Archive for May, 2009
Backlash grows against Obama’s preventive detention proposal
Backlash grows against Obama’s preventive detention proposal – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com
The backlash against President Obama’s extraordinary proposal for indefinite “preventive detention” — already widespread in the immediate aftermath of his speech — continues to grow. On Friday, Sen. Russ Feingold sent a letter (.pdf) to Obama which, while praising some aspects of his speech, vowed to hold hearings on his detention proposal, and in the letter, Feingold rather emphatically highlighted the radical and dangerous aspects of Obama’s approach:
My primary concern, however, relates to your reference to the possibility of indefinite detention without trial for certain detainees. While I appreciate your good faith desire to at least enact a statutory basis for such a regime, any system that permits the government to indefinitely detain individuals without charge or without a meaningful opportunity to have accusations against them adjudicated by an impartial arbiter violates basic American values and is likely unconstitutional.
via Backlash grows against Obama’s preventive detention proposal – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
Media as a Weapon: New Orleans’ 2-Cent
Media as a Weapon: New Orleans’ 2-Cent | AfterDowningStreet.org
David Swanson
The video grabs your attention immediately. Young people in the Lower Ninth Ward hold up signs that read: “looter,” “we’re still here,” and “America did this.” Amid empty lots and damaged houses, poet Nik Richard delivers this message: “Hurricane Katrina was the biggest national disaster to hit American soil, and nearly two years later, this area is still devastated. But you know what? We made sure we preserved it strictly for your tourism. For about $75, you can take one of these many tour buses.”
Tourists drive by and people with cameras gawk. Richard looks directly at the camera and says, “It looks like there’s more money to be paid in devastation than regeneration. If y’all keep paying your money to see it, should we rebuild it?”
The short film New Orleans For Sale, which has garnered several awards, was made by 2-Cent Entertainment, a group of young Black media makers in New Orleans. The group, which currently has 10 members, made New Orleans for Sale to convey the frustration felt by many New Orleanians as the city has become a national spectacle and a backdrop for countless national politicians, while the aid the city needs to rebuild still hasn’t arrived. In 2008, the film won several awards including an NAACP image award in a competition, called Film Your Issue, which featured a high-powered jury with the likes of news anchor Tom Brokaw and media executives from MTV Networks, Lionsgate Entertainment and USA Today.
But for 2-Cent, the praise of the corporate media is beside the point. The collective’s target audience is their community. Working at the intersection of art and justice, as well as entertainment and enlightenment, 2-Cent has attracted a wide and growing audience. In New Orleans, they’ve also collaborated with the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, produced shows on local television and radio stations, and created mix CDs and scores of short videos. Beyond creating inspiring programming, 2-Cent members also seek to pass their skills onto the next generation, and have taught and presented their work and in New Orleans high schools and colleges.
via Media as a Weapon: New Orleans’ 2-Cent | AfterDowningStreet.org.
Shell on trial
Shell on trial – - The Independent
Oil giant in the dock over 1995 murder of activist who opposed environmental degradation of Niger Delta
Royal Dutch Shell will revisit one of the darkest periods of its history tomorrow as a potentially groundbreaking court case opens in New York.
The oil giant stands accused of complicity in the 1995 execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian environmental activist.
The world’s boardrooms are watching the case, which is seen as a test of whether transnational companies owned or operating in the US can be held responsible for human rights abuses committed abroad.
via Shell on trial – Americas, World – The Independent.
America Without Health Care Reform
America Without Health Care Reform
An America without health care reform is an America where families face ever-higher health insurance premiums, businesses drop coverage and trim employee benefits, doctors lack access to objective information about the treatments they provide, and millions of Americans live just one medical emergency away from bankruptcy. It’s an America that spends billions on tests and treatments that cannot be shown to improve health—even as more than 50 million people go without health insurance.
Those who oppose health reform are choosing to maintain this status quo.
But without reform, our broken health care system will continue to squeeze families, businesses, doctors, the federal budget, and the economy.
Costs for families and businesses will continue to rise
Health care costs are currently a troubling burden on families and businesses. Yet without reform, this burden will increase dramatically. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the cost of a family premium under employer-provided health insurance will increase by approximately 70 percent (after inflation) in the next nine years. This cost growth will have cascading effects across the economy as businesses trim benefits and workers lose their coverage.
via America Without Health Care Reform.
Honoring Our Veterans on Memorial Day
Honoring Our Veterans on Memorial Day
We Must Repair Our Social Compact with Our Troops
This Memorial Day, the Center for American Progress wishes to honor the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. We remember the many thousands of brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coastguardsmen who have fallen while fighting on our behalf. On this day, we also honor those still serving and their families who continue to make sacrifices for us. We commemorate these men and women and wish to express our gratitude to them and the families they have left behind for their eternal sacrifice.
This by-the-numbers look at our active duty servicemen and veterans highlights the many men and women who have served our country and are still in need of services to improve their quality of life—before, during, and after deployments. This year, the need is even more urgent than ever as the economic crisis hits many veterans and their families hard and these Americans struggle to find jobs, pay their mortgages, and get back on their feet.
Who are our veterans?
Approximately 25 million veterans are currently living in the United States.
More than 1.8 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq since October 2001.
Approximately 37 million Americans are dependents (spouses and dependent children) of living veterans or survivors of deceased veterans. This represents about 20 percent of the U.S. population.
via Honoring Our Veterans on Memorial Day.
Unlikely Ally: Ralph Nader addresses Capitol Hill over likely GM bankruptcy
Unlikely Ally: Ralph Nader addresses Capitol Hill over likely GM bankruptcy
Ralph Nader, the man who single-handedly sank the Chevrolet Corvair by exposing its safety faults in his book Unsafe At Any Speed, has unexpectedly appeared at the side of General Motors. In a letter written to Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Barney Frank, Chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, Nader warns the Congressmen about the risk of leaving GM’s fate in the hands of the Auto Task Force, or what he calls “a small unelected and largely unaccountable group arranged to avoid the Federal Advisory Committee Act.”
In truth, Nader is not necessarily sticking up for GM, but as a consumer advocate he’s more interested in protecting tax-payers and the thousands — if not millions — of families that could be harmed if the Auto Task Force makes a misstep on its march towards an increasingly likely GM bankruptcy. His solution? Get Congress involved through more oversight of the Auto Task Force’s decisions and urge the administration to postpone any irreversible decisions until they can be carefully reviewed in Congressional hearings. Of course, this delay would mean that GM needs more bridge loans to survive the interim, but as Nader reminds us, “the virtually condition-free Wall Street” bailout has cost much more. Follow the jump to read Nader’s letter for yourself in its entirety.
Letter to Chairmen Dodd and Frank Regarding the GM Bankruptcy
May 18, 2009
Senator Chris Dodd
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
448 Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510
Congressman Barney Frank
House Committee on Financial Services
2252 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank:
via Unlikely Ally: Ralph Nader addresses Capitol Hill over likely GM bankruptcy.
Church of Scientology on trial in France
Church of Scientology on trial in France
PARIS (AFP) – The Church of Scientology and six of its French leaders went on trial on Monday on charges of organised fraud that could lead to an outright ban on the organisation in France.
Known for its Hollywood celebrity followers Tom Cruise and John Travolta, the group is in the dock in Paris for the second time in six years, although French courts have prosecuted several individual Scientologists since 1978.
The court is hearing a complaint from two women, one of whom alleges she was manipulated into handing over 20,000 euros (28,000 dollars) for costly Scientology products, such as an “electrometer” to measure mental energy.
She says she was approached in a Paris street by a Scientologist in late 1998 who offered a free personality test, at a time when she was feeling psychologically fragile.
After being told that her test results were poor, the woman was sold a series of “life-improvement courses”, vitamins and other products that she could ill afford, landing her in debt.
The second complainant alleges she was forced by her Scientologist employer to undergo testing and enroll in courses in 1998. When she resisted, she was fired.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that Scientology resorts to harassment and pressure to rein in victims who show signs of vulnerability.
via Church of Scientology on trial in France – Yahoo! News.
‘Clean’ Energy and Poisoned Water
‘Clean’ Energy and Poisoned Water | CommonDreams.org
by Chris Hedges
In the musical “Urinetown,” a severe drought leaves the dwindling supplies of clean water in the hands of a corporation called Urine Good Company. Urine Good Company makes a fortune selling the precious commodity and running public toilets. It pays off politicians to ward off regulation and inspection. It uses the mechanisms of state control to repress an increasingly desperate and impoverished population.
The musical satire may turn out to be a prescient vision of the future. Corporations in Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and upstate New York have launched a massive program to extract natural gas through a process that could, if it goes wrong, degrade the Delaware River watershed and the fresh water supplies that feed upstate communities, the metropolitan cities of New York, Philadelphia, Camden and Trenton, and many others on its way to the Chesapeake Bay.
“The potential environmental consequences are extreme,” says Fritz Mayer, editor of The River Reporter in Narrowsburg, N.Y. His paper has been following the drilling in the Upper Delaware River Valley and he told me, “It could ruin the drinking supply for 8 million people in New York City.”
via ‘Clean’ Energy and Poisoned Water | CommonDreams.org.
Climate Change Summit Hijacked by Biggest Polluters, Critics Claim
Climate Change Summit Hijacked by Biggest Polluters, Critics Claim | CommonDreams.org
COPENHAGEN – A vital meeting in Copenhagen this weekend that will help shape the agenda for the most important climate change talks since the Kyoto protocol has been hijacked by some of the biggest polluters in the world, critics claimed today.
Among those attending the World Business Summit on Climate Change is Shell, which has just been named by environmentalists on the basis of new research as “the most carbon-intensive oil company in the world”.
There is concern that the big energy companies will be pushing carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way of keeping the oil-based economy running.
At the meeting yesterday, the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and Nobel prize winner Al Gore urged more than 500 business leaders – including the chief executives of PepsiCo, Nestlé and BP – to lend their corporate muscle to reaching a global deal on reducing greenhouse gases.
Despite the global financial crisis, Ban and Gore said there could be no delay in hashing out the specifics of how to cut greenhouse gases.
via Climate Change Summit Hijacked by Biggest Polluters, Critics Claim | CommonDreams.org.
As the Economy Worsens, A New America Is Emerging, Part 1
As the Economy Worsens, A New America Is Emerging, Part 1
During the last year or two, I have watched America’s “Corapacy” take out their losses out on the public rather than using tried and true methods that enhance profitability that have a propensity to stabilize the economy in general
The following article originally appeared on OpEdNews.org and may not reflect the views or opinions of EconomyInCrisis.org. Feedback is welcome.
During the last year or two, I have watched America’s “Corapacy” take out their losses out on the public rather than using tried and true methods that enhance profitability that have a propensity to stabilize the economy in general; Greed, a message that tells America that we “don’t count” is now the standard rather than an aberration. Even if the economy is on the uptake, which I doubt, the unintended consequences of this assault on our economy are far from over. If you believe the economy is recovering, think again – it’s only getting worse and the aftermath of this assault on America is another notch on the belt of America’s ongoing class war.
