Archive for May, 2009

SEC staff recommends civil fraud charges against Mozilo of Countrywide

SEC staff recommends civil fraud charges against Mozilo of Countrywide – - Los Angeles Times

The co-founder and former chief executive of the onetime mortgage giant could face charges of insider trading and failing to disclose risks to shareholders.

Former Countrywide Financial Corp. boss Angelo R. Mozilo, whose embrace of exotic loans helped fuel the mortgage boom and meltdown, will face Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges unless his lawyers prevail in an eleventh-hour appeal, people familiar with the SEC’s investigation said Wednesday.

Mozilo is among several former executives of the Calabasas company whom the SEC staff wants to charge in a civil case, one of these people said. He would face accusations of insider trading and failing to disclose to shareholders the risks the company was running unless the SEC’s five commissioners overturn their investigators’ recommendation.

via SEC staff recommends civil fraud charges against Mozilo of Countrywide – Los Angeles Times.

Jobless claims jump to 637K

Jobless claims jump to 637K; producer prices rise

WASHINGTON (AP) — New jobless claims rose more than expected last week due partly to an increase in layoffs by the automobile industry, while the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits set a record for the 15th straight week.

Wholesale prices also rose more than expected, according to government data released Thursday, but economists said inflation remains under control and that the threat of a dangerous bout of falling prices is remote.

The Labor Department said the number of new jobless claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 637,000, from a revised 605,000 the previous week. That’s above analysts’ expectations of 610,000.

via News from The Associated Press.

Paulson Told Bankers to Take U.S. Taxpayer Aid or Be ‘Exposed’

Paulson Told Bankers to Take U.S. Taxpayer Aid or Be ‘Exposed’ — Bloomberg

May 14 (Bloomberg) — Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, saying nine U.S. banks were “central to any solution” of the credit crisis, told their leaders to take government aid or be forced to by regulators, according to a memo prepared for an October meeting.

“If a capital infusion is not appealing, you should be aware that your regulator will require it in any circumstance,” Paulson’s one-page list of talking points for the session with the banks’ chief executives said. “We don’t believe it is tenable to opt out because doing so would leave you vulnerable and exposed.”

Investing $125 billion in the banks was a shift for the Bush administration, which had proposed buying troubled assets with $700 billion Congress approved 10 days earlier. The memo was among Treasury Department documents containing details about the Oct. 13 meeting.

“Most Americans are going to be uncomfortable with the government forcing the banks into this arrangement,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a nonprofit research group in Washington that obtained the documents under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Andrew Williams, a spokesman for the Treasury, didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Banks worldwide have taken $1.45 trillion in writedowns and losses during the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression.

via Paulson Told Bankers to Take U.S. Taxpayer Aid or Be ‘Exposed’ – Bloomberg.com.

NPR censored review of film outing gay politicians

NPR censored review of film outing gay politicians - Raw Story »

National Public Radio is under fire after censoring the review of a new documentary that outs conservative gay politicians.

Editors say they refused to run a version of its review of the new documentary, “Outrage,” that included the names of the gay politicians the film outs because it would have been inconsistent with network policy. But they included a photograph of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) alongside a review of the film — even though they refused to identify Craig — of Minneapolis airport bathroom fame — as gay.

NPR Film critic Nathan Lee, who learned that the names in his story would be excised by his editors, demanded that his name be removed from the story. Subsequently, he tried to comment on his own story — identifying the outed politicians by name (Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Sen. Larry Craig and former NYC mayor Ed Koch) — but his comment was deleted by NPR.

via Raw Story » NPR censored review of film outing gay politicians.

White House drug czar calls for end to ‘war on drugs’

White House drug czar calls for end to ‘war on drugs’ - Raw Story »

“The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting ‘a war on drugs,’ a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use,” the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

“Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,” he told the paper. “We’re not at war with people in this country.”

Kerlikowske’s statement signals the Obama administration is likely to moderate a policy that has taken heat from social activists, as effectively targeting poor and minority Americans. “Prior administrations talked about pushing treatment and reducing demand while continuing to focus primarily on a tough criminal-justice approach,” the Journal adds.

“The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment’s role growing relative to incarceration,” the paper summarized Kerlikowske as saying.

via Raw Story » White House drug czar calls for end to ‘war on drugs’.

Obama considering ‘indefinite detention’ for Gitmo prisoners

Obama considering ‘indefinite detention’ for Gitmo prisoners

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R., S.C.), who met this week with White House Counsel Greg Craig to discuss the administration’s plans, said among the proposals being studied is seeking authority for indefinite detentions, with the imprimatur of some type of national-security court.

Sen. Graham said he wants to work with the administration to pass legislation to increase judicial oversight of military commissions, but noted the legal difficulties that would arise.

“This is a difficult question. How do you hold someone in prison without a trial indefinitely?” Sen. Graham said.

An interesting question indeed.

It leaves this reporter wondering why a Republican senator is asking it when a Democratic president was elected to ensure that question, and others like it, would never have be asked again.

via The Raw Story » Obama considering ‘indefinite detention’ for Gitmo prisoners.

Democrat brags big oil supports climate change bill

Democrat brags big oil supports climate change bill - Raw Story »

Democrats have an answer to Republican critics who say that a new carbon cap global warming bill will cost Americans jobs.

Big oil and coal are supporting our bill.

Ed Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, offered an unusual tack on a climate change bill he’s ushering through the House. Markey said that the measure is supported by three of the largest oil companies and General Electric.

“When Edison Electric Institute’s CEO endorsed the bill, when three of the largest oil companies support the bill, when the second-largest coal company supports the bill, when [General Electric] and dozens of Fortune 100 companies endorse the bill, that will be the answer to the critics who say it will hurt the economy,” Markey told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call Wednesday.

“I’m feeling pretty good right now,” Markey is quoted as saying. “It’s down on the 10-yard line.”

Markey didn’t identify the names of the oil companies.

via Raw Story » Democrat brags big oil supports climate change bill.

Elected Officials Selling out America: John Shadegg

Elected Officials Selling out America: John Shadegg – Economyincrisis.org

John Shadegg either lacks knowledge regarding “free trade” or has a blatant disregard for its consequences.

Editor’s Note: The following article is the seventh 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.

One of the few signatories to the Contract With America who is still left in the Congress, John Shadegg (R-AZ) has demonstrated his conservative allegiance in the form of his unwavering support for policies that are good for big business but bad for average Americans.

Elected to represent Arizona’s 3rd Congressional district in 1994, Shadegg has a long and shameful track record of supporting “free trade” agreements and other legislation that has led to the erosion of millions of manufacturing jobs with good pay and benefits. At the same time, he has demonstrated a great antipathy toward supporting legislation that would level the extremely skewed playing field between American workers and their Third World counterparts.

In fact, in 1999, the Cato Institute declared that “the leading opponents of trade barriers and subsidies were Reps. Philip Crane, R-Ill.; Tom Campbell, (R-CA).; J. D. Hayworth, (R-AZ); Mark Sanford, (R-SC); and John Shadegg, (R-AZ).

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

This is not a recovery, it is something else entirely

America Cannot Have a Profitless Recovery- Economyincrisis.org –

It is no wonder that so many firms are witnessing their share prices increase, it would be impossible not to make money when the government is footing the bill for all of your costs. This is not a recovery, it is something else entirely

On March 2, 2009 the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 7,000 points for the first time since April 1997. A few days later it had reached its infamous “12-year low.” Another few days passed and the market officially bottomed out at 6,547 points on March 9. Since then, the recovery of the index has been nothing short of astounding. After one hour of trading on Tuesday May 12 the world’s largest composite index stood 8,455 – and rising sharply.

The increase has been roughly 30 percent, and both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 have witnessed similar upturns of their own. To what can we attribute this upsurge?

The government, and the business community, would like us to think that it should be attributed to strong fundamentals, good leadership and hard work. That all sounds well and good, but for the most part this rise can be credited to one thing: the massive influxes of public money known as the “Bailouts.” What started with $700 billion has increased into the trillions.

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

WTO Misinformation Scheme: Fight “Protectionism”

WTO Misinformation Scheme: Fight “Protectionism”

The WTO and other organizations stimulate trade imbalances against the U.S.  Our massive consumer market works against us in the international system, as American money pours out of this country to be spent on overseas goods.

WTO chief Pascal Lamy is fighting against the perception that “free trade” is at the root of the global economic crisis. He is pushing the idea that the World Trade Organization is not to blame, but rather should be the vehicle for rebuilding the system.

Lamy has his own agenda as the head of the world’s largest trade union, his one and only goal is to increase the volume of global trade. Lamy and other “free traders” believe that having access to more goods is the only thing worth striving for; they completely ignore the need for stability and financial responsibility.

Lamy is actually at the head of a misinformation scheme intent on stamping out the animosity which has developed throughout the U.S. toward the false promises of “free trade.” Obviously, there are other problems in our market and economy that affect our international commercial relations, but the fact remains that this country loses billions of dollars every year to international trade.

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

Glenn Beck Exhales And States: ‘Look How Much Pollution I Just Put Out!’

Glenn Beck Exhales And States: ‘Look How Much Pollution I Just Put Out!’ - Think Progress »

On his Fox News show today, comedian Glenn Beck interviewed Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) to mock the danger of global warming. In what he billed as an “Inconvenient Segment,” Beck argued that a “smoking gun” memo proves that the proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finding on the threat of global warming pollution is based on politics instead of science.

“It turns out, the truth that’s inconvenient is that it’s not like any of this stuff is based on, you know, science. It’s all politics,” Beck said of the danger of carbon pollution. He concluded:

By the way, just so you know, this show has won so many science awards, sometimes we get talking about high-falutin science things like this, and people are like, “What are you talkin’ about?” So let me break it down. Carbon dioxide is basically this. (Exhales.) Look at how much pollution I just put out.

Watch it:

via Think Progress » Glenn Beck Exhales And States: ‘Look How Much Pollution I Just Put Out!’.

Mary Matalin: It’s all Obama’s fault that Cheney has to attack him.

Mary Matalin: It’s all Obama’s fault that Cheney has to attack him. – Think Progress

Today, the Washington Post has a front-page article about how many Republicans are uncomfortable with Vice President Cheney’s return to the spotlight. “Cheney continues to be a force among many members of our base, and while he is entirely unhelpful, no one has the standing to show him the door,” said a GOP strategist. One person who did come to Cheney’s defense was Mary Matalin, who blamed Obama himself for Cheney’s attacks:

Mary Matalin, who was a spokeswoman for Cheney during the early years of the Bush presidency, believes her former boss is motivated mainly by his principles. Had Obama not moved so precipitously to undo the Bush policies about which he feels so strongly, she believes, Cheney would have held his fire.

“If Barack Obama had come in and done what he said he was going to do and look at the stuff and see what is working, then Cheney would have continued to do what he was doing — working on memoirs, finishing his house,” she said. “He’s got a good life. He’s got stuff going on. He doesn’t care about being on TV. There’s no more politics there. He’s not settling any scores. He just wants people to understand.“

via Think Progress » Mary Matalin: It’s all Obama’s fault that Cheney has to attack him..

Obama Makes a Terrible Mistake by Not Releasing Torture Photos

Obama Makes a Terrible Mistake by Not Releasing Torture Photos

By Cenk Uygur

America has to face that we did what is in those pictures. The longer we cover it up, the more culpable we all become.

This is an unbelievable moment. Dick Cheney’s PR offensive over the last month actually worked. Barack Obama just crumbled and will follow Cheney’s command to not release the new set of detainee abuse pictures.

