Archive for May, 2009
Obama naming Huntsman ambassador to China
OPS: The Reich lands another key position in the BO Administration. Anyone at least STARTING to see the pattern?
Obama naming Huntsman ambassador to China
President Barack Obama named Republican Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman
Jr. as his pick for ambassador to China, likely removing one of his strongest potential challengers in the 2012 presidential campaign from the running.
In an unusual Saturday announcement broadcast live on some cable networks, Obama acknowledged that Huntsman’s decision might not be easy for him to explain to the Republican Party.
And Huntsman said he, as a former national co-chairman for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, never expected “to be called into action by the person who beat us,” but added that “When the president of the United States asks you step up and serve in a capacity like this, that to me is the end of the conversation and the beginning of the obligation to rise to the challenge.”
The move is freighted with political intrigue. Huntsman, who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, quickly emerged after November as one of the leading moderate GOP voices.
via Obama naming Huntsman ambassador to China – Carrie Budoff Brown and Mike Allen – POLITICO.com.
“The Worst Is Yet to Come”: If Youre Not Petrified, Youre Not Paying Attention
“The Worst Is Yet to Come”: If You’re Not Petrified, You’re Not Paying Attention
The green shoots story took a bit of hit this week between data on April retail sales, weekly jobless claims and foreclosures. But the whole concept of the economy finding its footing was “preposterous” to begin with, says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates.
“We’re in a complete mess and the consumer is smart enough to know it,” says Davidowitz, whose firm does consulting for the retail industry. “If the consumer isn’t petrified, he or she is a damn fool.”
Davidowitz, who is nothing if not opinionated (and colorful), paints a very grim picture: “The worst is yet to come with consumers and banks,” he says. “This country is going into a 10-year decline. Living standards will never be the same.”
This outlook is based on the following main points:
Health care’s enigma in chief
OPS: BO better take care. He’s close to becoming the enema in chief
Health care’s enigma in chief
David Sirota
The most stunning and least reported news about President Obama’s press conference with health industry executives this week wasn’t those executives’ willingness to negotiate with a Democrat. It was that Democrat’s eagerness to involve those executives in a discussion about health care reform even as they revealed their previous plans to pilfer $2 trillion from Americans.
That was the little-noticed message from the made-for-TV spectacle administration officials called a health care “game changer”: In saying they can voluntarily slash $200 billion a year from the country’s medical bills over the next decade and still preserve their profits, health care companies implicitly acknowledged they were plotting to fleece consumers, and have been fleecing them for years. With that acknowledgment came the tacit admission that the industry’s business is based not on respectable returns but on grotesque profiteering and waste – the kind that can give up $2 trillion and still guarantee huge margins.
via Health care’s enigma in chief.
Corporate Front Man: Richard Berman manages the news on key labor-backed bill
Corporate Front Man: Richard Berman manages the news on key labor-backed bill
By Ken Silverstein
Richard Berman, a prominent lobbyist for the food and restaurant industry, is one of the leading opponents of the hotly-debated Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier to organize labor unions. Berman is the sole owner and executive director of Berman and Company, a for-profit management firm that runs fifteen corporate-funded groups. He holds at least sixteen positions within these interlocking organizations.
Two of Berman’s groups are fighting EFCA: the non-profit Employee Freedom Action Committee and the Center for Union Facts, a grassroots lobbying firm that gathers “information about the size, scope, political activities, and criminal activity of the labor movement.” The two groups share office space and staff.
Berman is not required to publicly disclose financial information about his company. Federal tax returns for his non-profit, the Center for Union Facts, however, show that it took in $2.5 million in 2007, almost entirely from unnamed donors, including one individual who put up $1.2 million. About half of the group’s money was spent on an anti-union print and online ad campaign, and $840,000 went to Berman and Company for “management” services. The Center rails against highly-paid union officials, listing on its website the annual salaries of top officials at the AFL-CIO. The federation’s three highest-paid employees — president John Sweeney, vice-president Linda Chavez-Thompson, and secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka—make about $680,000 combined, well less than what Berman’s company took in to manage only the Center for Union Facts.
40,000 protest in Brussels against ‘casino captitalism’
40,000 protest in Brussels against ‘casino captitalism’
Reuters/Brussels, Belgium
Some 40,000 people marched in Brussels yesterday to demand more government funds to protect jobs in the European Union, saying that too much money was spent on banks that are responsible for the financial crisis.
The rally, staged by the European Trade Union Confederation, came a day after a similar protest in Madrid and ahead of two more marches in Prague and Berlin today, events that organisers say will attract up to 300,000 people.
Workers from across the 27-nation European Union voiced anger that hundreds of billion of euros were being spent on bailing out banks, which they said were partly responsible for the crisis, rather than to save industrial jobs.
“We believe that this unbridled market mechanism, this casino capitalism has led us into the crisis, and we believe we need stricter rules to ensure that this does not happen again,” said Lothar Sorger, deputy chairman of the works council at the Opel car factory in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
“Yes to Opel in the region, in Germany and in Europe,” read a banner carried by a delegation from the plant.
Workers at Opel, a unit of bankruptcy-threatened General Motors, fear factory closures and massive lay-offs.
Anne Demelenne, secretary-general of Belgium’s ABVV trade union, said the EU should create “serious stimulus plans and guarantee that there are good salaries and good public services as well as social protection”.
The protesters in Brussels, the EU’s headquarters, blew whistles and shouted “we are going to divide the treasure”.
via Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Europe/World.
Obama Nominates Superfund Polluter Lawyer To Run DOJ Environment Division
OPS: Where’s the phucking change?
Obama Nominates Superfund Polluter Lawyer To Run DOJ Environment Division
GM cleanup of the Bedford Superfund site.
President Barack Obama has nominated a lawyer for the nation’s largest toxic polluters to run the enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws. On Tuesday, Obama “announced his intent to nominate” Ignacia S. Moreno to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in the Department of Justice. Moreno, general counsel for that department during the Clinton administration, is now the corporate environmental counsel for General Electric, “America’s #1 Superfund Polluter“:
Number five in the Fortune 500 with revenues of $89.3 billion and earnings of $8.2 billion in 1997, General Electric has been a leader in the effort to roll back the Superfund law and stave off any requirements for full cleanup and restoration of sites they helped create.
This February, General Electric lost an eight-year battle to “prove that parts of the Superfund law are unconstitutional.” One of the 600-person DOJ environmental division’s “primary responsibilities is to enforce federal civil and criminal environmental laws such as” the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Superfund.
via Think Progress » Obama Nominates Superfund Polluter Lawyer To Run DOJ Environment Division.
Steele: We Need Guns To Defend Ourselves Against ‘Terrorists’ Coming To ‘Our Communities’
Steele: We Need Guns To Defend Ourselves Against ‘Terrorists’ Coming To ‘Our Communities’
ap061016015473 Today, RNC Chairman Michael Steele spoke at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) “Celebration of American Values” Leadership Forum. During his speech today, Steele criticized Barack Obama’s potential Supreme Court nominee, saying the President is “looking to put Doctor Phil on the Court.”
Steele also played to his NRA audience by fear-mongering that Democrats may take away Americans’ guns. He claimed that those guns are more necessary than ever since Guantanamo detainees may soon be in the United States and the public will have to defend itself:
Gore: Cheney is in no position to talk ‘about making the country less safe.’
Gore: Cheney is in no position to talk ‘about making the country less safe.’
On CNN’s American Morning today, former Vice President Al Gore hit back against his successor, Dick Cheney’s, claims that President Obama’s policies are making the country less safe. “Obviously, I strongly disagree,” said Gore. “You know, you talk about somebody that shouldn’t be talking about making the country less safe, invading a country that did not attack us and posed no serious threat to us at all.” Watch it:
via Think Progress » Gore: Cheney is in no position to talk ‘about making the country less safe.’.
The Rosetta stone to Bush era torture
The Rosetta stone to Bush era torture
We’re getting close — so close you can almost smell the stench of the rottenness. To be honest, I had pretty much given up hope for any sort of real justice in response to Bush Administration torture. Sure, a lot of dust was being kicked up, a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth: but actual substantive justice — a judge, a jury an accounting for the crimes committed? It just didn’t seem to be in the cards.
It didn’t seem to be in the cards that is until, just maybe, right now.
What’s changed? Perhaps everything. And, if so, that change has come in two parts.
Part one: The GOP screwed up. They pushed too hard, particularly in their attacks on Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress. Their calculation, of course, was that by accusing the Democratic congressional leadership of complicity in torture, they would scare off the Democrats. Who can blame them? When have the Democrats ever shown any backbone before? But this time it backfired. Instead of quaking in fear, Pelosi and other Democrats struck back — accusing the CIA and the Bush Administration of lying to them.
via The Last Chance Democracy Cafe » Blog Archive » The Rosetta stone to Bush era torture.
‘A Failure of Capitalism – The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent Into Depression,’
Book Review – Capitalism’s Fault Lines by Richard A. Posner
“This recession,” President Obama said recently, “was not caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle. It was caused by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision-making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.” Richard A. Posner is having none of it. A perfect storm, yes: but a storm of responsibility and reasonable decision-making. The Crash of ’08 happened because businesspeople and consumers did what markets and society expect them to do. Don’t blame capitalists or, for the most part, government. Blame capitalism.
It comes as something of a surprise that Posner, a doyen of the market-oriented law-and-economics movement, should deliver a roundhouse punch to the proposition that markets are self-correcting. It might also seem odd that a federal appellate judge (and University of Chicago law lecturer) would be among the first out of the gate with a comprehensive book on the financial crisis — if, that is, the judge were any other judge. But Posner is the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s successor as the country’s most omnivorous and independent-minded public intellectual. By now, his dozens of books just about fill their own wing in the Library of Congress.
