer.”
Spying on Individuals and Organizations: Internet
Spying on Individuals and Organizations: Anglo-American Defense Giants Entrusted with “Mastering the Internet”
The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the National Security Agency’s “kissin’ cousin” across the Atlantic pond, has awarded a £200m ($300m U.S.) contract for an internet panopticon.
American defense and security giant Lockheed Martin and BAE subsidiary Detica (yet another firm specializing “in collecting, managing and exploiting information to reveal actionable intelligence”), snagged the contract The Register and The Sunday Times revealed May 3.
According to The Register the new system, called Mastering the Internet (MTI) “will include thousands of deep packet inspection probes inside communications providers’ networks, as well as massive computing power at the intelligence agency’s Cheltenham base, ‘the concrete doughnut’.”
Lockheed Martin and Detica aren’t talking and have referred all inquiries on the MTI contract to GCHQ. ComputerWeekly however, reported May 6 that Detica, a firm with close ties to MI5 and MI6, “has data mining software that can detect links between individuals based on their contacts with sometimes widely separated organisations.”
The magazine revealed in 2007 that the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) “has outsourced its data mining operations to Detica, a specialist IT company. Its NetReveal software applies social network analysis to huge amounts of data to identify, understand, and evaluate higher-level networks of potentially collusive individuals and organisations.”
It would appear the system under construction by GCHQ will apply a similarly unsound and unscientific approach to “counterterrorism.” As the National Research Council revealed in their 2008 report on data mining and other dodgy methodologies such as link- and social network analysis for reading digital tea leaves, such techniques “are likely to generate huge numbers of false leads.”
Five Reasons The Bank Stress Tests Are Unreliable
Five Reasons The Bank Stress Tests Are Unreliable
A simple guide to why the stress tests weren’t stressful enough:
1. The stress test allows for a debt-to-net capital ratio of 25 to 1. That is far higher than the 12 to 1 ratio that the SEC required of banks before a fateful decision in 2004 to allow the five largest investment banks to increase those ratios. That decision helped lead to their decision to take on more leverage, including making large bets in subprime mortgage bonds, spurring the current financial crisis.
2. The 8.5% loss rate for commercial real estate portfolios is likely too generous. Default rates have quintupled since the beginning of 2008 and experts say it is just the beginning of that market’s collapse.
3. The earnings we saw in the first quarter will be tough to repeat. Several of the banks benefited from one-time events, and the industry is also benefiting from cheap money from the Fed.
4. According to the Wall Street Journal, skepticism is also in order because the government is allowing some banks to simply shift more of their capital to common equity, rather than raise new money. This is despite the fact Wall Street has shunned bank stocks for most of this year, with banks like Citigroup, for example, seeing its shares drop under $1. “The government is effectively saying most large banks were solidly capitalized even when investors fled earlier this year,” the WSJ reported.
via Five Reasons The Bank Stress Tests Are Unreliable.
Obama Budget Bans Federal Funding For Needle Exchange, Breaking Campaign Pledge
Obama Budget Bans Federal Funding For Needle Exchange, Breaking Campaign Pledge
President Obama’s budget released Thursday takes a step backward from a controversial political position he had taken during the presidential campaign.
Obama, during the primary campaign, pledged his support of needle exchange programs to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. When he took over the White House, the administration website affirmed: “The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users.”
Yet Obama’s budget includes language that bans spending federal money on needle-exchange programs.
White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said the administration isn’t yet ready to lift the ban – but Obama still supports needle exchange.
via Obama Budget Bans Federal Funding For Needle Exchange, Breaking Campaign Pledge.
Some Auto Manufacturers Bailed Themselves Out By Switching To Wind
Some Auto Manufacturers Bailed Themselves Out By Switching To Wind
CHICAGO — Pete Ostrander and the manufacturer he works for took a hard look at the auto industry four years ago, and neither liked what they saw.
Automakers were pushing vendors like Merrill Technologies Group, where Ostrander works, to cut costs and, with the economic environment in Detroit worsening by the day, the company retooled itself as a supplier to what it believed was an industry with better prospects.
Ostrander, standing in a display booth at one of the wind industry’s biggest gatherings, was not alone.
Merrill is among dozens of companies at the American Wind Energy Association conference in Chicago _ which ends Thursday _ that have their traded auto-related business for a niche in wind-power.
“We have seen these indicators for years,” Ostrander, an engineer, said of the auto industry. “They needed to clean up their own closets.”
via Some Auto Manufacturers Bailed Themselves Out By Switching To Wind.
Eat Less Red Meat for Your Health
Eat Less Red Meat for Your Health
Don’t end up a statistic.
Eating red meat isn’t so great for the environment. By adopting a vegetarian diet, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint by over 5,000 pounds. By just cutting out beef, you’ll save about 3000 lbs of CO2 a year. Scarfing down red meat has a huge environmental impact.
Even though beef and other meats are very carbon intensive, people are staunchly unwilling to stop eating them. I mean, the two most “American” dishes, the hamburger and the frankfurter, are made of beef. (Isn’t it weird how American cuisine is named after German cities?) It’s hard to convince people to change something so culturally natural.
If the environment won’t convince people to cut down on red meat, maybe health concerns will. A new study has linked red meat with an early grave. According to the study, people who consumed the most processed and red meats were the most likely to die sooner of heart disease and cancer.
via Eat Less Red Meat for Your Health : Planet Green.
High-speed solar train proposed as Tucson-Phoenix connection
High-speed solar train proposed as Tucson-Phoenix connection
Project, in idea stage, could cost $27B for 1st phase
via High-speed solar train proposed as Tucson-Phoenix connection | www.azstarnet.com ®.
Colbert Takes On Hannity’s “Liberty Tree” (VIDEO)
Colbert Takes On Hannity’s “Liberty Tree” (VIDEO)
Earlier this week, Sean Hannity introduced a new segment with this lead in:
At the end of that first protest in 1765 the Sons of Liberty hung two tax collectors in effigy from the branches of elm and from that day forward it became known as the Liberty Tree…Therefore, in the spirit of our founding fathers, with our liberties once again threatened, we introduce our own Liberty Tree. Now as you can see, our tree is built upon the roots of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and freedom. They support the trunk of the tree which is made of we the people. And the trunk supports the branches and the fruits of our liberty represented by the apples. It is those apples, the fruits of our liberty, that this administration is now picking clean.
We hope he’s not implying he wants to hang members of the IRS from the tree in his mind, but one never knows with Mr. Hannity. You can see the full segment here.
via Colbert Takes On Hannity’s “Liberty Tree” (VIDEO).
Diminished Conservative Groups Gear Up for Supreme Court Nomination Battle
OPS: Being THIS psychotically hypocritical should be a red flag for everyone. These people are dangerous to themselves, us and democracy. Can we wake up now?
Lopsided Fight Over High Court Shapes Up
Conservatives Prepare For Underdog Role
When John G. Roberts Jr. was nominated to the Supreme Court as chief justice, a pro-Republican group called Progress for America had $18 million in the bank.
Run by a lobbying firm with close ties to the Bush White House, the well-organized group had snatched up Internet domain names for dozens of potential court candidates, allowing it to launch a targeted Web site within minutes of the announcement. It went on to play a central role in winning confirmations for Roberts in 2005 and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. in early 2006.
But Progress for America is now defunct and Republicans are in the political wilderness, leaving a smattering of opposition groups to make the conservative case against whomever President Obama chooses to replace retiring Justice David H. Souter.
via Diminished Conservative Groups Gear Up for Supreme Court Nomination Battle – washingtonpost.com.
Some Banks Convinced Fed To Tweak Results
OPS: So, they got together and came up with a lie to tell us. Conspiracy.
Major Banks Negotiate, Spin, Chafe at Stress-Test Results
Some major banks managed to wrest concessions from the government in closed-door negotiations over their “stress tests” that helped them put the best face on their results, financial analysts, industry officials and sources said.
The banks were intent on sending a message that they were strong enough to weather the economic storm and didn’t need additional capital infusions from the government that could all but nationalize their franchises.
Citigroup successfully pushed to lower the amount of common equity it needs to raise to $5.5 billion by applying $52.5 billion from capital it has not yet reworked. It also was able to get a credit for the sale of a unit that has not been completed.
via Major Banks Negotiate, Spin, Chafe at Stress-Test Results – washingtonpost.com.
Stress Test: Obama’s Rosy Scenario
Stress Test: Obama’s Rosy Scenario
By William Greider
Now it’s official. Prosperity is right around the corner. We have heard the good news from both Wall Street and Washington. President Obama is careful not to use those very words, since this is what Herbert Hoover kept telling Americans during the country’s ugly, post-1929 slide into the Great Depression. But the Obama administration sees “green shoots” sprouting all around and it offers hard evidence in the long-anticipated results of its “stress tests” for major banks. Good news! Nobody is insolvent. Some major names need to raise more capital–a not exactly trivial $75 billion more–but not to worry. They can all weather the storm, with a little more aid from Uncle Sam.
The stock market turned bullish in anticipation, and so has Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. With few qualifiers, the Fed chairman announced a recovery is likely in the second half of the year. Well, maybe not for employment, but that’s a lagging indicator and financial markets always lead the way. If these forecasts are true, the celebrated “stress tests” are an anticlimax. Things already are on the mend in the banking system. When the $800 billion economic stimulus spending fully kicks in, the animal spirits will also return to the real economy of producers and consumers. There will be “a chicken in every pot,” as Herbert Hoover used to say.
Barack Obama’s wholesome optimism is doubtless sincere, and so was Herbert Hoover’s. But in Hoover’s day, people did not believe him. They could see for themselves it wasn’t true. In time, Americans came to revile Hoover for his repetitious happy talk.
via Stress Test: Obama’s Rosy Scenario.
Elected Officials Selling out America: Tom Petri
Elected Officials Selling out America: Tom Petri
Rep. Tom Petri’s voting record indicates that he has no intentions of protecting American workers from unfair competition.
Editor’s Note: The following article is the second 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.
Rep. Tom Petri, representing Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district, is generally thought to be one of the more moderate representatives and is well-known for his willingness to work alongside Democrats in the spirit of bipartisanship.
His record on trade, however, is anything but moderate and suggests that he is tied to the same entrenched business interests that have pushed his party farther and farther to the right over the years.
Despite his statements to the contrary, (“We cannot afford to lose more manufacturing jobs to unfair trade,” he said on the House floor in 2004) Petri has voted in lock-step with his Republican colleagues on nearly every trade issue that has come his way since being elected to the House in 1979.
According to the Cato Institute, Petri has voted against imposing trade barriers 69 percent of the time over his long career. He is even more opposed to helping domestic manufacturers compete on a level playing field, voting against domestic subsidies 86 percent of the time.
That is in stark contrast to his public statements.
“We have trade laws to protect domestic manufacturers struggling against unfair trading practices,” he wrote in a 2008 letter to the Commerce Secretary.
