Archive for June, 2009
Wal-Mart to Start Outsourcing More to India
Wal-Mart to Start Outsourcing More to India - BusinessWeek
The U.S. retailer is considering TCS, Wipro and Infosys for $500 million outsourcing deal
Wal-Mart Stores has shortlisted top Indian tech firms, including TCS, Infosys and Wipro, for an outsourcing contract potentially worth up to $500 million over next few years, as the retailer seeks to award multiple contracts for managing its business applications and other back office activities.
At least two people familiar with Wal-Mart’s outsourcing strategy told ET on conditions of anonymity that the retailer is expected to start outsourcing more to India within six months.
“Wal-Mart has been testing the waters by outsourcing smaller projects to companies such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro. Now, the retailer wants to flesh out a more comprehensive outsourcing strategy and has shortlisted these tech vendors,” said a senior executive of one of the tech firms exploring business opportunities with Wal-Mart. He requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to media.
via Wal-Mart to Start Outsourcing More to India – BusinessWeek.
Religious leaders to lobby Obama for torture inquiry
OPS: Its about damned time – where have you been hiding?
Religious leaders to lobby Obama for torture inquiry
Eight spiritual leaders from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, representing some 250 member organizations from around the United States, will demonstrate in front of the White House on Thursday, giving “public witness” to their support of an inquiry on torture.
President Barack Obama has said repeatedly he would like to “look forward,” sidestepping calls from many in his own party to investigate torture of terror war prisoners authorized by the Bush administration.
Prior to their demonstration, the group will discuss their letter to the president at the National Press Club, beginning at 11 a.m., according to a media advisory. While the NRCAT delegates will not have an audience with the president, senior White House officials have agreed to meet with them, the group said.
via Raw Story » Religious leaders to lobby Obama for torture inquiry.
Murdoch: ‘If we weren’t fair and balanced, we wouldn’t have the number one network in news.’
Murdoch: ‘If we weren’t fair and balanced, we wouldn’t have the number one network in news.’
Today, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch sat down with Fox News host Neil Cavuto for a softball interview. At one point, Cavuto asked Murdoch if he feels like Rodney Dangerfield — “not getting that respect” — even though Fox is “pretty much the envy of the world right now.” When Cavuto asked about perceptions that Fox isn’t fair and balanced, Murdoch said that those allegations were “obviously not true”:
If we weren’t fair and balanced, we wouldn’t have the number one network in news — by a very wide margin. People believe we’re fair and balanced, and they love us.
Watch it:
A Conversation about the 2008 Election
OPS: I’ve been saying since 2003 – You CANNOT trust the Polls – any of them
When will the MSM release the 2008 Exit Poll Report?
Here we are in June and still there is no Election 2008 report from the exit pollsters. They released the Election 2004 report on Jan.19, 2005.
We have the Final 2008 National Exit Poll (NEP. As usual, it was forced to match the recorded vote: Obama has a 52.9% share and a 9.5 million margin. The NEP indicates a 46/37% split of returning Bush/Kerry voters of the total 131.37 million recorded in 2008. We are expected to believe that returning Bush voters outnumbered returning Kerry voters by 9% (11.8 million).
Is that why the exit pollsters have not released the report? Are they gun shy because it would just confirm what we already have calculated from the National Exit Poll using a plausible returning voter mix: that Obama won by at least double his recorded margin?
via A Conversation about the 2008 Election.
Powerful Baptist Pastor Prays for Obama’s Death – Audio
OPS: Oh those whacky cults. The SBC should lose their 501-c3 over this.
Powerful Baptist Pastor Prays for Obama’s Death – Audio
Amazing how some people have the silly notion that rightwing hate in this country might be something to worry about:
The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest denomination, has been embarrassed by the comments of the Rev. Wiley Drake, a former officer in the convention, who said he is praying for the death of the president.
Drake, a former SBC vice president who ran for president last year, said in a recent interview on Fox News Radio that he is praying an “imprecatory prayer” against the president. Those are prayers that ask for evil or misfortune. Asked if he was seriously praying that the president of the United States would die, Drake said, “If he does not turn to God and does not turn his life around, I am asking God to enforce imprecatory prayers that are throughout the Scripture that would cause him death, that’s correct.”
via Library Grape: Powerful Baptist Pastor Prays for Obama’s Death – Audio.