The “unintended consequences” I’m speaking of is the credit ratings of people who have lost almost everything while they watched their lifetime jobs being sent off to China, India, and anywhere else that would add to the Corapacy’s bottom-line. The consumer only counts in commercials – and now millions of us that once had good credit couldn’t buy anything except through “special finance” programs where the lender charges exorbitant interest rates. Those of them that have maintained their good credit throughout their lives are now falling into the chasm of poverty – where payments are so high based on their credit rating they can only afford the purchase of sub-standard goods which often cost more to maintain than a new item. This is particularly dominant in the automobile business, a necessity to the bulk of people that work in today’s society. Pay as you go lots and Title Pawn Companies are flourishing, and in the process, are cutting deeply into the income of those who can least afford it.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Obama: ‘We Have Failed’ To Give Vets The ‘Support They Need Or Pay Them The Respect They Deserve’
Obama: ‘We Have Failed’ To Give Vets The ‘Support They Need Or Pay Them The Respect They Deserve’
On this Memorial Day, the nation celebrates the sacrifice of veterans who gave their lives in service to our country. A “by-the-numbers” analysis by the Center for American Progress notes that veterans “are still in need of services to improve their quality of life—before, during, and after deployments. This year, the need is even more urgent than ever as the economic crisis hits many veterans and their families hard and these Americans struggle to find jobs, pay their mortgages, and get back on their feet.” Some key stats:
– 338,000 or almost one in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are experiencing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, or major depression as of January 2009.
– Yet only 53 percent suffering from PTSD or major depression have seen a physician or mental health provider.
– 154,000 veterans were homeless on any given night in 2007, and 300,000 were homeless at some point during that year.
– One-third of homeless Americans are veterans, even though only one-tenth of all adults are veterans.
– Foreclosure rates in military towns were increasing at four times the national average in last year.
Message to Obama: Bust-up the Agribusiness Trusts
Message to Obama: Bust-up the Agribusiness Trusts
Beyond the thirty-year experiment in free-market ideology having been judged a failure in financial markets, one thing is clear: as Kerry Trueman reminded us in a recent post, unfettered capitalism has also been bad for our health, and indeed the safety of our food.
Last week, The New York Times reported that this administration has said it will take a harder line on anti-trust legislation, in diverse sectors of the economy including agriculture. Perhaps its premature to tell what this will look like, but enforcing the laws that we already have on the books would be a great start to building a better food system.
This is because the largest sectors of the agribusiness world (grain, meatpacking, biotechnology, etc) are monopolizing food from seed to supermarket shelf and thereby deciding what we can (and can’t) buy and eat across this country, and by extension, the world.
via Paula Crossfield: Message to Obama: Bust-up the Agribusiness Trusts.
This Memorial Day, Honor the Fallen
This Memorial Day, Honor the Fallen 
Paul Rieckhoff
Your weekend newspaper—assuming your town still has one—will be stuffed with pages of glossy advertisements for holiday sales. Your local TV news will do a story on the folks waiting in line in the dark for your local mall to open its doors. All weekend, people will be firing up their grills or spending a day at the beach.
Nothing’s wrong with enjoying your three-day weekend. But I worry that, even after almost eight years of war, too many Americans see today as just another summer holiday. Memorial Day should mean much more than barbecues and clearance sales.
Today is a solemn day of remembrance for our more than one million American service members of all generations who, on the field of battle, made the ultimate sacrifice. For my part, I am honored to join President Obama and other veterans’ groups in the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery today. It is a humbling opportunity to pay my respects to the generations of American warriors who have given their lives in defense of our country.
via Paul Rieckhoff: This Memorial Day, Honor the Fallen.
Neocon US Colonel Calls for Military Attacks on “Partisan Media”
OPS: The Right wing are dangerously insane. They are a danger to themselves, us as individuals, our Future and the Constitution. Can we wake up and start acting appropriately!?
Neocon US Colonel Calls for Military Attacks on “Partisan Media”
Col. Ralph Peters pens an outrageous essay, writing that journalists “have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants.”
In the era of embedded media, independent journalists have become the eyes and ears of the world. Without those un-embedded journalists willing to risk their lives to place themselves on the other side of the barrel of the tank or the gun or under the airstrikes, history would be written almost entirely from the vantage point of powerful militaries, or—at the very least—it would be told from the perspective of the troops doing the shooting, rather than the civilians who always pay the highest price.
In the case of the Iraq invasion and occupation, the journalists who have placed themselves in danger most often are local Iraqi journalists. Some 116 Iraqi journalists and media workers have been killed in the line of duty since March 2003. In all, 189 journalists have been killed in Iraq. At least 16 of these journalists were killed by the US military, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The network that has most often found itself under US attack is Al Jazeera. As I wrote a few years ago in The Nation:
via Neocon US Colonel Calls for Military Attacks on “Partisan Media” | Media and Technology | AlterNet.
We Spend Twice as Much on Health Care as Other Rich Countries — and What Do We Get for It?
OPS: Health care, like War, is a racket. We need to start acting appropriately.
We Spend Twice as Much on Health Care as Other Rich Countries — and What Do We Get for It?
By Dean Baker
Our health care system isn’t getting fixed because the people who run it like it just the way it is.
Suppose that people in the United States paid twice as much for our cars as people in Canada, Germany, and every other wealthy country. Economists would no doubt be pointing out the enormous amount of waste in the US auto industry. They would insist that we both take advantage of the lower cost cars available elsewhere and take steps to make our own industry more efficient.
For some reason, economists do not have the same attitude towards health care. Most seem little bothered by the fact that we spend more than twice as much per person as people in other countries, with no obvious benefit in terms of health care outcomes. This lack of concern is especially striking since health care is a far larger share of the US economy than autos, comprising 17 percent of total output, as compared to about 3 percent for autos.
The excess health care spending comes to more than $1.2 trillion a year or the equivalent of more than $16,000 for a family of four. Paying too much for health care has the same economic impact as a health care tax. In effect, we have a health care waste tax that is about 10 percent larger than the projected federal revenue from the personal and corporate income tax combined. In short, this is real money.
State of Paralysis
State of Paralysis – - NYTimes.com
Paul Krugman
California, it has long been claimed, is where the future happens first. But is that still true? If it is, God help America.
The recession has hit the Golden State hard. The housing bubble was bigger there than almost anywhere else, and the bust has been bigger too. California’s unemployment rate, at 11 percent, is the fifth-highest in the nation. And the state’s revenues have suffered accordingly.
What’s really alarming about California, however, is the political system’s inability to rise to the occasion.
Despite the economic slump, despite irresponsible policies that have doubled the state’s debt burden since Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor, California has immense human and financial resources. It should not be in fiscal crisis; it should not be on the verge of cutting essential public services and denying health coverage to almost a million children. But it is — and you have to wonder if California’s political paralysis foreshadows the future of the nation as a whole.
via Op-Ed Columnist – State of Paralysis – NYTimes.com.
‘Debt is the crack cocaine of our budget system,’ treasurer says
‘Debt is the crack cocaine of our budget system,’ treasurer says – Sacramento Statehouse Examiner:
After the spectacular May 19th voter repudiation of a series of propositions designed to ameliorate California’s budget crisis, politicians immediately began issuing statements to assure voters their representatives had heard them.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday from Washington DC, “We heard the voice of the voters loud and clear, and they want us to go all-out and make those cuts,” he said. “Those cuts” refer to severe funding reductions in education, health care, law enforcement, and several other social services that most of us take for granted. Don’t kid yourself into thinking these cuts and disguised taxes to close a $21.3 billion budget shortfall through mid-2010 will only affect the poor.
They will affect you!
via Sacramento Statehouse Examiner: ‘Debt is the crack cocaine of our budget system,’ treasurer says.
Saying Private Competition Isn’t Cutting It, Leahy Defends Public Health Option
Saying Private Competition Isn’t Cutting It, Leahy Defends Public Health Option – On The Hill:
Competition among private insurers alone isn’t containing skyrocketing health costs, which is why a senior Democratic senator says he supports offering a public health option in reform of U.S. healthcare. That a coalition of health organizations recently came together to control costs should not preclude a public option, says the lawmaker, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
“Competition among private insurers has not driven down costs to consumers and the current private insurance market has a clear incentive to offer coverage only to the healthiest Americans,” says Leahy, one of the most progressive members of the Senate. “Comprehensive health care reform can change this calculus and that is why I support the creation of a federally backed, public health insurance option. For those who are satisfied with their current insurance there is no need to change.
“A public option would only give consumers more choices to purchase an affordable and quality health insurance plan and will help drive down overall health care costs by introducing real competition into the health care market,” Leahy adds. “I was proud to join Senator [Sherrod] Brown [D-Ohio] and over 20 other Senators to introduce a resolution stating our support of a public option as part of comprehensive health care reform legislation.”
via On The Hill: Saying Private Competition Isn’t Cutting It, Leahy Defends Public Health Option.
War is a Racket
The day that we remember the victims of those who profit from war: Remembering that War is a Racket on Memorial Day
“Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (in 2009 on May 25). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action.”
How unfortunate that we have a need for such a day, especially since “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” So stated Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, the most decorated Marine in US history.
via Chycho.com – Analysis and discussion about the world we live in..
Bush’s Shocking Biblical Prophecy Emerges: God Wants to “Erase” Mid-East Enemies “Before a New Age Begins”
OPS: Bush and his Crime Family are insane. There is no way around it. Why are treating them as if they simply have different but “legitimate” views? They are insane.
Bush’s Shocking Biblical Prophecy Emerges: God Wants to “Erase” Mid-East Enemies “Before a New Age Begins”
Bush explained to French Pres. Chirac that the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Mid-East and must be defeated.
Bush, God, Iraq and Gog – By CLIVE HAMILTON
Biblical Prophesy and the Iraq War
The revelation this month in GQ magazine that Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary embellished top-secret wartime memos with quotations from the Bible prompts a question. Why did he believe he could influence President Bush by that means?
The answer may lie in an alarming story about George Bush’s Christian millenarian beliefs that has yet to come to light.
In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle … and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:
“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”.
The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elysée Palace, baffled by Bush’s words, sought advice from Thomas Römer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Römer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university’s review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.
via Clive Hamilton: Bush, God, Iraq and Gog.
California Committee on Un-Zionist Activities to Convene
California Committee on Un-Zionist Activities to Convene
Israel lobby descends on UC- Santa Barbara – Norman G. Finkelstein
»Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB
Investigation of sociology professor is frontline in nationwide campaign to silence criticism against Israel on college campuses
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Noam Chomsky is no newcomer to harassment by pro-Israel organizations.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) once compiled a 150-page dossier on the famous author and linguistics professor, apparently to find information it could use against him, Chomsky said in an interview in late April.
An ADL insider sent Chomsky the file, which included conversations, correspondence and other materials. Chomsky said it read like an FBI file.