Yet, he has done nothing to protect domestic manufacturers. Among other things, he has voted to cut subsides on sugar, cotton, wool and other agricultural products.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Tackling Tax Evasion
Tackling Tax Evasion
Closing tax loopholes for American corporate tax cheats is not only necessary, it is a long time coming.
On Monday, the Obama administration announced plans to crack down on corporate tax cheats by closing loopholes and targeting overseas tax havens – an announcement that hasn‘t sat well with the business community at-large.
“I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens,” Obama said in a White House announcement.
The Atlantic’s Conor Clarke points out, closing tax loopholes for American corporate tax cheats is not only necessary, it is a long time coming.
Critics of the Obama plan have argued that they are paying extremely high taxes when compared with corporations based in other countries, which is technically true. America does have a higher statutory corporate tax rate than most countries, however, the effective rate is much lower once companies find loopholes, exemptions and tax havens to hide profits in.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Elected Officials Selling out America: Vernon Ehlers
Elected Officials Selling out America: Vernon Ehlers
Ehlers has utterly failed in his quest to protect American jobs by supporting nearly each and every free trade agreement he has been given the chance to vote on.
Editor’s Note: The following article is the third 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.
Hailing from the epicenter of “free trade’s” destruction zone on the American economy and its manufacturing base, one would assume that Michigan Rep.Vernon Ehlers would be fighting for fair trade to save their constituents jobs, businesses and standards of living.
Ehlers has utterly failed in his quest to protect American jobs by supporting nearly each and every free trade agreement he has been given the chance to vote on and, conversely, voting against nearly every subsidy that would have allowed American businesses to compete on a level playing field.
While domestic car manufacturers are making good strides in returning to prosperity and still play a most vital role in our region’s economy, I realize as a Congressman I must still do everything in my power to improve American competitiveness in the global marketplace, and I strongly support emerging business sectors that can ensure the vitality of our region.,” Rep. Vernon Ehlers writes on his Web site.
Ehlers, however, has done all he can to destroy America’s competitiveness in the global market place. Representing Michigan’s third congressional district, Ehlers has voted against imposing trade barriers 82 percent of the time since joining Congress in 1993, according to the Cato Institute. In addition, he has voted against domestic subsidies 54 percent of the time during his 16-year career.
Over the years, Ehlers has voted in favor of signing “free trade” agreements with Singapore, Chile, Oman, Peru, Bahrain, Australia, Morocco and the Andean nations of South America. In addition, he has supported the Central American Free Trade Agreement and legislation that would have shredded trade barriers between the U.S. and most of the African continent.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Obama’s Proposal to Undermine Outsourcers
Obama’s Proposal to Undermine Outsourcers
Even if this goes through, it is by no means a ban on outsourcing. Companies will continue sending as much labor as is physically possible overseas in order to make the shareholders and executives richer
President Obama has proposed several changes to the United States’ corporate tax system which may undermine outsourcers in the U.S. and around the world. Indian business officials were hardly pleased by news of this decision, as they represent some of the largest outsourcing firms in the world.
The plan is a follow-up on a campaign promise in which President Obama said he would stop giving benefits to companies which send jobs overseas. As part of the plan, the government would overhaul a tax loophole which allows companies to write off investments made in subsidiaries overseas. These subsidiaries are of course the firms set up to hire cheap labor for the purposes of outsourcing work from the U.S.
In the past, American firms could send investment money to these Indian companies, who then used that money to hire and train workers or upgrade facilities. In the meantime the American firm would begin laying off its domestic workforce, sending their jobs overseas where they produce all the profits at less cost. The companies would then receive tax reimbursements from the U.S. government for destroying American jobs and building up our economic competition.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
FTA with Panama May Further Cripple U.S. Workers
FTA with Panama May Further Cripple U.S. Workers
Every FTA we sign with a less developed country takes job opportunities away from highly-skilled Americans in desperate need of employment and gives them to desperate people somewhere else.
Conservative politician Ricardo Martinelli won a major upset in the presidential elections in the Republic of Panama. This election could have huge implications for America’s continued trade policy with the nation and the rest of Central and South America.
The Bush administration was in the midst of negotiations with leaders in Panama regarding implementing a new “free trade” agreement (FTA) with the country. The deal would have granted Panama favored nation status if it agreed to clean up its environmental and institute labor safety – these are essentially the terms given to all nations with whom the U.S. deals.
Many thought that the re-election of Balbina Herrera of the governing Revolutionary Democratic Party would put Panama in a place to kill the agreement. Now, the pro-business side of the political spectrum comes to power with hopes of increasing Panama’s international commercial involvement.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions
Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions
Under fire from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that he had approved of rendition — essentially, legalized kidnapping — apparently more than once during his tenure as President Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general.
Cautioning Holder that any potential investigation into the Bush administration’s torture program could result in Democrats being roped in, “Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama pressed Holder on the CIA’s ‘rendition’ program that moved terrorism suspects from one country to another,” reported Domenico Montanaro with MSNBC.
“Didn’t that happen during the Clinton administration?
“Yes, Holder said.
“‘How many did you approve?’ they asked.
“Holder said he’d check the record.”
Despite frequent condemnation of the practice around the world, rendition — the secret capture, transportation and detention of suspected terrorists to foreign prisons in countries that cooperate with the U.S. — remains in the CIA’s playbook, thanks to a Jan. 22 executive order issued by President Obama.
via Raw Story » Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions.
Infamous Clinton Fundraiser Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Scheme
Infamous Clinton Fundraiser Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Scheme
Government Also Charged Norman Hsu with Making Illegal Contributions to Hillary Clinton
Disgraced top Democratic Party fundraiser, Norman Hsu, pled guilty Thursday to charges of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of at least $20 million. The government asserted that Hsu intertwined his scheme with his political activity and pressured his investors to contribute to his favorite political candidates, including then Senator Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign.
Hsu was slated to stand trial on Monday in Manhattan’s federal court, but according to long time court observers, Hsu was worried that fallout from the Bernard Madoff case could have resulted in a tough climate for the trial of an accused Ponzi-schemer, and the potential for a very stiff sentence.
via Infamous Clinton Fundraiser Pleads Guilty to Ponzi Scheme – ABC News.
At least 19 Democrats were briefed on Bush torture methods by 2006, document shows
Democrats were routinely briefed on Bush torture techniques, document shows
The CIA has leaked a devastating document detailing the dates and explicit details of secret Congressional briefings in which members of Congress were told of the Bush administration’s torture techniques and when they had been used.
The document is explicit (PDF here). Most damningly, perhaps, is its description of a meeting held between CIA staff and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which shows that Pelosi was briefed on the Bush Administration’s torture techniques in 2002 — even though she’s publicly said she was never told about the use of waterboarding.
Equally striking, however, is the volume of the briefings that have been conducted on the CIA’s interrogation practices since 2002. The document runs ten pages, with up to four briefings a page.
Briefings given to Democrats are of particular significance because the party has been the most vocal about the Bush Administration’s torture practices. Apparently, however, they had known about the practices for years. At least 19 Democrats were briefed about the techniques in detail by end of 2006.
via Raw Story » Democrats were routinely briefed on Bush torture techniques, document shows.
Cheney: Spanish torture probe ‘abhorrent’
OPS: You can bet it is – to him….. 
Cheney: Spanish torture probe ‘abhorrent’
Former Vice President Dick Cheney continued his excuses-for-torture tour today with an interview on a radio station in Fargo.
Perhaps needless to say, he’s not exactly praising the new administration.
“There are two documents in particular that I personally have read and know about that are still classified in that National Archives,” Cheney said. ”But I’ve asked that they be de-classified; I made that request over a month ago on March 31st. What those documents show is the success, especially of the interrogation program in terms of what it produced by way of intelligence that let us track down members of Al-Qaeda and disrupt their plans and plots to strike the United States. It’s all there in black and white…It demonstrates conclusively the worth of those programs. As I say, I’ve asked the administration to de-classify them and so far they have not.”
[...]
He warned that [an investigation] would have future consequences.
“Anybody who sees that kind of thing happen is going to pull their head in, and they’ll be reluctant to take responsibility for anything,” he said, adding, “I hear this talk that there is going to be some kind of foreign prosecution of our guys, I just think that’s abhorrent, and I think they ought to do everything they can to fight that.”
Of course, Cheney’s position that torture “works” has been completely discredited.
via The Raw Story » Cheney: Spanish torture probe ‘abhorrent’.
Food Fight
Are You Sick of Being Fed by the Corporations?
Food Fight: A Film by Chris Taylor.
Revolution never tasted so good!
FOOD FIGHT is a fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement has created a counter-revolution against big agribusiness.
This clip features Will Allen, McArthur Genius Grant Winner 2008.
YouTube – Food Fight – Bonus Clip: Walking Tall.
Limbaugh’s living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes
Limbaugh’s $400 Million Contract Is an Even Match for Clear Channel’s Layoffs
Limbaugh’s living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes
Even for a pancaked industry like radio broadcasting, which has become somewhat numb to years’ worth of mass layoffs triggered by hyper, corporate consolidation, and more recently by an over-the-cliff advertising recession, last week’s HR wave of mutilation unleashed by industry giant Clear Channel Communications must have felt like a pile-on.
Drowning under massive debt and desperate to cut more costs, Clear Channel took an ax to its payroll — again — and hacked hundreds of radio pros out the door. Program directors, morning show hosts, production pros, news anchors — all of them tossed over the side. A “bloodbath,” one newspaper called it. (In Albany, New York, the entire on-air staff at a Clear Channel music station was sacked; same with a radio outpost in Exeter, New Hampshire)
The most recent blizzard of pink slips (one industry report pegged it at “nearly 1,000″) came in the wake of a January purge, in which 1,850 Clear Channel employees were let go. So already this year the company has shed nearly 3,000 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce. Also, last week, Clear Channel’s parent company announced it was suspending its matching contributions to employee 401(k) retirement programs.
via Limbaugh’s living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes | Media Matters for America.
Do You Know Why Mother’s Day Was Started?
Do You Know Why Mother’s Day Was Started?
Mother’s Day isn’t about Hallmark and Teleflora — it’s a call for women to gather for peace.
Women know that war is SO over. We know it in our hearts, in our guts, in our wombs. We know that the madness in Iraq and Afghanistan has to end, that we cannot keep sending our children to kill the children of mothers across the globe. Last month at an appearance in Turkey, President Obama himself said “…sometimes I think that if you just put the mothers in charge for a while, that things would get resolved.”
It is nearly 140 years since Julia Ward Howe wrote her Mother’s Day Proclamation, a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco–Prussian War. It flowed from her feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level. Every year since CODEPINK began in 2002, we have worked to remind the public and media that Mother’s Day isn’t really about Hallmark and Teleflora, but was a call for women to gather in “the great and general interests of peace.” Howe knew then what we know now. It will take women’s leadership to undermine what have become the USA’s greatest exports: Violence, Weapons and War.
via Do You Know Why Mother’s Day Was Started? | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet.