By the way, if you hadn’t figured it out by now, that’s why you saw every Cheney in the world on television arguing that torture works and that releasing more information would gravely harm the troops. They weren’t worried about what was already released; they were worried about what was going to get released. They were trying to pre-empt the most damaging thing of all – the pictures that show the torture.

Just talking about torture doesn’t really do it for the American people. But when they see pictures, they get it. That’s why Bush had to apologize profusely and throw a few low-level soldiers under the bus when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out. You think there would have been anywhere near that level of controversy or accountability (such that it was) without the pictures?

via Obama Makes a Terrible Mistake by Not Releasing Torture Photos | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet.

The Ugly Truth Behind Organic Food

The Ugly Truth Behind Organic Food

The organic labeling standards do nothing to denote how farms treat their workers. Is your organic food a humanitarian nightmare?

Is it time for a strawberry to make a political statement, again?

I’m standing on a farm south of San Francisco that is unremarkable in that it, like all of the other farms in the area, is a golden canvas of brilliant yellow flowers with the occasional patchwork of verdant greens, early signs of this year’s season sprouting up.

It’s a slice of California’s multibillion-dollar agricultural region that spreads east through the state’s Central Valley, down the coast toward Salinas — America’s salad bowl — all the way to the Mexican border and north toward Oregon. While still a small minority, a growing number of these farms are now organic.

Plenty of people, including me, prefer organic produce because it is healthier and safer. But this certification does nothing to ensure that it was produced with sustainable agricultural practices.

via The Ugly Truth Behind Organic Food | Environment | AlterNet.

The Truth Behind the Social Security and Medicare Alarm Bells

The Truth Behind the Social Security and Medicare Alarm Bells

Robert Reich

What are we to make of yesterday’s report from the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds that Social Security will run out of assets in 2037, four years sooner than previously forecast, and Medicare’s hospital fund will be exhausted by 2017, two years earlier than predicted a year ago?

Reports of these two funds’ demise are not new. Fifteen years ago, when I was a trustee of the Social Security and the Medicare trust funds (which meant, essentially, that I and a few others met periodically with the official actuary of the funds, received his report, asked a few questions, and signed some papers) both funds were supposedly in trouble. But as I learned, the timing and magnitude of the trouble depended a great deal on what assumptions the actuary used in his models. As I recall, he then assumed that the economy would grow by about 2.6 percent a year over the next seventy-five years. But go back into American history all the way to the Civil War — including the Great Depression and the severe depressions of the late 19th century — and the economy’s average annual growth is closer to 3 percent. Use a 3 percent assumption and Social Security is flush for the next seventy-five years.

Yes, I know, the post-war Baby Boom is moving through the population like a pig through a python. The number of retirees eligible for benefits will almost double to 79.5 million in 2045 from 40.5 million this year. But we knew that the Boomers were coming then, too. What we didn’t know then was the surge in immigration. Yet immigrants are mostly young. Rather than being a drain on Social Security when the Boomers need it, most immigrants will be contributing to the system during these years, which should take more of the pressure off.

via Robert Reich’s Blog.

New Afghanistan General Approves Torture?

OPS:  He’s also been linked to the Pat Tillman murder

Acts of Conscience  – Esquire

As President Obama taps Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to run the Afghan war, do these revelations, divulged to Esquire at great personal risk by an elite Army interrogator two and a half years ago, imply the new commander’s aiding and abetting of torture?

Originally published in the August 2006 issue

“No meaningful insistence on accountability has been discernible from either the Gonzales Justice Department or the Rumsfeld Defense Department. It has been left to human-rights organizations to piece together the alarming history of the CIA and U. S. Army’s illegal descent into torture.”

—BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID R. IRVINE (RET.)

The rented car blasts down the Strom Thurmond Highway toward Georgia, taking Marc Garlasco to his meeting with the Army interrogator. Balmy air pours in the window.

It is spring. Garlasco has one hand on the wheel, light glinting off his wraparound mirrored sunglasses. He is talking about his wife and kids as he passes through countryside so brimming with green life that it’s strange and almost obscene to imagine his goal.

via Stanley McChrystal on Torture – New Afghanistan General Approves Torture? – Esquire.

Obama warns Netanyahu: Don’t surprise me with Iran strike

Obama warns Netanyahu: Don’t surprise me with Iran strike – Haaretz

U.S. President Barack Obama has sent a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel not surprise the U.S. with an Israeli military operation against Iran. The message was conveyed by a senior American official who met in Israel with Netanyahu, ministers and other senior officials. Earlier, Netanyahu’s envoy visited Washington and met with National Security Adviser James Jones and with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and discussed the dialogue Obama has initiated with Tehran.

The message from the American envoy to the prime minister reveals U.S. concern that Israel could lose patience and act against Iran. It is important to the Americans that they not be caught off guard and find themselves facing facts on the ground at the last minute.

Obama did not wait for his White House meeting with Netanyahu, scheduled for next Monday, to deliver his message, but rather sent it ahead of time with his envoy.

via Obama warns Netanyahu: Don’t surprise me with Iran strike – Haaretz – Israel News.

Southern lawmakers move to place new restrictions on voting

Southern lawmakers move to place new restrictions on voting

That didn’t take long. Just months after a big election year that saw big turnout across the South, many state legislatures in the region are moving to pass an array of laws that create new barriers to voting, mostly in the name of combating “voter fraud.”

At the top of the list is Georgia — a site of election controversy last November — where on May 5, Gov. Sonny Perdue ® signed a law requiring prospective voters to prove their citizenship. Since Georgia is covered by the Voting Rights Act, the bill will need to be pre-cleared by the Obama Justice Department; if it does, the law will go into effect in 2010.

The debate echoed a similar controversy that Facing South reported on last fall, where Republican Secretary of State Karen Handel “flagged” thousands of voters suspected of being non-citizens, even encouraging Georgia citizens to challenge the citizenship of fellow voters.

This time, the debate is just heated, as the AP reports:

via ISS – Southern lawmakers move to place new restrictions on voting.

Islam Day and the Year of the Bible in America

Islam Day and the Year of the Bible in America

With only three dissenting votes, the Hawaiian state Senate passed a resolution that establishes September 24 as Islam Day. Two opponents of the bill felt the United States has been too tolerant of radical Islam, and the other opponent was concerned about the separation of church and state. However, Senator Will Espero explained the majority view as follows:

“We are a state of tolerance. We understand that people have different beliefs. We may not all agree on every single item and issue out there, but to say and highlight the negativity of the Islamic people is an insult to the majority [of believers] who are good law-abiding citizens of the world.”

This news broke around the same time that 14 Republicans introduced a bill that would establish the year 2010 as “The Year of the Bible” in the United States. This was not the first proposal for this kind of bill; Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation declaring 1983 to be the Year of the Bible, so the new bill has a precedent.

via Miami Interfaith Spirituality Examiner: Islam Day and the Year of the Bible in America.

FDR at Madison Square Garden, 1936: “The forces of selfishness and of lust for power”

FDR at Madison Square Garden, 1936: “The forces of selfishness and of lust for power”  - MinnPost -

FDR at MSG: “We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.”

In our interview last week, Doug Henwood alluded to the speech that Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave at Madison Square Garden on October 31, 1936, just days before he won his first reelection campaign–the speech in which he surveyed the forces aligned against him and announced, “I welcome their hatred.” Afterward I looked up the speech, and I’m reproducing the text of it below.

Roosevelt won that election in one of the greatest landslides in U.S. history, but that was hardly a foregone conclusion in the days before the vote. The modern political poll was in its infancy then, and on the same day that FDR delivered this address, Literary Digest–which had been pollings its readers for years, and had correctly called the outcome of the previous five elections–famously predicted that Roosevelt’s opponent, Alf Landon, would win.

So everything appeared to be far from settled when Roosevelt stepped to the podium that day to offer the last major speech of his campaign; it could have proven the epitaph for the president and his New Deal.

via MinnPost – FDR at Madison Square Garden, 1936: “The forces of selfishness and of lust for power” – Political Economy by Steve Perry.

More FDR: “The royalists of the economic order” – Political Economy by Steve Perry

More FDR: “The royalists of the economic order”  MinnPost -

I’m happy and a little surprised at how many people have mentioned liking the FDR speech from the waning days of the 1936 presidential campaign that I reprinted the other day. So by way of encore, let’s bookend it with an excerpt of the speech Roosevelt gave at the outset of that campaign, during his party’s nominating convention in Philadelphia on June 27, 1936.

You can find the whole text of that address, also known as the “rendezvous with destiny” speech, here.

FDR accepts Democratic nomination for president, 6/27/36

That very word freedom, in itself and of necessity, suggests freedom from some restraining power. In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy – from the eighteenth-century royalists who held special privileges from the crown. It was to perpetuate their privilege that they governed without the consent of the governed; that they denied the right of free assembly and free speech; that they restricted the worship of God; that they put the average man’s property and the average man’s life in pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power; that they regimented the people.

via MinnPost – More FDR: “The royalists of the economic order” – Political Economy by Steve Perry.

North Pole poised to be largely ice-free by 2020

North Pole poised to be largely ice-free by 2020  | Grist

It’s the ice thickness, stupid.

The Arctic ice cover, which has endured for at least 100,000 years, will be all but gone within a decade according to a volume-based projection by a leading British scientist, the BBC reports.  At the same time, “a gruelling 73-day” survey of sea-ice thickness found “the average thickness of the sea ice was 1.774 m” [5.8 feet].

One surveyor said the data “seems to suggest it was almost all first-year ice.”  And that confirms what the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported in April:

via North Pole poised to be largely ice-free by 2020 | Grist.

ACLU Challenges Patents On Breast Cancer Genes

ACLU Challenges Patents On Breast Cancer Genes (5/12/2009)

Gene Patents Stifle Patient Access To Medical Care And Critical Research

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (PUBPAT) filed a lawsuit today charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer stifle research that could lead to cures and limit women’s options regarding their medical care. Mutations along the genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, are responsible for most cases of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. The lawsuit argues that the patents on these genes are unconstitutional and invalid.

“Knowledge about our own bodies and the ability to make decisions about our health care are some of our most personal and fundamental rights,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “The government should not be granting private entities control over something as personal and basic to who we are as our genes. Moreover, granting patents that limit scientific research, learning and the free flow of information violates the First Amendment.”

Today’s lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of breast cancer and women’s health groups, individual women and scientific associations representing approximately 150,000 researchers, pathologists and laboratory professionals against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), as well as Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, which hold the patents on the BRCA genes. It is the first to apply the First Amendment to a gene patent challenge.

The patents granted to Myriad give the company the exclusive right to perform diagnostic tests on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and to prevent any researcher from even looking at the genes without first getting permission from Myriad. According to the lawsuit, such monopolistic control over these genes hampers clinical diagnosis and serves as a disincentive for research because Myriad not only has the right to enforce its patents against other entities but also has the rights to future mutations discovered on the BRCA2 gene. The gene patents are also illegal under patent law because genes are “products of nature.”

via American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Challenges Patents On Breast Cancer Genes.

Obama’s Health Care Charade

Obama’s Health Care Charade  | Black Agenda Report

President Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress advocates of single-payer health care. He has choreographed a grand theater of faux-change, in which he “seeks to create a façade of unity along lines that do not threaten corporate power.” The goal is to “sidetrack, possibly for decades, the most broadly supported idea in American politics, today.” This “requires elaborate reconstructions of reality,” starting with “methodically erasing single-payer advocates from the picture, with the enthusiastic collaboration of the corporate media.” Thus, Obama and compliant Democrats on The Hill stage “summits” and “public roundtable discussions” on health care from which majority U.S. opinion is totally excluded.