“It’s hard to nail this stuff down in a court of law, but it’s clear they essentially have spies in classrooms who take notes and send them to the ADL and other organizations,” Chomsky said. “The groups then compile dossiers they can use to condemn, attack or remove faculty members. They’re like J. Edgar Hoover’s files. It’s kind of gutter stuff.”
via Norman G. Finkelstein » California Committee on Un-Zionist Activities to Convene.
Cheney’s speech false to fact and reason
Olberman: Special Comment – Cheney’s speech false to fact and reason
May 21: In a Special Comment, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann marvels at former Vice President Dick Cheney’s defense of the Bush administration torture practices while avoiding taking any responsibility for them.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30877373#30877373
EDITORIAL: Memorial Day
EDITORIAL: Memorial Day
- The Daily Freeman Opinion
Before anything else today, Memorial Day, please make sure you take time to reflect on the meaning of this national holiday, a day specifically intended to commemorate the sacrifice of U.S. men and women who died while in military service.
The supreme sacrifice of American service members is intimately connected to the very meaning of the Republic.
The United States has fought all manner of war.
Some of these wars have been clear matters of self-defense. Some have been less clear-cut.
Some have been just. Others, arguably, without justification.
Some have been duly authorized under the Constitution by a declaration of war by Congress. Others have been authorized by a modern and disputed interpretation of the president’s power as commander in chief.
But, in the end, whether for good or ill, each and every war or military action in our representative democracy is an extension of the democratic will of the people.
In democracies, neither heads of state nor military leaders make war. Average civilians – people just like you and your neighbor and your neighbor’s neighbor – make the decisions, through both elections and the national conversation during times of peril, that lead to war.
Gene research finds opposites do attract
Gene research finds opposites do attract
The bond of true love may be forged in the genes as well as in the mind, researchers have found. | The Guardian
A comparative survey of couples suggests people are more attracted to those who have very different immunity genes from their own, even though they are not aware of it.
The genes in question play a major role in the immune system’s ability to fight infections, but they are also thought to leave a lingering trace in the scent of people’s body odour.
The scientist who led the study believes humans have evolved to sniff out partners who have different immunity genes because they tend to produce healthier children with stronger immune systems.
“It may be tempting to think that humans choose their partners because of their similarities,” said Maria da Graça Bicalho, a professor of immunology at the University of Paraná in Brazil. “[But] our research has shown clearly that it is differences that make for successful reproduction, and that the subconscious drive to have healthy children is important when choosing a mate.”
via Gene research finds opposites do attract | Science | The Guardian.
Vitamin D ‘key to healthy brain’
Vitamin D ‘key to healthy brain’ - BBC NEWS
Scientists have produced more evidence that vitamin D has an important role in keeping the brain in good working order in later life.
A study of over 3,000 European men aged 40-79 found those with high vitamin D levels performed better on memory and information processing tests.
The University of Manchester team believe vitamin D may protect cells or key signalling pathways in the brain.
The study features in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
via BBC NEWS | Health | Vitamin D ‘key to healthy brain’.
Rising unemployment raises threat of social crisis: World Bank
Rising unemployment raises threat of social crisis: World Bank
MADRID (Reuters) – World economic recovery will be slow and rising unemployment could bring the threat of social crisis and protectionism, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview with Spanish Sunday newspaper El Pais.
“What began as a great financial crisis and became a great economic crisis is now becoming a great crisis of unemployment, and if we don’t take measures there is a risk of a great human and social crisis, with major political implications,” he said.
“That’s a good breeding ground for populist, protectionist policies,” he added.
“The finance ministers of the G7 and the G20 are displaying a certain relief because the contraction has slowed. Although we could still have low or negative growth, the situation is less bad,” he said.
“But economists and industrialists are conscious that the recovery will be slow coming and weaker than expected.”
Dangers remain in the U.S. financial system and in vulnerable emerging markets, Zoellick said.
via Rising unemployment raises threat of social crisis: World Bank | Reuters.
Study: Global warming this century could lead to ‘hundreds of millions’ dead
Study: Global warming this century could lead to ‘hundreds of millions’ dead
House Energy and Commerce Committee backs 83 percent emissions cut by 2050
A new study published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate warns that global climate change may actually be twice as detrimental as previously predicted, with temperatures climbing by as much as nine degrees by 2100, leading to mass migrations, wars and “hundreds of millions” dead.
“The research, conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), predicts a 90% probability that worldwide surface temperatures will rise more than 9 degrees (F) by 2100, compared to a previous 2003 MIT study that forecast a rise of just over 4 degrees,” noted USA Today .
The paper added: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 forecast a temperature rise of anywhere from 2 to 11 degrees by 2100 based on a variety of different greenhouse-gas-emissions scenarios.”
via Raw Story » Study: Global warming this century could lead to ‘hundreds of millions’ dead.
Job losses up in 44 states as recession drags on
Job losses up in 44 states as recession drags on
WASHINGTON – All but six states lost jobs in April and double-digit unemployment persisted in every corner of the country as companies squeezed by the recession slashed payrolls.
For the fifth straight month, California led the nation in net job losses, with 63,700 jobs disappearing in April. Among the handful of winners were Arkansas, Montana and Florida — a state battered by the housing collapse and badly in need of good news.
Michigan, the heart of the teetering American auto industry, posted the highest unemployment rate in the nation, 12.9 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. Oregon came in at 12 percent, South Carolina at 11.5 percent and Rhode Island at 11.1 percent.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said he expects the economy to begin growing again later this year, but the recovery is expected to be slow, with companies in no rush to hire. The Fed projects unemployment will stay high well into 2011.
After California, Texas cut the second-most jobs of any state, with 39,500. Michigan lost 38,400 and Ohio 25,200.
via Job losses up in 44 states as recession drags on – Yahoo! News.
CSM: Legalize marijuana? Not so fast.
Legalize marijuana? Not so fast. - Christian Science Monitor
The American movement to legalize marijuana for regular use is on a roll. Or at least its backers say it is.
They point to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said in early May that it’s now time to debate legalizing marijuana – though he’s personally against it. Indeed, a legislative push is on in his state (and several others, such as Massachusetts and Nevada) to treat this “soft” drug like alcohol – to tax and regulate its sale, and set an age restriction on buyers.
Several recent polls show stepped-up public support for legalization. This means not only lifting restrictions on use (“decriminalization”), but also on supply – production and sales. The Obama administration, meanwhile, says the US Drug Enforcement Agency will no longer raid dispensaries of medical marijuana – which is illegal under federal law – in states where it is legal.
via Legalize marijuana? Not so fast. – Yahoo! News.
Ventura: I’ll waterboard Hannity into saying Obama best president ever
Ventura: I’ll waterboard Hannity into saying Obama best president ever
After ripping George W. Bush and expressing his desire to waterboard Dick Cheney, former governor Jesse Ventura continues his media storm, this time in a sitdown with Huffington Post.
The ex-pro wrestler minced no words, as usual.
Americans have changed “in that we have a paranoia that there’s a crazy Arab around every tree,” Ventura told Marcus Baram. “We’re walking on eggshells now, when in reality you have as much chance of running into a terrorist as winning the Powerball.”
Related: Texas gov. will use stimulus funds to pay to repair mansion
He ripped into conservative talkers, such as Bill O’Reilly: “I always want to go on [his show], I’ve got something, I’m going to blast him for something. I don’t want to reveal what it is so he can’t prepare. But he doesn’t have the courage to have me on.”
On Sean Hannity, whose show Ventura guested on this week: “He’s scared to death of me. It was over in a few minutes and that was it.”
via Raw Story » Ventura: I’ll waterboard Hannity into saying Obama best president ever.
A Failure of Capitalism: Reply to Alan Greenspan
A Failure of Capitalism: Reply to Alan Greenspan
by Richard A. Posner
I have received an email from Alan Greenspan in which he expresses regret at what he describes as my “rather thin analysis of the source of the current financial crisis.” He states that his “view is different,” and by way of explanation prints excerpts of three pieces written by him. The first is from remarks, entitled “Risk and Uncertainty in Monetary Policy,” that he made at a meeting of the American Economics Association in January of 2004, while he was still chairman of the Federal Reserve and the housing bubble was expanding. The second is from an article that he published in the Financial Times on April 6, 2008, called “A Response to My Critics.” The third is from an op-ed that he published in the Wall Street Journal on March 11 of this year, entitled “The Fed Didn’t Cause the Housing Bubble.” Above are the links to the three pieces, and I suggest you read them before reading my reply, which follows.
The first piece is a narrative of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy between 1979 and 2004. Greenspan explains that the Fed during this period, under Paul Volcker’s chairmanship and then Greenspan’s, raised and lowered the federal funds rate (the rate at which banks borrow from each other overnight) in order to achieve so far as possible full employment with minimal inflation. He notes the dot-com stock market bubble of the late 1990s and explains that the Fed did not try to puncture it by raising interest rates, fearing that to do so would cause “a substantial economic contraction and possible financial destabilization.” But the article does not explain why he thought those consequences would have ensued. He notes that after the bubble burst and a recession ensued in 2001, the Fed reduced the federal funds rate; by June 2003 it was at 1 percent, “the lowest level in 45 years.”
via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.
Credit changes on the horizon
Credit changes on the horizon – baltimoresun.com 
New laws are designed to protect consumers, but they could mean some customers will have a harder time borrowing.
Ready access to credit, coupled with teaser interest rates, generous reward programs, grace periods and the absence of annual fees enticed many Americans to rely on credit cards for even the smallest purchases. But when credit card companies hiked interest rates with little warning and slapped on snowballing penalties, consumer groups fought for change. Now that President Barack Obama has signed a credit card reform bill into law that curtails many of the fees and billing practices that have been so lucrative for card issuers, credit card representatives are predicting these perks may be harder to find as the industry evolves in response.
“The new laws fundamentally change the business model of credit cards,” said Peter Garuccio, spokesman for the American Bankers Association.
“At the end of the day, you are still talking about a loan, and lending is inherently a risky business,” he said. “What the new laws do is limit the ability of card issuers to price for risk.”
According to an ABA statement, people such as younger consumers with short credit histories or small-business owners could have limited access to credit. Interest rates may start higher because they would be locked in for 12 months under the new bill, and credit lines could be smaller.
via Credit changes on the horizon — baltimoresun.com.
Nelson Open To Filibustering Obama Court Nominee (VIDEO)
Nelson Open To Filibustering Obama Court Nominee (VIDEO)
President Obama said on Saturday that a Supreme Court nominee is coming soon, but Republicans in the Senate have spent weeks working to frame the type of judicial resume that would be unacceptable on the bench. On Sunday, the GOP got what could be a bit of a boost, as a key moderate Democrat left the door open to filibustering a possible Obama Court nominee.
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Ben Nelson warned the president against appointing an activist judge to replace the retiring David Souter. In the process, the Nebraska Democrat acknowledged that the scenario could present itself where he joined the GOP in voting against cloture.