Memo to Jackass, the Credit Card Industry Doesn’t Need Anyone Standing Up for It
Memo to Jackass, the Credit Card Industry Doesn’t Need Anyone Standing Up for It
By Matt Taibbi,
A columnist decides the credit card industry is a victim of “public anger” — how revolting is that?
“Someone needs to stand up” for the credit card companies? Did I hear that right, Michael Hiltzik?
Apparently it is not enough that the credit card companies have spent $15.5 million on lobbying fees in the first quarter of 2009 alone (this according to CREW, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), while employees of credit card companies spent an additional $14.5 million last year, and credit PACs spent $8.6 million more. It’s not enough that when the President even considered making a change to the credit laws, 14 top-ranking credit card company officials got to meet with Obama to plead their case in person; conveniently, none of the 14 was a registered lobbyist, which made them exempt from laws banning lobbyists from influencing officials with responsibility for distribution of stimulus/recovery funds. Apparently despite all that the credit card companies are voiceless yet, and still need Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times to champion their cause.
Of all the truly revolting political developments of the financial crisis age — and there have been a lot of them — probably nothing is more disgusting than the weirdly intense media backlash against “populist anger,” anger that is inevitably described by media sages like Hiltzik as irrational, unfounded, and pointedly unhelpful. The public is depicted as a great dumb beast lashing out wildly at shadows and hallucinations, with the poor diligent hardworking members of the financial class (slaving away to pump much-needed capital into the bloodstream of international commerce) suffering the collateral damage. And while commentators are always careful to note that much of the anger “may” or “could” be justified, rhetorically these lines always lead to a but clause. Rick Perlstein of Newsweek, for instance, noted that some populist anger is useful, but it can very easily transform into the ” ‘bad’ kind of populism — the hateful kind; the violent kind; the demagogic kind.” Author Robert Frank talked about the public anger over the AIG bonuses being reasonable up to a point, but “if we’re not careful, we could end up shooting ourselves in the foot,” as “any broader effort to cap executive salaries would do more harm than good.”
The Future of the American Dream
The Good Times as We Knew it Aren’t Coming Back, So Now What?
The Future of the American Dream
William Greider
As Franklin Roosevelt understood, Americans will postpone immediate gratification and endure hard sacrifices–if they must–so long as they are convinced the future can be better than the past. But we face a far more difficult problem at our moment in history. What do you promise people who have been told they can have anything they want, who are repeatedly congratulated for living in the best of all possible circumstances? How do you tell them “the good times,” as we have known them, are not coming back? Americans need a new vision that helps them deal with reality, a promising story of the future that helps them let go of the past.
Here is the grand vision I suggest Americans can pursue: the right of all citizens to larger lives. Not to get richer than the next guy or necessarily to accumulate more and more stuff but the right to live life more fully and engage more expansively the elemental possibilities of human existence. That is the essence of what so many now seem to yearn for in their lives. People–even successful and affluent people–are frustrated because the intangible dimensions of life have been held back or displaced in large and small ways, pushed aside by the economic system’s relentless demands to maximize yields of profit and wealth. Our common moral verities have been trashed in the name of greater returns. The softer aspects of mortal experience are diminished because life itself is not tabulated in the economic system’s accounting.
The political order mistakenly accepts these life-limiting trade-offs as normal, as necessary to achieve “good times.” At earlier periods of our history, the sacrifices demanded by the engine of American capitalism were widely tolerated because the nation was young and underdeveloped. The engine promised to generate higher levels of abundance, and it did. But what is the justification now, when the nation is already quite rich and the engine keeps demanding larger chunks of our lives?
via The Future of the American Dream.
Are Policy Makers Exacerbating Drought Scares? That’s What It Looks Like in California
Are Policy Makers Exacerbating Drought Scares? That’s What It Looks Like in California
Like much of the West, the state has serious water issues, but Mother Nature is only partly to blame.
Take shorter showers, wash only full loads of laundry, sweep instead of hose your driveway.
These are the messages that Californians are getting as part of the state’s new “Save Our Water” campaign. Just weeks ago, 19 million Southern Californians were told they would be seeing mandatory restrictions, and at the same time, thousands of farmworkers marched to protest water cuts in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley in the central part of the state.
All this seems to fit with a February proclamation from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that California is facing a drought emergency that director of the Department of Water Resources Lester Snow compared at one point this winter to the worst drought in modern history of the state.
But not everyone is convinced about how dire the situation is and why. In a controversial story in the Stockton Record, columnist Michael Fitzgerald wrote, “California’s ‘drought’ is overblown. The alarmists calling it a historic disaster are trying to pull a fast one.”
Obama budget seeks end to Yucca nuclear waste dump
Obama budget seeks end to Yucca nuclear waste dump
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration said Thursday it wanted to officially terminate the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage waste site and instead spend $197 million to phase out the project and “explore alternatives” for nuclear waste disposal.
“All funding for development of the (Yucca Mountain) facility would be eliminated, such as further land acquisition, transportation access, and additional engineering,” the administration said in its proposed government budget for the 2010 spending year that begins this October 1.
In its budget proposal, the White House said President Barack Obama believes “that nuclear power is — and likely will remain — an important source of electricity for many years to come and that how the Nation deals with the dangerous byproduct of nuclear reactors is a critical question that has yet to be resolved.”
The White House pointed out that Energy Secretary Steven Chu plans to set up a blue ribbon commission of experts to evaluate storage options for nuclear waste and make recommendations to the administration.
via Obama budget seeks end to Yucca nuclear waste dump | Green Business | Reuters.
Miniaturizing Solar Technology With Flexible Photovoltaic Cells
Solar Tech: Not Just on the Roof Anymore
PHOTOVOLTAIC cells are already a familiar sight on rooftops. But one day, miniature cells may also be found in more unconventional places: power-generating windows, car sunroofs or even awnings.
The new technology is the work of a researcher and his colleagues who developed a way to print ultrathin, semitransparent and flexible cells on plastic, cloth and other materials. If the technology succeeds, it may provide the solar industry with alternatives to the fixed installations that are common today: cells may be printed on plastic rolls that could be unfurled for dozens of uses, or stamped onto fabric for T-shirts or other clothes that collect energy while worn.
The researcher, John A. Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and his team use a standard printing technique to create solar cells that are a tenth the thickness of conventional semiconductor cells, or even thinner. The cells are so flexible that dense arrays of them can be rolled tightly around a pencil. The technology has been licensed to Semprius, a semiconductor company in Durham, N.C., that expects to begin a pilot project making solar modules in about a year. Dr. Rogers’s approach offers a unique strategy for making highly efficient, flexible solar cells for large-scale production, said Ali Javey, an electrical engineer and assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who co-wrote a review of the work for the journal Nature Materials
via Miniaturizing Solar Technology With Flexible Photovoltaic Cells – NYTimes.com.
Video Review: Capitalism Hits the Fan
Capitalism Hits the Fan
Produced by the Media Education Foundation
Richard Wolff (Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst) has released a DVD titled Capitalism Hits the Fan. It contains a lecture he gave on November 19, 2008, along with some supporting graphics.
Wolff begins by emphasizing that the economic crisis is severe, that it will not be temporary or short, and it is not simply a financial crisis but rather it comes out of the whole economic system. (These points might seem obvious today, but at the time the lecture was given, the extent and severity of the crisis were not as widely recognized.)
To understand the crisis, Wolff recounts US economic history. From 1820 to 1970, the US was probably unique with steadily rising productivity, and with real wages rising at about the same rate. But beginning in the 1970s, real wages declined, while productivity continued to increase. Plotting these on a graph, the pre-1970 trend lines for wages and productivity overlap, while the post-1970 trend lines diverge dramatically. (This is where Wolff’s graphs are really useful).
While much could be said about what was included and what was left out of this history, one feature is striking. There is no mention of class struggle anywhere (in this or in later sections of the talk); no mention of the role of unionization and New Deal programs in raising real wages in 1930s and beyond; no mention of the full scale capitalist counter-offensive – political and economic – against the working class launched in the 1970s. The economic history seems to have taken place in a social and political vacuum.
Wolff then lists four reasons for the divergence between wages and productivity since 1970: 1) computers replaced workers; 2) Growing competition from European and Japanese corporations, leading to large-scale export of jobs by US corporations.; 3) increase supply of workers due to large-scale entrance of women in the workforce; 4) increase in immigratio
via Political Affairs Magazine – Video Review: Capitalism Hits the Fan.
Sessions Subordinate: I Thought I’d Be Fired If I Objected To Being Called ‘Boy’
OPS: I guess it ain’t over, till it’s over.
Sessions Subordinate: I Thought I’d Be Fired If I Objected To Being Called ‘Boy’
When it became clear that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was poised to become ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, we recalled this 2002 article by Sarah Wildman which addresses some of the controversies that kept Sessions from being confirmed in 1986 as a U.S. District Court judge in Alabama.
Wildman writes in particular that the testimonies of two witnesses–a Justice Department employee named J. Gerald Hebert, and a black Sessions subordinate named Thomas Figures–helped to doom Sessions, then a U.S. Attorney, at his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings. According to Wildman, Hebert testified reluctantly “that in a conversation between the two men Sessions had labeled the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) “un-American” and “Communist-inspired.” And Figures–then an assistant U.S. Attorney–told the committee that “during a 1981 murder investigation involving the Ku Klux Klan, Sessions was heard by several colleagues commenting that he ‘used to think they [the Klan] were OK’ until he found out some of them were ‘pot smokers.’”
Today we obtained a copy of the transcript of the Sessions hearings–over 500-pages worth–and it turns out there’s quite a bit more. We’re still going through it, of course, but the Figures testimony alone contains some damning details.
via Sessions Subordinate: I Thought I’d Be Fired If I Objected To Being Called ‘Boy’ | TPMDC.
Betting on a Global Crapshoot
Betting on a Global Crapshoot
Steve Weissman
You have to hand it to Wall Street. It wreaks havoc on the global economy, and the rest of us – as taxpayers – prop it up so that it can do it all over again.
We give the Wall Street banks trillions of dollars in bailout money, and they still fail to do their job, which is to loosen credit and provide the liquidity that businesses and consumers need. A major hedge fund – Cerberus Capital – plays chicken with President Obama in his effort to save Chrysler. Bankers spend millions lobbying to stop Congress from providing help to homeowners facing foreclosure. And, having failed to stop a Credit Card Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives, the banksters now aim to kill it in the Senate.