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Since the first days of his administration, Obama has methodically erased single-payer advocates from the picture. The president feigns amazement at popular demands for a change in the industrial world’s most expensive and dysfunctional health care system. “We’re doing some stuff on health care because I think the country is geared up, businesses are geared up, families are geared up to go ahead and start solving some our extraordinary health care system problems,” Obama as if his own corporate-friendly proposals accurately reflect the public will. In reality, the Administration is engaged in an elaborate charade designed to sidetrack, possibly for decades, the most broadly supported idea in American politics, today: single-payer health care.
Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress advocates of a single-payer or “Medicare for all” system, which have consistently shown to be favored by at least six in ten Americans, including majorities of doctors and other health care professionals. HMOs, insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations rank among the most despised institutions in the land – causing Obama to take on the mission of saving them from the public’s wrath. As the reigning impresario of theatrical faux-change, Obama choreographed last weekend’s parade of industry troglodytes (and one very wayward union) to “save” the homeland from their predatory selves to the tune of $2 trillion over the next ten years by reducing the growth of the percentage they gouge from the economy.

via Obama’s Health Care Charade | Black Agenda Report.

My Written Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Torture Memos

My Written Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Torture Memos

by: MajorMatthew

Wed May 13, 2009 at 19:22:43 PM EDT

(This is a guest post from Matthew Alexander. – promoted by Brandon Friedman)

This is my full testimony to the Committee. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse read a portion of this statement near the end of the hearing. I also recommend the reading of Ali Soufan’s testimony, available on the Senate Judiciary Committee website.

Chairman Leahy and Esteemed Members of the Committee,

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee on the issue of interrogation. I especially thank Senator Sheldon Whitehouse for his invitation to submit this written testimony.

I submit this testimony as a private citizen and not as an official representative of the United States Air Force or as a representative of the Department of Defense. I am currently still in the Air Force Reserves. I have served for seventeen years in the United States Air Force and Air Force Reserves and have completed five combat deployments to three wars. I feel that nothing less than our national soul is at stake in the debate concerning the torture and abuse of prisoners.

In 2006, I deployed to Iraq as an interrogator at the bequest of the Army. Prior to my deployment I was a special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, both on Active Duty and in the Reserves. Before I was a special agent, I was a special operations helicopter pilot. I’ve served in the conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Colombia, and Iraq.

As an interrogator in Iraq, I conducted more than 300 interrogations and supervised more than 1,000. I led the interrogations team that located Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, and one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation. At the time that we killed Zarqawi, he was the number one priority for the United States military, higher than Osama Bin Laden.

I strongly oppose the use of torture or abuse as interrogation methods for both pragmatic and moral reasons.

MajorMatthew :: My Written Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Torture Memos

via VetVoice:: My Written Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Torture Memos.

Obama’s latest effort to conceal evidence of Bush era crimes

Obama’s latest effort to conceal evidence of Bush era crimes  - Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

It’s difficult to react much to Obama’s complete reversal today of his own prior decision to release photographs depicting extreme detainee abuse by the United States. He’s left no doubt that this is what he does: ever since he was inaugurated, Obama has taken one extreme step after the next to keep concealed both the details and the evidence of Bush’s crimes, including rendition, torture and warrantless eavesdropping. The ACLU’s Amrit Singh — who litigated the thus-far-successful FOIA lawsuit to compel disclosure of these photographs — is exactly right:

The reversal is another indication of a continuance of the Bush administration policies under the Obama administration. President Obama’s promise of accountability is meaningless, this is inconsistent with his promise of transparency, it violates the government’s commitment to the court. People need to examine these abusive photographs, but also the government officials need to be held accountable.

Andrew Sullivan, one of Obama’s earliest and most enthusiastic supporters, wrote of today’s photograph-concealment decision and yesterday’s story of Obama’s pressuring Britain to conceal evidence of Binyam Mohamed’s torture:

via Obama’s latest effort to conceal evidence of Bush era crimes – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Vilsack stands up for livestock farms

Like the good little DLC-corporate shill that he has always been, former Iowa governor, current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack defended the big agri-business feedlot practice of administering massive doses of increasingly useless antibiotics to cattle and hogs being fattened for slaughter before a U.S. House appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday. Undercutting Vilsack’s testimony, however, University of Iowa researchers found that nearly half of all U.S. hogs and 45 % of farmers carry an antibiotic-resistant strain of the MRSA staph infection bacteria.

Vilsack stands up for livestock farms  | The Des Moines Register

Washington, D.C. – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defended the livestock industry against a lawmaker’s allegations that crowded conditions and antibiotic usage in modern farms are endangering human health.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., told Vilsack at a House appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that livestock are “jammed together” in “very, very nasty circumstances.”

Vilsack told him the “vast, vast, vast majority of farmers who are raising livestock are very sensitive” to the need to be careful about the management of their animals.

“First and foremost, they’re concerned for the safety of their consumers. Without consumers, they don’t have a market, and without a market they don’t have money.”

via Vilsack stands up for livestock farms | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register.

Soufan: CIA torture actually hindered our intelligence gathering

Soufan: CIA torture actually hindered our intelligence gathering

An FBI agent testifies that an al-Qaida prisoner provided useful intelligence until the CIA got rough — and casts doubt on Bush’s statements about the effectiveness of harsh interrogations.

May 14, 2009 | WASHINGTON — The testimony of a key witness at a Senate hearing Wednesday raised serious questions about the truthfulness of former President George W. Bush’s own personal defense of the CIA’s brutal interrogation program. Former FBI agent Ali Soufan also indicated that the harsh interrogation techniques may actually have hindered the collection of intelligence, causing a high-value prisoner to stop cooperating.

In the first congressional hearing on torture since the release of Bush administration memos that provided the legal justification for torture, Soufan told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the CIA’s abusive techniques were “ineffective, slow and unreliable, and as a result harmful to our efforts to defeat al-Qaida.” According to Soufan, his own nonviolent interrogation of an al-Qaida suspect was quickly yielding valuable, actionable intelligence — until the CIA intervened.

Soufan was with the FBI on March 28, 2002, when the United States captured its first suspected al-Qaida operative after 9/11, a man named Abu Zubaydah, held at a secret location overseas. Soufan had investigated terrorism cases dating back to the East Africa embassy bombings in 1998, and he was one of the first experts called after Zubaydah’s capture.

via Soufan: CIA torture actually hindered our intelligence gathering | Salon News.

They’re Obama’s wars now

They’re Obama’s wars now   | Salon

George W. Bush may have started the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but it’s up to the new president to resolve them.

May 14, 2009 | After inheriting two bungled wars, the Obama administration has gotten a pass from citizens troubled by more immediate economic fears. The president even ventured a mild joke during a “60 Minutes” interview. “If you had said to us a year ago that the least of my problems would be Iraq, which is still a pretty serious problem,” Obama said, “I don’t think anybody would have believed it.”

That grace period appears over. Recent events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan make it clear that all the charm and good intentions in the world haven’t altered the fundamental situation.

Six years into the American occupation, there’s still no assurance that Iraq won’t careen into civil war after U.S. troops withdraw. Sectarian violence has risen ominously. A recent Pentagon report obtained by The New York Times concluded that only 17 of 175 Iraqi army battalions and two of its 34 National Police battalions can stand on their own. Surge or no surge, the political compromises necessary to sustain democracy haven’t been made.

via They’re Obama’s wars now | Salon.

Mr. Cheney, You Did Not Keep Us Safe

Paul Begala: -Mr. Cheney, You Did Not Keep Us Safe

If 3,000 Americans had been killed on your watch, in an attack that could have been prevented, perhaps you’d be a little hesitant to accuse anyone else of endangering America. And if you had advocated torture, and the torture produced false information that you used to mislead America into an unwise, unjust and unwarranted war, you might be a tad sheepish about defending the use of torture.

Not Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney has stepped up his attack on Pres. Obama’s security strategy, telling CBS’s Bob Schieffer that Obama’s refusal to use waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” (i.e., torture) endangers American lives.

The truth is the Bush-Cheney policies did not keep us safe, and Mr. Cheney is not a credible spokesman on issues of national security.

via Paul Begala: Mr. Cheney, You Did Not Keep Us Safe.

The photos America doesn’t want seen

The photos America doesn’t want seen -

MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Tonight the SBS Dateline program plans to broadcast about 60 previously unpublished photographs that the US Government has been fighting to keep secret in a court case with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Although a US judge last year granted the union access to the photographs following a freedom-of-information request, the US Administration has appealed against the decision on the grounds their release would fuel anti-American sentiment.

Some of the photos are similar to those published in 2004, others are different. They include photographs of six corpses, although the circumstances of their deaths are not clear. There are also pictures of what appear to be burns and wounds from shotgun pellets.

The executive producer of Dateline, Mike Carey, said he was showing the pictures leaked to his program because it was important people understood what had happened at Abu Ghraib.

more article at link – also see

• Photos: More snaps from Abu Ghraib

via The photos America doesn’t want seen – World – smh.com.au.

Today’s Best Cartoons

Today’s Best Cartoons.

McClatchy

McClatchy.

Salt Lake Tribune, Utah

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Utah.

FBI Investigating Coleman In Minnesota

FBI Investigating Coleman In Minnesota

The FBI is investigating allegations that former Senator Norm Coleman had clothing and other items purchased on his behalf by a longtime friend and businessman Nasser Kazeminy, according to a source in Minnesota who was interviewed recently by federal agents.

E.K. Watkins, a spokesman for the Minnesota FBI, would neither confirm nor deny the report. The source provided details of the interview to the Huffington Post, in addition to copies of business cards left by the agents.

The FBI has also been conducting interviews in Texas, according to media reports, in regards to different allegations that Kazeminy tried to steer $75,000 to Coleman through his wife’s employer. Up to this point, there have not been reports of any FBI work taking place in Coleman’s home state.

via FBI Investigating Coleman In Minnesota.

Steelworkers President: Workers Must Fight To Save Auto Industry, Manufacturing And To Reverse Trade Policies

Steelworkers President: Workers Must Fight To Save Auto Industry, Manufacturing And To Reverse Trade Policies – 05/14/09

United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard is on a tour of more than 30 cities to drive home the point that manufacturing and the U.S. auto industry are vital to America. Gerard says the Obama administration must reverse trade policies that are eviscerating domestic manufacturing. Gerard says exporting jobs and closing auto plants with U.S. tax dollars is NOT the way to save the U.S. auto industry. And workers, he said, must fight back against it.

[Gerard]: “We’re not gonna stand around while Wall Street and incompetent management in the car industry destroy our kids’ future. We’re not gonna stand a round and let it happen without a fight. You’ve gotta be prepared to fight, you gotta be prepared to go in the streets, you gotta be prepared to drive to Washington, you gotta be prepared to block roads, you gotta be prepared to occupy plants.”

Gerard says 7.2 million U.S. jobs depend on the domestic auto industry. Since NAFTA passed, Gerard says, the U.S. has accumulated a trade deficit of $6.5 trillion.

[Gerard 2]: “Somebody needs to tell me why that’s good for America, and why our government tolerates it.”