“I think that’s the test, will they be an activist or not?” Nelson said. “And I would hope that there wouldn’t be any circumstances that would be so extreme with any of the president’s nominees that the other side would feel the need to filibuster or that I might feel the need to filibuster in the case of extraordinary circumstances.”
Watch:
via Nelson Open To Filibustering Obama Court Nominee (VIDEO).
Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosure
Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosure – - NYTimes.com
As job losses rise, growing numbers of American homeowners with once solid credit are falling behind on their mortgages, amplifying a wave of foreclosures.
In the latest phase of the nation’s real estate disaster, the locus of trouble has shifted from subprime loans — those extended to home buyers with troubled credit — to the far more numerous prime loans issued to those with decent financial histories.
With many economists anticipating that the unemployment rate will rise into the double digits from its current 8.9 percent, foreclosures are expected to accelerate. That could exacerbate bank losses, adding pressure to the financial system and the broader economy.
“We’re about to have a big problem,” said Morris A. Davis, a real estate expert at the University of Wisconsin. “Foreclosures were bad last year? It’s going to get worse.”
via Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosure – NYTimes.com.
Durbin Calls On Gingrich To Apologize For Attacking The CIA In 2007
Durbin Calls On Gingrich To Apologize For Attacking The CIA In 2007
Last week, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to resign her current position as Speaker. He said that she “disqualified herself” over her comments that the CIA was “misleading” Congress.
As ThinkProgress pointed out, Gingrich himself has accused the CIA, among other U.S. intelligence agencies, of misleading Congress and undermining the president. In response to the release of the 2007 Iran National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) — which concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program — Gingrich said that he believed the NIE and its authors were “damaging to our own national security.” He said that the document was “a deliberate attempt to undermine the policies of President Bush by members of his own government by suggesting that Iran no longer poses a serious threat to U.S. national security.”
Today on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) brought up this point. He said that if Gingrich is so offended by Pelosi’s comments, then he should also apologize for what he said in 2007:
via Think Progress » Durbin Calls On Gingrich To Apologize For Attacking The CIA In 2007.
Judge threatens sanctions over gov’t wiretapping
Judge threatens sanctions over gov’t wiretapping
A federal judge on Friday threatened to severely sanction the Obama Administration for withholding a top secret document he ordered given to lawyers suing the government over its warrantless wiretapping program.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco ordered Justice Department lawyers to court on June 3 to tell him why he shouldn’t award unspecified damages to the now-defunct Oregon arm of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. The group alleges that government officials eavesdropped on their telephone calls without court authorization.
The National Security Agency has also refused the judge’s previous orders to provide security clearances to two of the charity’s lawyers so they can view the top secret document.
The judge had issued a written order on Jan. 5 and then reinforced it during a hearing later that month. He also barred the prosecutors from appealing the order, but they asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to step in anyway. The appeals court refused to hear the case.
via Judge threatens sanctions over gov’t wiretapping.
Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation
OPS: Alex Jones has something to say on this subject.
Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation
America’s richest people meet to discuss ways of tackling a ‘disastrous’ environmental, social and industrial threat - Times Online
SOME of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education.
The philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change.
Described as the Good Club by one insider it included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America’s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey.
These members, along with Gates, have given away more than £45 billion since 1996 to causes ranging from health programmes in developing countries to ghetto schools nearer to home.
via Billionaire club in bid to curb overpopulation – Times Online.
Feingold to Obama: Preventing Detention “Likely Unconstitutional.”
Feingold to Obama: Preventing Detention “Likely Unconstitutional.” | The Progressive
Here’s the letter from the Wisconsin Senator and defender of civil liberties.
May 22, 2009
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to convey my appreciation for your speech of May 21 on security and values, but also to express several concerns, particularly about your intention to design a system for what you called “prolonged detention.”
On many fronts, your speech confirmed your commitment to defending our country while reversing the previous administration’s numerous attacks on the rule of law. I was particularly pleased by your forceful rejection of torture, an issue on which you have backed up your campaign rhetoric with sustained action, beginning on your second day in office. I also welcome your acknowledgment that the state secrets privilege has been overused, as well as your commitment to reform. As you know, the Senate Judiciary Committee is currently considering legislation on this matter, which I hope your administration will now support. I also look forward to briefings on your administration’s use of the privilege thus far, in keeping with your commitment to “voluntarily report to Congress when we have invoked the privilege and why.”
via Feingold to Obama: Preventing Detention “Likely Unconstitutional.” | The Progressive.
Top U.S. military officer pushes Guantanamo closing
Top U.S. military officer pushes Guantanamo closing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. military officer on Sunday pushed for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison despite rising resistance in Congress, saying it serves as a “recruiting symbol” for America’s enemies.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, rallied behind President Barack Obama’s move to close the detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, which is operated by the U.S. military.
“Well, the concern I’ve had about Guantanamo in these wars is it has been a symbol — and one which has been a recruiting symbol for those extremists and jihadists who would fight us. … That’s at the heart of the concern for Guantanamo’s continued existence,” Mullen said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Well, I’ve advocated for a long time now that it needs to be closed. President Obama made a decision very early after his inauguration to do that by next January. And we’re all working very hard to meet that deadline,” Mullen added.
via Top U.S. military officer pushes Guantanamo closing | Politics | Reuters.
Restoring National Sovereignty with A Truly National Banking System
Restoring National Sovereignty with A Truly National Banking System
Reviewing Ellen Brown’s “Web of Debt:” Part VI
This is the sixth and final article on Ellen Brown’s superb 2007 book titled “Web of Debt,” now updated in a December 2008 third edition. It tells “the shocking truth about our money system, (how it) trapped us in debt, and how we can break free.” This article focuses on establishing a people-oriented banking system. It’s high time we had one and reclaimed what’s rightfully ours.
Restoring National Sovereignty with A Truly National Banking System
One serving everyone, not powerful moneychangers alone, the so-called Money Trust cartel of Wall Street bankers looting the national wealth for themselves and heading the country for bankruptcy, tyranny and ruin. Stopping them is Job One, and only mass activist outrage can do it.
At the Chicago Democratic National Convention, William Jennings Bryan won the nomination saying:
“(W)e believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government….I stand with Jefferson (and say), as he did, that the issue of money is a function of the government and that banks should go out of the governing business….(W)hen we have restored the money of the Constitution, all other necessary reforms will be possible, and….until that is done there is no reform that can be accomplished.”
No Fed existed at that time. If one did and operated like today, Bryan would have said abolish it or make it truly federal. As a US government agency, money created would go directly to the Treasury. But that’s only 3% of the money supply. What about the other 97% in the form of commercial loans? Would that put government in the commercial lending business?
“Perhaps, but why not. As Bryan said, banking is the government’s business, by Constitutional mandate” – at least the part of it involved in creating new money. The rest could be in private hands, like today – through banks and other financial institutions, such as finance companies, pension and mutual funds, insurance companies, and securities dealers. “These institutions do not create the money they lend but merely recycle pre-existing funds.” With government printing money, banks would become more equitable recyclers – “borrowing money at a low rate and lending it at a higher one,” except for one downside. Some would go bankrupt, but start-ups would replace them under a more stable and equitable system.
In 1946, the Bank of England was nationalized in name only and retained its (privately-controlled) money printing power. In 2003, James Robertson and John Bunzl proposed changing it their book titled: “Monetary Reform: Making It Happen.” They advocated making it illegal for banks to create new money as loans. Only a central bank should do it with commercial banks having to borrow it for relending.
via Restoring National Sovereignty with A Truly National Banking System.
Credit Default Swaps; The Poison in the Financial System
Credit Default Swaps; The Poison in the Financial System
by Mike Whitney
In a little more than a decade, Credit Default Swaps (CDS) have ballooned into a multi-billion dollar industry which has changed the fundamental character of the financial system and increased systemic risk by many orders of magnitude. CDS, which were originally created to reduce potential losses from defaulting bonds, has turned into a cash cow for the big banks, generating mega-profits on, what amounts to, nothing more than legalized gambling. In the case of insurance giant AIG, losses from CDS transactions has already cost the American people $150 billion, and yet their still has been no serious effort in Congress to ban them once and for all. Even worse, CDS is the root-cause of systemic risk which connects hundreds of financial institutions together in a lethal daisy-chain that threatens to crash the entire system if one of the main players goes under.
CDS contracts are not cleared on a centralized exchange nor are they government regulated. That means that no one really knows whether issuers of CDS can pay off potential claims or not. It’s a Ponzi-insurance racket of the first order. AIG is a good example of a company that gamed the system and then walked away with millions for its efforts. They sold more CDS than they could cover and then–when the debts started piling up around their eyeballs–they trundled off to the Fed for a multi-billion dollar bailout. Fed chief Bernanke later said that he was furious over the AIG’s fiasco, but it didn’t stop him from shovelling the losses onto the public ledger and making the taxpayer the guarantor for all AIG’s bad bets. Keep in mind, that AIG was selling paper that had zero capital backing, an activity is tantamount to counterfeiting. Still, no one has been indicted or prosecuted in the affair. Defrauding clients and then sticking it to Joe six-pack has become de rigueur on Wall Street.
via Credit Default Swaps; The Poison in the Financial System.
Abramoff Should Forfeit $500k Tax Refund, Justice Dept. Says
Abramoff Should Forfeit Tax Refund, Justice Dept. Says - washingtonpost.com
Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff should not be allowed to use his tax refund of more than $500,000 to pay back his lawyers, accountants and others because he has yet to make restitution for the millions of dollars he defrauded from Indian tribes he represented, the Justice Department says.
Abramoff, who has been in prison since 2006, received a $520,189 refund from the IRS on May 4. After his lawyers notified the government, Justice asked a federal judge today to stop Abramoff from paying his bills.
Under the restitution order by U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, Abramoff and former associate Michael Scanlon still owe more than $23 million to the tribes. Abramoff was not expected to be able to make payments until after he got out of prison, the government said. However, “Mr. Abramoff was required by statute to apply the value of that refund to his restitution obligation, notwithstanding that the money was received while he was in prison and before the payment schedule had taken effect,” the Justice Department filing said.
via Abramoff Should Forfeit Tax Refund, Justice Dept. Says – washingtonpost.com.
A Modest Plan For Paying College Costs
A Modest Plan For Paying College Costs | Robert Reich
I’m just about to head off to a commencement here at U Cal Berkeley. The news that keeps banging around in my head is that the state has just announced a whopping 9 percent increase in fees for next academic year, the third fee increase in three years.
The average young person now graduating from college anywhere in America has to repay almost $22,000 of student loans. That’s a record, partly because college costs have continued to rise even during the downturn, because states are cutting their support for public universities, and because other sources of college funding have taken big hits — like home equity loans and 529 plans that allowed families to sock money away for college.
But how can a young people repay this much money when the job market is so bad? The law doesn’t allow college loans to be discharged in personal bankruptcy.
Even when they do find jobs, college grads have no choice but to take the job that pays the most. They can’t afford to do what they might really want to do — become, say, a social worker or writer or legal services attorney.
via A Modest Plan For Paying College Costs | Robert Reich’s Blog.