Because Bank of America, CitiBank, AIG, Goldman Sachs and the others are “too big to fail,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner continues to redistribute astronomical sums of money from taxpayers to these giants of finance capitalism. And, predictably, they use our money to remain too big to fail as they extend their power in the most predictable ways. Thanks to us, the taxpayers, bankers still “own” the US Senate, as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) put it. Thanks to us, the insurance companies and health maintenance organizations still have the clout to keep single-payer health care “off the table.” And thanks to us, the huge financial supermarkets like CitiBank can still block a reenactment of anything like the New Deal’s Glass-Steagall Act, which kept the high-rollers in investment banks from gambling with “the people’s savings” in commercial banks. For those who forgot, Wall Street pushed the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999.
Why so many Americans put up with – and pay for – Wall Street’s continued power, I will never understand, for all the easy ideological answers. I only know that Wall Street’s power remains a fact of life, and not just for the United States. Kept alive by taxpayer dollars and government printing presses, the finance capitalists on Wall Street fully expect to continue shaping the global economy in their own image, exporting to the world the same high-risk derivatives that created the present crisis.
via t r u t h o u t | Betting on a Global Crapshoot.
Seven million jobs needed to return to pre-recession employment levels
Seven million jobs needed to return to pre-recession employment levels
By Lawrence Mishel Heidi Shierholz 05-07-09
May 7, 2009 — EPI Jobs Picture preview
Seven million jobs needed to return to pre-recession employment levels
by Lawrence Mishel and Heidi Shierholz
Before this recession runs its course, it will have become the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Tomorrow, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its April employment report, detailing how the labor market fared during the 16th month of the recession. Today, the latest labor market data available are for March 2009, 15 months into the recession that officially began in December 2007. In order to see how this recession stacks up against previous post-war recessions, we compare labor market indicators at the start of recessions to their values 15 months later. This document will be updated tomorrow to reflect the new April data.
While the current unemployment rate — 8.5% in March — is not at an historical high, it has increased much more rapidly during this recession than in other post-war recessions. Table 1 shows the unemployment rate at the start of each recession over the last 50 years along with the unemployment rate 15 months later. The unemployment rate increased 3.6 percentage points in the first 15 months of the current recession, a far steeper increase than any of the previous recessions. In particular, during the first fifteen months of the deep recession of 1981/1982, the unemployment rate increased only 3.2 percentage points. In other words, while the unemployment rate was higher during the early 1980s than it is today, it was also much higher going into the recession. U.S. workers in the early 1980s saw a smaller increase in unemployment than what workers are experiencing today. Figure A shows this graphically; the unemployment rate at the onset of the current recession was at a lower level lower than both the 1981 and 1990 recessions. But it has increased much more dramatically.
via Seven million jobs needed to return to pre-recession employment levels.
The Pope heads for the Holy Land (just don’t mention the war)
The Pope heads for the Holy Land (just don’t mention the war)
Vexed question of the Vatican’s appeasement of Hitler will overshadow Benedict’s first visit to Israel
When Pope Benedict XVI pays his respects to the six million Jews killed in World War II at the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Jerusalem next Monday evening, he won’t actually tour its stunning museum, inaugurated just four years ago.
The Vatican is at pains to say that this simply reflects the multiple demands already being made on the 82-year-old Pope during his long awaited first tour of the Holy Land. But it also means he will be spared a sight of the museum’s short, but for the Roman Catholic hierarchy highly sensitive, notice questioning the wartime role of his most controversial predecessor of modern times, Pope Pius XII.
The Vatican stresses that Benedict’s first trip here as Pope is predominantly a personal pilgrimage. He will hold masses in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth and the warm welcome he will receive is not in doubt. But there is almost nothing about a papal visit here that does not touch a nerve. There are taxation and property disputes with Israel; there are pressures faced by Christian Palestinians. In deference to the Israeli authorities, the Pope will not now meet the mayor of the Israeli Arab town of Sakhnin, much criticised on the Israeli right for his opposition to this year’s military assault on Gaza. And plans have been dropped for the pontiff to use a platform in a Bethlehem refugee camp which would have sent TV pictures across the world of him standing next to the West Bank separation wall.
via The Pope heads for the Holy Land (just don’t mention the war) – Middle East, World – The Independent.
Pentagon’s Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion
Pentagon’s Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion
The Pentagon wants to spend just over $50 billion on classified programs next year, newly-released Defense Department budget documents reveal. “That’s the largest-ever sum,” according to Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer — a three percent increase over last year’s total.
It makes the Pentagon’s secret operations, including the intelligence budgets nested inside, “roughly equal in magnitude to the entire defense budgets of the UK, France or Japan,” Sweetman adds. All in all, about seven and a half percent of the Defense Department’s total spending is now classified.
Black-world weapons-buying “remains dominated by the single line item,” according to Sweetman. (You can find it under the Air Force’s “other procurement” section, on page F-21 here.) “This year’s number stands just above $16 billion. In inflation-adjusted terms, that’s 240 per cent more than it was ten years ago.”
Many of the secret budgets still remain clandestine, however. In the research budget, the line item for a “Special Program”of the super-secret National Security Agency is a string of zeros. Same goes for an NSA “Cyber Security Initiative” kitty. And don’t even ask about NSA’s “Intelligence Support to Information Operations” account. That’s a blank slate, too.
Some other fun facts, buried in the Pentagon’s just-released budget docs:
via Pentagon’s Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion (Updated) | Danger Room.
Ten US banks fail ‘stress tests’
Ten US banks fail ‘stress tests’
Ten of America’s largest 19 banks need a combined $74.6bn (£50bn) of extra funds to boost their cash reserves.
That is the main finding of the so-called “stress tests” to see if the banks have sufficient capital to cope should the recession worsen.
Bank of America is the most at risk, needing an additional $33.9bn.
“Our hope with today’s actions is that banks are going to be able to get back to the business of banking,” said US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The results should go some way to lift the cloud of uncertainty that has engulfed the US banking sector by providing assurance that the sector would have the capital to handle further losses.
via BBC NEWS | Business | Ten US banks fail ‘stress tests’.
Toxic fallout of Colombian scandal
Toxic fallout of Colombian scandal
The toxic fallout of a grisly army scandal continues to spread in Colombia, as more soldiers are arrested over their alleged roles.
In recent days another three colonels have been arrested, bringing the total number of military personnel captured to at least 22.
The “false positives” scandal has revealed that the army murdered civilians, who were then dressed in rebel uniforms or given guns. They were then presented as guerrillas or paramilitaries killed in combat.
These allowed units to fabricate results, and officers to gain promotion.
The number of victims is believed to be in the thousands.
“The issue of the false positives puts into doubt the doctrine of the security forces with respect to human rights,” said Maria Victoria Llorente, director of the think-tank Foundation Idea for Peace. “This puts at risk a prized value for the military: legitimacy.”
via BBC NEWS | Americas | Toxic fallout of Colombian scandal.
From the XP-883 to the Volt: analysis and history of the electric car
From the XP-883 to the Volt: analysis and history of the electric car
The Prius, a “Hybrid Vehicle” which is produced by Toyota, has already been altering the auto industry. Lately celebrities and media promotions of every angle have held these in the spotlight. But here’s the shocking fact: they have even been marketed for several years already. Much smaller electric vehicles (and Petroleum-fueled vehicles) are being tested and adapted and produced in European countries, too. Around the world, the demand has been growing. Now the supply needs to build in order to match that demand. The United States auto industry desperately needs to hop on this wagon. Or have they already?
Detroit, in fact, already has. According to “Detroit Goes for Electric Cars, but Will Drivers?” in the New York Times (Brooke), the Ford Motor Company has designed Product M, a proposal to “build a prototype of a totally electric, battery-powered car in just six months” in order to at least compete, if not flood the upcoming electric car market with hopes to annihilate competitors. This plan has been developed, roughly, throughout the course this past year, since the summer of 2008.
via From the XP-883 to the Volt: analysis and history of the electric car | Factoidz.
Governor Charlie Crist is not outed in film opening May 8
OPS: I guess we’ll see.
Governor Charlie Crist is not outed in film opening May 8
Although Florida Governor Charlie Crist has repeatedly denied being gay and is now married to Carole Rome, a number of headlines are claiming that he will be “outed” in a new documentary called “Outrage,” which seeks to expose closeted gay politicians who publicly supported anti-LGBT and anti-HIV/AIDS policies. According to the film’s website, “Outrage boldly reveals the hidden lives of some of our nation’s most powerful policymakers, details the harm they’ve inflicted on millions of Americans, and examines the media’s complicity in keeping their secrets.” The film opens in limited release on May 8.
A Miami Herald article applauded the message of the movie but pointed out that it does not out Governor Crist. Director Kirby Dick admitted that he does not have “100% proof” of any claim about the governor’s sexual orientation. The Miami Herald article agreed:
He’s a long way from [100% proof], especially when compared with other targeted politicians who either acknowledge being gay, had sex with men willing to talk about it on camera, or, in the case of former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, got arrested making a pass at an undercover cop in a men’s bathroom.
Despite this lack of evidence, the Internet is buzzing with headlines such as “GOP governor eyeing Senate run to be outed in film tomorrow” and “Crist to be outed tomorrow.”
via Miami Interfaith Spirituality Examiner: Governor Charlie Crist is not outed in film opening May 8.
Leaving the Trailers – Hurricane Victims Face Lose of Trailers
Ready or Not, Katrina Victims Lose Temporary Housing
NEW ORLEANS — Earnest Hammond, a retired truck driver, did not get any of the money that went to aid property owners after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
He failed to qualify for one federal program and was told he missed the deadline on another. But he did get a trailer to live in while he carries out his own recovery plan: collecting cans in a pushcart to pay for the renovations to his storm-damaged apartment, storing them by the roomful in the gutted building he owns.
It is a slow yet steady process. Before the price of aluminum fell to 30 cents a pound, from 85 cents, he had accumulated more than $10,000, he said, almost enough to pay the electrician. But despite such progress, last Friday a worker from the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered a letter informing him that it would soon repossess the trailer that is, for now, his only home.
“I need the trailer,” said Mr. Hammond, 70. “I ain’t got nowhere to go if they take the trailer.”
Though more than 4,000 Louisiana homeowners have received rebuilding money only in the last six months, or are struggling with inadequate grants or no money at all, FEMA is intent on taking away their trailers by the end of May. The deadline, which ends temporary housing before permanent housing has replaced it, has become a stark example of recovery programs that seem almost to be working against one another.
via Leaving the Trailers – Hurricane Victims Face Lose of Trailers – Series – NYTimes.com.
What “oversight” means in Washington
What “oversight” means in Washington
- Glenn Greenwald
Since last September, the Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by more than $1 trillion, and has engaged in even much larger amounts of off-balance-sheet transactions. In January of this year, freshman Rep. Alan Grayson repeatedly asked Federal Reserve Vice chairman Donald Kohn the identity of the companies which had received those loans, only to be told that the Fed had no obligation and no desire to disclose that information to Congress. That obviously leads to the question of who exerts oversight over the Fed and the vast amounts of money it transfers.