The United Steelworkers union wants to see an industrial trade policy focused on domestic production and U.S. jobs creation.

via Steelworkers President: Workers Must Fight To Save Auto Industry, Manufacturing And To Reverse Trade Policies – 05/14/09 | Workers Independent News.

Krauthammer: I will say things in my column even if I don’t believe what I’m saying.

OPS: Paid propagandist

Krauthammer: I will say things in my column even if I don’t believe what I’m saying.

On May 1, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer conceded in a column that waterboarding is torture. Krauthammer argued that torture is justifiable “under two circumstances” and that in those cases “you do what you have to do. And that includes waterboarding.” But in an interview on Dennis Miller’s radio show today, Krauthammer said that he didn’t mean it when he wrote that waterboarding is torture:

MILLER: And I’m going to move beyond that and say the pertinent question to me is, is it necessary. Where do you stand on this?

KRAUTHAMMER: You know, I’m in the midst of writing a column for this week, which is exactly on that point. Some people on the right have faulted me because in that column that you cite I conceded that waterboarding is torture. Actually, I personally don’t think it is cause it’s an absurdity to have to say the United States of America has tortured over 10,000 of its own soldiers because its, you know, it’s had them waterboarded as a part of their training. That’s an absurd sentence. So, I personally don’t think it is but I was willing to concede it in the column without argument exactly as you say to get away from the semantic argument, which is a waste of time and to simply say call it whatever you want. We know what it is. We know what actually happened. Should it have been done and did it work? Those are the only important questions.

Listen here:

via Think Progress » Krauthammer: I will say things in my column even if I don’t believe what I’m saying..

Leahy: Bybee refused to appear before Judiciary subcommittee hearing on torture memos.

Leahy: Bybee refused to appear before Judiciary subcommittee hearing on torture memos.

impeachbybee.jpgLast month, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) invited Judge Jay Bybee to testify in front of a subcommittee about his “views” regarding torture and his “role” in drafting the torture memos. The Los Angeles Times subsequently reported that Bybee had chosen to ignore Leahy’s request. Today, however, in a statement during the hearing, Leahy said that Bybee had specifically refused to appear:

Since Judge Bybee, through his lawyers, has declined to testify before the Committee at this time about his role in the drafting and authorization of memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel that permitted torture, I can only presume that he has no exonerating information to provide. Judge Bybee must know that the presumption in our civil law is that when a person fails to come forward with information in his possession that is relevant to a matter, it is presumed to be because the information is negative and not helpful to his cause.

Testifying voluntary before the Judiciary Committee about these now-public memoranda is one way in which Judge Bybee could have helped complete the record of what happened and why but he refused. This is especially inappropriate given that Judge Bybee has hardly maintained silence about these matters.

via Think Progress » Leahy: Bybee refused to appear before Judiciary subcommittee hearing on torture memos..

Bush’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Witness Found Dead

Bush’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Witness Found Dead

IndictBushNow files Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to get to bottom of story

The cover-up of Bush-era crimes is taking a shocking but not unexpected turn. A fateful move has been made and it is certain to backfire.

A prisoner who was horribly tortured in 2002 until he agreed – at the demand of Bush torturers – to say that al-Qaeda was linked to Saddam Hussein is suddenly dead. Several weeks ago, Human Rights Watch investigators discovered the missing inmate and talked to him. He had been secretly transferred by the administration to a prison in Libya after having been held by the CIA both in secret “black hole prisons” and in Egypt.

Under conditions of extreme torture, the prisoner, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, agreed in 2002 to supply the Bush-ordered interrogators what they sought as a political cover for Bush’s marketing of the pending war of aggression against Iraq. Mr. Libi agreed to tell them whatever they wanted in exchange for an end to the torture. The now famous Torture Memos providing legal cover for the torture were written at the same time starting in the summer of 2002.

Libi’s tortured and knowingly fabricated testimony was the source of information used by Bush to sell the war to the U.S. Senate, and the source for Colin Powell’s bogus and lying presentation to the United Nations in 2003.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice are now running around saying that the torture regime “protected the country from terrorist attack.” But the torture was used for the personal political goals of Bush and Cheney: namely, to sell their Iraq invasion to a very skeptical and disbelieving country.

via Bush’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Witness Found Dead.

Senate Caves to Banks: 21 Dems Join GOP to Kill Credit Card Rate Limit

OPS:  With Dems like these, who needs enemas ?

Senate Caves to Banks: 21 Dems Join GOP to Kill Credit Card Rate Limit

Last Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the majority whip and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, said this:

DURBIN: And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.

Flash forward to today:

The U.S. Senate blocked consideration of a 15 percent cap on credit-card interest rates, as lawmakers continued debating ways to limit lenders’ fees and changes to contracts with consumers.

Senators voted 60-33 to invoke budget rules that killed the proposal, by Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent. Sanders said the action was needed to stop banks from routinely charging 25 percent to 30 percent on credit cards.

via Pensito Review » Senate Caves to Banks: 21 Dems Join GOP to Kill Credit Card Rate Limit.

Governments Will Need to Issue $15-33 Trillion in Bonds

Washington’s Blog.

Mike Malloy: “Sadistic . . . violent . . . inhuman”

“Sadistic . . . violent . . . inhuman”

They must be horrific. So violent, in fact, so obscene, so counter to even the basic tenets of human decency that President Barack Obama sought today to block the release of hundreds of photos showing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan being abused, violated, tortured. He ordered this reversal of his position – he had been in favor of the decision to release this further evidence of war crimes committed under orders from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney – after military commanders warned that the images could inflame anti-American sentiment and endanger U.S. troops.

But, it is far worse than that. The reality is this: Anti-American sentiment could not be more “inflamed” than it already is in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Our policy of indiscriminate bombing after the location of a “target” has been determined has caused the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Our policies of providing weapons of terror – such as white phosphorous, concussion bombs, advanced jet fighters, massive tanks bristling with the power to annihilate anything in its path, explosives packed in cases made of depleted uranium – to be used by Israel against an utterly defenseless Palestinian population is known throughout the Middle East, throughout the world, except, of course, here in the U.S.

No, the release of the photos and videos in question would do more than “inflame anti-American sentiment and endanger U.S. troops.” If we are to believe reports that began circulating four years ago, reports from investigative journalists such as Seymour Hersh, their release would unleash a wave of anti-American hatred that would endanger the lives of not just U.S. soldiers, but the lives of all Americans, civilians as well as military personnel. Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: “Some of the worse that happened that you don’t know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men … . The women were passing messages saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened. Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They [the Bush Crime Family] are in total terror it’s going to come out.”

via Mike Malloy: “Sadistic . . . violent . . . inhuman”.

Dirty tricks and toxic waste in Ivory Coast

Dirty tricks and toxic waste in Ivory Coast

It is the biggest toxic dumping scandal of the 21st century, the type of environmental vandalism that international treaties are supposed to prevent. Now Newsnight can reveal the truth about the waste that was illegally tipped on Ivory Coast’s biggest city, Abidjan. A giant multinational is being sued in London’s High Court by thousands of Africans who claim they were injured as a result.

Our investigation took us to Amsterdam where the waste could have been safely disposed of. Instead the company, Trafigura, went for the cheaper option and offloaded it in Abidjan.

Trafigura has always denied that the chemical waste was dangerous, but we have seen an analysis by the Dutch authorities which reveal it to be lethal.

We consulted a leading toxicologist, John Hoskins from the Royal Society of Chemistry. He said it would bring a major city to its knees.

via BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Dirty tricks and toxic waste in Ivory Coast.

Torture Memos ‘An Ethical Train Wreck,’ Not Drafted in ‘Good Faith

Torture Memos ‘An Ethical Train Wreck,’ Not Drafted in ‘Good Faith – By William Fisher

“An ethical train wreck” was the phrase used by one witness to describe the legal reasoning behind the Justice Department’s recently released memos justifying the use of waterboarding and other forms of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

The phrase came during the testimony of David Luban, a law professor at Georgetown University, before a panel on administrative oversight and the courts subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee today.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, chaired the hearing. Whitehouse said the administration of former President George W. Bush inundated the American public in a “near avalanche of falsehood” on the subject of detainee treatment.

“We were told that waterboarding was determined to be legal, but were not told how badly the law was ignored, bastardized and manipulated by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel nor were we told how furiously government and military lawyers rejected the defective OLC opinions,” Whitehouse said.

The panel also heard from Bush-era State Department counselor Philip Zelikow, who testified that he unsuccessfully dissented from the Justice Department view that harsh interrogation practices were either legal or moral.

He told the subcommittee – the first congressional panel to address allegations of torture — that Bush administration officials engaged in a “collective failure” on detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

via Torture Memos ‘An Ethical Train Wreck,’ Not Drafted in ‘Good Faith.

New Ad: Will Specter Stand With Pennsylvanians Or ‘Greedy CEOs And Big Business’ | TPMDC

New Ad: Will Specter Stand With Pennsylvanians Or ‘Greedy CEOs And Big Business’

The group American Rights at Work is targeting Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) with a new ad asking whether he’ll stand “with Obama, Biden, and the working families of Pennsylvania, or with greedy CEOs and big business lobbyists” on Employee Free Choice.

video at link

“We hope Senator Specter will join the President and the majority of Congress who understand that if we truly wish to restore our middle class, workers must be able to bargain, not borrow their way to a better life,” said Kimberly Freeman, Acting Executive Director of ARW.

via New Ad: Will Specter Stand With Pennsylvanians Or ‘Greedy CEOs And Big Business’ | TPMDC.

When The DEA Came Calling, Allen Stanford Re-Routed His Plane

When The DEA Came Calling, Allen Stanford Re-Routed His Plane

An anecdote in a new GQ Allen Stanford story sheds some light on yesterday’s weird reports that the suspected Ponzi schemer secured himself ten years of SEC amnesty by being an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration — and also the continuing puzzle of why the Stanford’s “statuesque” CIO Laura Pendergest-Holt, who was formally indicted today, isn’t cooperating with the government. Stanford wasn’t just any DEA informant, he turned his plane around at the chance to rat out a Mexican drug lord! Also, Stanford was a bit cultlike.

The relevant passage:

via When The DEA Came Calling, Allen Stanford Re-Routed His Plane | TPMMuckraker.

Reid Admits It: ‘I Don’t Have Votes For Johnsen…Yet’

OPS:  We cannot afford to have this candy-ass in such an important position. We are loosing every day that he remains.  Reid MUST GO!

Reid Admits It: ‘I Don’t Have Votes For Johnsen…Yet’

It’s been clear for weeks now that Senate leadership hadn’t brought the question of confirming Dawn Johnsen–the President’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel–to a vote on the floor because he hasn’t had the votes. Sen. Harry Reid’s office never said as much, but how else to explain that other, less critical nominations were moving and not hers?

Last night Reid made it explicit. “Right now we’re finding out when to do that,” Reid said, according to Roll Call. “We need a couple Republican votes until we can get to 60.”

Right now there are 59 Democrats. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) has said he’s “concerned” about her nomination, but his office strongly suggested to me that he’d vote for cloture on her confirmation. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has said he “opposes” Johnsen, but hasn’t answered the cloture question thusfar. Republican Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), though, says he supports her. Assuming Nelson’s cloture vote really will be there, but that Specter will continue his…unpredictable streak, that means Democrats need one more Republican to get behind her.

via Reid Admits It: ‘I Don’t Have Votes For Johnsen…Yet’ | TPMDC.