Blue Dogs Backsliding On Health Care
Blue Dogs Backsliding On Health Care 
Conservative House Democrats agreed to a set of health care principles late last week that angered advocates of a overhaul of the health care system.
The Blue Dog Coalition issued a statement that said it would only support the public health care option as a fallback measure that would be triggered sometime down the road if private insurers don’t meet a particular set of goals.
The backsliding took advocates of reform by surprise because 20 members of the coalition had previously signed a pledge expressing their support for a public option without a trigger. The statement was written and organized by the reform coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which strongly opposes a trigger and sees it as an industry plot to strangle a public option in the crib.
Blue Dogs, by their charter, need two-thirds of their 51-member caucus to approve a position before it can be officially adopted. With 20 Blue Dogs backing a public option, they would be short several votes if everyone stuck to their pledge in the closed-door meeting.
A senior Blue Dog staffer, however, said that when the coalition first met to discuss the set of principles, they decided to stake out a negotiating position rather than draw a firm line.
via Blue Dogs Backsliding On Health Care.
The Olson/Boies Challenge to California’s Proposition 8: A High-Risk Effort
The Olson/Boies Challenge to California’s Proposition 8: A High-Risk Effort
By JOHN W. DEAN
This week, famously, the California Supreme Court issued its decision, Strauss v. Horton, upholding Proposition 8, the voter-adopted prohibition against same-sex marriages. Within twenty-four hours, former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson and celebrated trial attorney David Boies had together filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn this controversial provision of the California Constitution.
Olson and Boies are best known for their roles in Bush v. Gore. In their challenge to Proposition 8, Olson, the conservative, and Boies, the progressive, represent two California couples who are precluded from marrying in light of Proposition 8′s changes to California law.
Clearly, with the high-profile Olson and Boies in charge, this is a carefully- considered move in taking same-sex marriage to federal court. However, for many good reasons, some in the Gay and Lesbian community, and some of the attorneys who have been toiling in this field for many years, are concerned about their action. It is an aggressive undertaking that could end marriage discrimination against gays, but it could also backfire, and set back efforts that have been proceeding state by state, with considerable success, over the past decade.
Allow me to broadly sketch the situation and the potential problems it raises.
via The Olson/Boies Challenge to California’s Proposition 8: A High-Risk Effort.
Unions Embrace Street Corner Solidarity
Unions Embrace Street Corner Solidarity | CommonDreams.org
SEATTLE – For Pablo Alvarado, the genesis occurred back in 1999 when janitors in Los Angeles were on strike. Some of the cleaning companies came to the corners and workers’ centres where day labourers gathered and tried to hire workers to cross the janitors’ picket lines, he recounted to IPS.
“The workers said ‘Thanks, but no thanks, we won’t do that.’ And instead 260 day labourers joined 2,000 janitors who marched across the landscape of Los Angeles,” he said.
[(photo: Jornalero News, Official News Blog of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network) ](photo: Jornalero News, Official News Blog of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network)
“That’s the type of solidarity that’s going to bring immigrant rights organisations [together] with organised labour,” said Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Labour Organising Network (NDLON), the most extensive network of immigrant workers centres in the United States.
via Unions Embrace Street Corner Solidarity | CommonDreams.org.
The Amazon is Dying
The Amazon is Dying | CommonDreams.org
The Brazilian government is legalizing deforestation and western superbrands are benefiting from it. This needs to stop now
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, writing in the Guardian in March, offered us these words of hope: “No country has a larger stake in reversing the impact of global warming than Brazil. That is why it is at the forefront of efforts to come up with solutions that preserve our common future.” Lula’s words are fine. But we are still waiting for real action.
For the last 10 years, Greenpeace has been working in the Amazon alongside communities to protect the rainforest. Last week, Greenpeace released a report which was the result of a three-year investigation into the role of the cattle industry in driving illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The report, Slaughtering the Amazon, reveals the devastating impacts cattle ranching is having on the climate, biodiversity and local communities.
Cattle ranching is the biggest cause of deforestation, not only in the Amazon, but worldwide. The report reveals that the Brazilian government is a silent partner in these crimes by providing loans to and holding shares in the three biggest players – Bertin, JBS and Marfrig – that are driving expansion into the Amazon rainforest.
via The Amazon is Dying | CommonDreams.org.