One answer — the only real answer — is that the Fed’s activities are monitored by an Inspector General, which ostensibly “conducts independent and objective audits, inspections, evaluations, investigations, and other reviews related to programs and operations of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board)” which “promote integrity, economy, efficiency, and effectiveness; help prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse; and strengthen accountability to the Congress and the public.” At minimum, then, one would assume that the Fed’s Inspector General is actively monitoring the extraordinary actions in which the Fed has been engaging since September. After all, nobody else is monitoring or even can monitor any of that, since the Fed will not tell anyone what it is doing.
Yesterday, the Fed’s Inspector General, Elizabeth Coleman, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee and was questioned by Rep. Grayson about her office’s oversight duties. Just watch this five-minute question-and-answer session to get a sense for the true breadth of decay and corruption in our political and financial classes an
via What “oversight” means in Washington – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
Stressing the Positive
OPS: Gees, one dinner at the White House and he’s stressing the positive – at least in the title
Stressing the Positive – Paul Krugman
Hooray! The banking crisis is over! Let’s party! O.K., maybe not.
In the end, the actual release of the much-hyped bank stress tests on Thursday came as an anticlimax. Everyone knew more or less what the results would say: some big players need to raise more capital, but over all, the kids, I mean the banks, are all right. Even before the results were announced, Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, told us they would be “reassuring.”
But whether you actually should feel reassured depends on who you are: a banker, or someone trying to make a living in another profession.
I won’t weigh in on the debate over the quality of the stress tests themselves, except to repeat what many observers have noted: the regulators didn’t have the resources to make a really careful assessment of the banks’ assets, and in any case they allowed the banks to bargain over what the results would say. A rigorous audit it wasn’t.
via Op-Ed Columnist – Stressing the Positive – NYTimes.com.
Obama’s budget eliminates funding for abstinence education programs.
Obama’s budget eliminates funding for abstinence education programs.
Keeping with a campaign pledge “not continue to fund abstinence-only programs,” President Obama’s 2010 budget — further details of which were released today — cuts funding for “Community-Based Abstinence Education” and several other abstinence-education programs (p. 491):
Indeed, abstinence programs have been shown time and again to be unsuccessful in preventing teen pregnancies. (HT: Ben Smith)
via Think Progress » Obama’s budget eliminates funding for abstinence education programs..
New York Fed Chairman Stephen Friedman resigns
New York Fed Chairman Stephen Friedman resigns
WASHINGTON — Stephen Friedman, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s board of directors, has resigned effectively immediately.
Friedman was the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal story that raised questions about his ties to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Goldman Sachs late last year received quick Fed approval to become a bank holding company. During that time, Friedman sat on Goldman’s board and had a large holding in the company, a violation of Fed policy, the Journal reported.
But the New York Fed’s executive vice president and general counsel Thomas Baxter says Friedman’s purchases of Goldman Sachs stock in December 2008 and January 2009 “did not violate any Federal Reserve statute, rule or policy.”
via New York Fed Chairman Stephen Friedman resigns – Los Angeles Times.
Hunger in America: 1 in 8 Americans Faces Food Insecurity (Everyday Citizen)
Hunger in America: 1 in 8 Americans Faces Food Insecurity
We all sense that there is a big difference between feeling hungry and being afraid of dying due to not having enough nutritious food to eat. Since most of those reading this blog have never experienced the latter, when we hear that some Americans are now experiencing food insecurity, we can mistake that to mean that those Americans are feeling unsure about some future ability to provide food for themselves. But that’s not it. Food insecurity isn’t a mild fear of future grocery shopping challenges. Food insecurity is indeed health and life threatening. The term food insecurity is used to describe real hunger and the immediate dangers that threaten health when people do not have enough to eat.
A household is considered food insecure when its occupants live in hunger or live in danger of starvation. The term food insecurity originated in the mid-1970s during the discussions of international food problems at a time of global food crisis. Then, the focus of attention was primarily on food supply problems – of assuring the availability and to some degree the price stability of basic foodstuffs at the international and national level. Much has changed since the 1970s. The gap between the rich and poor has widened dramatically. Average incomes have declined, even among the middle class. Many of our social outreach programs have been reduced or eliminated. Existing programs don’t reach all the hungry Americans.
via Hunger in America: 1 in 8 Americans Faces Food Insecurity (Everyday Citizen).
Fed’s Bank Aid is ‘Same Scam Continuing’: Spitzer
Fed’s Bank Aid is ‘Same Scam Continuing’: Spitzer
We won’t know if these bank stress tests are real until we see how the government measures them, said Eliot Spitzer, former governor of New York.
“What we have seen is a breakdown of capitalism,” Spitzer said in a live interview on CNBC. “We have seen a libertarianism driven by Alan Greenspan’s worldview that was absolutely destructive to the life-savings of middle-class Americans. The Fed has been sliding [money] into these banks through hidden mechanisms, lowering interest rates, this notion of converting the common stock…It is the same scam continuing—and this should not continue.”
Spitzer criticized the bank stress tests and said the middle class will suffer the most as a result. He said that without any change in bank behaviors, the banking crisis would only continue to persist and grow.
via Fed’s Bank Aid is ‘Same Scam Continuing’: Spitzer – Economy * US * News * Story – CNBC.com.
AIPAC strives for political indoctrination for college and grade school students
AIPAC strives for political indoctrination for college and grade school students
(WMR) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) might learn a thing or two from Lyndon Johnson’s famous quote about FBI director J. Edgar Hoover: “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
Having received no word back from AIPAC on receiving credentials to cover their annual policy conference at the Washington Convention Center, this editor set out to pick up as many side conversations and abandoned AIPAC literature from the attendees’ hotel venues.
This year’s AIPAC policy conference’s theme is “Relationships Matter.”
At a luncheon event at the Hyatt Hotel across from the convention center, 193 student government association presidents from colleges and universities across the nation, including a fair number of historically African American universities, were treated to a right-wing message of unbridled U.S. support for Israel. Although AIPAC’s website states that College Democrats of America were invited to the luncheon in addition to the College Republican National Committee, the AIPAC message was clearly conservative in nature. One student, upon leaving the luncheon, said to his colleagues that he was encouraged by the luncheon’s theme of “spreading the conservative message on campus.”
For AIPAC, that message is ensuring that campus student organizations toe a pro-Israel line and that all campus initiatives to disinvest in Israel are defeated.
But it is not just America’s college students who are being subjected to AIPAC’s right-wing propaganda blitzkrieg. This editor overheard a conversation by another AIPAC attendee about continued non-profit funding for a network of summer camps to stress support for Israel and “Jewishness” among the generation following in the footsteps of college students and the generation following that. Clearly understood in the conversation was that the effort was planning for 30 years into the future.
Speakers already featured at AIPAC’s policy conference are those who represent a “Who’s Who” of Israel’s influence peddling in Washington: former CIA director James Woolsey; Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) executive director Robert Satloff (who replaced Dennis Ross, who now serves as a Middle East policy adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton); and former Coalition Provisional Authority press spokesman Dan Senor of the Council on Foreign Relations (and the husband of CNN’s Campbell Brown. At CNN, with the examples of Campbell Brown and John King, it is best under the tutelage of CNN Washington bureau chief and former AIPAC press spokesman Wolf Blitzer to marry Jewish and convert to Judaism or possibly run the risk of losing your job
via AIPAC strives for political indoctrination for college and grade school students.
Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. ’02
OPS: It’s time to clean House (and Senate)
Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. ’02
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.
The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict Pelosi’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.
The report details a Sept. 4, 2002 meeting between intelligence officials and Pelosi, then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, and two aides. At the time, Pelosi was the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.
via Intelligence Report: Pelosi Briefed on Use of Interrogation Tactics in Sept. ’02 – The Note.
Wesleyan Shooting: Suspect Targeting School, Jews
Wesleyan Shooting: Suspect Targeting School, Jews
MERIDEN, Conn. — Police in Connecticut say they have taken into custody the suspect in the slaying of a Wesleyan University student at a bookstore.
A Meriden police spokesman says 29-year-old Stephen P. Morgan was arrested and turned over to authorities in Middletown who are investigating Wednesday’s fatal shooting of a 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich.
Authorities say Morgan threatened to kill other students and Jews.
via Wesleyan Shooting: Suspect Targeting School, Jews.
Flight 93 Memorial Land Condemned By Government
Flight 93 Memorial Land Condemned By Government
PITTSBURGH — One man inherited property that his grandfather bought during the Depression. A Lutheran pastor owns a cottage where he planned to retire with his wife. Two others own businesses.
But they and other property owners in rural southwestern Pennsylvania knew things would change in the aftermath of United Flight 93′s crash on Sept. 11, 2001, which killed 40 passengers and crew and four terrorist hijackers. Plans were soon in the works for a memorial to honor the victims. Property owners say they realized that and were willing to cooperate and help make it happen.
But now that the government intends to take their land by eminent domain so the Flight 93 memorial can be built by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, property owners say they’re disappointed and surprised by the plan.
They also disputed that negotiations have taken place and said they’ve either not been made offers, or were only provided offers within the past week.
via Flight 93 Memorial Land Condemned By Government.
Cheney: “Mistake” For GOP To “Moderate,” Glad That Detainees Were Waterboarded
OPS: the only way to stop this now and prevent it in the future is for this clown, and his accomplices, to go down – hard
Cheney: “Mistake” For GOP To “Moderate,” Glad That Detainees Were Waterboarded
Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration’s use of waterboarding on Thursday, saying that, contrary to arguments made by Barack Obama, the techniques were a necessary last-resort measure to get information from detainees.
“I don’t believe that’s true,” Cheney said, when asked to respond to Obama’s statement that interrogators may not have needed to resort to torture. “That assumes that we didn’t try other ways, and in fact we did. We resorted, for example, to waterboarding, which is the source of much of the controversy, with only three individuals. In those cases, it was only after we’d gone through all the other steps of the process. The way the whole program was set up was very careful, to use other methods and only to resort to the enhanced techniques in those special circumstances.”
The remarks, delivered during an interview with Scott Hennen, a conservative North Dakota radio host, glossed over the 266 instances in which the United States reportedly used waterboarding on two terrorist suspects — a figure that would suggest the technique was either not effective or not really used as a last-resort option.
Earlier, Cheney argued that the policies which he and other Bush administration officials pursued were, in fact, successful, and that his request to declassify information from the National Archives would prove as much.
via Cheney: “Mistake” For GOP To “Moderate,” Glad That Detainees Were Waterboarded.
Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression
Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression
by Paul Joseph Watson
Elitists divided on whether to quickly sink economy and replace it with new world order, or set in motion long, agonizing depression
On the eve of the 2009 Bilderberg Group conference, which is due to be held May 14-17 at the 5 star Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel in Vouliagmeni, Greece, investigative reporter Daniel Estulin has uncovered shocking details of what the elitists plan to do with the economy over the course of the next year.