Credit card companies piling on fees, raising rates ahead of new federal rules

Credit card companies piling on fees, raising rates ahead of new federal rules

It appears that credit card issuers are insisting upon exercising their right to abuse their customers in the name of higher profits. A survey of recent activities by the top eight credit card issuers reveals that since the Federal Reserve announced rule changes designed to curb unfair credit card industry practices last December, the companies have implemented even more onerous practices, raised interest rates more aggressively and increased the number of fees that they can impose on their customers.

The Center For Responsible Lending (CRL) released its findings on Monday and according to the report, Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), Capital One (COF), HSBC (HBC), Discover (DFS), American Express (AXP) and Well Fargo (WFC) have each increased interest rates on existing balances for many of their account holders on an “any time, any reason” basis within the last six months. This practice will be illegal under the new Fed rules which take affect in July 2010. The CRL estimates that at least 10 million card holders have been affected, and some have seen increases of 10 percentage points or more on their existing rate at a time when many consumers are having trouble staying afloat.

via Credit card companies piling on fees, raising rates ahead of new federal rules.

Documents detail pressure from Treasury for banks to accept bailout

Documents detail pressure from Treasury for banks to accept bailout

NEW YORK (CNN) — Newly released documents highlight the urgency last fall at the Treasury Department for the CEOs of nine major banks to accept billions of taxpayer dollars as the government worked to rescue the nation’s banking system.

The documents, which were obtained by the conservative legal watchdog group Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), were released Wednesday.

They seem to indicate the banks were given no choice but to take the money.

According to a document marked “CEO Talking Points” prepared for then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, “if a capital infusion is not appealing, you should be aware your regulator will require it in any circumstance…” and warned, “We don’t believe it’s tenable to opt out because doing so would leave you vulnerable and exposed.”

via Documents detail pressure from Treasury for banks to accept bailout – The CNN Wire – CNN.com Blogs.

Increase in suicides among cops, firefighters

Increase in suicides among cops, firefighters

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Among emergency workers, it’s a topic that’s almost taboo: suicide by police officers and firefighters. But a recent surge in suicides by Chicago firefighters has sparked increased efforts to bring the topic out of the shadows. As CBS 2′s Derrick Blakley reports one Chicago firefighter knows firsthand the profound pain this silent sorrow causes for loved ones left behind.

Kevin Flanagan was a 25-year-old Chicago cop. His proud father: a top member of the police command.

But five years ago, Kevin shot himself to death in his apartment bathroom, and his family still doesn’t know why.

“I still think, ‘Why? Why did it happen? Why didn’t he call me?” said his brother, Matt Flanagan. “He made that choice to do that to himself, and basically, to do it to us. He stole our future together.”

via WBBM 780 – Chicago’s #1 source for local news, traffic and weather – Increase in suicides among cops, firefighters.

ArcelorMittal plans ‘mass layoff’ at Indiana mill

ArcelorMittal plans ‘mass layoff’ at Indiana mill

NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) – Steelmaker ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS) (MT.N) plans a “mass layoff” at its Indiana Harbor mill in July, according to a company letter made public by the United Steelworkers union on Wednesday.

In the letter, posted on USW Local 1011′s website, ArcelorMittal said it “has determined that it must substantially reduce the workforce at its Indiana Harbor flat carbon facility.”

The company said the purpose of the letter, dated May 12, was to advise the union of “a pending ‘mass layoff’” at the plant in East Chicago, Indiana.

It did not specify how many workers would be affected but said the layoffs would be for an indefinite period after July 12.

There was no immediate comment from ArcelorMittal, which like other steelmakers has recently cut production and idled plants because of the economic downturn. (Reporting by Steve James; editing by John Wallace)

via ArcelorMittal plans ‘mass layoff’ at Indiana mill | Markets | Markets News | Reuters.

Winograd to challenge Harman in 2010 Democratic primary

OPS:  It’s a start 

Winograd to challenge Harman in 2010 Democratic primary - The Daily Breeze

Marcy Winograd, the liberal activist who challenged South Bay Rep. Jane Harman three years ago, announced Monday that she would try again to oust the veteran congresswoman in the 2010 Democratic primary.

Winograd launched her first campaign after Harman publicly defended the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. She was prompted to run again after it was revealed last month that Harman herself had been wiretapped, allegedly agreeing to help two pro-Israel lobbyists in exchange for support in her bid to chair the House Intelligence Committee.

via Winograd to challenge Harman in 2010 Democratic primary – The Daily Breeze.

Soufan: Bush lied

YouTube – Soufan: Bush lied.

Global Warming: The Global Deal

Thom talks with economist Lord Nicholas Stern about global warming.

YouTube – The Global Deal.

How can republicans continue to defend corporate tax cheating?

YouTube – How can republicans continue to defend corporate tax cheating?.

Tax breaks won’t help newspapers until newspapers start helping themselves

OPS: no one cares about Stenographers

Tax breaks won’t help newspapers until newspapers start helping themselves

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT  by Chad Rubel

What if the government was to give tax breaks to an industry that had not kept up with the times, lacked innovation, and hasn’t really delivered on the potential of what it could be in some time?

Wall Street? Auto industry? Try newspapers.

In Washington state, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a new law, giving newspaper printers and publishers a 40 percent cut in the state’s main business tax. In the state’s largest market, Seattle, the city had two long-time papers, the Times and the Post-Intelligencer, the latter of which shut down and went to an online only format.

Government and newspapers — newspapers and government, a separation perhaps as important as church and state. But does this move in Washington state cross that line?

And even if it doesn’t cross that line, do we want to save newspapers?

Newspapers are in trouble for a number of reasons, some of which is their fault (declining credibility) and other points are things that just happened (Craigslist getting more classified ads). In Chicago, the two major newspapers have extended problems beyond these obvious ones. One (Chicago Tribune) is part of a overreach by its Zell-ous owner (Sam Zell), and the other (Chicago Sun-Times) was literally robbed from within (Conrad Black), and faces severe tax penalties.

via Tax breaks won’t help newspapers until newspapers start helping themselves | BuzzFlash.org.

Obama reverses course on alleged prison abuse photos

BF: Obama WH Stops Release of Hundreds Bush-Era Torture and Abuse Photos. As a Result, More Bushevik War Crimes Will Not See the Light of Day. BuzzFlash Readers, Remember Detainees were More Than Tortured; Many Were Murdered. This is Not an Issue of “Military Morale”: It is a Matter of Justice.

Obama reverses course on alleged prison abuse photos

President Obama has ordered government lawyers to object to the planned release of additional detainee photos, the White House said Wednesday

The Defense Department was set to release hundreds of photographs showing alleged abuse of prisoners in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The president was concerned about harm to the troops,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday afternoon. “The president, as you all know, met with his legal team last week because he did not feel comfortable with the release of the photos.”

Gibbs added, “the president reflected on this case and believes that they have the potential to pose harm to the troops. … Nothing is added by the release of the photos.”

via Obama reverses course on alleged prison abuse photos – CNN.com.

Bank of England cuts growth forecast

Bank of England cuts growth forecast

Recovery expected to take longer

The Bank of England on Wednesday cut its growth forecasts and raised its estimate for future inflation in a gloomier assessment of the prospects for UK economy than it gave just three months ago.

In its quarterly inflation report the Bank said that the weaker profile for growth reflected a weaker than expected performance in the first quarter, and “a judgement that it is likely to take longer for bank lending to return to normal than assumed in February.”

via FT.com / UK – Bank of England cuts growth forecast.

US to call for OTC derivatives regulation

US to call for OTC derivatives regulation

Plan would require contract clearinghouse

US regulators will on Wednesday unveil a sweeping plan to regulate over-the-counter derivatives, aiming to bring under control the opaque market which contributed to the financial crisis.

They will call on Congress to change the Commodity Exchange Act and other laws to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the vast and largely unregulated market in derivatives such as credit default swaps.

via FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy – US to call for OTC derivatives regulation.

In “Party of No” Tantrum, GOP Senators Reject Hayes for Interior To Punish Salazar

In “Party of No” Tantrum, GOP Senators Reject Hayes for Interior To Punish Salazar – | BuzzFlash.org

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS  by Christine Bowman

The GOP “Party of No” admittedly couldn’t find fault with David J. Hayes, President Barack Obama’s pick for Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior. He had already done the exact same job for three years in President Bill Clinton’s administration. But the GOP steadfastly voted as a bloc anyway Wednesday against Hayes’ confirmation — with the exception of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe and Arizona Senator John Kyl.

david j hayes interiorEvidently, the GOP bloc feels good and proud about their empty protest vote, one that could force Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to drag ailing Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy back to the Senate floor to wrap up this foregone conclusion. Other “yea” votes Reid can depend on could come from Massachusetts Senator John Kerry or Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, both of whom missed today’s vote, or perhaps the still undeclared winner in Minnesota, Al Franken. Reid himself would also vote yea, but did not today due to procedural reasons that now leave him the option to call the vote again.

Hayes received 57 yea votes. He is the first Obama nominee to be rejected by the full Senate.

via In “Party of No” Tantrum, GOP Senators Reject Hayes for Interior To Punish Salazar | BuzzFlash.org.

Reports: GM to export China-built cars to US

OPS:  Personally, I don’t give a rats ass how cheap they are.  I’ll never buy another  GM product again. Done.

Reports: GM to export China-built cars to US

SHANGHAI — General Motors Corp. plans to begin exports of vehicles made in China to the United States within two years, ramping up sales to more than 50,000 by 2014, reports said Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for GM in China did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports, which were said to be based on a company recovery plan given to U.S. lawmakers.

GM intends to sell 17,335 made-in-China passenger cars in the U.S. market by 2011, the Shanghai Securities News and other reports said. By 2014 exports would triple to more than 51,000, it said.

The main focus would be on exporting small cars similar to the Chevrolet Spark, the reports said.

via Newsvine – Reports: GM to export China-built cars to US.

Jesus would permit followers to torture, some evangelicals believe

AP: Many Christian right leaders stay silent on torture

ormer Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer believes it’s okay for follower of Jesus to torture

The torture debate has led to much evangelical soul-searching, the Associated Press reports, and has “prompted introspection about faith, ethics, the Golden Rule, just wars, Jack Bauer and Jesus.”

A number of evangelical leaders have made opposition to torture without exceptions a moral cause over the past three years, part of a broadening of the movement’s agenda beyond traditional culture war issues. Others in the movement, including many Christian right leaders, have largely resisted or stayed silent.

Now, President Barack Obama’s release of Bush administration memos justifying harsh interrogation techniques and a new poll showing white evangelicals more sympathetic to torture have leaders taking stock of whether evangelical opinion has shifted on the topic.

“I have said before that torture is like a bone caught in our throat — we can’t swallow it and we can’t spit it out,” said David Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta and president of Evangelicals for Human Rights. “I think we’re still there.”

via Raw Story » AP: Many Christian right leaders stay silent on torture.

Ex-Powell aide: Why does media give Cheney ’so much air time’?

Ex-Powell aide: Why does media give Cheney ’so much air time’?

Former Vice President Dick Cheney showed up on Fox News Tuesday afternoon to defend the use of torture yet again. However, Colonel (ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson, who served in the Bush administration as chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, had nothing but contempt for Cheney’s arguments when he discussed them with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

“The bottom line,” Cheney insisted, “is we successfully defended the nation for 7 1/2 years against a follow-on attack to 9/11. That was a remarkable achievement. Nobody would have thought that was possible”

“You notice that Dick Cheney always says ‘7 1/2 years,”” Wilkerson told Maddow. “That’s because he has the honor of being — or the dishonor of being — the man on whose watch 3000 Americans died. More Americans died from a terrorist attack under Dick Cheney’s leadership, if you will, than any other president in our history.”