GOP senators warn Obama on health care
OPS: It’s time to run over these sociopathic Corporate Stooges like a freight train.
GOP senators warn Obama on health care
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is making a mistake on health care by insisting on a government insurance option for the middle class, influential Republicans said in a letter to the White House released Monday.
It could cost him chances for broad support across the political divide, the nine lawmakers, all members of the Senate Finance Committee, warned.
Leaders of the Finance panel, which has the best odds of producing a bipartisan bill, are working against a self-imposed deadline for moving the legislation through committee this month. But tensions have been rising since Obama recently affirmed his strong support for including the option of a public insurance plan.
“At a time when major government programs like Medicare and Medicaid are already on a path to fiscal insolvency, creating a brand new government program will not only worsen our long-term financial outlook but also negatively impact American families who enjoy the private coverage of their choice,” said the letter, signed by all but one of the Finance Republicans.
via GOP senators warn Obama on health care – Yahoo! News.
Gordon Brown ‘to set a date’ for Iraq War inquiry
Gordon Brown ‘to set a date’ for Iraq War inquiry - mirror.co.uk
Gordon Brown will this week reveal details of the long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq War.
Downing Street is looking at who will head the inquiry and what it will consider.
A senior source said: “It has always been a question of when, and not if, as far as the Prime Minister was concerned.”
It is part of the “fightback” to reassert his political authority and appease critics on Labour’s backbenches.
via Gordon Brown ‘to set a date’ for Iraq War inquiry – mirror.co.uk.
Limbaugh jokes: ‘Would a white male judge have fractured his ankle’ in the same way Sotomayor did?
Limbaugh jokes: ‘Would a white male judge have fractured his ankle’ in the same way Sotomayor did?
Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor broke her right ankle today after stumbling at La Guardia airport in New York. According to a spokesperson, she was treated at George Washington University Hospital and released to attend “her full schedule of meetings on Capitol Hill this afternoon.” Conservative talker Rush Limbaugh couldn’t resist making a joke in response to the news of her injury. Noting the incident on his radio show today, Limbaugh wondered aloud whether a “white male” would have broken his ankle under similar circumstances:
LIMBAUGH: She fractured her ankle in an airport. She stumbled in the airport on her way to senate meetings. Now, the question is, would a white male judge have fractured his ankle in the same circumstances in the same airport on the way to Senate meetings?
Watch it:
Lugar Bucks Right-Wing Criticism Of Obama’s Cairo Speech: ‘I Don’t Agree’ That It Makes America Look Weak
OPS: Way to go Luggie
Lugar Bucks Right-Wing Criticism Of Obama’s Cairo Speech: ‘I Don’t Agree’ That It Makes America Look Weak
Soon after President Obama delivered his enlightened speech at Cairo University in Egypt last Thursday, the right wing reflexively launched into attack mode. Led by Fox News, conservatives off all stripes began (again) touting the speech as another “tour of apology.” Charles Krauthammer claimed Obama “was exceedingly weak” on Iran, while a sizable right-wing chorus bemoaned what they deemed as instances of “moral equivalency” in the speech. “I think it makes America look weak,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) complained of the speech.
However, during an interview with Bloomberg News this past weekend, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), ranking member of Foreign Relations Committee, broke ranks with his party’s criticism of Obama. Lugar called it an “important speech,” adding that he “thought” it “struck the right tone.” Asked if Obama was “tough enough” on Iran, Lugar responded, “Oh I suspect so for that particular purpose.”
Petition: We Need Single-Payer Hearings in the House
Please consider signing+lettering the petition on Obama’s change.org website calling for Single Payer hearings in the House.
We Need Single-Payer Hearings in the House
To: Rep. Henry Waxman CA-30 and Rep. Charlie Rangel NY-15
Started by: HEALTHCARE-NOW
The House will release healthcare legislation very soon, and the draft bill could even come out next week.
From there the bill will go to Energy and Commerce, Education and Labor, and the Ways and Means committees for debate.
Rep. Miller has already agreed to hold a hearing on single-payer in the Education and Labor Committee.
We need you to contact the two other Chairperson’s offices ASAP to make sure that they hold hearings on single-payer healthcare in their committees too.
1.