The Bilderberg Group meeting is an annual confab of around 150 of the world’ s most influential powerbrokers in government, industry, banking, media, academia and the military-industrial complex. The secretive group operates under “Chatham House rules,” meaning that no details of what is discussed can ever be leaked to the media, despite editors of the world’s biggest newspapers, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times, being present at the meeting.
According to Estulin’s sources, which have been proven highly accurate in the past, Bilderberg is divided on whether to put into motion, “Either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty … or an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency.”
The information takes on added weight when one considers the fact that Estulin’s previous economic forecasts, which were based on leaks from the same sources, have proven deadly accurate. Estulin correctly predicted the
housing crash and the 2008 financial meltdown as a result of what his sources inside Bilderberg told him the elite were planning based on what was said at their 2006 meeting in Canada and the 2007 conference in Turkey.
Details of the economic agenda were contained in a pre-meeting booklet being handed out to Bilderberg members. On a more specific note, Estulin warns that Bilderberg are fostering a false picture of economic recovery, suckering investors into ploughing their money back into the stock market again only to later unleash another massive downturn which will create “massive losses and searing financial pain in the months ahead,” according to a Canada Free Press report.
via Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression.
Cafferty: Legalizing marijuana answer to government’s $ problems?
OPS: Since it’s too easy to grow pot I suggest a government permit to grow – for a fee. Store bought can be taxed – but a permit to grow iw the only way to collect $$ for the plants in the back yard
Cafferty: Legalizing marijuana answer to government’s $ problems?
As California faces mounting deficits, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s open to talking about ways to create revenue. One way is to look at other countries that have legalized marijuana and what effect it’s had.
Schwarzenegger’s comments come as support grows nationwide for legalizing pot. In California, a recent poll found for the first time a majority of voters back legalization.
One California lawmaker says regulating and taxing marijuana would bring the state as much as $1.3 billion a year in extra revenue. Proponents say it’s about more than just money; it’s about the failure of the war on drugs and implementing “a more enlightened policy.”
Monster wave gives up its secrets
Monster wave gives up its secrets
A huge ocean wave has been filmed from beneath the surface, revealing features never before captured on camera.
The remarkable video, which will be shown as part of the BBC Natural History Unit’s new series South Pacific, was filmed in super slow motion using a high-definition camera.
It reveals the hidden power of a four-metre-tall monster barrel wave.
It also shows the first images of underwater spiralling vortices created by the wave’s action.
The wave was filmed off the coast of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands, part of the Federated State of Micronesia.
The location is well known in the international surf community. Some of the biggest waves in the world break on South Pacific islands.
The storm swells that create these waves travel more than 5,000km to break on their shorelines.
via BBC – Earth News.
Blackwater’s last day in Iraq
Blackwater’s last day in Iraq
Today is special. You’ll want to remember this day — May 7, 2009 — as the day when the second largest occupying force, the private army formerly known as Blackwater, finally left Iraq.
Triple Canopy, a Herndon, Virginia-based company, picks up the expiring contract of the security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, which changed its name to XE a few months ago. The U.S. State Department decided not to renew XE’s contract in January.
“When the U.S. government initially asked for our help to assist with an immediate need to protect Americans in Iraq, we answered that call and performed well,” XE spokeswoman Anne Tyrell said in a statement Wednesday. “But we always knew that, at some point, that work would come to a close.”
The end of the contract followed the Iraqi government’s refusal to renew the firm’s operating license because of a September 2007 shooting in which Baghdad says security guards — then employed by Blackwater — killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
That slaughter, and the indictments that followed, ended an era of complete impunity for the Blackwater mercenaries.
This is how it once was (big H/T to The Nation‘s Jeremy Scahill for his reporting on this group):
via The Raw Story » Blackwater’s last day in Iraq.
WHO: Swine Flu Could Infect 2 Billion People If Becomes Pandemic
WHO: Swine Flu Could Infect 2 Billion People If Becomes Pandemic
The media’s coverage of the H1N1 swine flu epidemic has been criticized by many for being overblown, fire-fanning, scare-mongering, overly hyped, and apocalyptic. However, statements Thursday from a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official seem to do the panic-prone and hypochondriacs out there no favors, predicting that if the virus becomes a pandemic, it could infect a third of the world’s population — around 2 billion people. According to Earth Times, WHO’s health security chief Keiji Fukuda predicts that, “looking at past pandemics, a third of the world’s population could be infected.”
However, Fukuda, speaking to reporters in Geneva, later made note of the crucial distinction between those who will be infected and those who will actually become seriously ill, and he says he is unaware of any inclination by WHO to raise the epidemic alert level from phase 5 to phase 6, Earth Times reports.
via WHO: Swine Flu Could Infect 2 Billion People If Becomes Pandemic.
State Of Emergency Declared As Fires Rage In Southern California [SLIDESHOW]
State Of Emergency Declared As Fires Rage In Southern California [SLIDESHOW]
High winds and hundred-degree weather have proved a dangerous combination in Southern California. Two square miles of fire in the hills above Santa Barbara have forced over 13,500 people to evacuate their homes. And high winds combined with warm weather are expected to continue through Thursday, giving little hope that the uncontrolled fire will be contained soon.
The AP reports:
Ten firefighters were injured, at least three seriously, and the number of evacuees could double later in the day.
“We really can’t do any containment lines. It’s too dangerous,” Santa Barbara County fire Capt. David Sadecki said. “We’re doing some structure protection, but firefighters can be in a safe location one minute and in a dangerous situation the next.”
via State Of Emergency Declared As Fires Rage In Southern California [SLIDESHOW].
OBAMA SPLITS WITH BILLIONAIRE DONORS ON LEGISLATION
Billionaire Donors Split With Obama on Law That May Hurt Hotels
May 7 (Bloomberg) — Three Chicago billionaires who helped fund President Barack Obama’s election campaign are fighting legislation he backs that would make it easier for unions to organize hotels they own.
Penny Pritzker, Obama’s campaign finance chairwoman and a director of Global Hyatt Corp., has told the president she is opposed to the measure, known as card check, said a person familiar with the situation. Neil Bluhm, a partner in Walton Street Capital LLC, also opposes the bill, the person said. Lester Crown, chairman of Henry Crown & Co., criticized the proposal in an interview.
For the city’s business leaders who nurtured Obama’s White House bid, card check is a gut check on support for their hometown president. Labor, which spent $100 million on Democratic campaigns last year, made it a top priority to enact a bill giving workers bargaining rights based on signing cards instead of winning a secret-ballot election.
Voting privately is “an American prerogative and shouldn’t be overturned,” said Crown, 83, whose family holdings include the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, California, and the Little Nell hotel in Aspen, Colorado. “The recommended legislation is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”
Pritzker, 49, and Bluhm, 71, declined to comment.
via Bloomberg.com: News.
Sen. Snowe: GOP is ‘the party of Big Business and Big Oil and the rich.’
OPS: A republican speaks the Truth!? Well, if there is another defection it will be Snowe
Sen. Snowe: GOP is ‘the party of Big Business and Big Oil and the rich.’
In a new Time article on the state of the Republican Party, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) lamented the GOP’s exclusion of groups like minorities and environmentalists. “Ideological purity is not the ticket to the promised land,” she said, echoing comments her fellow Maine senator Susan Collins (R) made last week. She also complained that, “to the average American,” the GOP is just the party of “Big Oil and the rich“:
Snowe recalls that when she proposed fiscally conservative “triggers” to limit Bush’s tax cuts in case of deficits, she was attacked by fellow Republicans. “I don’t know when willy-nilly tax cuts became the essence of who we are,” she says. “To the average American who’s struggling, we’re in some other stratosphere. We’re the party of Big Business and Big Oil and the rich.”
Of course, Americans are right to view the GOP as the party of Big Oil, which gave nearly $20 million to the Republican party apparatus during the last election cycle. The securities and investments industry — big banks — donated more than $54 million to the GOP.
via Think Progress » Sen. Snowe: GOP is ‘the party of Big Business and Big Oil and the rich.’.
Christian Right: Obama Is A Heretic For Observing Day Of Prayer In Private Just Like Most Other Presidents
OPS: Rabid – Insane – and Proud
Christian Right: Obama Is A Heretic For Observing Day Of Prayer In Private Just Like Most Other Presidents
President Obama will sign a proclamation recognizing today as a National Day of Prayer (NDP). Notably, the President will not continue former George W. Bush’s practice of holding a “formal White House event.” In response, conservative commentators in recent days have been suggesting that Obama is in some way attempting to downplay the significance of the NDP — and faith in general.
Limbaugh went so far as to suggest that Obama was trying to “cancel” the NDP, while the National Day of Prayer Task Force issued a statement suggesting that Obama was departing from historical tradition. The task force claimed that Obama’s decision was “contrary to the administrations of President George W. Bush, President George H. W. Bush, and President Ronald Reagan.”
This morning on Fox and Friends, co-host Steve Doocey echoed the claim that Reagan and George H. W. Bush held events similar to that of George W. Bush. Guest Elisabeth Hasselbeck asserted that public events at the White House on the National Day of Prayer stretched back to President Truman and strangely suggested that Obama’s decision was interfering in Americans’ right to “gather and pray” in public:
HASSELBECK: This has been a tradition in our country in our country since 1952 with Truman. … I think that we are looking to him today to lead this country and this has been a huge tradition. It has also been one that has been protected in our country through our constitution. We should be able to gather and pray as we see fit.
Watch it:
Graham Falsely Claims All Gitmo Detainees Are ‘Enemy Combatants,’ Says They Can Be Held ‘Forever’
OPS: Graham lied? Whoa – stop the presses 
Graham Falsely Claims All Gitmo Detainees Are ‘Enemy Combatants,’ Says They Can Be Held ‘Forever’
Last night on Fox News, host Greta Van Susteren and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were discussing President Obama’s plan to close the Guantanamo Bay terror detainee prison. During the segment, Graham — who, with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), had written a Wall Street Journal op-ed on the subject that day — argued that the military or the CIA, not the federal justice system, should determine which detainees represent a threat to the U.S.
Van Susteren noted that “we’re still holding people who haven’t done anything.” “No, that’s not true,” Graham said, adding that “every one of them” has “gone through a military board, and the military labeled them an enemy combatant.” According to Graham, “You can hold an enemy prisoner as long as the war is going on” or “forever,” as he later pointed out:
VAN SUSTEREN: Does anyone want them?
GRAHAM: Well, I don’t care. If we can’t give them to somebody else. My point is, Greta, if you’re a part of the enemy force, we can hold you forever.
Watch it:
Specter contradicts Reid, suggests he won’t ‘always’ break GOP filibusters.