“The reason we have not had another attack in this country,’ Wilkerson continued, “is over 200,000 Americans who have been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. … We have had 200,000 Americans overseas presenting al Qaeda with very, very lucrative targets — and therefore, why would they want to come here? This is idiocy of the first order that Dick Cheney is putting out.”

via Raw Story » Ex-Powell aide: Why does media give Cheney ’so much air time’?.

Dropping Pretext Of A ‘Grassroots Movement,’ GOP Governors Launch ‘Tea Party 2.0’

Dropping Pretext Of A ‘Grassroots Movement,’ GOP Governors Launch ‘Tea Party 2.0’

Today, Politico reports that Republican Govs. Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina are leading the latest development of the anti-tax, anti-Obama tea party protest movement. Dubbed the “Tea Party 2.0,” the Republican Governors Association will host a telephone conference call on Thursday with thousands of right-wing activists to discuss how “our states’ rights are being trampled upon.”

Official Republican Party involvement is nothing new in the tea party movement. The tea party efforts were initially organized by corporate lobbyists and GOP consultants, and later advertised for by Fox News. But by the time of the April 15 protests, hundreds of state and federal Republican office holders headlined events across the country. Eventually, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and RNC Chairman Michael Steele all but declared ownership of the protests.

Ironically, the governors who are now using an official apparatus of the Republican Party to coordinate the tea party conference call were the same governors perpetuating the lie that the movement was entirely spontaneous, without any grass-tops involvement:

via Think Progress » Dropping Pretext Of A ‘Grassroots Movement,’ GOP Governors Launch ‘Tea Party 2.0’.

Graham: Since torture techniques have ’survived for about 500 years,’ ‘apparently they work.’

OPS: Wow, it’s scary inside the mind of a wingnut

Graham: Since torture techniques have ’survived for about 500 years,’ ‘apparently they work.’  -  Think Progress »

In today’s hearing on detainee interrogations, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) attempted to defend the Bush administration’s torture program. “Let’s have both sides of the story here,” Graham declared, saying there could be evidence that torture provided “good information.” Graham then made the puzzling claim that since torture has been used for half a century, it “apparently” is useful:

The Vice President is suggesting that there was good information obtained, and I’d like the committee to get that information. Let’s have both sides of the story here. I mean, one of the reasons these techniques have survived for about 500 years is apparently they work.

Former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan responded, “Because, sir, there’s a lot of people who don’t know how to interrogate, and it’s easier to hit somebody than outsmart them.” Watch it:

via Think Progress » Graham: Since torture techniques have ’survived for about 500 years,’ ‘apparently they work.’.

Rachel Maddow, Eliot Spitzer Interview: Spitzer Discusses Financial Crisis And Past Escort Scandal (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow, Eliot Spitzer Interview: Spitzer Discusses Financial Crisis And Past Escort Scandal (VIDEO)

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Tuesday night for a lengthy interview about the current financial crisis and the bank bailouts, as well as his reasons for stepping down from office amidst the escort scandal and any he regrets he may have.

Spitzer had some pointed criticism for the way the Obama administration has been handling the bank bailouts. When Spitzer was attorney general of New York, he prosecuted AIG and other Wall Street banks, and Maddow asked him if he saw a connection between those prosecutions and what led to the current crisis.

Spitzer said “Absolutely,” and while the specific instruments and mechanisms, derivatives and credit default swaps, may have changed, the “fundamental accounting fraud… the desperate desire to cook the books,” is present in the current collapse.

Spitzer worries that despite the government spending trillions of dollars to bail these companies out, “not nearly enough is changing.” Essentially, we are not doing enough to combat the systemic problem of companies that are too big to fail:

We are rebuilding the same edifice. We are re-establishing the primacy of the same companies. We are still building in a too-big-to-fail structure so that so that we as taxpayers will be guarantors of companies that when they get into trouble again, we will bail them out. None of this is being confronted by the administration as they, and we through our tax dollars, resuscitate a broken system.

via Rachel Maddow, Eliot Spitzer Interview: Spitzer Discusses Financial Crisis And Past Escort Scandal (VIDEO).

EU Fines Intel $1.45 Billion For Sales Tactics

EU Fines Intel $1.45 Billion For Sales Tactics

BRUSSELS — The European Union fined Intel Corp. a record euro1.06 billion ($1.45 billion) on Wednesday and ordered the world’s biggest maker of computer chips to stop illegal sales tactics that shut out Silicon Valley rival AMD.

The fine, which exceeded a euro899 million monopoly abuse penalty imposed on Microsoft Corp. last year, was denounced by Intel as “wrong.” The company said it would appeal to an EU court within 60 days.

AMD’s stock jumped in morning trading Wednesday, while Intel shares dropped slightly.

“Given that Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for over five years, the size of the fine should come as no surprise,” said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

“Intel did not compete fairly, frustrating innovation and reducing consumer welfare in the process,” she said.

via EU Fines Intel $1.45 Billion For Sales Tactics.

John Russell’s Father: Army “Broke” Him

John Russell’s Father: Army “Broke” Him

SHERMAN, Texas — The father of a U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow troops in Iraq said his son “forfeited his life” but the military bears some responsibility for the rampage.

Wilburn Russell said Tuesday that 44-year-old Army Sgt. John M. Russell wasn’t typically a violent person, but counselors “broke” him before gunfire erupted in a military stress center Monday in Baghdad.

“John has forfeited his life. Apparently, he said (to his wife), ‘My life is over. To hell with it. I’m going to get even with ‘em,’” said the elder Russell, 73.

His father said the younger Russell, an electronics technician, was at the stress center to transfer out of active duty. He said his son was undergoing stressful mental tests that he didn’t understand were merely tests, “so they broke him.”

via John Russell’s Father: Army “Broke” Him.

Top 10 real-life spy gadgets

Top 10 real-life spy gadgets  - Times Online

With the news that MI5 is looking for a Chief Scientific Adviser, spy novelist Jeremy Duns reveals his ten favourite real espionage inventions

1. Poison-tipped umbrella

Probably the most infamous real-life spy gadget is the umbrella used by the Bulgarian secret services – with KGB help – to kill dissident writer and broadcaster Georgi Markov. KGB technicians converted the tip of an ordinary umbrella into a silenced gun that could fire a pellet containing a lethal dose of ricin. On September 7 1978, Markov felt himself being jabbed in the thigh as he walked across Waterloo Bridge. A man behind him apologised and stepped into a taxi. Markov died four days later. No arrests have ever been made.

via Top 10 real-life spy gadgets – Times Online.

Less Than 6 Percent Of Stimulus Money Paid Out

Stimulus Aid Trickles Out, but States Seek Quicker Relief

Nearly three months after President Obama approved a $787 billion economic stimulus package, intended to create or save jobs, the federal government has paid out less than 6 percent of the money, largely in the form of social service payments to states.

Although administration officials say the program is right on schedule, they have actually spent relatively little so far.

The stimulus bill has directly injected around $45.6 billion into the economy, mostly to help states cover the costs of Medicaid and unemployment benefits, one-time $250 checks that were mailed to Social Security recipients last week, and income tax cuts that began to take effect this spring.

Although states around the country are beginning roadwork projects, the Department of Transportation had spent only about $11 million on highway projects through the first week of May.

via Sliver of Stimulus Cash Has Reached State Hands – NYTimes.com.

Pelosi: House Taking Up Health Care Before Recess

Pelosi: House Taking Up Health Care Before Recess

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that her chamber would have a sweeping health care bill on the floor by the end of July, an announcement that President Barack Obama hailed.

“That’s the kind of urgency and determination that we need to achieve what I believe will be historic legislation,” the president said at the White House, standing on the south driveway with Pelosi and Democratic leaders of the relevant House committees.

“Our health care system is broken,” Obama said. “We are not going to rest until we’ve delivered the kind of health care reform that’s going to bring down costs for families, improve quality, affordability, accessibility for all Americans.”

Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House Democrats had met with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office just before going outside to make their announcement. No Republicans were present, and neither were any senators.

via Pelosi: House Taking Up Health Care Before Recess.

Look Who’s Begging for Regulation

Look Who’s Begging for Regulation | CommonDreams.org

by Jim Hightower

“Regulate the health insurance giants,” chanted the reformers.

“Stop denying coverage to sick people,” they demanded. “Stop jacking up premiums,” they cried. “Health coverage for all,” they bellowed.

It was an impressive show that the health care reform movement put on last week at a hearing before the Senate finance committee. It was especially impressive because those doing the chanting, demanding, crying and bellowing were not aggrieved outsiders, but the ultimate insiders – the health insurance giants themselves!

When the dogs begin demanding leashes, you now that something unusual is afoot.

Indeed, two things are afoot. First, the public is fed up with our country’s insurance-dominated health care system, which cares first about corporate profits and only secondarily about the health needs of America’s people. As a result, we pay more for health coverage than any other country, yet the quality of care we get ranks 37th in the world (below such countries as Malta, Morocco, Chile and Dominica).

via Look Who’s Begging for Regulation | CommonDreams.org.

The “Suicide” Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi: Why The Media Silence?

The “Suicide” Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi: Why The Media Silence?  | CommonDreams.org

by Andy Worthington

The Brad Blog, which picked up on the story of the strange death of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi shortly after I published the first account in the Western media on Sunday evening, asked a question yesterday evening that I had been asking myself throughout the day:

So, it’s been about 16 hours since we covered indie journalist / historian / blogger Andy Worthington’s detailed report on the reported suicide of the man who falsely “confessed,” during torture, to a false tie between Iraq and al-Qaeda … As of this moment, not a single mainstream US newspaper or broadcast outlet has reported on the story. Is it not notable? Or are our newspapers just dead set on ensuring their irrelevance by continuing to not report on news that actually matters, no matter how widely it’s being reported in other parts of the world?

See the rest of the story here.

Reuters finally picked up on the story late yesterday afternoon, and secured a quote from Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef, who said that she had seen al-Libi just two weeks ago, on April 27, during a visit to Abu Salim jail in Tripoli. She explained that he “appeared for just two minutes in a prison courtyard,” and that he “looked well, but was unwilling to speak” to the Human Rights Watch team, saying instead, “Where were you when I was being tortured in American prisons?”

via The “Suicide” Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi: Why The Media Silence? | CommonDreams.org.

Cities Can Save the Earth

Cities Can Save the Earth  | CommonDreams.org

The climate crisis won’t be solved by changing light bulbs and inflating your tires more, planting a tree and driving a little less. It’s going to require a truly fundamental shift in how we build our cities and live in them.

The key to changing our cities involves the car. Cars dominate cities in the rich countries, and they are increasingly swamping poor countries as well. Big auto companies, are rapidly building car factories and highways in China and India. Many cities, like Berkeley, California where I lived for 30 years, don’t have a single pedestrian street – and their citizens don’t even notice how completely given over to the car their towns are. Only one out of 10 people on the planet actually drives cars, but drivers are causing a vastly disproportionate share of planetary damage through the automobile-sprawl pattern of development.

The concepts behind the ecocity are fairly simple. They involve a shift in development toward centers of high diversity:

via Cities Can Save the Earth | CommonDreams.org.

The truth about Social Security and Medicare

The truth about Social Security and Medicare - By Robert Reich     | Salon

Social Security is a tiny problem, but Medicare is entirely different. It’s a monster.