Low-cost process produces natural gas from algae
Low-cost process produces natural gas from algae
DOE lab licenses high-yield gasification technology
RICHLAND, Wash. – A new method for converting algae into renewable natural gas for use in pipelines and power generation has been transferred from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to the marketplace under a license between Genifuel Corporation and Battelle.
The method, called catalytic hydrothermal gasification, creates natural gas out of algae – more quickly, more efficiently and at higher yields than other biofuel processes. Genifuel expects the process also requires less capital investment. The license agreement moves this technology for renewable energy production a step closer to commercial reality. Battelle operates PNNL for DOE.
“Algae and other aquatic biomass hold significant promise for our country’s ability to produce renewable energy domestically,” said Genifuel President Jim Oyler. “At Genifuel we have developed efficient growth and harvesting techniques for the aquatic biomass. With this gasification process, we can convert the biomass to a clean fuel that is almost completely carbon-neutral.”
He calls the PNNL process an “elegant system,” noting that more than 99 percent of the biomass is gasified to produce renewable natural gas and byproducts such as carbon dioxide which can be recycled and reused in the algae growth ponds.
PNNL originally developed the catalytic gasification process to clean up industrial and food processing waste as an alternative to incineration. Over the past 10 years, PNNL scientists advanced the technology to include a more stable catalyst that enables it to also convert wet biomass, such as algae. PNNL has tested the gasifier with terrestrial plants, kelp and water hyacinths. It works especially well for aquatic biomass such as algae, because the feedstock doesn’t require drying before fuel production.
via PNNL: Newsroom – Low-cost process produces natural gas from algae.
Wisconsin Supreme Court to review gay marriage ban
Wisconsin Supreme Court to review gay marriage ban
Decision may affect 2006 referendum approved by voters
MADISON — The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether the state’s 2006 ban on gay marriage was properly put to voters.
The court will review a challenge by political science instructor William McConkey, who claims the referendum on the constitutional amendment illegally put two issues to voters at the same time: whether to ban gay marriage and whether to outlaw civil unions.
via Wisconsin Supreme Court to review gay marriage ban | thenorthwestern.com | Oshkosh Northwestern.
If We’re Going to Reveal More Memos. . . .
If We’re Going to Reveal More Memos. . . . -VetVoice::
by: Major Matthew
then I suggest they also release statistics from Iraq showing the number of foreign fighters that were recruited because of our policy of torture and abuse. It was tracked.
Former VP Dick Cheney has requested the release of additional memos showing that torture and abuse saved American lives by preventing terrorist attacks. If the Obama Administration decides to release these memos, then I suggest they also release statistics from Iraq showing the number of foreign fighters that were recruited because of our policy of torture and abuse. It was tracked. I know because I saw the slides and because I heard captured foreign fighters state this day in and day out. The government can also release the statistics that show that 90% of suicide bombers in Iraq were these same foreign fighters. These foreign fighters killed hundreds, if not thousands, of American soldiers.
After these revelations, Americans can judge whether or not a policy of torture and abuse kept us safe. Unfortunately, we’ll never be able to evaluate the damage that was done to past or future interrogations. As I experienced firsthand, detainees were less likely to cooperate when they viewed us as hypocrites. We can’t establish the trust that is required to convince a detainee to cooperate unless we live up to the principles that we preach.
via VetVoice:: If We’re Going to Reveal More Memos. . . ..
Book TV – Nazi Nexus: America’s Corporate Connections to Hitler’s Holocaust
Nazi Nexus: America’s Corporate Connections to Hitler’s Holocaust
Author: Edwin Black
Upcoming Schedule
- Saturday, May 16, at 7:00 PM
- Saturday, May 23, at 2:15 PM
About the Program
In his new book “Nazi Nexus,” Edwin Black looks at the U.S. corporations that were directly involved with the Holocaust. He spoke at the Park East Synagogue in New York City.
About the Author
Investigative reporter Edwin Black is the author of many books, including “IBM and the Holocaust,” “War Against the Weak,” and “The Plan.” For more information, visit edwinblack.com.
via Book TV – Nazi Nexus: America’s Corporate Connections to Hitler’s Holocaust.
Full appeals court declines to hear Siegelman case
Full appeals court declines to hear Siegelman case
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the requests of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy for the full 12-judge court to review arguments to overturn their convictions in a government corruption case.
A three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit in March upheld five of the seven bribery and corruption charges against Siegelman and all six charges against Scrushy.
Attorneys for Siegelman and Scrushy had asked the full court to review the appeal. The court’s refusal was posted on its Web site Friday.
The 63-year-old Siegelman and 56-year-old Scrushy were convicted in 2006 by a federal jury in Montgomery.
Belgian city plans ‘veggie’ days
Belgian city plans ‘veggie’ days
The Belgian city of Ghent is about to become the first in the world to go vegetarian at least once a week.
Starting this week there will be a regular weekly meatless day, in which civil servants and elected councillors will opt for vegetarian meals.
Ghent means to recognise the impact of livestock on the environment.
The UN says livestock is responsible for nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, hence Ghent’s declaration of a weekly “veggie day”.
Public officials and politicians will be the first to give up meat for a day.
via BBC NEWS | Europe | Belgian city plans ‘veggie’ days.
Montreal Inaugurates Continent’s Most Ambitious Bike-Sharing Program
Montreal Inaugurates Continent’s Most Ambitious Bike-Sharing Program
When Gérald Tremblay, the mayor of Montreal, inaugurated North America’s first large-scale bicycle-sharing system on Tuesday, an uncooperative microphone forced him to shout to the crowd in front of city hall.
Fortunately, the computer-chip based, solar-powered, WiFi-enabled base station that’s the heart of the Bixi system worked flawlessly when Mr. Tremblay set off on a ceremonial first ride.
As explained at the Web site of the city’s parking authority, which oversees the program, it works like this:
via Montreal Inaugurates Continent’s Most Ambitious Bike-Sharing Program – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.
Appeals court won’t hear Siegelman case, meaning it’s likely he’ll return to jail
OPS: This is an OUTRAGE – WHERE the hell are Obama and the real Democrats? Siegleman needs your help. write or call your members of congress today; Here’s how
Appeals court won’t hear Siegelman case, meaning it’s likely he’ll return to jail
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has declined a request from former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman to review his appeal en banc – meaning the full court.
According to Scott Horton, a Columbia University law professor who has been following the Siegelman case for Harper’s Magazine, it is not uncommon for an appeals court to decline a full member — or en banc review — of a case.
An appeals court “usually hears cases when there is a sharp difference of opinion on a panel,” Horton said Friday morning during a phone interview. Horton noted that in Siegelman’s case “there was a unanimous decision” rendered.
When asked what this development means for the Siegelman case, Horton expressed little hope that Siegelman could avoid going back to jail to serve out what could possibly now be a 20-year term.
via Raw Story » Appeals court won’t hear Siegelman case, meaning it’s likely he’ll return to jail.
Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
OPS: Check out the Date on this one
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be ‘Siberian’ in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
‘Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,’ concludes the Pentagon analysis. ‘Once again, warfare would define human life.’
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.
via Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us | Environment | The Observer.
Vinegar Uses – Vinegar Green Cleaning and Home Remedies
7 Smart Uses for Vinegar
Save money, feel better and get clean clothes and a non-toxic home.
Now that you know ketchup can be used for shining copper and repairing hair, or that vodka can be used to repel insects and freshen laundry, you may have been wondering what tasks you can get done for cheap with other household items. Since May is National Vinegar Month (did you forget??), we thought we’d take a closer look at this inexpensive, versatile good.
According to the Vinegar Institute, the useful stuff was probably discovered by accident (most wine drinkers know what happens when you leave a bottle sitting around too long). In fact the word vinegar comes from a French translation for “sour wine.” Over the centuries vinegar has been produced from many stocks, including molasses, dates, sorghum, fruits, coconut, honey, beer, maple syrup, potatoes, beets, grains and more. But the principle is the same: you get acetic acid (a.k.a. vinegar) after first fermenting natural sugars to alcohol, and then fermenting again.
As Michael de Jong, TDG’s Zen Cleaner and author of the Clean series of books, points out, vinegar has been pressed into service for many uses over the centuries. It has been prized as a foodstuff, condiment, preservative and natural remedy.
via Vinegar Uses – Vinegar Green Cleaning and Home Remedies – thedailygreen.com.
Why climate change is ‘biggest health threat of 21st century’
Climate change is biggest health threat of 21st century, claims report into global warming
Climate change is the biggest health threat of the 21st century, leading academics claimed last night.
Those who fail to take the issue seriously are as morally reprehensible as 18th-century slave traders, they said.
A British report said rising global temperatures will trigger food shortages, droughts, wars and floods over the next 100 years, pushing billions into ill-health, disease and poverty.
via Why climate change is ‘biggest health threat of 21st century’ | Mail Online.
Obama to replace U.S. Attorneys
Obama to replace U.S. Attorneys
President Barack Obama plans to replace a “batch” of U.S. Attorneys in the next few weeks and more prosecutors thereafter, according to Attorney General Eric Holder.
“I expect that we’ll have an announcement in the next couple of weeks with regard to our first batch of U.S attorneys,” Holder said Thursday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing which stretched out over most of the day due to breaks for members’ votes. “One of the things that we didn’t want to do was to disrupt the continuity of the offices and pull people out of positions where we thought there might be a danger that that might have on the continuity–the effectiveness of the offices.But…elections matter–it is our intention to have the U.S. Attorneys that are selected by President Obama in place as quickly as they can.”
Holder’s comments begin to resolve questions in the legal community about whether the new administration would hesitate to replace the chief prosecutors en masse because of the intense controversy that surrounded President George W. Bush’s unusual mid-term replacement of nine U.S. attorneys in late 2006. In addition, legal sources said some Bush appointees were looking to burrow in, in part to avoid a grim economic climate for private-sector legal jobs.