TARP Watchdog Finds Yet Another Bank Subsidy That “Warrants” Investigation
TARP Watchdog Finds Yet Another Bank Subsidy That “Warrants” Investigation
As we’ve explained here before, the government didn’t just give all that TARP money away to those 579 banks for nothing: it got warrants to buy stock in the banks at certain prices over a ten-year time horizon. And as we informed you last month, no sooner did the banks start making noises about repaying the TARP money did they also begin referring to the cash they were forking over to buy back said warrants as a supposed “early repayment penalty” and angling for a discount on buying them back. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon brought up the issue with Barack Obama himself, while a little bank in West Virginia called Centra sent its CEO and vice president on the media circuit blasting the “penalty” as usurous and “un-American.”
But would the Treasury Department really cave to this spin by giving banks that repaid TARP funds early another subsidy? The answer appears to be “yes,” at least on the basis of the deal it cut with Indiana’s Old National Bancorp, which bought back an estimated $5.81 million worth of warrants last week for the bargain price of $1.2 million, terms a Bloomberg analysis estimates could shortchange taxpayers to the tune of $10 billion. A source tells TPM Neil Barofksy, the special inspector general assigned to oversee the TARP, plans to “soon” add a special audit into the warrant repurchases to the six separate audits of various eyebrow-raising aspects of the bailout already underway at his office. Only three banks have exited the TARP have bought back their warrants thus far — with disturbing (though strangely mixed) results.
via TARP Watchdog Finds Yet Another Bank Subsidy That “Warrants” Investigation | TPMMuckraker.
The Newburgh Four — And The Goverment Mole Who Betrayed Them
The Newburgh Four — And The Goverment Mole Who Betrayed Them | TPMMuckraker
Stoned, Unmedicated, Pathetic: Portrait Of Newburgh 4 Emerges
We’re starting to get a rich picture of the four hapless Jihadis who were arrested Wednesday night for plotting to bomb two New York synagogues, as well as the FBI informant who deceived them. And the overall portrait that’s emerging is that of a group of struggling, disaffected petty criminals, who bonded at a Newburgh, NY mosque over having spent time in prison, before being taken in by a Pakistani immigrant looking to win leniency for a crime of his own.
There’s little doubt the bumbling would-be bombers went far enough with the plot to demonstrate that they had the intention to commit terror, and for that they’ll pay the price. But the whole tale comes off perhaps more as a sad glimpse into the lives of a loose group of aimless and obscurely embittered Americans than as a dire illustration of the threat of home-grown terrorism.
Based on reports in the New York Times, Post, and Daily News, and the Associated Press, here’s what we’ve learned about five men at the center of plot:
via The Newburgh Four — And The Goverment Mole Who Betrayed Them | TPMMuckraker.
Liz Cheney and Lawrence O’Donnell Square Off on GMA
Liz Cheney and Lawrence O’Donnell on ABC’s Good Morning America, May 22, 2009
YouTube – Liz Cheney and Lawrence O’Donnell Square Off on GMA.
Jesus Would Have Approved Waterboarding
OPS: Them is some whacky kristians
Red State: Jesus Would Have Approved Waterboarding
More pearls of wisdom from that bastion of politicized Christianist exceptionalism (h/t John Cole):
It’s likely even Jesus would have OK’d water boarding if it would have saved his Mom. He would’ve done the same to save his Dad, or any one of His disciples. For that matter, He even died to save all humans.
It’s obvious He would not be happy with those who voted for the candidate who kills because it’s above his “pay grade” to know if they’re alive. Checking the Commandments, killing innocents is against the 5th. Because pro-aborts don’t know for sure life does not exist at conception, they are still willing to risk that it’s not killing.
So, Jesus wouldn’t be cool with killing babies in the womb but he’d be fine with torturing people? Yep, nothing says “Christ’s love” like strapping a guy to a bench and drowning him to extract information.
This reminds me of a couple of things I’ve blogged about before. The first is the poll that came out a few weeks ago that revealed that a majority of regular church-goers approve of the use of torture:
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent – said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
There was also this gem of a quote from Christian Right leader Jack Gary Bauer:
via Library Grape: Red State: Jesus Would Have Approved Waterboarding.
When you die in America, it will be because you are NOT RICH!
When you die in America, it will be because you are NOT RICH! – Len Hart – The Existentialist Cowboy:
Of the many ways in which a ruling elite of just one percent of the US population wages war upon the American people, the denial of health to everyone but the very rich is the most evil. This is a direct result of the GOP/right wing domination of America since the rise of Ronald Reagan. Today, just one percent of the population is in a position to deny everyone but very, very rich a right to even basic health care. Denied this right, millions will die that might have lived productive and meaningful lives. This is not merely a matter of personal loss; it is that of the nation.
Since the GOP ascension to power began with the rise of Ronald Reagan in the early 80s, American wealth has been re-distributed upward. Gini indices evinced a dramatic shift upward even as Ronald Reagan still ruled. Those indices, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prove that only the uppper quintile had benefited from Reagan’s widely touted tax cuts’.
Although this trend reversed under Clinton, the GOP wasted no time in undoing the good that had been done. Under Bush Jr, the GOP transfer of wealth to the ruling aristocracy, the ruling elite was resumed. Today –just one percent or less of the US populations earns more and owns more than 90 percent of the rest of us combined. As a result, 90 percent of us are priced out of the markets for better homes, cars and other consumables, but most importantly crucial essentials like health care. The effects of these policies are transparent. These effects are achived so predictably, so methodically and so consistently that I am entirely justified in charging that it is all done deliberately.
In today’s America, the chances are increasing that when you die it will be because you are NOT RICH!
That is but ONE result of the right wing/GOP THEFT of America’s wealth! Question is: what are you going to do about it?
Following are a letter from my friend and progressive crusader, Doug Drenkow and a recent column by Paul Krugman:
Progressive friends,
Thanks for this article, which — in classic Krugman style — lays it on the line. It was remarkable to me that in the months running up to the election the people on the Right I spoke with had one thing consistently on their mind (another example of the lockstep political messaging from the Right): They didn’t speak with passion about the election — it was apparently obvious even to them that Bush was too much of an albatross around any GOP nominee’s neck — but they did against health care reform, which they even more than I knew was going to be the big issue (It is the Number One issue in labor/management disagreements; and has been noted elsewhere, as by the president, rising health care costs are driving much of the increase in costs of entitlement programs, read Medicare and Medicaid, which are not as cataclysmic and the Right insists, in their continuing effort to dismantle those and other social programs, but which do demand addressing).
via The Existentialist Cowboy: When you die in America, it will be because you are NOT RICH!.
Divisive Issues Force Their Way Onto President Obama’s Agenda
OPS: The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even the past. – Faulkner
The Past’s Agenda
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
President Obama’s lieutenants would love it if all the networks ran a crawl line at the bottom of the screen during news broadcasts that kept repeating: “The economy, health care, energy, education. The economy, health care . . . ”
Then there’s reality. Over the past two weeks, the past has ensnared the present, deflecting attention from Obama’s domestic priorities and raising issues that divide his coalition. We’re talking about torture as much as health care, military commissions as much as green energy, and Nancy Pelosi as much as Barack Obama.
In principle, the administration is philosophical about this. “Presidents can’t only deal with what they want to,” said David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser. “They have to deal with what comes and what they have to.”
But Axelrod made clear that Obama truly wishes that some issues could be dispensed with. “The balance he wants to strike,” Axelrod said in an interview, “is to solve the mess we found in ways that don’t trigger endless, backward-looking partisan battles that inhibit our efforts to get other things done.”
This is reasonable, but Obama is caught between two powerful forces and two conflicting ideas.
Republicans want to change the subject from their own party’s failures and distract from the progress Obama and Democrats in Congress are making on health care and cap-and-trade legislation. Their slogan might be: Bring on the past!
Many Democrats, in the meantime, are eager to hold the Bush administration accountable for its policies on torture and all manner of other things. They are also uneasy — in fact, many are deeply unhappy — with a series of Obama decisions accepting some Bush approaches, notably barring the release of photos of prisoner abuse and continuing to use military commissions to try certain terrorism suspects. The complementary slogan from these Democrats might be: You can’t escape the past!
via E.J. Dionne Jr. – Divisive Issues Force Their Way Onto President Obama’s Agenda.
Dick Durbin would accept Gitmo detainees in Illinois if in ‘supermax’ prison
OPS: Of course – why not? As long as the Feds are paying the bill and not the taxpayers of Illinois
Dick Durbin would accept Gitmo detainees in Illinois if in ‘supermax’ prison - - POLITICO.com
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the assistant majority leader, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would accept Guantanamo detainees in his home state as long as they were held in super-maximum prisons, where inmates are held 23 hours a day in small cells with slits for windows.
Moderator David Gregory asked: “Would you be OK with al Qaeda prisoners – those currently at Guantanamo Bay – in a prison in Illinois?”
Durbin responded: “Well, I’d be OK with it in a supermax facility, because we’ve never had an escape from one.”
Appearing with Durbin in the live interview, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should apologize for accusing the CIA of “misleading the Congress of the United States.”
Dick Durbin pwns Newt over supermax prisons
Dick Durbin Says Newt Gingrich Is Suffering From ‘Political Amnesia’
Newt Gingrich didn’t expect the question Durbin threw at him about his own anti-national security comments in 2007 – saying that if Gingrich wants Pelosi to apologize, should he do it as well for making the same kind of statements.
YouTube – Dick Durbin pwns Newt over supermax prisons.
FBI ‘lured dimwits’ into terror plot
FBI ‘lured dimwits’ into terror plot – Times Online 
The arrest of petty crooks over a plan to target Jews has put the use of sting operations under fire
ON the steps of New York city hall on Friday, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor, praised the police officers and federal agents who helped disrupt an apparent terrorist plot to blow up a synagogue and shoot down military aircraft.
The mayor was flanked by more than 100 homeland security and counter-terrorist specialists, all of whom had a hand in an elaborate sting that netted four alleged Muslim extremists. Their plan, according to FBI agents, was to detonate a “fireball that would make the country gasp”.
The operation was acclaimed by New York officials for its success in averting what David Paterson, the state governor, described as “a heinous crime”.
via FBI ‘lured dimwits’ into terror plot – Times Online.
NRC Contemplates the Next Step on Imported Nuclear Waste
OPS: Suicide by greed - anything for a buck. 
NRC Contemplates the Next Step on Imported Nuclear Waste
Federal regulators want to know if the time is right to think about allowing a Utah company to import radioactive waste from Italy.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officially opened up its comment line last week to “potential parties” in EnergySolutions Inc.’s controversial import application.
The door opened for the Salt Lake City nuclear waste company to dispose of low-level waste from 39 states and foreign nations following a May 15 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart. The ruling basically said a regional radioactive waste organization has no authority to limit the waste the company buries at its Tooele County landfill as Northwest Interstate Compact on Low-level Radioactive Waste and the Rocky Mountain Compact had tried to do.