What are we to make of yesterday’s report from the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds that Social Security will run out of assets in 2037, four years sooner than previously forecast, and Medicare’s hospital fund will be exhausted by 2017, two years earlier than predicted a year ago?

Reports of these two funds’ demise are not new. Fifteen years ago, when I was a trustee of the Social Security and the Medicare trust funds (which meant, essentially, that I and a few others met periodically with the official actuary of the funds, received his report, asked a few questions, and signed some papers) both funds were supposedly in trouble. But as I learned, the timing and magnitude of the trouble depended a great deal on what assumptions the actuary used in his models. As I recall, he then assumed that the economy would grow by about 2.6 percent a year over the next seventy-five years. But go back into American history all the way to the Civil War — including the Great Depression and the severe depressions of the late 19th century — and the economy’s average annual growth is closer to 3 percent. Use a 3 percent assumption and Social Security is flush for the next 75 years.

Yes, I know, the post-war Baby Boom is moving through the population like a pig through a python. The number of retirees eligible for benefits will almost double to 79.5 million in 2045 from 40.5 million this year. But we knew that the Boomers were coming then, too. What we didn’t know then was the surge in immigration. Yet immigrants are mostly young. Rather than being a drain on Social Security when the Boomers need it, most immigrants will be contributing to the system during these years, which should take more of the pressure off.

via The truth about Social Security and Medicare | Salon.

Kucinich: This is NOT acceptable, Mr. Liddy. I’m not going to let you get away with it!

Edward Liddy AIG  Kucinich (D-OH)
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

YouTube – Kucinich: This is NOT acceptable, Mr. Liddy. I’m not going to let you get away with it!.

Prosecutors ask for longer sentence for Siegelman | Dothan Eagle

Prosecutors ask for longer sentence for Siegelman

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Federal prosecutors want former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman to serve a much longer sentence than he originally received in a federal government corruption case, even though an appellate court has thrown out two of the charges against him.

The prosecutors have sent a letter to federal probation officers recommending that Siegelman be sentenced to 20 years in federal prison when he receives a new sentencing hearing in federal court in Montgomery. Siegelman was originally sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his 2006 conviction for bribery, obstruction of justice and other charges.

The letter was also sent to Siegelman’s attorneys. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Tuesday.

“It’s evident that this team of prosecutors are biased and hell-bent to uphold this conviction and try to punish me as much as they can,“ Siegelman said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department, Laura Sweeney, said prosecutors would have no comment because the letter to probation officers had not been filed publicly with the court.

via Prosecutors ask for longer sentence for Siegelman | Dothan Eagle.

Insurance: Top PAC Recipients | OpenSecrets

Insurance: Top PAC Recipients

at link

via Insurance: Top PAC Recipients | OpenSecrets.

Insurance: Top Recipients | OpenSecrets

Insurance: Top Recipients

at link

via Insurance: Top Recipients | OpenSecrets.

Dawn Johnsen’s belief in the rule of law disqualifies her from Senate confirmation

Dawn Johnsen’s belief in the rule of law disqualifies her from Senate confirmation – - Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

One of the best things Barack Obama has done since being elected President was selecting Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel — the office of Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Stephen Bradbury, torture memos, and theories of presidential omnipotence. Johnsen expressed outrage over the extremism and lawlessness of the Bush administration not (like most political and media elites) in the last few weeks when doing so was easy and irrelevant, but did so loudly and continuously while those crimes were actually taking place. Her arguments were grounded in one simple belief: that the duty of the OLC is to tell the President when his desired policies are unconstitutional or otherwise illegal. But in a vivid a reflection of how perverse Washington culture is, those attributes — outrage over high-level government extremism and criminality, and a belief in the rule of law — are apparently disqualifying:

via Dawn Johnsen’s belief in the rule of law disqualifies her from Senate confirmation – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees

OPS:  Social Security is NOT going bankrupt!

A SUMMARY OF THE 2009 ANNUAL REPORTS

Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees

A MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC:

Each year the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report on the current and projected financial status of the two programs. This message summarizes our 2009 Annual Reports.

The financial condition of the Social Security and Medicare programs remains challenging. Projected long run program costs are not sustainable under current program parameters. Social Security’s annual surpluses of tax income over expenditures are expected to fall sharply this year and to stay about constant in 2010 because of the economic recession, and to rise only briefly before declining and turning to cash flow deficits beginning in 2016 that grow as the baby boom generation retires. The deficits will be made up by redeeming trust fund assets until reserves are exhausted in 2037, at which point tax income would be sufficient to pay about three fourths of scheduled benefits through 2083. Medicare’s financial status is much worse. As was true in 2008, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is expected to pay out more in hospital benefits and other expenditures this year than it receives in taxes and other dedicated revenues. The difference will be made up by redeeming trust fund assets. Growing annual deficits are projected to exhaust HI reserves in 2017, after which the percentage of scheduled benefits payable from tax income would decline from 81 percent in 2017 to about 50 percent in 2035 and 30 percent in 2080. In addition, the Medicare Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund that pays for physician services and the prescription drug benefit will continue to require general revenue financing and charges on beneficiaries that grow substantially faster than the economy and beneficiary incomes over time.

The drawdown of Social Security and HI Trust Fund reserves and the general revenue transfers into SMI will result in mounting pressure on the Federal budget. In fact, pressure is already evident. For the third consecutive year, a “Medicare funding warning” is being triggered, signaling that non-dedicated sources of revenues—primarily general revenues—will soon account for more than 45 percent of Medicare’s outlays. A Presidential proposal will be needed in response to the latest warning.

The financial challenges facing Social Security and especially Medicare need to be addressed soon. If action is taken sooner rather than later, more options will be available, with more time to phase in changes and for those affected to plan for changes.

….snip….

Social Security

The annual cost of Social Security benefits represented 4.4 percent of GDP in 2008 and is projected to increase to 6.2 percent of GDP in 2034, and then decline to about 5.8 percent of GDP by 2050 and remain at about that level. The projected 75-year actuarial deficit in the combined Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Fund is 2.00 percent of taxable payroll, up from 1.70 percent projected in last year’s report. This increase is due primarily to the recession, slightly lower estimates for real GDP after the economy recovers in 2015, and faster reductions in mortality rates. Although the combined OASDI program passes our short-range test of financial adequacy, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund does not; DI program costs have exceeded tax revenue since 2005, and trust fund exhaustion is projected for 2020. In addition, OASDI continues to fail our long-range test of close actuarial balance by a wide margin. Projected OASDI tax income will begin to fall short of outlays in 2016, and will be sufficient to finance 76 percent of scheduled annual benefits in 2037, after the combined OASDI Trust Fund is projected to be exhausted.

Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years with changes equivalent to an immediate 16 percent increase in the payroll tax (from a rate of 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two. Ensuring that the system remains solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the next 75 years would require larger changes because increasing longevity will result in people receiving benefits for ever longer periods of retirement.

Conclusion

The financial difficulties facing Social Security and Medicare pose serious challenges. For Social Security, the reform options are relatively well understood but the choices are difficult. Medicare is a bigger challenge. Its cost growth can be contained without sacrificing quality of care only if health care cost growth more generally is contained. But despite the difficulties—indeed, because of the difficulties—it is essential that action be taken soon, particularly to control health care costs.

via Trustees Report Summary.

Intel gets record fine in antitrust case

Intel gets record fine in antitrust case

MUNICH, Germany — In the Intel antitrust case, the European Commission has imposed the highest fine ever: €1.06 billion, about $1.45 billion. The company announced to appeal the decision.

The European Commission found that Intel had abused its dominant market position by engaging illegal anticompetitive practices in the time between October 2002 and December 2008 — actually the practices in part seem to be ongoing, and the EC ordered Intel to immediately cease them. “Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU’s antitrust rules cannot be tolerated”, explained EU competition Commissioner Neelie Kroess.

According to the findings, Intel used two ways of illegal practices: The company gave hidden rebates to computer manufacturers on the condition to keep production of computers equipped with microprocessors from competitors at a very low level or even at zero. In addition, Intel had paid those manufacturers for halting or delaying product launches for computers based on non-Intel CPUs. The commission lists computer manufacturers Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC as receivers of such payments.

via Intel gets record fine in antitrust case.

The hidden hand of Dick Cheney

The hidden hand of Dick Cheney - By Juan Cole | Salon

Out of office, he continues to push his tortured version of reality — and his vision of an imperial presidency — and there are signs he is succeeding.

May 13, 2009 | Dick Cheney is out there. He is defending torture, dissing Colin Powell, and genuflecting before radio personality Rush Limbaugh as the high priest of what’s left of conservatism. His refusal to go quietly, unlike his much-reviled boss, is risky. He was a laugh line more than once at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

But the media’s focus on the sheer spectacle of the ex-veep’s antics, and on the Republican vs. Democrat feud he’s stoking, underestimates the way Cheney’s principles still inform many of the country’s most crucial policies. Like the creatures in the “Alien” films, Cheney has planted some vicious spores in the bellies of his successors, which threaten to tear them apart as they mature. Can the new administration truly reverse Cheney’s transformation of the United States into a 21st century empire, with the president an imperial figure above the law?

via The hidden hand of Dick Cheney | Salon.

The Garden Basket

YouTube – Garden Basket.

Rachel Maddow: Obama’s Lucky Break –

YouTube – {Rachel Maddow} Obama’s Lucky Break — Part 1.

Blue Dog Dems Rake in Health Care Contributions, Protest Exclusion from Debate

Blue Dog Dems Rake in Health Care Contributions, Protest Exclusion from Debate

Tags: Blue Dogs, business PACs, Campaign Finance, health care, PAC contributions, PACs

On the same day that President Obama met with a number of health care organizations, a group of 45 conservative Democrats sent an angry letter to three House committees protesting the secrecy around the production of health care legislation in the House. The New York Times reports that this large group of Blue Dog Democrats is “‘increasingly troubled’ by their exclusion from the bill-writing process.” The Blue Dogs largely represent more conservative-leaning districts and take positions that are often favorable to industry. They are also big fundraisers, with their coalition PAC raking in large amounts from corporate PACs.

The Blue Dog PAC pulled in $2.26 million in PAC contributions during the 2008 election cycle. Approximately eighteen percent of that amount — $410,300 — came from PACs connected to the health sector. During the 2008 cycle, individuals members of the Blue Dog Coalition raised a combined $6.24 million from the health sector. The average contribution to a Blue Dog Democrat in the 2008 election cycle was slightly higher — $122,370 — than the average contribution to a Democratic lawmaker — $116,748.

via Blue Dog Dems Rake in Health Care Contributions, Protest Exclusion from Debate — Sunlight Foundation Blog.

Former Mexican president calls for legalizing marijuana

Former Mexican president calls for legalizing marijuana

(CNN) — Former Mexican President Vicente Fox has joined three other ex-leaders of Latin American nations calling for the decriminalization of marijuana.

Fox, who was Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, said the current policy is clearly not working.

“I believe it’s time to open the debate over legalizing drugs,” he told CNN on Tuesday. “It must be done in conjunction with the United States, but it is time to open the debate.”

He pointed to how the end of Prohibition in the United States in 1933 lessened organized-crime violence. “It can’t be that the only way is for the state to use force,” he said.

Fox was mirroring a position adopted earlier this year by his predecessor as president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, and the former heads of Colombia and Brazil. The three former chief executives are members of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. At a February meeting in Brazil, the commission called for the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use and a change in tactics in the war o

via Former Mexican president calls for legalizing marijuana – The CNN Wire – CNN.com Blogs.