However, by using terms like “elections matter,” Holder seems to be signaling that Obama plans to install new leadership in most offices.
via Obama to replace U.S. Attorneys – Josh Gerstein – POLITICO.com.
Leon Panetta’s mission to stop Israel bombing Iranian nuclear plant
Leon Panetta’s mission to stop Israel bombing Iranian nuclear plant
America’s spy chief was sent on a secret mission to Israel to warn its leaders not to launch a surprise attack on Iran without notifying the US Administration.
As Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, prepares to visit Washington, it emerged yesterday that Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, went to Israel two weeks ago. He sought assurances from Mr Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, that their hawkish new Government would not attack Iran without alerting Washington.
Concerns have been rising that Mr Netanyahu could launch a strike on Tehran’s atomic programme, in the same way that Israel hit Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in 1981. Israel has been preparing for such an eventuality. It has carried out long-distance manoeuvres and is due to hold its largest civil defence drills this summer. The country’s leaders reportedly told Mr Panetta that they did not “intend to surprise the US on Iran”.
via Leon Panetta’s mission to stop Israel bombing Iranian nuclear plant – Times Online.
Treasury Agrees To Aid Insurers
OPS: So we’re going to bailout Insurance Companies next. More gamblers having their bets covered by us.
Treasury Agrees To Aid Insurers
Six Firms Gain Access to Funds
The Treasury yesterday granted preliminary approval for some of the nation’s largest insurance companies to receive capital infusions under the government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said.
Recipients are Hartford, Prudential, Allstate, Ameriprise, Lincoln National and Principal Financial Group, he said. The insurers notified yesterday are among hundreds of financial institutions in the pipeline “that are being reviewed and funded as appropriate on a rolling basis,” Williams said.
The money could shore up the life insurance industry, which plays a major role in the economy and has been weakened by the financial crisis. In addition to paying death benefits, life insurers deliver retirement income in the form of annuities. They are big investors in corporate bonds and commercial real estate.
via Treasury Agrees To Aid Insurers – washingtonpost.com.
China to open first sex theme park
China to open first sex theme park
Love Land in Chongqing aims to address taboo and improve sex education but many residents see it as vulgar
Maybe it was the giant revolving model of a woman’s legs and lower torso, clad only in an unflattering crimson thong, or perhaps it was the oversized replica of a set of genitals. Either way, many residents in the south-west city of Chongqing are not happy about the development of China‘s first sex theme park, which has been described as “vulgar” and inappropriate.
The park manager, Lu Xiaoqing, who was inspired by South Korea’s popular sex theme park in Jeju, says that Love Land, due to open in October, will improve sex education and help adults enjoy a harmonious sex life. Inside, visitors will be able to view naked human sculptures, giant replicas of genitals and an exhibition about the history of sex and sexual practices in other countries.
The park will also offer sex technique workshops and advise on anti-Aids measures and using condoms properly.
via China to open first sex theme park | World news | guardian.co.uk.
GM notifies 1,100 dealers they’re out
GM’s 1,100 ‘Dear John’ letters to dealers
Automaker makes big cut as part of plan to drop 40% of dealer network. Many are expected to leave business this year.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors notified 1,100 of its 6,000 dealerships Friday that it is terminating their contracts with the struggling automaker, the first step in cutting up to 40% of its retail network.
GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said that the dealers receiving notice Friday are being told that their contracts will not be renewed in October 2010. Many of them are expected to close shop this year.
The company has told the Obama administration that it plans to cut its network down to 3,600 dealers by next year, although Friday GM vice president Mark LaNeve said the final number would be in the range of 3,600 to 4,000.
Much of the rest of the cuts will come from GM’s plans to sell or close four brands – Saturn, Hummer, Saab and Pontiac.
via GM notifies 1,100 dealers they’re out – May. 15, 2009.
The New York Times And The Forces Of Creative Destruction
The New York Times And The Forces Of Creative Destruction
As prospective buyers circle, and as the brutal commentary of financial analysts intensifies, the end of the Sulzberger-Ochs family’s 113 year control of the New York Times — through forced sale or bankruptcy — has become an acknowledged possibility, with some well-informed observers suggesting that insolvency may be roughly a year or two away.
If officials of the paper are forced to declare bankruptcy, it will be difficult — perhaps impossible — for the Sulzberger-Ochs family, which has been at the helm since 1896, to prevent the paper from falling into the hands of an individual or a corporation (for example, Rupert Murdoch and the News Corporation) whose journalistic principles are markedly different from, if not antithetical to, those that have guided the United States’ dominant newspaper.
The New York Times Company, which owns the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers, lost $74.5 million in the first quarter of 2009, compared to a loss of $335,000 in the first three months of 2008.
via The New York Times And The Forces Of Creative Destruction.
After years of berating Hillary Clinton, Savage asks her for help lifting his UK ban.
After years of berating Hillary Clinton, Savage asks her for help lifting his UK ban.
Earlier this month, the British government announced a list of people barred from entering the country because of their history of fostering extremism or hatred. Included on the list was American hate radio host Michael Savage, who has since expressed his outrage at the decision. “It is demented,” Savage said. “I want my name off of that list and I want a letter of apology from this [British Home Secretary] Jacqui Smith.” Now it appears that Savage is seeking help from an old nemesis: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The San Fransisco Chronicle’s Rich Lieberman reports that “[l]awyers for Savage are formally asking [that] she call on the British Government to withdraw its ban.” It’s interesting that Savage is now turning to Clinton for help, considering what he has had to say about her in the past. Some examples:
– “Hillary Clinton, the most Godless woman in the Senate.”
Dobson surrenders: The hate crimes bill is ‘utter evil,’ but there’s nothing I can do about it.
Dobson surrenders: The hate crimes bill is ‘utter evil,’ but there’s nothing I can do about it.
Focus on the Family’s James Dobson yesterday used his daily broadcast to complain about the hate crimes legislation that recently passed the House. Dobson called it “utter evil” and said it will “undermine the rule of law and seriously damage morality and decency in the culture.” Dobson frequently rails against various cultural issues. But as Dan Gilgoff at U.S. News notes, what was different in this broadcast was Dobson’s utter hopelessness:
Hoyer and Cantor forget to take ‘AIPAC’ off file name of letter to Obama on Middle East peace.
OPS: AIPAC’s Butt boys
Hoyer and Cantor forget to take ‘AIPAC’ off file name of letter to Obama on Middle East peace.
Earlier this month, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent a letter to President Obama regarding the Middle East peace process. The letter says that the U.S. “must be both a trusted mediator and a devoted friend to Israel,” adding that “Israel will be taking the greatest risks in any peace agreement.” The Washington Post’s Al Kamen writes today about a discovery he made when opening the computer file version of the letter, in an item titled “Now, That’s Lobbying”:
Curiously, when we opened the attachment, we noticed it was named “AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf.”
Seems as though someone forgot to change the name or something. AIPAC? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee? Is that how this stuff works?
Matt Yglesias observes, “It is worth noting, however, that while public talk at the AIPAC conference was about devotion to peace, the substance of this letter is to try to make people think there will be a domestic price to be paid for any serious effort to push for a solution. This is similar to how Israel’s land grabs in-and-around Jerusalem are at odds with the Israeli government’s public presentation of itself as interested in peace and disturbed by the lack of a credible partner.”
NEW POLL SHOWS STRONG AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR A PAID VACATION LAW
NEW POLL SHOWS STRONG AMERICAN SUPPORT FOR A PAID VACATION LAW
A new poll finds that more than two-thirds of Americans support a law that would guarantee paid vacations for workers. The poll found 69% of Americans saying they would support a paid vacation law, with the largest percentage of respondents favoring a law guaranteeing three weeks vacation or more. Take Back Your Time advocates a three-week paid vacation law.
Americans under 35 (83%), African-Americans (89%) Hispanic-Americans (82%) and low-income Americans (82%) were the strongest supporters of such a law, as were residents of the Northeast (75%) and the South (72%).
75% of women and 63% of men support a paid vacation law. 74% of families with children support such a law. Every demographic showed majority support for a law.
Overall, only 27% of those polled were opposed to a paid vacation law.
The demographically scientific telephone sample of 1,002 Americans was conducted by The Opinion Research Corporation, a leading professional pollster, during the week of June 23, 2008.
NOT ENOUGH TIME OFF TO AVOID BURNOUT
Americans were asked how many weeks of vacation they need to prevent burnout on the job. 52% said they need three weeks or more and 82% said they needed at least two weeks. But the survey showed that among working Americans, 28% took no vacation time at all last year, half took a week or less and two-thirds got less than two weeks off. The median for all workers was 8.2 days of vacation, far below what most workers believe they need.
via Right 2 Vacation.
US Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Combat China Currency Policy
OPS: Think China will ALLOW us to do this?
US Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Combat China Currency Policy
Currency manipulation occurs when a nation purposely undervalues its currency, making its exports artificially cheap and foreign imports wildly overpriced.
On Wednesday, a group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced legislation that would address currency manipulation and provide the U.S. with the means to retaliate against the unfair practice.
Introduced by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Reps. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Tim Murphy (R-PA), The Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act would define currency manipulation as illegal trade distorting subsidies and would provide U.S. lawmakers with the tools to redress the practice. If a country was determined to be guilty of the practice, U.S. lawmakers would then be able to impose countervailing subsidies and antidumping duties to neutralize the negative effects of currency manipulation.
Currency manipulation occurs when a nation purposely undervalues its currency, making its exports artificially cheap and foreign imports wildly overpriced. This distorts trade, allowing the nation with the undervalued currency to maintain consistently huge trade surpluses. The victims of the practice, on the other hand, are forced to compete on an uneven playing field, lowering production and leading to job loss
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Next Financial Collapse Could be Looming, Worse than Current
Next Financial Collapse Could be Looming, Worse than Current
Americans are being lulled into a false sense of economic security.