“We are pleased that the licensing process is moving forward,” said company spokesman Mark Walker.
The NRC put its review of the import license request on hold Oct. 6, while the lawsuit was pending. On Wednesday, the commission asked for input on how to proceed.
via NRC Contemplates the Next Step on Imported Nuclear Waste | CommonDreams.org.
Held Hostage by the Health System
Held Hostage by the Health System | CommonDreams.org
by Dr. Marcia Angell
The Senate Finance Committee’s hearings on health reform earlier this month did not include testimony from any advocate for single-payer insurance. Physicians for a National Health Program, which represents 16,000 doctors, asked the committee to invite me to testify, but it chose not to. If I had been invited, this is what I would have said:
The reason our health system is in such trouble is that it is set up to generate profits, not to provide care. We rely on hundreds of investor-owned insurance companies that profit by refusing coverage to high-risk patients and limiting services to others. They also cream off about 20 percent of the premiums for profits and overhead.
In addition, we provide much of our medical care in investor-owned health facilities that profit by providing too many services for the well-insured and too few for those who cannot pay. Most physicians are paid fee-for-service, which gives them a similar incentive, particularly specialists who receive very high fees for performing expensive tests and procedures. Nonprofits behave much like for-profits, because they must compete with them. In sum, healthcare is directed toward maximizing income, not maximizing health. In economic terms, it’s a highly successful industry, but it’s a massive drain on the rest of the economy.
via Held Hostage by the Health System | CommonDreams.org.
WHO bows to criticism on swine flu alert
WHO bows to criticism on swine flu alert – FT.com
The World Health Organisation has bowed to international pressure that it was unnecessarily stoking public alarm by raising the threshold required for it to declare a flu pandemic.
Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s acting assistant director-general, confirmed that the agency would increase its assessment of the H1N1 swine flu virus alert to its highest level, dubbed phase six, only if there were signs of greater severity rather than its broader geographical spread.
via FT.com / Global Economy – WHO bows to criticism on swine flu alert.
Jobs Solutions for Our Jobless Recovery Part 2
Jobs Solutions for Our Jobless Recovery Part 2
Most damaging to long-term prosperity, our economy has simply bounced from one bubble to another, fueled in each case by the combination of manufacturing and energy-related trade deficits, cheap credit generated through financial engineering, and hyper-consumerism
The following transcript originally appeared on TradeReform.org and is the second installment in a two part series.
This speech was delivered at The New School on May 19, 2009.
The first thing we have to ask ourselves today is, “What the heck happened?”
Well, the answers are actually pretty simple.
Even though history teaches us that no nation can simply borrow its way to sustained prosperity and that prosperity never comes either from disconnecting workers’ wages from their productivity or from a government’s refusal to protect the right of workers to organize and receive a fair share of their productivity gains, successive U.S. Administrations, for the past 25 to 30 years, have in fact:
Gutted the progressive individual income tax in order to benefit high-income Americans, to such a degree that an infinitesimal two-tenths of one percent of U.S. taxpayers now earn about half of our nation’s individual income;
* Let most productivity gains go to those at the highest income levels, again through preferential tax policies; and
*Ceased in any meaningful way to protect workers’ rights.
As a result,
* Income inequality is now at its highest level since 1928;
*Median wages have stagnated for more than a decade; and
*Trade unions now represent only 7.6% of private-sector employees, down from more than 20% as recently as the early ’80s.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Last Summer’s Oil Prices Making a Comeback?
Last Summer’s Oil Prices Making a Comeback?
One thing we have to realize is that oil is never going to be “cheap” again
On May 20, 2009 crude oil futures rose above $60 per barrel, marking what has thus far been the peak of oil’s price rally. Last summer oil prices peaked at $147.25 per barrel before plummeting for several months as the recession set in the U.S. and Americans cut back their consumption.
However, one year later demand is still dampened yet prices are on the rise once again. Typically when demand falls off prices go with it – as was the case after last summer’s oil peak – but in this case the supply of oil is falling just as quickly. Suppliers have cut back their production, and U.S. inventories of refinery-ready or refined oil derivatives are dwindling. When combined with increased speculation on the market the result is an increase in prices.
Money flooded into energy companies after the market bottomed out in March, as inspired investors saw obvious opportunities to make huge profits. Oil driven companies will reap the benefits of higher oil prices in the future, and those who buy in before the rise stand to benefit the most.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Spain’s Judges Cross Borders in Human Rights Cases: U.S. Officials Among Targets
Spain’s Judges Cross Borders In Rights Cases - washingtonpost.com
High-Ranking U.S. Officials Among Targets of Inquiries
MADRID — Spanish judges are boldly declaring their authority to prosecute high-ranking government officials in the United States, China and Israel, among other places, delighting human rights activists but enraging officials in the countries they target and triggering a political backlash in a nation uncomfortable acting as the world’s conscience.
Judges at Spain’s National Court, acting on complaints filed by human rights groups, are pursuing 16 international investigations into suspected cases of torture, genocide and crimes against humanity, according to prosecutors. Among them are two probes of Bush administration officials for allegedly approving the use of torture on terrorism suspects, including prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The judges have opened the cases by invoking a legal principle known as universal jurisdiction, which under Spanish law gives them the right to investigate serious human rights crimes anywhere in the world, even if there is no Spanish connection.
Senate Republicans block vote on Obama judicial nominee.
OPS: Harry Reid is a coward, or worse
Senate Republicans block vote on Obama judicial nominee.
Bloomberg reports today that “Republicans temporarily blocked Senate committee action on President Barack Obama’s first judicial appointment, attacking the nominee for rulings based on separation of church and state.” The GOP, led by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), are attempting to challenge the fitness of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana to be promoted to a federal appeals court in Chicago. Senate Democrats postponed a preliminary vote on Hamilton as the GOP raised objections to Hamilton, calling him “controversial” and “troubling.” As ThinkProgress has noted, Republicans have previously distorted Hamilton’s rulings regarding “non-sectarian prayers” in the Indiana House of Representatives.
via Think Progress » Senate Republicans block vote on Obama judicial nominee..
After Promising To Have Waxman ‘By The Nuts,’ Joe Barton Whines About Getting Beat ‘Time After Time’
After Promising To Have Waxman ‘By The Nuts,’ Joe Barton Whines About Getting Beat ‘Time After Time’
A week ago, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, bet he would have committee chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) “by the nuts” during the markup of landmark climate and energy legislation by the committee:
He has got a chance to get the votes. If you are familiar with Texas Hold ‘Em poker, he doesn’t have the nuts. It is not a done deal. Nor do I. … We will see which has the other by the nuts next week.
“This is not going to be one of those gentlemanly, pro forma markups,” Barton swaggered, while circulating a list of hundreds of poison-pill amendments. “We’re prepared for it to take weeks or months.”
Note To Scarborough: Cheney’s Alter Ego Went To Jail At The End Of ‘A Few Good Men’
Note To Scarborough: Cheney’s Alter Ego Went To Jail At The End Of ‘A Few Good Men’
Joe Scarborough’s defense of torture and its apologists has grown so desperate that he’s now resorting to quotes from fictional characters in Hollywood movies to support his position.
Indeed, this morning he said on MSNBC that in his view, the juxtaposition of President Obama’s speech on national security with former Vice President Cheney’s speech defending his torture program reminded him of the 1992 film A Few Good Men, in which a Marine is killed by two of his colleagues as they attempt to run him out of the service. (At the end of the movie, an unrepentant senior officer admits that he ordered the assault.):
SCARBOROUGH: This scene yesterday…I’m serious here, this comes straight out of “A Few Good Men.” The reason why the closing scene with Jack Nicholson on the stand worked so well, is, of course, we were all rooting for the young attractive Tom Cruise, just like more Americans are probably rooting for President Obama. But at the same time, what was said on that stand by Nicholson…I was struck by that contrast.
Scarborough insisted that he wasn’t comparing Obama to the character played by Tom Cruise or Cheney to the character played by Jack Nicholson, but it’s clear that Scarborough was doing exactly that. Watch it:
via Think Progress » Note To Scarborough: Cheney’s Alter Ego Went To Jail At The End Of ‘A Few Good Men’.
Liz Cheney Reveals That Fear Of Prosecution Motivates Dad’s Media Blitz Defending Torture
OPS: No shit
Liz Cheney Reveals That Fear Of Prosecution Motivates Dad’s Media Blitz Defending Torture
Since President Obama released Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel memos detailing the authorization of the Bush administration’s torture program, Vice President Cheney has taken to the public airwaves on numerous occasions, not only attacking Obama’s security policies but vigorously defending what he perceives (wrongly) as the efficacy of torture. “I’m convinced, absolutely convinced, that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of lives,” Cheney said recently on CBS.
In response, many in the media have asked why Cheney — someone who had avoided the media at all costs during his eight years as vice president — would be airing his opinions in such a forceful and public way. Indeed, Cheney himself has answered this question, claiming he is speaking out because he believes that torture and other Bush administration anti-terror policies — many of which Obama is abandoning — were “exactly the right thing to do” and that “there isn’t anybody there on the other side to tell the truth.”
In turn, media figures have answered the question in much the same way. “I think he genuinely believes we are threatened now more because of what Obama is doing,” MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan has said. CNN’s David Gergen said, “I think Dick Cheney almost has a Churchillian view of this, and that is somebody has got to stand up and be the voice in the wilderness.” But while the narrative of Cheney’s motives focuses mainly on the righteous, it has all but ignored the selfish — that Cheney is trying to muddle the public debate with the goal of reducing public support for a criminal inquiry into the torture regime that he authorized.
Olbermann Rescinds Charity Offer For Cowardly Hannity, Donates $10K For Mancow’s Waterboarding
Olbermann Rescinds Charity Offer For Cowardly Hannity, Donates $10K For Mancow’s Waterboarding
Last month on his Fox News show, torture enthusiast Sean Hannity claimed he would agree to be waterboarded “for charity…for the troops’s families.” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann immediately took up Hannity’s pledge, offering $1,000 to charity for every second Hannity withstood waterboarding.
Over the next 30 days, Hannity went completely silent on his pledge, opting not to go anywhere near the subject of waterboarding again. Olbermann repeatedly reminded Hannity of his pledge to donate to charity in his name, but to no avail.
Last night on Countdown, Olbermann announced that he was rescinding the offer to Hannity, and instead giving $10,000 to charity following radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller’s waterboarding attempt. Olbermann promised to donate to the charity Veterans of Valor, founded by Sgt. Klay South, who administered the waterboarding to Muller. Olbermann revealed that Mancow’s publicist had contacted Olbermann’s show yesterday to see whether Olbermann would make a similar offer to Mancow as he did for Hannity:
Sen. Kyl: We support ‘free market’ health care, but we won’t talk about it because it’s not ‘persuasive.’
Sen. Kyl: We support ‘free market’ health care, but we won’t talk about it because it’s not ‘persuasive.’