OPS: No Shit Sherlock. But Reid is too stupid to recognize this. Reid MUST be replaced ASAP
Specter contradicts Reid, suggests he won’t ‘always’ break GOP filibusters.
Yesterday on MSNBC, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) implied that newly-minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter (PA) would always vote with Democrats to break GOP filibusters. “On procedural votes he’ll be with us all the time,” Reid said. Watch it:
via Think Progress » Specter contradicts Reid, suggests he won’t ‘always’ break GOP filibusters..
Pat Robertson: Gay marriage is ‘the beginning in a long downward slide’ to legalized child molestation.
OPS: Insane and proud….or… and I thought it was joining the Priesthood
Pat Robertson: Gay marriage is ‘the beginning in a long downward slide’ to legalized child molestation.
Yesterday, when Gov. John Baldacci (D) signed a marriage equality law, Maine became the fifth state to allow legal same-sex marriage. On the Christian Broadcasting Network today, Pat Robertson responded by claiming that the “ultimate conclusion” of legalizing same-sex marriage would be the legalization of polygamy, bestiality, child molestation and pedophilia. “You mark my words, this is just the beginning in a long downward slide in relation to all the things that we consider to be abhorrent,” said Robertson. Watch it:
Blackmail and threats to avoid accountability…
Blackmail and threats to avoid accountability…
This is so shameful it is beyond description:
“At a hearing today with Attorney General Eric Holder, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee suggested that any potential criminal investigation into the CIA’s harsh interrogation methods might not easily be contained.
Both Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama pressed Holder on the CIA’s “rendition” program that moved terrorism suspects from one country to another.
Didn’t that happen during the Clinton administration?
Yes, Holder said.
“How many did you approve?” they asked.
Holder said he’d check the record.
The clear suggestion was, if any criminal investigation is opened, Republicans would push to get it expanded beyond events during the Bush administration. Alexander, for example, asked several times whether members of Congress, who were told about the interrogation methods, should also be investigated.”
Sorry? Are Alexander/Shelby saying that if you investigate our (Republican’s) current crimes, then we will investigate alleged crimes from nearly a decade ago when you (Democrats’) had the presidency? Yes, that is exactly what they are saying. Now I have a few questions for Lamar Alexander and for Richard Shelby, who should both be marched out of government and escorted back to whomever is putting pressure on them:
via at-Largely: Blackmail and threats to avoid accountability….
Murdoch: ‘The current days of the Internet will soon be over’
OPS: Information Lock-Down. They are in the process of killing Newspapers (accept the ones they control) now they will kill the internet and with it the final opportunity for free exchange of ideas and news
Murdoch: ‘The current days of the Internet will soon be over’
News mogul believes media sites can’t survive failing business model
The billionaire CEO of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, is sounding the death knell for free Internet news delivery.
At least for Fox News and the many other online media outlets Murdoch controls.
With traditional print newspapers on the decline as ad sales plunge and readers turn to the Web for news and information, media companies are struggling to find ways to profit.
Murdoch feels that, despite the global economic turndown, charging for access to news is not only the right thing to do, it’s the wave of the future.
This despite the global economic turndown, which Murdoch feels is on the wane.
“There are encouraging signs in some of our businesses that the days of precipitous declines are done, and things are beginning to look healthier,” he says.
Murdoch is so bullish on the near future that he expects moves to charge readers at the websites of Fox News, The Times, The Sun and others within a year’s time.
“W’re absolutely looking at that,” says the Australian-born media titan.
“The current days of the [free] Internet will soon be over.”
Murdoch cites success with “booming subscription revenues” at the online version of The Wall Street Journal, whose parent company News Corporation recently purchased.
via Raw Story » Murdoch: ‘The current days of the Internet will soon be over’.
Urgency of the American Monetary Act
Urgency of the American Monetary Act
by Richard C. Cook
On Thursday, April 23, 2009, Stephen Zarlenga, director of the American Monetary Institute (AMI), delivered two briefings on Capitol Hill on the American Monetary Act that AMI drafted and that may be introduced as legislation during the current congressional session. This single measure has the potential of bringing together the tens of millions of people who have realized it’s our bank-run debt-based monetary system that lies at the center of the financial rot that is destroying our republic and its values.
Attending the briefings were congressional staffers and members of the public. Zarlenga was introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has spoken in favor of wholesale reform of the monetary system on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Kucinich is also sponsor of H.R. 7260, the “Transparency in the Creation of Wealth Act of 2008.” This act would require the Federal Reserve to resume reporting on the quantity of M3 in the economy (mega-money accessible only to large financial institutions), along with several other economic indicators it now keeps to itself, such as total credit market debt and the holding of Federal Reserve notes by foreign interests.
Stephen Zarlenga is author of The Lost Science of Money (American Monetary Institute, 2002), a monumental 736-page book that shows how money has served socially beneficial purposes throughout history only when created by governments as an instrument of law and not as the private preserve of the rich.
Hugh Downs, an unusually well-informed media personality with a strong social conscience, said of The Lost Science of Money, that it “has some stunning historical vistas of the whole concept of media of exchange.” Renowned progressive economist Dr. Michael Hudson said, “The history of money is critical to understanding the greatest problem the third millennium will face. Stephen Zarlenga’s Lost Science of Money provides the needed background for seeing the basic structural issues at work.”
Since Zarlenga published The Lost Science of Money, the American Monetary Institute has grown, with chapters in Boston, New York, Chicago, Iowa, Seattle, and other locations. He conducts an annual monetary reform conference at Roosevelt University in Chicago and has a busy travel and speaking schedule. He has addressed audiences at the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., and the British House of Lords in London.
via Urgency of the American Monetary Act | AfterDowningStreet.org.
Is Everyone In Washington Being Blackmailed?
Is Everyone In Washington Being Blackmailed?
Obama’s Attorney General – Eric Holder – approved “extraordinary renditions” during the Clinton presidency.
And so now Republicans are blackmailing Holder, saying they will focus the spotlight on his role in approving renditions if Holder pulls back the cover too far on torture under the Bush administration.
This ties into Sibel Edmonds’ allegations that virtually everyone in Washington is being blackmailed not to rock some boat or another.
Are most members of Congress being blackmailed on torture, spying, and other issues of national security? Is the Justice Department? The White House?
What a swamp.
US pro-Israeli group attempts to stop shift in White House Middle East policy
US pro-Israeli group attempts to stop shift in White House Middle East policy
Aipac urges Congress members to sign letter to Barack Obama calling for Israel to set pace of negotiations with Palestinians
US congressional leaders and the most powerful pro-Israel lobby group in the US are attempting to forestall a significant shift in the White House’s Middle East policy.
The move comes amid growing signs that the US president, Barack Obama, intends to press for urgent efforts to be made towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is visiting Washington later this month amid growing expectations that Obama is preparing to take a tougher line over Israel’s reluctance to actively seek a two-state solution to its conflict with the Palestinians.
It will be the first time that Netanyahu and Obama have met since both were elected.
Heat’s on for male sea turtles
Heat’s on for male sea turtles
THINGS are heating up in Australia’s northern tropics but that’s not good news if you’re a sea turtle.
New research shows rising temperatures because of climate change will result in the feminisation of turtle populations, making males extremely rare.
James Cook University researcher Mariana Fuentes said in just 20 years almost 90 per cent of turtle hatchings will be female.
“Basically by 2030 most of the hatchlings being produced are going to be female,” she said.
“If you look down 60 or 70 years ahead if there’s no male turtles being produced it could be a big problem.”
The research was conducted in the Torres Strait and northern Great Barrier Reef, home to the largest green sea turtle population in the world.
The gender of sea turtles, as with other reptiles, is determined by water temperature.
Ms Fuentes said at an average temperature of 28C or 29C, the ratio of male to female hatchlings was roughly equal, but became skewed towards females as the temperature rose.
via Heat’s on for male sea turtles – Local News – Cairns, QLD, Australia.
Interview With Economist James K. Galbraith
My Interview With Economist James K. Galbraith
Economists go to work every day at universities, financial institutions, think tanks and government offices prepared for battle. They fight using historical models, statistics, public statements and complex computer algorithms. Their war is the war; they fight to influence world leaders who command the course of history.
This war remains somewhat hidden until catastrophe strikes, collapse is imminent and the economists are wheeled out to explain what happened. This occurred after the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression and is going on again today as the reality of the so-called Great Recession begins to sink in.
According to unapologetic Keynesian economist James K. Galbraith, his side has won, but not without massive collateral damage.
Galbraith is the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. chair in Government/Business Relations and professor of Government at The University of Texas at Austin. He has written numerous books, the most recent of which, “The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too,” was published in 2008. It details the peak of a “predatory” governing system under President George W. Bush, which, despite its rhetoric, had long ago abandoned the “free market” principles and began to feed off of the institutions of the state. He demonstrates a unanimous acceptance of government involvement in the economy among policymakers, even before the Obama administration’s rise.
In a recent interview, Professor Galbraith and I discussed the efforts of the Obama administration to solidify the economy and begin to put the pieces back together. I asked him about the recent accusations of massive fraud by famed bank regulator William K. Black, the ongoing recession and about his personal strategy for restoring the US economy.
Matt Renner: You have been outspoken in your criticism of economists who have provided economic guidance for past administrations. What is your judgment of the Obama economic team and their actions to date?
via t r u t h o u t | My Interview With Economist James K. Galbraith.
Center for Public Integrity names 25 lenders blamed for financial crisis
US center names 25 lenders blamed for financial crisis
US and foreign banks were not unwitting victims of circumstance but deliberately culpable in the financial meltdown that engulfed the United States last year, a campaign group said Wednesday.
The Center for Public Integrity named 25 “subprime” mortgage companies whose risky lending was blamed for the US property market collapse and the subsequent global economic crisis.
Many of the lenders were either controlled by US and European banks, or could not have indulged in their high-risk lending spree without the connivance of banks, the investigative journalism group said in a new study.
“The mega-banks that funded the subprime industry were not victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves,” the center’s executive director Bill Buzenberg said.
via US center names 25 lenders blamed for financial crisis.
Stephen Colbert Challenges Richard Branson To A Nude Model Chicken Fight (VIDEO)
Stephen Colbert Challenges Richard Branson To A Nude Model Chicken Fight (VIDEO)
Last week, Arianna Huffington interviewed Richard Branson in a dialogue with Digg users. One of the questions was, “What historical figure would you most like to fistfight?” Branson responded, “Maybe Stephen Colbert, he’s getting far too big for his boots.” Snap.
Colbert showed this clip last night on his show and gloated that he beat Hitler as Branson’s most objectionable “historical” figure. He then went on to challenge Branson to a chicken fight with nude models on their backs. This, of course, is a dig at the airline mogul for recent pictures of him kite surfing with a naked lady hanging off him.