Americans are being lulled into a false sense of economic security through misleading economic indicators that have been pushed upward by optimistic investors – a phenomenon that has the potential to lead Americans to return to living well beyond their means, according to Edward Hadas of breakingviews.com.
“While the economic arrows are still mostly pointing downward, markets seem to be twisting the data in a positive direction,” he writes. “A few numbers suggest that a little bit of the exuberance of the go-go credit years could be returning.”
One of the indicators of economic data being twisted in a positive direction is the fact that the trade deficit is once again on the rise. As a matter of fact, the trade deficit experienced its first month-over-month rise since last July.
According to Hadas, that rise is likely due to the fact that oil prices are beginning to climb again. Despite the fact that demand is still down and supply is still up, crude prices have risen by over 50 percent in the last three months. This is mainly due to investors pumping cash into the commodity.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Elected Officials Selling out America: Norm Dicks
Elected Officials Selling out America: Norm Dicks
Removing trade barriers to the detriment of the U.S. has been one of Rep. Norm Dicks highest priorities during his rein in Congress.
Editor’s Note: The following article is the eighth installment in an expository series which outlines important issues facing the U.S. economy and reveals your elected officials voting records. Please write to your elected officials and demand that they represent their constituents, instead of succumbing to the whims of big business.
Representative Norm Dicks (D-WA) has been around long enough to realize that “free trade” simply does not benefit average Americans, yet he still holds on to the false belief that tearing down trade barriers somehow creates American jobs.
Elected to represent Washington’s 6th Congressional district in D.C. in 1976, Dicks has consistently voted against the interests of average American workers.
In his 22 years in Congress, Dicks has voted in favor of unraveling trade barriers that protect American workers nearly eight out of 10 times, according to the Cato Institute.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Establishing Tax Evading Companies Easy as 1, 2, 3
Establishing Tax Evading Companies Easy as 1, 2, 3
Setting up a Panamanian corporation to dodge corporate taxes is so ridiculously easy, even a 20-something college intern can do it – without ever setting foot in Panama or even owning a business, for that matter.
Editor’s Note: Global Trade Watch wanted to discover exactly how easy it is to set up a corporation in Panama to dodge taxes. They asked Jessica, their college sophomore intern, to attempt the task. Watch above at how ridiculously easy it is for Jessica to set up a Panamanian corporation. After viewing please contact your lawmakers to express your outrage over their decision to move forward with the Panama “free trade” agreement.
Setting up a Panamanian corporation to dodge corporate taxes is so ridiculously easy, even a 20-something college intern can do it – without ever setting foot in Panama or even owning a business, for that matter.
In preparation for the battle over the Panamanian Free Trade Agreement, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch has demonstrated just that.
Using only an intern, a phone and the advice of a Panamanian lawyer, the group found that all that is required to set up your very own offshore tax haven is a passport, a bank reference letter, information about your professional activities and information about the “company” – all of which can conveniently be sent through email. At that point, you pay the required fees and 32 hours later you are the proud new owner of a tax evading Panamanian corporation.
The intern is told by the unsuspecting lawyer that she has no need to worry about the U.S. government catching up to her for tax evasion because setting up a Panamanian shell company to avoid taxes is akin to “totally removing yourself from the legal trail.” Furthermore, the lawyer alleviates her concerns about the impending Panamanian “free trade” agreement and its effects on Panamanian banking secrecy by assuring her that nothing will change because “they would have to change the way everything works here in Panama.”
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Who Will Benefit From And Who Will Be Damaged By Economic Protectionism?
Who Will Benefit From And Who Will Be Damaged By Economic Protectionism?
The fact that the US is called protectionist when instituting a Buy American provision that is consistent with the WTO and is already in place in most of the rest of the world is a well kept secret that needs to be told
The following article appeared on the globaleforum website and was written by Michelle Galanter Applebaum, founder and Managing Director of Steel Market Intelligence, an independent steel consultancy.
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The concept of free trade is an often misunderstood notion. The economic theory behind free trade is a concept called comparative advantage. Different regions of the world have different resources and the idea of comparative advantage is that each region should focus on leveraging those comparative strengths — and trade with other regions in order to supplement their own production. There is not an economist on the face of the planet that would dispute the idea that when nations focus on comparative advantage, global economic prosperity is dramatically enhanced.
The problem with free trade comes about when nations pursue “industrial policies” favoring certain high cost industries in certain regions for non-economic or political reasons — most often full employment, or a longer-term industrial strategy. A good example is today’s Chinese steel industry. China has very few of the resources needed to be a low cost producer of steel, and in fact, China is one of the world’s highest cost steelmakers.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Chalmers Johnson on the Cost of Empire
Chalmers Johnson on the Cost of Empire
In an open letter to President Obama circulated this week, more than 100 state lawmakers urged speedy passage this year of meaningful health care reform, according to a press statement from the Progressive States Network (PSN).
The letter argued that “the private sector alone has proven incapable of creating a high-quality, fair and accountable health care system that works for all families,” and that our “disjointed health care system has formed a choke-hold on our economy.”
It also called for a “robust federal-state collaboration” to deliver Americans “the choice of a public health insurance plan that is available to businesses, individuals, and families.”
PSN Interim Executive Director Nathan Newman explained, “State lawmakers have already demonstrated the policy background and political savvy to enact reform in a broad range of political climates.”
Newman stated that state lawmakers have a lot of experience in creating and implementing comprehensive coverage plans, and that they should be included in the public debate on national reform. Thirty states currently offer the choice of a public insurance plan to their public employees. In recent years, Wisconsin and Connecticut state legislatures have passed bills that would open public insurance plans to the private sector. Similar measures have been introduced this year in Iowa, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Washington.
via Truthdig – Arts and Culture – Chalmers Johnson on the Cost of Empire.
State Lawmakers Urge Comprehensive Healthcare Reform
State Lawmakers Urge Comprehensive Healthcare Reform
In an open letter to President Obama circulated this week, more than 100 state lawmakers urged speedy passage this year of meaningful health care reform, according to a press statement from the Progressive States Network (PSN).
The letter argued that “the private sector alone has proven incapable of creating a high-quality, fair and accountable health care system that works for all families,” and that our “disjointed health care system has formed a choke-hold on our economy.”
It also called for a “robust federal-state collaboration” to deliver Americans “the choice of a public health insurance plan that is available to businesses, individuals, and families.”
PSN Interim Executive Director Nathan Newman explained, “State lawmakers have already demonstrated the policy background and political savvy to enact reform in a broad range of political climates.”
Newman stated that state lawmakers have a lot of experience in creating and implementing comprehensive coverage plans, and that they should be included in the public debate on national reform. Thirty states currently offer the choice of a public insurance plan to their public employees. In recent years, Wisconsin and Connecticut state legislatures have passed bills that would open public insurance plans to the private sector. Similar measures have been introduced this year in Iowa, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Washington.
via Political Affairs Magazine – State Lawmakers Urge Comprehensive Healthcare Reform.
Closing GM, Chrysler Dealerships Only Produces More Unanswered Questions
Closing GM, Chrysler Dealerships Only Produces More Unanswered Questions
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT by Chad Rubel
Chrysler is supposed to get rid of 789 dealers. GM announces this morning that they will dispatch about 1,100 dealers. You could classify these as more casualties of the horrible economy gone bad, another simple blip of yet more people being thrown out of work.
But something seems missing from the exchange. What we don’t know is whether this is a good thing?
It’s not good to see about 1,900 dealerships go out of business, the countless people either directly employed by those dealerships or impacted by those job losses. But what is missing from the analysis is whether we had too many dealers in the first place, and whether we need auto dealers in the 21st century.
The issues with Detroit and the automakers have been management-workers. Bosses vs. the UAW. No one gave the dealers much thought at all.
via Closing GM, Chrysler Dealerships Only Produces More Unanswered Questions | BuzzFlash.org.
Keep It Made in America Tour: Stand up & fight for jobs, communities
Keep It Made in America Tour: Stand up & fight for jobs, communities
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Steelworkers union President Leo Gerard joined Lansing, Mich., Mayor Virg Bernero, members of Congress, actor Danny Glover and the Rev. Jesse Jackson here as the “Keep It Made In America Tour” rolled into Michigan this week.
The multi-city bus tour by workers, union leaders, city and state officials, car dealers and other local businesses, aims to mobilize working people in the fight to keep manufacturing jobs and rebuild a future for America’s heartland communities.
This is a “fight for middle class jobs and to rekindle the American dream,” Gerard told a May 11 rally in this epicenter of the auto crisis. “If we are silenced we will be crushed. If we don’t stand up and fight we will be crushed.”
via People’s Weekly World – Keep It Made in America Tour: Stand up & fight for jobs, communities.
Eco warrior on voyage to ‘plastic soup’ of Pacific
Eco warrior on voyage to ‘plastic soup’ of Pacific
In a few weeks, the heir to one of the world’s greatest fortunes, David de Rothschild, will set sail across the Pacific in the Plastiki, a boat made from plastic bottles and recycled waste.
The aim of the venture is to focus attention on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a rubbish-covered region of ocean, several hundred kilometres in diameter.
The patch, north-west of Hawaii, was discovered in 1999 by researchers who found that its waters contained tens of thousands of pieces of plastic per square kilometre, the remains of rubbish caught in the region’s circulating ocean currents. This pollution is devastating populations of seabirds and fish that live in the region.
During his trip, which is being sponsored by the International Watch Company and Hewlett-Packard, de Rothschild will collect water samples and post blogs, photographs and video clips, to try to publicise the perils of plastic pollution.
via Eco warrior on voyage to ‘plastic soup’ of Pacific – Pollution – NZ Herald News.
Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes
Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes
The other day the guys from BaconToday.com contacted me in search for some barbecue bacon recipes. Of course I have plenty of great uses for bacon in a barbecue pit, but the longer I thought about it, the more I wanted to step it up a notch and clog a few arteries for those guys. Behold, BACON EXPLOSION!!! Here’s what you’ll need…
2 pounds thick cut bacon
2 pounds Italian sausage
1 jar of your favorite barbeque sauce
1 jar of your favorite barbeque rub
Here is the end result – but checkout teh other photos and see how to get here from there
via Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes.
Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama
Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama
The ‘Black Shirts’ of Guantanamo routinely terrorize prisoners, breaking bones, gouging eyes, squeezing testicles, and ‘dousing’ them with chemicals.
As the Obama administration continues to fight the release of some 2,000 photos that graphically document U.S. military abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, an ongoing Spanish investigation is adding harrowing details to the ever-emerging portrait of the torture inside and outside Guantánamo. Among them: “blows to [the] testicles;” “detention underground in total darkness for three weeks with deprivation of food and sleep;” being “inoculated … through injection with ‘a disease for dog cysts;’” the smearing of feces on prisoners; and waterboarding. The torture, according to the Spanish investigation, all occurred “under the authority of American military personnel” and was sometimes conducted in the presence of medical professionals.
More significantly, however, the investigation could for the first time place an intense focus on a notorious, but seldom discussed, thug squad deployed by the U.S. military to retaliate with excessive violence to the slightest resistance by prisoners at Guantánamo.
Department of Justice Opposes Court Access for National Security Whistleblowers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2009
8:24 AM
Department of Justice Opposes Court Access for National Security Whistleblowers
President Obama Urged to Reject DOJ Opposition to Whistleblower Protection
WASHINGTON – May 14 – May 14, 2009. In testimony presented today by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Policy, the DOJ opposed giving national security whistleblowers judicial due process protections. The policy presented by the DOJ was in stark contrast to the position taken by President Obama during the presidential campaign, when his campaign endorsed judicial protection for all federal employee whistleblowers.
In response to the DOJ position, David K. Colapinto, General Counsel of the National Whistleblowers Center, and Michael D. Kohn, attorney for Bunnatine Greenhouse, issued the following statements on behalf of the National Whistleblowers Center:
“Without granting national security whistleblowers full court access, the administrative scheme proposed by the Department of Justice is doomed to fail.”
“The Obama administration should not bend to the pressure of the national security bureaucracy. That bureaucracy retaliated against whistleblowers who warned of the 9/11 attack and misled the American people concerning the justifications for invading Iraq.”
via Department of Justice Opposes Court Access for National Security Whistleblowers | CommonDreams.org.
GOP Disarray and Progressive Dismay: The State of the Parties, 2009
GOP Disarray and Progressive Dismay: The State of the Parties, 2009
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Christine Bowman
The battlelines of American politics have shifted. Back in 2000, the close and disputed presidential election would seem to have set the stage for a period of extreme partisanship, with Democrats and Republicans battling for an edge. Yet, for seven or eight years, an unacknowledged coalition of right-wing and more moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats gave the Republican president just about everything he wanted. One concrete indicator confirming that impression is that, “In March 2006, President George W. Bush (43) set a 200-year record, becoming the most veto-less President since the early 1900s.” Meanwhile progressives, or if you will, left-of-center Democrats and some third-party voters, were left out in the cold. This group attacked Bush/Cheney on all fronts, but to no avail.
That clear political dividing line held true pretty much across the board and for most of Bush’s tenure — on starting and conducting the Iraq war, as well as on taxes, judicial confirmations, expansion of executive power, corporate deregulation, and on the embrace of “values-based,” church-driven policy in areas like sex education and stem-cell research. Science was side-lined along with the progressives, in part because of Bush’s many Christian-right Executive Branch appointments and directives.
Among progressives, Bush bashing, as the other side called it, became a full-time endeavor, a cottage industry on the Internet, and a consuming passion that eventually culminated in removing the GOP from power. Many centrists and third-party voters along with less-engaged citizens who may have at one time trusted Bush, concluded in 2008 that Bush and his vice president had led the country the wrong way, or, indeed, misled the country.
via GOP Disarray and Progressive Dismay: The State of the Parties, 2009 | BuzzFlash.org.
America’s growing surveillance state
America’s growing surveillance state - guardian.co.uk
The Obama administration isn’t just watching rightwing extremists. It’s watching us all – and we should all be concerned
The US department of homeland security has once again run afoul of cultural and political conservatives. Last month, a leaked report on rightwing extremism sparked an outcry for suggesting that returning veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could become domestic terrorists – the next Timothy McVeigh. Now, another document has come to light, and conservatives are having another aneurism.
The 11-page “Domestic Extremism Lexicon” defines potential domestic terrorism threats facing the United States. Produced by DHS’s office of intelligence and analysis, it’s purpose was to define key terms and extremist groups. Conservative websites were apoplectic about how “rightwing extremism” was described:
A movement of rightwing groups or individual who can be broadly divided into those who are primarily hate-oriented, and those who are mainly antigovernment and reject federal authority in favour of state or local authority. This term also may refer to rightwing extremist movements that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.
Though retracted within hours of its release and recalled from state and local law enforcement partners, the lexicon has nevertheless drawn the ire of rightwing groups, who see it as yet another example of the Obama administration equating anti-immigration and anti-abortion groups with terrorism.
via America’s growing surveillance state | Matthew Harwood | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
Bush Seeks Immunity for Violating War Crimes Act
Bush Seeks Immunity for Violating War Crimes Act
Thirty-two years ago, President Gerald Ford created a political firestorm by pardoning former President Richard Nixon of all crimes he may have committed in Watergate — and lost his election as a result. Now, President Bush, to avoid a similar public outcry, is quietly trying to pardon himself of any crimes connected with the torture and mistreatment of U.S. detainees.
The ”pardon” is buried in Bush’s proposed legislation to create a new kind of military tribunal for cases involving top al-Qaida operatives. The ”pardon” provision has nothing to do with the tribunals. Instead, it guts the War Crimes Act of 1996, a federal law that makes it a crime, in some cases punishable by death, to mistreat detainees in violation of the Geneva Conventions and makes the new, weaker terms of the War Crimes Act retroactive to 9/11.
Press accounts of the provision have described it as providing immunity for CIA interrogators. But its terms cover the president and other top officials because the act applies to any U.S. national.
Avoiding prosecution under the War Crimes Act has been an obsession of this administration since shortly after 9/11. In a January 2002 memorandum to the president, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales pointed out the problem of prosecution for detainee mistreatment under the War Crimes Act. He notes that given the vague language of the statute, no one could predict what future ”prosecutors and independent counsels” might do if they decided to bring charges under the act. As an author of the 1978 special prosecutor statute, I know that independent counsels (who used to be called ”special prosecutors” prior to the statute’s reauthorization in 1994) aren’t for low-level government officials such as CIA interrogators, but for the president and his Cabinet. It is clear that Gonzales was concerned about top administration officials.
via Bush Seeks Immunity for Violating War Crimes Act.
Explicit Art: Oldest Known Human Sculpture Found in Germany
Oldest Known Human Sculpture Found in Germany
A dig in the caves of southern Germany has unearthed what might be the oldest human depiction ever found. The tiny, mammoth ivory carving, presented for the first time this week, is certainly one of the most explicit.
The birthplace of human art. If indeed there is such a place, researchers are increasingly inclined to believe that it is to be found in the hills — and caves — of southern Germany. Already, archaeologists have unearthed a number of miniature mammoth ivory carvings — and on Wednesday, Nicholas Conard, a professor of prehistory at the University of Tübingen, presented his most recent sensational discovery: a tiny figure of a shockingly anatomically correct woman carved out of mammoth ivory that is at least 35,000 years old and perhaps as old as 40,000.
via Explicit Art: Oldest Known Human Sculpture Found in Germany – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.
S.C. bill on teen dating violence removes reference to gays
S.C. bill on teen dating violence removes reference to gays
COLUMBIA, S.C. — State House lawmakers have given key approval to a new teen dating violence policy that excludes references to gay relationships.
In a 75 to 25 vote today, the House approved a bill that will require the state’s school districts to distribute information to parents and students about the dangers of abusive teen relationships. Rep. Greg Delleney, R-Chester, included an amendment that all written materials reference heterosexual relationships only. After one more perfunctory vote, the bill heads to the Senate.
Bill sponsor Rep. Joan Brady, R-Richland, said she’s fine with the amendment to her bill because most dating violence occurs in girl-boy relationships. Gay rights advocates have disagreed and said same-sex couples should be included.
via S.C. bill on teen dating violence removes reference to gays | McClatchy.
Water Infrastructure Financing Act Benefits Corporations at the Expense of Taxpayers
Water Infrastructure Financing Act Benefits Corporations at the Expense of Taxpayers | CommonDreams.org
Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter
WASHINGTON – May 14 – “Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works approved S.1005, the Water Infrastructure Financing Act. The bill contains language that would, for the first time, allow private wastewater utilities access to funding from the Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF). This proposed change to the law would essentially allow private wastewater utilities to benefit from public funding. The burden of this modification, however, would ultimately fall on consumers, because private wastewater utilities charge customers as much as 80% more than do their public counterparts. Under this bill, consumers would be left to subsidize these utilities through both taxes and higher user rates.
“Privatization is not an efficient means of rejuvenating ailing wastewater systems. From high costs and inefficiency to unaccountable and irresponsible operators, a deluge of problems has swamped communities that have turned their wastewater systems over to the private sector. This is because corporations prioritize earnings over quality and stockholders over consumers. They seek returns by cutting corners and hiking rates, and further pad investor pockets by downsizing workforces and stripping away worker benefits. Inflated prices, higher household bills and lost jobs are the last thing families need in these challenging economic times.
“Congress should reject language in the Water Infrastructure Financing Act that subsidizes and incentivizes such corporate abuse. If taxpayers front the money for these programs, they should be the primary beneficiaries.”