In an interview posted online by the National Review, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) candidly explained how his party would try to deceive the public during the coming health care debate. Kyl said that although Republicans believe in a “free market” approach to health care, to describe it honestly to the “people we have to convince” would not be “persuasive.” Instead, Kyl boasts that he and his colleagues will use the “hollow buzzwords” prescribed by GOP language consultant Frank Luntz:
KYL: We of course believe the free market can provide the incentives for everyone to be covered with good insurance but to talk about it in terms of the free market is not to be persuasive with the people we have to convince. We have to describe this in terms that people really do understand and care about and that is patient-centered. They don’t want to get between themselves and their doctor. They don’t want to have long waiting lines, possibly even denying care that they feel is important. They don’t want to lose insurance they like already. Those are all things we need to address in our alternatives and I think that’s the best way for us to talk about it rather than talking about the free market.
Watch it:
GOP lawmaker slams RNC video mocking Pelosi as ‘reprehensible.’
GOP lawmaker slams RNC video mocking Pelosi as ‘reprehensible.’
This past week, the Republican National Committee (RNC) released a web video comparing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to the James Bond villian Pussy Galore. Politico said that the video “implies that Pelosi has used her feminine wiles to dodge the truth about whether or not she was briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding in 2002.” Watch it:
via Think Progress » GOP lawmaker slams RNC video mocking Pelosi as ‘reprehensible.’.
Sen. Ben Nelson Opposes Transferring Gitmo Detainees To U.S., Supports Bush Torture Techniques
Sen. Ben Nelson Opposes Transferring Gitmo Detainees To U.S., Supports Bush Torture Techniques
This morning, Fox News Sunday hosted a debate on national security between Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), but it turned out that the two senators agreed on most issues. Nelson declared that trials of Guantanamo detainees should not take place in the United States and detainees should not be imprisoned here. He distinguished between terrorists like the Blind Sheikh — who “committed violations of American law” — and those at Guantanamo to say the latter should be kept out of the U.S.:
NELSON: I think the tribunals can occur anywhere, and I prefer not to see them occur in America, within the continental United States. Once they’re convicted, I’m assuming they will be, then I think we need to work out with their countries an arrangement where they’re incarcerated there. [...]
But for those detainees who have violated the rules of war, we don’t have to worry about bringing them here. I think they need to be kept elsewhere, wherever that is. I don’t want to see them come on American soil.
Nelson also seemed to suggest that torture — or “enhanced techniques,” as he called it — could be used in the future:
NELSON: What we need to do is make sure that the intelligence information that’s gathered is accurate, that we do everything within our power to get good intelligence, and it may or may not consist of coming from enhanced techniques.
Watch i
Bill Moyers Journal – Donna Smith & Single Payer
OPS: A MUST SEE!
Video, Transcript IPOD download
Bill Moyers speaks with advocate Donna Smith about how our broken system is hurting ordinary Americans.
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the JOURNAL. Health care reform. It’s the talk of the town – if the town is Washington, D.C. But some possible reforms aren’t being talked about at all. Not officially, that is.
The White House and Congress have kept the lid on one of the most controversial but popular options, known as single-payer. It’s a story the mainstream press has largely ignored and that’s why we are covering it in this broadcast.
You don’t expect to see these people demonstrating in our nation’s capitol. You’ll most likely encounter them in the examining room, the operating theater, the clinic or the laboratory.
They’re doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals, unaccustomed to making themselves heard in the streets.
Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS.
Time to Bring This All Together
Time to Bring This All Together – by Richard Carter
The more I meet others in the industry, as well as conduct presentations, it becomes abundantly clear that we are at a new stage in moving renewable energy forward in the United States.
The Europeans are far ahead of us. For a number of reasons, there are forces here in the US who are trying to squash the public adoption of alternative energy technologies that our European neighbors have benefited from for decades. The reasons are mostly political and economic in the form of certain entities not wanting to see renewable technologies move forward unless they own all the assets. We all know that struggle is not going to stand the test of time; and we, the growing ranks of informed end-purchasers and end-users, will simple exercise our political might, and force the changes that are in the best interests of the public.
As a step that is inherent in the overall adoption of renewable energy, we now recently have increased the number of educational institutions of notable standing, training our newest graduates at all degree levels, in the science, engineering, design, and architecture of renewable energies, especially solar. This increase in degreed and certified specialists will further fuel the need for immediate implementation and increased number of jobs.
via GREEN ENERGY CAFE.
FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts
FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts
You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.
That’s the upshot of the rules the agency has followed for years to monitor licensed television and radio stations, and to crack down on pirate radio broadcasters. And the commission maintains the same policy applies to any licensed or unlicensed radio-frequency device.
“Anything using RF energy — we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference,” says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says.
The FCC claims it derives its warrantless search power from the Communications Act of 1934, though the constitutionality of the claim has gone untested in the courts. That’s largely because the FCC had little to do with average citizens for most of the last 75 years, when home transmitters were largely reserved to ham-radio operators and CB-radio aficionados. But in 2009, nearly every household in the United States has multiple devices that use radio waves and fall under the FCC’s purview, making the commission’s claimed authority ripe for a court challenge.
via FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts | Threat Level | Wired.com.
Revolution in the air
Revolution in the air
The anger in the air is palpable. The ordinary people hold the political class in contempt.
The government is failing, as war and economic catastrophe are dealt with in increasingly unconvincing fashion by second-rate public servants. There is, for the first time in a generation, a sense of revolution brewing.
This is not today’s Britain. It is England in 1381, the year that witnessed one of the greatest popular risings in our history: the Peasants’ Revolt.
Between May and November that year, England was seized by spasms of popular rebellion, provoked by poll taxes and a disastrous war, and underpinned by the common belief that the government was a pack of scoundrels.
Towns and villages from Somerset to Scarborough rose against their rulers, beating and sometimes killing MPs, lawyers, landowners and politicians, tearing down their homes and vandalising their land.
via BBC – Today.
Fear on Wall Street – Talking Head Explodes
Financial Talking Heads Explode, Jeff Macke rants on CNBC.
Watch this meltdown as it happened live on tv, I think most of the people watching CNBC were probably confused as hell……
I was at first, but I caught on quick, the bottom line is everything you see happening around you is an illusion, kind of like everything you learned in school…no value except in this crooked system which is now breaking down.
YouTube – Fear on Wall Street.
Falwell Responds to Liberty University Young Democrats Ban
Falwell Responds to Liberty University Young Democrats Ban | Future Majority
Rod Snyder, Mid-Atlantic Region Director of the Young Democrats of America, sent an email to Liberty University’s Vice-President of Student Affairs about the ban of the Young Democrats club. This led to the following email exchange, in which Falwell Jr. himself responds.
From: Rod Snyder
Subject: Letter to Mark Hine regarding the Liberty University Young Democrats
Mr. Hine:
I was disappointed when I learned this afternoon that the Liberty University College Democrats has lost its recognition as an official campus organization. As an Evangelical Christian and a Young Democratic leader, I am personally offended by the decision of the university and, more importantly, by the underlying assertion that a person cannot be both a Christian and a Democrat.
I attended Christian schools throughout my entire educational experience, including a non-denominational high school in West Virginia and a Baptist university in Pennsylvania . During college I interned at the Faith and Politics Institute on Capitol Hill, which facilitates racial harmony in Congress and non-violent conflict resolution around the world. Over the past several years, I have served in various leadership roles at my local church. Much of my adult life has been spent advancing the notion that neither the Republican nor Democratic Party has a foothold on the Christian faith.
via Falwell Responds to Liberty University Young Democrats Ban | Future Majority.
What the Guantánamo Speech Means for Civil Liberties
Is Obama’s stance on Guantánamo a coup for liberties or just the same old Bush policy? | The American Prospect
Since Obama’s inauguration, the American Civil Liberties Union has been one of his most consistent critics. At every turn, the ACLU has challenged policies that it see as circumventing Constitutional protections. Anthony Romero, the organization’s executive director, shares his thoughts regarding the Barack Obama’s speech on Guantanamo yesterday. He also discusses the president’s proposed changes to national security policy, the difference between the current and prior administration, and the ACLU’s plan to challenge some of Obama’s stated policies through the court system.
What do you make of President Obama’s reaching out to human rights groups before announcing these changes?
It was a welcome gesture, a marked departure from the last president. [But] at the end of the day, I think no one in the room changed their opinion on any one particular issue or policy. It would have been preferable to have a more open dialogue before decisions had been made on the military commissions and launching a new preventative detention regime.
Were you assuaged at all by the president’s explanation for reinstating the military commissions?
No. It really is an enormous mistake to continue with the failed military commissions. The mistake that George Bush made in trying to jury rig a legal system and create a new one from whole cloth appears to be the same mistake that President Obama is intent on making. These military commissions will never render justice. Because of their failed work over the last eight years, they are essentially radioactive, they lack any credibility. Obama’s efforts to make them a little more just, provide a little bit more due process, and make them a little less offensive, is not going to carry the ball at the end of the day.
via What the Guantánamo Speech Means for Civil Liberties | The American Prospect.
Intel experts: Dick Cheney was wrong about Bush administration moves
Intel experts: Dick Cheney was wrong about Bush administration moves
WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s high-profile speech Thursday defending the Bush administration’s policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements, according to intelligence officals and the historical record, including:
Cheney said waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques produced information that “prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people.” He also quoted Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair as saying the information gave U.S. officials a “deeper understanding of the al-Qaeda organization.”
In his statement April 21, however, Blair said “these techniques hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security.” A 2004 CIA inspector general’s investigation found no conclusive proof that the information helped thwart any “specific imminent attacks,” according to one of four secret Bush-era memos released last month. And FBI Director Robert Muller said in December that he didn’t think that the techniques disrupted any attacks.
via Intel experts: Dick Cheney was wrong about Bush administration moves – BostonHerald.com.
‘Israel won’t yield to U.S. demands, won’t halt settlement construction’
‘Israel won’t yield to U.S. demands, won’t halt settlement construction’
By Haaertz Service
Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon spoke to Channel 2 on Saturday about the meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama, held earlier this week, saying that Israel’s government will not allow the U.S. to dictate its policy, and that “settlement construction will not be halted.”
“Settlements are not the reason that the peace process is failing, they were never an obstacle, not at any stage,” Ya’alon told Channel 2 News. “Even when Israel pulled out of [Palestinian] territory, the terror continued. Even when we uprooted [Jewish] communities, we got ‘Hamastan.’ That is why I propose that we think about it – not in slogans and not with decrees.”
According to Ayalon, “we will not halt the construction in the settlements within the framework of natural growth. There are people here who are living their lives, raising children. Housing is required ? it wasn’t housing that has prevented peace.”
via ‘Israel won’t yield to U.S. demands, won’t halt settlement construction’ – Haaretz – Israel News.