The Colbert-Branson feud goes way back to 2007, when Sir Richard threw a cup of water on Stephen for his satirical mocking. Colbert then demanded a bottle of water and flung it on the multi-millionaire.
We can’t wait to see what happens next.
WATCH:
via Stephen Colbert Challenges Richard Branson To A Nude Model Chicken Fight (VIDEO).
Bernanke Banking Oversight Plan: Calls For Holistic Approach
Bernanke Banking Oversight Plan: Calls For Holistic Approach
TIME FOR MORE “SUPERVISION”
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday called for a holistic approach to strengthening oversight of the banking system to prevent future financial crises.
Regulators must not only sharpen their assessments of individuals banks, but also examine the financial system as a whole to detect risks that could endanger the normal flow of credit, market operations and commerce _ critical elements to the smooth functioning of the U.S. economy, Bernanke said.
“A principal lesson of the crisis is that an approach to supervision that focuses narrowly on individual institutions can miss broader problems that are building up in the system,” the Fed chief said in remarks delivered via satellite to a Fed conference in Chicago.
The current financial crisis _ the worst since the 1930s _ has revealed “serious deficiencies” on the part of some financial institutions, which regulators are working to fix, Bernanke said.
Those deficiencies on the part of banks include not having adequate capital, or buffers, on hand against potential losses. Some banks also did not plan effectively to make sure they have easy-to-sell “liquid” assets if economic conditions worsen, and they did not have strong risk management policies in place to detect problems, he said.
via Bernanke Banking Oversight Plan: Calls For Holistic Approach.
Hannity’s Two-Week Silence: Is He Ready To Admit Waterboarding Is Torture?
Hannity’s Two-Week Silence: Is He Ready To Admit Waterboarding
Is Torture?
Mayor Hannity DebateOn April 22, Fox News’ Sean Hannity volunteered to be waterboarded after ardently defending the practice and excoriating President Obama for ending the technique. “Clearly this president has not done his homework, and it is putting each and every American at risk,” Hannity said about ending torture. Declaring he is “for enhanced interrogation,” Hannity said he would happily consent to being waterboarded as a fundraiser “for the troops’ families.”
However, two weeks later, Hannity has yet to mention the promise again — despite the offer from MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann to help Hannity raise funds by donating $1,000 for every second Hannity is waterboarded.
via Think Progress » Hannity’s Two-Week Silence: Is He Ready To Admit Waterboarding Is Torture?.
17% Of US Children Under 5 May Face Hunger
17% Of US Children Under 5 May Face Hunger
Louisiana Has Highest Rate Of Child Hunger
WASHINGTON — An estimated 3.5 million children younger than 5 are at risk of hunger in the United States, according to government numbers provided by an anti-hunger group.
That is more than 17 percent of children who could suffer cognitive and developmental damage if they are not properly fed. The not-for-profit advocacy group Feeding America based its findings on 2005-2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Agriculture Department. The study, released Thursday, is the first to look at these numbers for children under the age of 5, according to the group. Feeding America runs food banks and feeding centers around the country. The study also shows that in 11 states, more than 20 percent of children under 5 are at risk of going hungry. Louisiana has the highest rate, with just under a quarter of children at risk. According to the Agriculture Department, 11 percent of households lacked enough food for an active, healthy life before the economy worsened late last year.
via 17% Of US Children Under 5 May Face Hunger – Health News Story – WEWS Cleveland.
The World According to Monsanto
The World According to Monsanto || DVD Quality || Part 1 of 10 ||
via YouTube – The World According to Monsanto || DVD Quality || Part 1 of 10 ||.
“The World According to Monsanto”
“The World According to Monsanto”
via YouTube – “The World According to Monsanto”.
Should the GOP Forget Reagan?
OPS: 30 years of Reagonomics and insane Conservative policy and ideology are the reasons we are in this mess. 
What do you think? Abandon Ship! ya think?
Should the GOP Forget Reagan?
The Republican Party’s unending tale of woe sounds like a friend’s account of sitting through the New York Yankees’ 22-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians at the new Yankee Stadium April 18.
In the 14-run second inning, three Indians hit home runs into the right-field seats, including a grand-slam. One ball hit a woman in the head because the fans had stopped watching the game. A nasty fight broke out in the stands. After the fourth inning (16-2), the subway trains taking Yankee faithful back to Manhattan were packed. Republicans know the feeling.
Rookie President Barack Obama has been pounding policy after policy through the Republicans’ hapless defense. His approval is out of the park. He’s teeing up his first Supreme Court appointment. Al Franken — in a “say-it-ain’t-so” moment if ever there was one — is close to giving the Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate majority. And Republican voters are heading for the exits, with a puny 31% willing to tell a pollster they belong to the party.
During downturns in sports, three rules of thumb are: Don’t panic, stay within your game, play to your strengths. This being politics, the Republicans naturally are violating all three.
via Henninger: Should the GOP Forget Reagan? – WSJ.com.
Timothy Geithner’s Bailout Dollar Recycling May Be Illegal
Timothy Geithner’s Bailout Dollar Recycling May Be Illegal
In his testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel on April 21, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that the government’s bank bailout program has $134 billion left. Geithner said the figure was boosted by $25 billion that he expects to be paid back by bailed-out firms over the next year.
Rep. Brad Sherman says that’s a no-no.
“If you look at the law, it’s pretty clear any money returned from these banks goes into the general fund of the United States and not a revolving bank bailout fund,” said the California Democrat in an interview with the Huffington Post.
Sherman points to language in the Emergency Economic Stability Act — the bailout bill that created the Troubled Asset Relief Program — that specifically states that revenues and proceeds from sales of troubled assets “shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.”
In other words, the taxpayer is supposed to get his money back.
via Timothy Geithner’s Bailout Dollar Recycling May Be Illegal.
Arianna And Eliot Spitzer On How The Financial Crisis Could Have Been Avoided
Arianna And Eliot Spitzer On How The Financial Crisis Could Have Been Avoided
Arianna joined CNBC’s Squawk Box crew and former New York governor Eliot Spitzer Thursday morning to discuss stress tests results, which banks need more capital, and how the financial crisis could have been avoided.
Scroll down for highlights from Arianna’s appearance.
Arianna and CNBC’s Steve Liesman discuss which banks need more capital:
video at link
via Huff TV: Arianna And Eliot Spitzer On How The Financial Crisis Could Have Been Avoided.
Joe The Plumber Quitting The GOP
Joe The Plumber Quitting The GOP: Time Magazine
Stop the presses… (even though we haven’t received the press release yet). Time Magazine is reporting – burying rather – the news that Joe the Plumber, also known as Samuel Wurzelbacher, is quitting the GOP. That’s big news considering Joe became the new GOP mascot during the McCain campaign and has since advised the party during conferences and in Capitol Hill briefings.
Below is the excerpt from the Time article.
Well, more elections. Big Government is never popular in theory, but the disaster aid, school lunches and prescription drugs that make up Big Government have become wildly popular in practice, especially now that so many people are hurting. Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he’s so outraged by GOP overspending, he’s quitting the party — and he’s the bull’s-eye of its target audience. But he also said he wouldn’t support any cuts in defense, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid — which, along with debt payments, would put more than two-thirds of the budget off limits. It’s no coincidence that many Republicans who voted against the stimulus have claimed credit for stimulus projects in their district — or that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal stopped ridiculing volcano-monitoring programs after a volcano erupted in Alaska. “We can’t be the antigovernment party,” Snowe says. “That’s not what people want.”
via Joe The Plumber Quitting The GOP: Time Magazine.
US Senate Stiffs the People, Cheers Wall Street
US Senate Stiffs the People, Cheers Wall Street
by Jim Hightower
Sam Rayburn, a longtime speaker of the U.S. House, once said, “Every now and then, a politician ought to do something just because it’s right.”
Last week, 45 U.S. senators dodged an excellent chance to do just what Mr. Sam advised. At issue was a straightforward, common-sense amendment proposed by Dick Durbin, D-Ill. It would have allowed bankruptcy judges to help hundreds of thousands of financially strapped homeowners who now find themselves trapped by exploding, exorbitant interest rates that bankers had attached to their loans.
Here was a conspicuous opportunity for even the most ethically blind of our congress-critters to take a principled stand, for Durbin’s bill practically had a flashing red-and-yellow neon arrow attached to it, declaring, “Vote Here for the People Against Greedy Bankers.”
Actually, even GBs would’ve benefited, for the bankruptcy provision would have allowed families to stay in their homes and keep making monthly payments to banks (albeit in reduced amounts). Also, banks could still make a profit (though not a killing), and there would be far fewer vacant homes going on the market, thus giving a badly needed break to America’s depressed housing market.
What a sensible idea! So, naturally, the Senate stomped it to death.
via US Senate Stiffs the People, Cheers Wall Street | CommonDreams.org.
Geithner: US Banks ‘Safe From Insolvency’
OPS: …. I have this bridge….
Geithner: US Banks ‘Safe From Insolvency’
No US bank being screened by regulators is at risk of insolvency, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said.
The results of “stress tests” on the financial health of 19 US banks are to be released after US financial markets close at 2200 BST.
The tests are expected to show that tens of billions of dollars are needed to bolster some banks’ finances.
Citigroup and Bank of America are widely expected to need to raise the biggest amounts of cash.
Reports said that Citigroup may need more than $50bn (£33bn), while Bank of America may need an extra $34bn.
via Geithner: US Banks ‘Safe From Insolvency’ | CommonDreams.org.
Early Smears On Sotomayor: ‘Dumb,’ ‘Bully,’ ‘Doesn’t Play Well With Others,’ ‘Obnoxious’
OPS: The Reichwing – still with the personal smears rather than dealing with substance. It’s all they got left – it’s all they ever had
Early Smears On Sotomayor: ‘Dumb,’ ‘Bully,’ ‘Doesn’t Play Well With Others,’ ‘Obnoxious’
One of the candidates rumored to be President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee is Sonia Sotomayor, currently a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Sotomayor, however, has come under attack this week, with many commentators claiming she is lazy and unqualified to serve on the highest court.
The origin seems to be with GW Law professor Jeffrey Rosen’s New Republic article this week. Quoting several anonymous sources, Rosen argued, “The most consistent concern [from former clerks] was that Sotomayor, although an able lawyer, was ‘not that smart and kind of a bully on the bench.’” Soon afterwards, the meme went viral:
Mark Hemingway: “Judge Sotomayor may indeed be dumb and obnoxious; but she’s also female and Hispanic, and those are the things that count nowadays.”
Poll: Republicans, Southerners most unpatriotic
Poll: Republicans, Southerners most unpatriotic
From AmericaBlog: I guess patriotism really is about more than just wearing a pin and trying to oppress your fellow man. 
via Raw Story >> User Blogs » Poll: Republicans, Southerners most unpatriotic.
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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. 