Global Warming May Exceed Infections as Health Threat
Global Warming May Exceed Infections as Health Threat (Update1)
May 14 (Bloomberg) — Global warming is the biggest public health threat of the 21st century, eclipsing infectious diseases, water shortages and poverty, a team of medical and climate-change researchers concluded.
The phenomenon will be felt first in the developing world, further burdening a population already in crisis from food shortages, said the report from University College London that was published today in The Lancet journal. The changing climate will also cause real and lasting damage to the Western world, affecting generations to come, said Anthony Costello, a pediatrician at University College London.
“Climate change is a health issue affecting billions of people, not just an environmental issue about polar bears and deforestation,” Costello said during a news conference. “We are setting up a world for our children and grandchildren that may be extremely frightening and turbulent.”
via Global Warming May Exceed Infections as Health Threat (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.
The Truth About Richard Bruce Cheney
The Truth About Richard Bruce Cheney - by Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson,
This is a guest post exclusive to The Washington Note by Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who is former chief of staff of the Department of State during the term of Secretary of State Colin Powell. Lawrence Wilkerson is also Pamela Harriman Visiting Professor at the College of William & Mary.
Last night I was on Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC at the top of the hour. But before I came on, through the earpiece I listened to the five minutes that Rachel sketched as a lead-in. Most of it was videotape from the last few days of former Vice President Dick Cheney extolling the virtues of harsh interrogation, torture, and his leadership. I had heard some of it earlier of course but not all of it and not in such a tightly-packed package.
Let’s just say that five minutes of the Sith Lord was stunningly inaccurate.
So, when I got home last night, I thought long and hard about what I knew at this point in my investigations with respect to the former VP’s office. Here it is.
via The Truth About Richard Bruce Cheney – The Washington Note.
Pentagon Preps Soldier Telepathy Push
Pentagon Preps Soldier Telepathy Push - Wired.com
Forget the battlefield radios, the combat PDAs or even infantry hand signals. When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they’ll read each other’s minds.
At least, that’s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa. The agency’s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.
Before being vocalized, speech exists as word-specific neural signals in the mind. Darpa wants to develop technology that would detect these signals of “pre-speech,” analyze them, and then transmit the statement to an intended interlocutor. Darpa plans to use EEG to read the brain waves. It’s a technique they’re also testing in a project to devise mind-reading binoculars that alert soldiers to threats faster the conscious mind can process them.
via Pentagon Preps Soldier Telepathy Push | Danger Room | Wired.com.
All Over the Board: Kucinich: The Best Protection we have is the Truth.
Kucinich: The Best Protection we have is the Truth.
Here’s the thing. We’re not going to pull out of this economic slump/depression without rebuilding our industrial capacity. Wal-mart jobs are all well and good for what they are. Those type of jobs don’t make things. We know this (well, the financiers don’t seem to know this).
That it’s part of our national economic security goes without saying. I’m supporting HR 444. It’s time we look at our manufacturing base and say how important it is.
As far as the torture pics go, of co use they should be released. Rep. Kucinich is right in saying that the best protection we have is the truth. Now, will this possible investigation into torture bring down some Dems as well as Repukes? If the Dems knew and supported the torture, you bet they should be brought down.
via All Over the Board: Kucinich: The Best Protection we have is the Truth..
Obama ‘to revive military trials’
Obama ‘to revive military trials’ - BBC NEWS
US President Barack Obama is expected to announce on Friday that he is reviving military trials for some of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
But legal rights for defendants facing the military commissions will be significantly improved, officials said.
President Obama halted the trials as one of his first acts on taking office in January, saying the US was entering a new era of respecting human rights.
The decision to revive the military trials has angered civil rights groups.
There are currently 241 detainees still at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
President Obama has pledged to close the camp by January 2010.
‘Disappointing’
via BBC NEWS | Americas | Obama ‘to revive military trials’.
Empire of Carbon
Empire of Carbon - Paul Krugman
I have seen the future, and it won’t work.
These should be hopeful times for environmentalists. Junk science no longer rules in Washington. President Obama has spoken forcefully about the need to take action on climate change; the people I talk to are increasingly optimistic that Congress will soon establish a cap-and-trade system that limits emissions of greenhouse gases, with the limits growing steadily tighter over time. And once America acts, we can expect much of the world to follow our lead.
But that still leaves the problem of China, where I have been for most of the last week.
Like every visitor to China, I was awed by the scale of the country’s development. Even the annoying aspects — much of my time was spent viewing the Great Wall of Traffic — are byproducts of the nation’s economic success.
But China cannot continue along its current path because the planet can’t handle the strain.
via Op-Ed Columnist – Empire of Carbon – NYTimes.com.
We tortured to justify war
We tortured to justify war | Salon
Dick Cheney keeps saying “enhanced interrogation” was used to stop imminent attacks, but evidence is mounting that the real reason was to invent evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida.
By Joe Conason
The single most pertinent question that Dick Cheney is never asked — at least not by the admiring interviewers he has encountered so far — is whether he, Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush used torture to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq. As he tours television studios, radio stations and conservative think tanks, the former vice-president hopes to persuade America that only waterboarding kept us safe for seven years.
Yet evidence is mounting that under Cheney’s direction, “enhanced interrogation” was not used exclusively to prevent imminent acts of terror or collect actionable intelligence — the aims that he constantly emphasizes — but to invent evidence that would link al-Qaida with Saddam Hussein and connect the late Iraqi dictator to the 9/11 attacks.
In one report after another, from journalists, former administration officials and Senate investigators, the same theme continues to emerge: Whenever a prisoner believed to possess any knowledge of al-Qaida’s operations or Iraqi intelligence came into American custody, CIA interrogators felt intense pressure from the Bush White House to produce evidence of an Iraq-Qaida relationship (which contradicted everything that U.S. intelligence and other experts knew about the enmity between Saddam’s Baath Party and Osama bin Laden’s jihadists). Indeed, the futile quest for proof of that connection is the common thread running through the gruesome stories of torture from the Guantánamo detainee camp to Egyptian prisons to the CIA’s black sites in Thailand and elsewhere.
via We tortured to justify war | Salon.
Senator Bob Graham: The CIA Made Up Two Briefing Sessions
Senator Bob Graham: The CIA Made Up Two Briefing Sessions
Bob Graham just appeared on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show. In addition to repeating earlier reports that he was never briefed on waterboarding, Graham revealed that the first time he asked the CIA when he was briefed on torture, it claimed it had briefed him on two dates when no briefing took place.
I didn’t get Graham’s exact quotes (and the quotes below are rough approximations), but when asked to respond to Philip Zelikow’s assertion that members of Congress from both parties had been briefed on this program, Graham said that when he asked the CIA when he had been briefed on the program, the CIA gave him the dates of four briefings, two in April 2002 and two in September 2002, when they claimed they had briefed him about the program. But after Graham consulted his own records, he pointed out that on two of those dates, he had not attended any briefing. After Graham pointed this out to the CIA, they conceded their own dates were incorrect.
Graham then went on to repeat his claim that he had no recollection of being told about waterboarding Zubaydah or anything else about extreme interrogation.
via Emptywheel » Senator Bob Graham: The CIA Made Up Two Briefing Sessions.
The Secrets of the Federal Reserve
The Secrets of the Federal Reserve
by Bob Chapman
The Federal Reserve Act was legislated in 1913 to end recessions, panics and depression. Over that almost 100-year period they have been eminently no more successful then their predecessors. The Fed is a private corporation, which guides US monetary policy. Its staff is from Wall Street, banking, and transnational conglomerates and occasionally from academia. Of the 12 Federal Reserve banks the New York bank is the most powerful. The staffing of the Fed at the least is incestuous, because the member banks take part in the staffing, as they filter to the Fed what actions they should take. That is done by the FOMC, The Federal Open Market Committee. As a further example the recent stress test done by the Fed was done on many of their owners. Sadly the public is unaware of this and even business majors and those with business masters degrees do not know that the Fed is privately owned or what they actually do. For those of you who would like to get a better understanding read G. Edward Griffith’s, “Creature from Jekyll Island” and the secrets of the Federal Reserve” by Eustace Mullins.
Recently we discovered that $101.4 billion was originally secretly funneled through AIG to AIG counterparties – parties that were owed these sums by AIG, which had not collateralized derivative contracts. That is like writing insurance and having no collateral reserves set aside for losing events. The Federal Reserve in their wisdom paid off AIG’s debt with what eventually will be taxpayer debt. This is wrong and it should not have been done secretly. When demanded by a Federal Judge to reveal to whom these monies were paid and under what circumstances, the Fed said it would harm their reputations and it was a “state secret.”
The biggest gun in the Fed arsenal is the New York Fed. The recently appointed Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner was the NY Fed’s previous governor. Mr. Geithner had worked in government previously and was in part responsible for the Asian financial disaster in 1997-1998. He is also a Goldman Sachs alumnus. He is part of a never-ending exchange of the denizens of Wall Street and banking being appointed to government positions. In fact Wall Street and banking have been running our government for a long time. Many say for too long.
via The Secrets of the Federal Reserve.
A Monetary Reformer in Kindergarten
A Monetary Reformer in Kindergarten
by Richard C. Cook
This morning I went to a nearby urban public school to read a story to the kindergarten class my wife teaches.
The story was Hansel and Gretel, one of the classics of European folk culture. It was a nicely illustrated edition. A majority of the pupils in the class were Hispanic. The rest were black, with one white girl.
But the story transcends time and culture. Most of the pupils were attentive, though some were recent immigrants who still barely spoke English and didn’t seem quite “present.” I had been to the class before, so some of the little girls came up to hug me. In general it was a cheerful atmosphere.
Hansel and Gretel is quite a gruesome tale. In it, the family is starving, and the mother persuades the father to take Hansel and Gretel into the forest and leave them. They make their way to a house made of gingerbread and candy owned by a witch. The witch decides to fatten up Hansel and eat him, but Gretel tricks the old lady into getting inside a cooking stove to check the temperature. Gretel slams the door shut, the witch burns up, then, after helping themselves to the witch’s collection of jewels and gold coins, the children find their way back home. Their mother has died, but they and their father now are able to live in a degree of comfort “happily ever after.”