President Obama’s Orwellian New Category of “Prolonged Detention”
President Obama’s Orwellian New Category of “Prolonged Detention”
By Elliot Cohen for BuzzFlash
On May 13, in a Washington court filing, the Obama Justice Department eliminated the category of “unlawful enemy combatant,” which the Bush administration had built into the 2006 Military Commissions Act for purposes of detaining suspected terrorists without due process. But now President Obama wants to replace this category with a new system of “prolonged detention” that could conceivably keep detainees in prison into perpetuity in order to prevent crimes they have not yet committed. Add to this Obama’s continuation of the Bush administration’s program of warrantless spying on millions of Americans, and the recipe for abuse is chilling.
According to the old definition of “unlawful enemy combatant” included in the 2006 Military Commissions Act, an unlawful enemy combatant is “an individual engaged in hostilities against the United States who is not a lawful enemy combatant.” In other words, if the government suspects that an individual poses a threat to national security, he can be detained as an “unlawful enemy combatant.” But the Obama has now dropped this definition, or has it?
In his May 21 Archives Speech, Obama said, “there remains the question of detainees at Guantanamo who cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American people….” For example, he said, this would include people “who have received extensive explosives training at al Qaeda training camps, commanded Taliban troops in battle, expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden, or otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans.”
via President Obama’s Orwellian New Category of “Prolonged Detention” | BuzzFlash.org.
4th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival
The 4th Annual Anti-Corporate Film Festival is a three-day series of film screenings and related events held every year in San Francisco that examines the role that corporations play in our daily lives and the effect they have on people, communities, and cultures around the world, and on the planet itself. This year’s films feature several California and West Coast premieres, examining topics including Big Oil, the American obesity epidemic and industrial agriculture, the intellectual property debate swirling around mash-up artists, the negative effect of “development” institutions on poor countries, and the commodification of fresh water by for-profit corporations. To see this year’s lineup, buy tickets ($10), view trailers, and more,
Gay U.S. diplomats to be given equal benefits
Gay U.S. diplomats to be given equal benefits
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will soon announce that gay American diplomats will be given benefits similar to those that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, U.S. officials said Saturday.
In a notice to be sent to State Department employees, Clinton says regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the benefits that straight diplomats received are “unfair and must end,” as they harm U.S. diplomacy.
“Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our posts abroad,” she says in the message, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
“It will also help the department attract and retain personnel in a competitive environment where domestic partner benefits and allowances are increasingly the norm for world-class employers,” she says.
via Gay U.S. diplomats to be given equal benefits.
E. Coli Infection Claims 7-Year Old’s Life as Valley Meats in IL Recalls 95,890 Pounds of Beef
E. Coli Infection Claims 7-Year Old’s Life as Valley Meats in IL Recalls 95,890 Pounds of Beef
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT – by Christine Bowman
The inadequacy of the nation’s food safety protection system is front and center again on the eve of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. A cluster of E. coli infections has prompted the recall of 95,890 pounds of ground beef by Valley Meats, LCC, a meatpacker based in western Illinois. The suspect meat was sold to “institutional distributors,” potentially impacting 11 states.
A seven-year-old child in Cleveland died Sunday, and three other Ohioans were reported ill but then recovered from the infection. An unspecified number of people in Illinois and Pennsylvania also have been reported sick from the same E. coli bacteria.
Ohio health officials submitted data on a cluster of infections in the Cleveland area May 13 to the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which issued a Class I recall warning Thursday, May 21. A Class I recall means the health risk is “high”: “This is a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”
Chicago Department of Public Health spokesman Tim Haddock said Friday that area hospitals have been alerted to the recall and E. coli outbreak, but as yet there have been no reports of infections in the Chicago metro area. He cautioned that “no reports” can not be construed to mean no illnesses, since not all victims seek treatment.
Hidden Poverty
Hidden Poverty
Arlington’s high cost of living obscures the amount of need in the county.
Anyone who has ever paid a monthly rent in Arlington knows that the cost of living here is much higher than other parts of Virginia. Yet the federal government uses a one-size fits all formula for determining poverty. That means that an Arlington family of four making $22,000 or more would not be counted in poverty statistics even though the median household income in Arlington is $102,000.
“We are currently undercounting the number of poor people in Arlington,” said Robert Ruiz, an urban planner for the county government. “The way we do it now, we are only picking up the desperately poor.”
That may change in the coming year, as Del. David Englin (D-45) works with a newly created task force appointed earlier this month to reduce poverty in Virginia. Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine appointed Englin to the task force during a May 7 summit on the issue of poverty. Englin will chair a subcommittee of the task force focused on methods to define and measure poverty, and he will serve on the task force’s workforce training and education work group.
“Rethinking how we define and measure poverty is a critical overarching issue that will affect how we focus resources and whether we are actually making a difference in people’s lives,” said Englin. “So I’m particularly excited for the opportunity to chair that part of the effort.”
KAINE’S TASK FORCE was announced during a summit in Richmond earlier this month, with Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marilyn Tavenner and Richmond attorney Robert Grey named as co-chairs. The governor asked task force members to identify challenges and opportunities to lift children and families out of poverty — everything from asset development to workforce training. At the conclusion of its research, the panel will make short-term and long-term policy recommendations
via Hidden Poverty.
In the Absence of Proof
In the Absence of Proof _NYTimes
The options are running out for Troy Davis, a man who has been condemned to death for killing a police officer in Georgia, but whose guilt is seriously in question.
It’s bad enough that we still execute people in the United States. It’s absolutely chilling that we’re willing to do it when we’re not even sure we’ve got the right person in our clutches.
Mr. Davis came within an hour of execution last fall. His relatives and his attorney, Jason Ewart, had come to the state prison to say goodbye. Mr. Davis had eaten his last meal, and Mr. Ewart was ready to witness his execution.
The mind-numbing tension was broken with a last-minute stay from the Supreme Court. The case then made its way to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, which ruled 2-to-1 last month against Mr. Davis’s petition for a hearing to examine new evidence pointing to his innocence.
The countdown to the ghoulish ritual of execution resumed.
via Op-Ed Columnist – In the Absence of Proof – NYTimes.com.
Exposing Endemic Election Fraud: A Recursive True Vote Model (1968-2008)
The Catch: A Recursive True Vote Model (1968-2008)
In the first game of the 1954 World Series, Willie Mays did the impossible. He calculated the trajectory of the ball using his built-in computer. It’s all in the MATH.
The Recursive True Vote Model calculates the True Vote for all elections from 1968 to 2008. Data input (shown below) consists of recorded and total votes cast, Final National Exit Poll vote shares, annual voter mortality and previous election voter turnout.
The True Vote is calculated based on prior election total votes cast less mortality times an estimated voter turnout.
The model indicates that two elections were definitely stolen (2000 and 2004) and probably two others (1968 and 1988) as well.
Final National Exit Poll vote shares are used for the 1988-2008 period. The only exception is 2004. The vote shares and returning voter mix was radically adjusted to match the official tally. Therefore the 12:22am NEP update shares and weights are used to calculate the True Vote. Preliminary national exit poll vote shares have not been released for the other elections.
Since 1968-1984 National Exit Poll data is unavailable, the returning voter weighting mix and vote shares necessary to match the recorded vote are calculated. Of course, the vote shares will differ from the calculated True Vote since the True Vote cross-tab uses a returning voter mix based on the prior election True Vote.
In order to match the official vote an average 94% turnout of prior election Democrats and 106% of Republicans was required.
The average Republican turnout was 114% in elections in which Nixon and Bush were the incumbents; it was 98% in the other elections.
The average True Vote discrepancy was 9.6% in elections in which Nixon and Bush were incumbents; it was 3.0% in the other elections
via Exposing Endemic Election Fraud: A Recursive True Vote Model (1968-2008).
Cigarette makers lose appeal in landmark case
Cigarette makers lose appeal in landmark case
WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court on Friday agreed with the major elements of a 2006 landmark ruling that found the nation’s top tobacco companies guilty of racketeering and fraud for deceiving the public about the dangers of smoking.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington upheld requirements that manufacturers change the way they market cigarettes. The requirements, which have been on hold pending appeal, would ban labels such as “low tar,” “light,” “ultra light” or “mild,” since such cigarettes have been found to be no safer than others because of how people smoke them.
It also says the companies must publish “corrective statements” in newspapers and on their Web sites on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine.
Throughout the 10 years the case has been litigated, tobacco companies have denied committing fraud in the past and said changes in how cigarettes are sold now make it impossible for them to act fraudulently in the future. The companies have argued the ban on labels like “light” would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Philip Morris USA and its parent company, Altria Group Inc., said they will appeal to the Supreme Court.
via Cigarette makers lose appeal in landmark case – Yahoo! News.
The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan
The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan
Somewhere among the strategically placed references to September 11, 2001 and his unapologetic defense of torture, Dick Cheney managed to lie about a series of topics and events that are well documented. It is, after all, the electronic age and facts are not difficult to come by.
One must consider too what motivated the networks to carry a speech by a former Vice President in defense of torture. The ethics vacuum is mind-boggling.
We have come to a point where a former Vice President told the world that America tortures – but calls it something else – and the networks cover this as though it were a random stump speech, not the actual embarrassment and horror that it is. The facts too are missing, although only a few news outlets seem interested in the truth.
No One Could Have Imagined
Cheney says that the attacks of September 11, 2001 “caused everyone to take a serious second look at threats that had been gathering for a while and enemies whose plans were getting bolder and more sophisticated.”
On the contrary, the plans were not new and bold and were well documented by the Central Intelligence Agency. In fact, a month prior to the attacks, President Bush and Dick Cheney both received a briefing on the matter. The August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US,” is fairly clear. The PDB mentions the following:
via The Raw Story » The lie Cheney told about A.Q. Khan.
A Century of Looking the Other Way
A Century of Looking the Other Way – - NYTimes.com
EVERYONE knew. When the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse issued its report this week, after nine years of investigation, the Irish collectively threw up their hands in horror, asking that question we have heard so often, from so many parts of the world, throughout the past century: How could it happen?
Surely the systematic cruelty visited upon hundreds of thousands of children incarcerated in state institutions in this country from 1914 to 2000, the period covered by the inquiry, but particularly from 1930 until 1990, would have been prevented if enough right-thinking people had been aware of what was going on? Well, no. Because everyone knew.
I grew up in the 1950s, in Wexford, a small town on the southeast coast of Ireland. It was not a bad place in which to be young, if you came from a “respectable” family — which mainly meant not being poor — and had parents who were responsible and loving, as I had. The schools I attended were run by the Christian Brothers and, later, by diocesan priests. It helped to be good at one’s lessons, for then one evaded the more severe punishments which teachers reserved for the “duffers” in the class.
I remember one such duffer in particular. I shall call him Duffy. We were, I suppose, 9 or 10 at the time, and most of us by then had learned to read and write. Not Duffy, who was isolated from the rest of us and put to sit at a desk by himself, where he labored hour after hour transcribing the alphabet and simple words into his copybook.
via Op-Ed Contributor – A Century of Looking the Other Way – NYTimes.com.
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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. 