Colgan First Officer on doomed Buffalo Colgan Flight earned $16,254 a year!

OPS:  Managers of the paint department at Home Depot make more. Free Market?  Still hate Unions? Still think Reagans de-regulation was a good thing.

Colgan says it is no longer hiring inexperienced pilots

WASHINGTON — Colgan Air has revised its pilot hiring standards in a way that would have disqualified someone as inexperienced as the pilot of the doomed Flight 3407, the company said today as hearings into the Feb. 12 crash turned to the company’s hiring and employment practices.

In addition, testimony revealed that the copilot of Flight 3407 — which crashed into a home in Clarence, killing 50 — had a gross annual salary of about $16,254 a year.

The second day of National Transportation Safety Board hearings in the crash moved the focus away from the pilot, Capt. Marvin Renslow, and toward Colgan, the Continental Airlines subcontractor that operated Flight 3407.

via Colgan says it is no longer hiring inexperienced pilots : Home: The Buffalo News.

Phony Social Security “Crisis” Is Fueled by New Report

Phony Social Security “Crisis” Is Fueled by New Report | Mother Jones

Spring has come to recession-era America, which means that all across the nation, millions of old people are emerging from hibernation and hobbling out to their mailboxes in search of their long-awaited Social Security stimulus checks. The first round of payments provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has just been mailed out. So while the big banks may be raking in their trillions, U.S. elders–along with recipients of SSI and veterans’ benefits–will soon have a whopping $250 to protect them from the ravages of the economic meltdown.

And it looks like we’d better make it last, since it’s the only increase we’re likely to see for a long, long time. For the first time in more than 30 years, according to forecasts by the Congressional Budget Office, there will be no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to Social Security next year. In fact, because of low inflation, there probably won’t be a COLA before 2013.

And it might not stop there, since the straw man of Social Security “reform” is yet again raising his scruffy head. The phony crusade to “save” Social Security from bankrupting the country and destroying the lives of our grandchildren has gained new traction during the recession. This manufactured crisis is already being used by conservatives (apparently with some cooperation from the Democrats) in a quest to cut old age entitlements–in effect taking money away from elders to pay for the Wall Street bailout.

via Phony Social Security “Crisis” Is Fueled by New Report | Mother Jones.

Time to End the Bailouts: The Banker Boys Are Alright!

Time to End the Bailouts

The Banker Boys Are Alright! – By DEAN BAKER

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the country last week that the banks are essentially okay based on his stress tests of the country’s 19th largest banks. Secretary Geithner’s call may not seem quite right. After all, the bad case in stress tests assumed that unemployment would average 8.9 percent for all of 2009 and we just hit that last week, but there’s no reason not to take the Treasury secretary at his word.

So, we are told that the banks have the means necessary to get through the downturn. In that case, why should we spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to keep these healthy institutions afloat?

As long as the banks were on their death beds there was a plausible argument that taxpayer dollars were needed to keep the financial system from collapsing. But if the banks now have a clean bill of health from the Treasury, then it’s time for the banks to stop relying on taxpayer handouts.

via Dean Baker: The Banker Boys Are Alright!.

You Can’t Starve Government and Blame It Too

You Can’t Starve Government and Blame It Too  – |CommonDreams.org

by Thomas Frank

Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved a bill to provide paid parental leave to federal workers and thus make government employment more attractive. The committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, reportedly opposed the measure because he fears, among other things, that rascally federal workers will scam the system, piling up child after child just to claim the four weeks of paid leave.

They “could have one adoption or one foster child per year, resulting in every year you get a new foster child,” Mr. Issa said, according to the Washington Post. “Every year the husband and wife if they are both federal workers would take four weeks off with pay, because they have simply taken in a new foster child.”

Mr. Issa’s suspicions may be grotesque but they are also typical of the conservative movement. The government and its bureaucrats are, to the right, ever a malign force — jealous, power-hungry and greedy. But it’s hard to blame someone for failing after you’ve worked so hard to make them fail.

via You Can’t Starve Government and Blame It Too | CommonDreams.org.

Climate change threatens millions who live off sea

Climate change threatens millions who live off sea – The Associated Press:

MANADO, Indonesia (AP) — Around 100 million people risk losing their homes and livelihoods unless drastic steps are taken to protect Southeast Asia’s coral reefs, which could be wiped out in coming decades because of climate change, a report said Wednesday.

The Coral Triangle — which spans Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor — accounts for a third of the world’s coral reefs and 35 percent of coral reef fish species.

If carbon emissions are not cut by 25 percent to 40 percent by the year 2020, higher ocean temperatures could kill off vast marine ecosystems and half the fish in them, according to the World Wildlife Fund, which warned that 100 million people earning a living off the sea could be forced to leave inundated coastlines and find new jobs.

The group, which presented its 220-page study at the World Ocean Conference, cited 300 published scientific studies and 20 climate change experts.

“Decisive action must be taken immediately, or a major crisis will develop,” the report said.

“Hundreds of thousands of unique species, entire communities and societies will be in jeopardy,” it said.

via The Associated Press: Climate change threatens millions who live off sea.

Former Official: Treatment of Terror Suspects a ‘Collective Failure’

Former Official: Treatment of Terror Suspects a ‘Collective Failure’ -  – washingtonpost.com

Former State Department counselor Philip Zelikow told the first congressional panel convened to address allegations of torture that the Bush administration officials engaged in a “collective failure” on detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

Fresh accounts today by Zelikow and retired FBI special agent Ali Soufan, who dissented from Justice Department conclusions about the legality of waterboarding prisoners, are likely to expose anew rifts within the highest levels of the Bush administration over the practices.

via Former Official: Treatment of Terror Suspects a ‘Collective Failure’ – washingtonpost.com.

Dennis Kucinich calls for Single-Payer at a conference of registered nurses

YouTube – Dennis Kucinich calls for Single-Payer at a conference of registered nurses.

Post Office May Cut Down Service to 5 Days a Week

OPS:  Yep – we are a civilization in decline

Post Office May Cut Down Service to 5 Days a Week

“It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable,” said Postmaster General John E. Potter.

Earlier this year, Postmaster General John Potter asked Congress to consider allowing the U.S. Postal Service to cut deliveries to five days a week. The idea was not greeted kindly by Democrats or Republicans and was quickly spiked. However, with revenues plummeting, the proposal could gain some traction.

The USPS has been struggling along with the rest of the economy. It has turned a profit in only one of the last 11 quarters.

On Monday, the USPS announced that it had lost $1.9 billion during the second quarter of the fiscal year. The last year the USPS turned a profit was in 2006, when it made $900 million. The results since then have been dismal.

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

Gov’t Borrows 46 cents for Every Dollar Spent

Gov’t Borrows 46 cents for Every Dollar Spent

“It’s clear that there is much more that we can do to protect our children and grandchildren from the unprecedented trillions in additional debt…” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

On Monday, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget released a revised budget deficit prediction for the current fiscal year showing that the U.S. will need to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent until Sept. 30, when the current fiscal year ends.

The revised projections show that the budget deficit for the 2009 fiscal year will be $89 billion higher than February’s projection of $1.75 trillion. The $1.8 trillion budget deficit will be an all-time high, surpassing last year’s record deficit four times over. The budget deficit will represent 12.9 percent of gross domestic product, the largest share of GDP since World War II.

The OMB also released revised predictions for the 2010 fiscal year, projecting that the deficit will grow by $87 billion to $1.3 trillion. At that rate, the government would spend nearly 35 cents for every dollar spent in the 2010 fiscal year. The deficit would represent 8.5 percent of GDP.

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

Elected Officials Selling out America: Mike Castle

OPS: 5th in the series

Elected Officials Selling out America: Mike Castle

Representative Mike Castle is not dealing with the issues that matter most to America’s working-class voters.

Editor’s Note: The following article is the fifth 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.

As one of the few Yankee Republicans left in a region rapidly turning blue, Delaware Representative Mike Castle is a dying breed and could be one of the last Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic Republicans left standing (See: Specter, Arlen) – or his continued support of job-killing “ free trade” agreements could be his political kiss of death.

According to The Cato Institute, “In the 108th Congress the most consistent free traders were Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Michael Castle (R-DE), Susan Davis (D-CA), Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Christopher Shays (R-CT), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).”

Over the course of his eight-term career in Congress, Castle has voted against imposing trade barriers to protect domestic industries 74 percent of the time and subsidies for domestic industries 54 percent of the time.

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

Elected Officials Selling out America: John Tanner

OPS:  6th in the series

Elected Officials Selling out America: John Tanner

Rep. John Tanner has gotten on his soapbox and screamed to the heavens about the dangers of America’s problems, yet his voting record contradicts his statements.

Back in 2004, the tragically flawed Central American Free Trade Agreement eked through the U.S. House of Representatives by just two votes: 217-215. Joining Republicans to pass the ill-conceived trade agreement, modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement, were 15 Democrats.

One of those was Rep. John Tanner (TN), who has failed the American people in terms of trade issues his entire 21-year career. During his time in Congress, Tanner has voted against imposing trade barriers to protect domestic industries and jobs nearly eight out of 10 times, or 79 percent of the time.

In fact, in 2000, Tanner was the recipient of the “Spirit of Enterprise Award” from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – a rabid “free trade” advocacy group that vehemently opposes any and every restriction on trade imaginable.

Despite that, Tanner describes himself as a deficit-hawking, Blue Dog Democrat.

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

“Keep it Made in America” Bus Tour

“Keep it Made in America” Bus Tour

The “Keep it Made in America” bus tour kicked off yesterday and may be headed to your state.

Several business associations in the U.S. collected their strength and put together an 11-state, 34-city, nationwide bus tour which began May 11 and ends May 14. The “Keep it Made in America” tour is sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Mayors & and Municipalities Automotive Coalition, and the United Steelworkers.

The central facet of the tour is to raise awareness as to the importance of spending American money on American goods. It has become blatantly obvious that the “free trade” world has hurt the U.S. economy. By spending money outside of our own economy, we lose money and gain nothing; by spending it here we multiply the money in the system and gain long-term stability.

The main focus of the tour is the need to save the American auto industry. Our government has granted several billion dollars in loans to automakers, but it has never really taken a stand to guarantee their survival like it did for American banks.

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

An Interview with Paul Craig Roberts, One of America’s Most Respected Economists

An Interview with Paul Craig Roberts, One of America’s Most Respected Economists

Because the U.S. has become import-dependent, it is important for the U.S. to retain the reserve currency role. Otherwise, the U.S. will not be able to pay for its imports

Editor’s Note: EconomyInCrisis.org was fortunate enough to conduct an interview with Paul Craig Roberts regarding the future of the dollar as the world reserve currency and the direction the U.S. economy needs to head into the future. Roberts is the former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. Printed below is the interview transcript.

EIC: When and at what point will foreigners no longer use the dollar as the world reserve currency?

PCR: Foreigners will give up on the U.S. dollar as reserve currency when the supply increases at such a rate as to destroy the currency as a store of value. Then all financial assets denominated in dollars will be vulnerable. Real assets will become cheaper to foreign currencies and might be bought up, but paper dollar assets will depreciate quickly, once it starts.

Because the U.S. has become import-dependent, it is important for the U.S. to retain the reserve currency role. Otherwise, the U.S. will not be able to pay for its imports.

EIC: What could we do if anything to prevent the dollar’s debasement?

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