All the old fairy tales are symbolic, so naturally, as a monetary reformer, I view the witch with her treasures as a symbol of how the peasants of olden days regarded the money lenders who fattened themselves through usury while the people starved.
In the language of fairy tales and parables, fire symbolizes knowledge. Symbolically, then, Gretel figured out how the witch had gained the power to lord it over everyone else so that honest men like her father could not survive. Using her knowledge, Gretel gave the witch what was coming to her, so that truth and justice prevailed in the end.
via A Monetary Reformer in Kindergarten.
Jim Cramer On Jon Stewart: “One Day He’ll Answer For It”
OPS: …and then Stewart will CRUSH him AGAIN! 
Jim Cramer On Jon Stewart: “One Day He’ll Answer For It”
Update: The questions are now online. Read all the Q&A here.
Original Post: Jim Cramer answered TIME readers’ “10 Questions” this week, and while the full questions, answers, and video aren’t yet online, a press release reveals that Cramer had forceful words when it came to Jon Stewart.
WATCH THEIR INTERVIEW AS IT AIRED HERE
WATCH THE FULL, UNEDITED, UNCENSORED VIDEO HERE
Regarding their infamous head-to-head earlier this year, Cramer said:
No one wants to suffer a beat-down. No one wants to be humiliated or embarrassed. I was shocked at [host Jon Stewart's] behavior. I wish he knew about my background, and I wish he knew about a lot of things that I had done, because I think he would’ve thanked me instead of attacked me…I think the attack on CNBC and the attacks on me were gravely misplaced. It was rather remarkable in that it was so clear that his goal was to just destroy me. One day he’ll answer for it.
via Jim Cramer On Jon Stewart: “One Day He’ll Answer For It”.
Jeff Walser, FDIC Economist, Charged With Attempted Bank Robbery
Jeff Walser, FDIC Economist, Charged With Attempted Bank Robbery
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An economist on leave from the federal agency that insures bank deposits has been charged with the April 11 attempted robbery of a Kansas City-area bank.
Jeff Walser said he had a bomb in his briefcase and demanded money at the Bank of America branch in Independence, but did not take $41,000 brought to him by an employee, according to an indictment filed Tuesday.
Walser, 51, surrendered to police and was being held in federal custody, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Walser told police that he has health problems and was “alone, discouraged and tired of working” and that his plan was to be arrested and not tell police he required thrice-weekly dialysis treatments to survive.
via Jeff Walser, FDIC Economist, Charged With Attempted Bank Robbery.
Kim Hendren Apologizes For Calling Sen. Schumer “That Jew”
OPS: Republicans that are: Jewish, Black or Gay must e self-hating and suicidal. Is there another explanation?
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Republican candidate for Senate from Arkansas reportedly referred to Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer as “that Jew” during a recent appearance before a Republican group.
State Sen. Kim Hendren told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was wrong to refer to Schumer’s religious affiliation during a Pulaski County Republican Committee meeting last week. Hendren said he doesn’t remember the exact wording of his comment, but he was quoted by conservative blogger Jason Tolbert as calling Schumer “that Jew.”
“I ought not to have referred to it at all,” Hendren told the AP. “When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn’t because I don’t like Jewish people.”
Hendren said he made the reference as he talked about comments the senior senator made criticizing some elements of the Republican Party.
via Kim Hendren Apologizes For Calling Sen. Schumer “That Jew”.
Prosecutors to Question Rove on U.S. Attorney Firings
Former top White House official Karl Rove will be interviewed tomorrow as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the firing of U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration, according to two sources familiar with the appointment.
Rove has remained in the news as a commentator and political analyst since departing the White House. In an essay in today’s Wall Street Journal, he criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), arguing that she may have misled the public about her knowledge of detainee interrogation tactics that critics assert are torture.
As a senior adviser to President George W. Bush, Rove emerged at the center of numerous policy and political debates. He will be questioned tomorrow by Connecticut prosecutor Nora R. Dannehy, who was named last year to examine whether any former senior Justice Department and White House officials lied or obstructed justice in connection with the dismissal of federal prosecutors in 2006.
via Prosecutors to Question Rove on U.S. Attorney Firings – washingtonpost.com.
Sen. Cornyn rejects Rep. Sessions’s claim that Obama is deliberately sabotaging the economy.
Sen. Cornyn rejects Rep. Sessions’s claim that Obama is deliberately sabotaging the economy.
Earlier this week, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) told the New York Times that the Obama administration intended to “‘diminish employment and diminish stock prices‘ as part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy to consolidate power.’” He added that Obama’s agenda was “intended to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it.” Yesterday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) rejected Session’s conspiracy theory:
“I don’t know where he’s coming from on it,” Sen. John Cornyn said Wednesday. “I’d like some sort of clarification about what he meant.”
Cornyn explicitly rejected the idea that Obama wants higher unemployment, lower stock prices and general economic malaise. “Absolutely not,” Cornyn told Texas reporters. [...]
Alberto Gonzales: ‘Empathy’ Means A Judge Saying ‘I Don’t Care What The Law Says’
OPS: Why isn’t this sociopathic little turd in Jail yet?
Alberto Gonzales: ‘Empathy’ Means A Judge Saying ‘I Don’t Care What The Law Says’
Alberto Gonzales and George W. BushFollowing Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s announcement that he planned to retire, conservatives have attacked and mocked President Obama’s statement that he is seeking a replacement who has “empathy” for “the daily realities of people’s lives.” “I’ll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind!” bellowed RNC Chairman Michael Steele last Friday.
Now, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is getting in on the act. Appearing on NPR’s Tell Me More yesterday, Gonzales claimed that he is “worried” that judges with empathy would make “decisions based on what they think makes them feel good”:
GONZALES: I do worry a little bit, well, I worry, I worry about about justices on the court making decisions based on what they think makes them feel good. I don’t think it’s fair to expect society to anticipate the outcome of a case based upon what makes a justice feel good. In essence what you’re saying, I think, is that I’m going to, I don’t care what the law says, I’m going to come out, I’m going to pursue an outcome that I think is fair and just. I’m going to rewrite the law. And I think that’s dangerous.
Listen here:
via Think Progress » Alberto Gonzales: ‘Empathy’ Means A Judge Saying ‘I Don’t Care What The Law Says’.
NH governor threatens to veto same-sex marriage bill without additional protections for religious groups.
NH governor threatens to veto same-sex marriage bill without additional protections for religious groups.
Earlier this month, the New Hampshire House agreed to changes made by the state Senate to a same-sex marriage bill, sending the bill to Gov. John Lynch. But Lynch announced today that he would veto the bill “if it does not change before it gets to his desk.” Concerned about those who have religious objections to same-sex marriage, Lynch suggested changes that he would accept:
“This morning, I met with House and Senate leaders, and the sponsors of this legislation, and gave them language that will provide additional protections to religious institutions.
“This new language will provide the strongest and clearest protections for religious institutions and associations, and for the individuals working with such institutions. It will make clear that they cannot be forced to act in ways that violate their deeply held religious principles.
W.R. Grace Corporation Off the Hook for Asbestos Pollution
W.R. Grace Corporation Off the Hook for Asbestos Pollution
It took little more than a day for the jury in the W.R. Grace trial to reach a verdict last week, signaling the end to the largest environmental crimes prosecution in U.S. history. For the residents of Libby, Montana, the closure was more bitter than sweet: Grace and three former executives – Robert Bettacchi, Jack Wolter and Henry Eschenbach – were acquitted of federal conspiracy charges involving Clean Air Act violations and obstruction of justice.
An eight-count indictment filed in 2005 alleged that W.R. Grace and its top employees knowingly endangered the Libby community by mining asbestos-laced vermiculite.
The nearly eleven-week trial proved arduous for the prosecution, which endured repeated and scathing reprimands from Judge Donald Molloy on the pace, relevancy and evidence. The challenges facing the prosecution were stacked from the start because statutes of limitation prevented criminal charges for negligence that may have occurred in the mine’s early years.
The Government’s case was compromised by court rulings limiting the amount of admissible evidence, and restricting the scope of its star witness’ testimony.
via The Stonecipher Report: W.R. Grace Corporation Off the Hook for Asbestos Pollution.
Today’s Quote
You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour,
and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders
- Jessie Ventura
Carlyle Group Admits Role In “Pay to Play” Scandal
Carlyle Group Admits Role In “Pay to Play” Scandal
Politically-Connected Firm Admits Payments of $13 Million to Indicted Middleman to Get New York State Business
The Carlyle Group, a giant Wall Street firm best known for its ties to former President George H.W. Bush and other prominent public officials, made more than $13 million in payments to a indicted political fixer who arranged for the firm to receive business from a New York pension fund, New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo said today.
Cuomo said Carlyle had agreed to $20 million to “resolve its role” in the ongoing corruption investigation and agreed to a new code of conduct that prohibits the use of such middlemen.
via Carlyle Group Admits Role In “Pay to Play” Scandal – ABC News.
Do Corporate Tax cheats…help our economy?!
Do Corporate Tax cheats…help our economy?!
via YouTube – Do Corporate Tax cheats…help our economy?!.
Residents Forceful: Shut Yankee Nuclear Plant Down
Residents Forceful: Shut Yankee Nuclear Plant Down | CommonDreams.org
Vermonters spoke forcefully Wednesday about the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant – they told the Public Service Board they wanted the plant shut down as soon as possible.
Only a handful of Entergy Nuclear employees, who all said they recently moved to Vermont to work for the company, spoke in favor of the nuclear reactor’s continued operation during the first two hours of the hearing before the Vermont Public Service Board, broadcast on Vermont Interactive Television.
The board starts its formal technical hearings next week on Entergy Nuclear’s request to keep operating for another 20 years beyond 2012, when its original 40-year federal license expires. The board must issue the reactor a certificate of public good for it to operate beyond 2012.
via Residents Forceful: Shut Yankee Nuclear Plant Down | CommonDreams.org.
Chicago Bans Sale of Baby Bottles, Sippy Cups With BPA
Chicago Bans Sale of Baby Bottles, Sippy Cups With BPA | CommonDreams.org
Bisphenol A has been linked to diabetes, cancer and other illnesses
The City Council’s vote Wednesday to make Chicago the first U.S. city to ban bisphenol A in baby bottles and sippy cups is the latest act in a groundswell of public concern about a widely used chemical that has been linked to cancer, diabetes and other ailments.
With retailers and manufacturers already phasing out use of BPA, the unanimous vote is largely symbolic. But it adds the city to a growing list of states and countries moving to eliminate the chemical from household products, especially those made for infants and children.
Minnesota adopted a similar ban last week, and lawmakers in Illinois and several other states are considering their own measures.
via Chicago Bans Sale of Baby Bottles, Sippy Cups With BPA | CommonDreams.org.
Deconstructing Obama’s Excuses
Deconstructing Obama’s Excuses | CommonDreams.org
by Dan Froomkin
In trying to explain his startling decision to oppose the public release of more photos depicting detainee abuse, President Obama and his aides yesterday put forth six excuses for his about-face, one more flawed than the next.
First, there was the nothing-to-see-here excuse. In his remarks yesterday afternoon, Obama said the “photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”
But as the Washington Post reports: “[O]ne congressional staff member, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the photos, said the pictures are more graphic than those that have been made public from Abu Ghraib. ‘When they are released, there will be a major outcry for an investigation by a commission or some other vehicle,’ the staff member said.”
via Deconstructing Obama’s Excuses | CommonDreams.org.
Cheney’s Role Deepens
Cheney’s Role Deepens | CommonDreams.org
by Robert Windrem
At the end of April 2003, not long after the fall of Baghdad, U.S. forces captured an Iraqi who Bush White House officials suspected might provide information of a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime. Muhammed Khudayr al-Dulaymi was the head of the M-14 section of Mukhabarat, one of Saddam’s secret police organizations. His responsibilities included chemical weapons and contacts with terrorist groups.
“To those who wanted or suspected a relationship, he would have been a guy who would know, so [White House officials] had particular interest,” Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraqi Survey Group and the man in charge of interrogations of Iraqi officials, told me. So much so that the officials, according to Duelfer, inquired how the interrogation was proceeding.
via Cheney’s Role Deepens | CommonDreams.org.
Explorer-Scouts Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More
OPS” Remember the 1930′s Germany? How long before they teach these kids to report on their parents?
Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More
IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.
The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots — BAM! BAM! — fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.
“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.
It is all quite a step up from the square knot.
The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.
via Explorer-Scouts Train in Post-9/11 Law Enforcement Methods – NYTimes.com.
The Almighty Renminbi?
The Almighty Renminbi?
The Dollar’s Slow Death
THE 19th century was dominated by the British Empire, the 20th century by the United States. We may now be entering the Asian century, dominated by a rising China and its currency. While the dollar’s status as the major reserve currency will not vanish overnight, we can no longer take it for granted. Sooner than we think, the dollar may be challenged by other currencies, most likely the Chinese renminbi. This would have serious costs for America, as our ability to finance our budget and trade deficits cheaply would disappear.
via Op-Ed Contributor – The Almighty Renminbi? – NYTimes.com.
Pelosi: ‘At Every Step Of The Way, The Administration Was Misleading The Congress’
Pelosi: ‘At Every Step Of The Way, The Administration Was Misleading The Congress’
In the Wall Street Journal this morning, Karl Rove declared that House Speaker Nancy Pelsoi (D-CA) was “an accomplice to ‘torture,’” repeating the right wing’s latest talking point that Pelosi is responsible for Bush’s torture program and should be demonized — even as Rove insists it wasn’t really “torture” and actually was a really great program.
This morning, Pelosi held a press conference to address these allegations. Reading a statement, she said that the CIA had told her in September 2002 — falsely — that waterboarding was not being used:
PELOSI: The CIA briefed me only once on enhanced interrogation techniques in September 2002, in my capacity as ranking member of the intelligence committee. I was informed then that the Department of Justice opinions had concluded that the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques were legal. The only mention of waterboarding at that briefing was that it was not being employed. [...]
We also now know that techniques including waterboarding had already been employed and that those briefing me had given me inaccurate and incomplete information. At the same time the Bush administration…was misleading the American people about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
via Think Progress » Pelosi: ‘At Every Step Of The Way, The Administration Was Misleading The Congress’.
‘Ugly’ Questions for Gen. Myers
‘Ugly’ Questions for Gen. Myers
by Ray McGovern
Tuesday evening offered an unusual opportunity to question the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2001-2005), Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, at an alumni club dinner. He was eager to talk about his just-published memoir, Eyes on the Horizon (and I was able to scan through a copy during the cocktail hour).
Myers’s presentation, like his book, was thin gruel. After his brief talk, he seemed intent on filibustering during a meandering Q & A session. He finally called on me since no other hands were up. Some were yawning, but it was too early to simply leave.
I introduced myself as a former Army intelligence officer and CIA analyst with combined service of almost 30 years. I thanked him for his stated opposition to interrogation techniques that go beyond “our interrogation manual”; and his conviction that “the Geneva Conventions were a fundamental part of our military culture”-both viewpoints emphasized in his book.
I then noted that the recently published Senate Armed Services Committee report, “Inquiry Into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody,” sowed some doubt regarding the strength of his convictions.
via ‘Ugly’ Questions for Gen. Myers | CommonDreams.org.
Norway Thrives by Going Against the Tide
Thriving Norway Provides an Economics Lesson
OSLO — When capitalism seemed on the verge of collapse last fall, Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s Socialist finance minister and a longtime free market skeptic, did more than crow.
As investors the world over sold in a panic, she bucked the tide, authorizing Norway’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund to ramp up its stock buying program by $60 billion — or about 23 percent of Norway ’s economic output.
“The timing was not that bad,” Ms. Halvorsen said, smiling with satisfaction over the broad worldwide market rally that began in early March.
The global financial crisis has brought low the economies of just about every country on earth. But not Norway.
With a quirky contrariness as deeply etched in the national character as the fjords carved into its rugged landscape, Norway has thrived by going its own way. When others splurged, it saved. When others sought to limit the role of government, Norway strengthened its cradle-to-grave welfare state.
via Norway Thrives by Going Against the Tide – NYTimes.com.
U.S. banking crisis may last until 2013: S&P
U.S. banking crisis may last until 2013: S&P | Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A day after saying big U.S. banks probably needed to raise only one-fourth the capital demanded by the government, Standard & Poor’s said the nation’s banking crisis has “merely entered a new phase” and might not end before 2013.
The credit rating agency said the industry is being propped up by hundreds of billions of dollars of government support, especially for lenders considered too important to the financial system to fail.
While efforts to spur lending, take bad assets off banks’ balance sheets, and restart the market for packaging and selling securities may help the sector, S&P said banks will have a tough time surviving absent a bigger capital cushion than regulators require.
“There’s nothing to say that this banking crisis can’t go on for another three or four years,” S&P Managing Director Tanya Azarchs said.
S&P did not immediately return a request for comment.
On Tuesday, S&P said major U.S. banks need to raise about $18 billion of capital to protect themselves from the economic downturn, though this amount could grow if conditions worsen.
via U.S. banking crisis may last until 2013: S&P | Reuters.
Tamiflu Developer: Swine Flu Could Have Come From Bio-Experiment Lab
Tamiflu Developer: Swine Flu Could Have Come From Bio-Experiment Lab – - ABC News
World Health Organization Investigates Claims by Australian Scientist Adrian Gibbs
An Australian researcher claims the swine flu, which has killed at least 64 people so far, might not be a mutation that occurred naturally but a man-made product of genetic experiments accidently leaked from a laboratory — a theory the World Health Organization is taking very seriously.
via Tamiflu Developer: Swine Flu Could Have Come From Bio-Experiment Lab – ABC News.
Botnet Is Captured and Studied, and the Findings Aren’t Good
Botnet Is Captured and Studied, and the Findings Aren’t Good – - NYTimes.com
Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara are providing a window inside a notorious “botnet” engaged in a massive financial-crime spree–and a wakeup call about the sheer cunning of modern cybercriminals.
In a recent paper, the researchers describe how they “hijacked” the command-and-control system of botnet known as Torpig or Sinowal and held on to control for ten days, enough time to get a pretty good understanding of its crimes and how extraordinarily difficult it will be to ever shut it down.
A botnet is a network of PCs that have been infected with malicious programs that put them under the control of crooks, unbeknownst to the owners. The UCSB researchers discovered that Torpig commanded more than 180,000 Windows computers, about 65% on cable or DSL connections likely in the homes of average people like you and me.
Botnets are believed to be used mainly by organized crime groups to send spam, attack and shut down Web sites with floods of traffic, or steal personal data like financial-account information and passwords.
via Botnet Is Captured and Studied, and the Findings Aren’t Good – Gadgetwise Blog – NYTimes.com.
Environmental alarms raised over home electronics
Environmental alarms raised over home electronics
The choice might not be quite that stark, but an energy watchdog is alarmed about the threat to the environment from the soaring electricity needs of gadgets like MP3 players, mobile phones and flat screen TVs.
In a report Wednesday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates new electronic gadgets will triple their energy consumption by 2030 to 1,700 terawatt hours, the equivalent of today’s home electricity consumption of the United States and Japan combined.
The world would have to build around 200 new nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030, when the global electric bill to power them will rise to $200 billion a year, the IEA said.
via Newsvine – Environmental alarms raised over home electronics.
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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. 