This petition ends on Jul 31.
via Change.org – HEALTHCARE-NOW: We Need Single-Payer Hearings in the House.
Four Right-Wing Supreme Court Justices Argue That Buying Off A Judge Is No Problem
Four Right-Wing Supreme Court Justices Argue That Buying Off A Judge Is No Problem
blankenshipWhen West Virginia coal overlord Don Blankenship’s company lost a $50 million verdict to one of its competitors, Blankenship set out to buy a judge. Rather than appeal his case to a fair tribunal, Blankenship spent $3 million to elect a friendly lawyer to the West Virginia Supreme Court, even running ads accusing the lawyer’s opponent of voting to free an incarcerated child rapist, and of allowing that rapist to work in a public school. Once elected by a Blankenship-funded campaign, the newly-minted justice cast the deciding vote overturning the verdict against Blankenship’s company.
Today, the Supreme Court held that this kind of justice-for-sale bribery has no place under the United States Constitution. But all four of the Court’s most conservative members voted that there is no problem when a wealthy businessman literally buys a judge. In a dissent joined by conservative justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts argued that this decision — on a case so egregious that John Grisham turned it into a legal thriller — would encourage “groundless” charges that other “judges are biased”:
via Think Progress » Four Right-Wing Supreme Court Justices Argue That Buying Off A Judge Is No Problem.
Supreme Court turns away constitutional challenge to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Supreme Court turns away constitutional challenge to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
The Supreme Court announced today that it would not hear a constitutional challenge to the government’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which bans gays from serving openly in the military. The case, Pietrangelo v. Gates, “stemmed from a lawsuit by 12 former service members who were discharged” under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. A “federal appeals court in Boston threw out the suit,” but James E. Pietrangelo II, one of the 12 who filed the suit, “asked the Supreme Court to hear arguments in the case. Most of the rest of the group joined a brief asking the justices to defer reviewing the policy while the administration and lawmakers revisit it.” Reacting to the decision, Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlog writes, “It’s time for Obama to step up.” Yglesias adds, “if you’re upset about the status quo, don’t just get upset at the White House, get upset at your House member and your Senators too. Given an adequate volume of complaining, people will do the right thing here, but it’s obvious that there’s a kind of vague preference to just let this slide.”
via Think Progress » Supreme Court turns away constitutional challenge to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell..
Hatch Peddles Luntz Talking Points, Misrepresents Kennedy’s Health Bill
Hatch Peddles Luntz Talking Points, Misrepresents Kennedy’s Health Bill
During an interview with Fox News this morning, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) criticized the draft version of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) health care bill as a “one-size fits all government mandated health care plan.”
Hatch repeated the Frank Luntz-inspired charge that a government plan would place a bureaucrat between “you and your doctor” at least four times during the segment. And he wildly misrepresented the HELP bill while pressing Democrats in Congress to track a bipartisan path towards passing health reform. Watch it:
via Think Progress » Hatch Peddles Luntz Talking Points, Misrepresents Kennedy’s Health Bill.
Flexible Solar Power Shingles Transform Roofs From Wasted Space To Energy Source
Flexible Solar Power Shingles Transform Roofs From Wasted Space To Energy Source 
ScienceDaily (June 8, 2009) — A transparent thin film barrier used to protect flat panel TVs from moisture could become the basis for flexible solar panels that would be installed on roofs like shingles.
The flexible rooftop solar panels – called building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPVs – could replace today’s boxy solar panels that are made with rigid glass or silicon and mounted on thick metal frames. The flexible solar shingles would be less expensive to install than current panels and made to last 25 years.
“There’s a lot of wasted space on rooftops that could actually be used to generate power,” said Mark Gross, a senior scientist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “Flexible solar panels could easily become integrated into the architecture of commercial buildings and homes. Solar panels have had limited success because they’ve been difficult and expensive to install.”
Researchers at PNNL will create these flexible panels by adapting a film encapsulation process currently used to coat flat panel displays that use organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. The work is made possible by a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement recently penned between Vitex Systems and Battelle, which operates PNNL for the federal government.
via Flexible Solar Power Shingles Transform Roofs From Wasted Space To Energy Source.
Harry and Louise need health care reform
Harry and Louise need health care reform
E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post
Those may be the most important words to remember as the health care reform effort hits its stride this week.
Many have expressed amazement that the interest groups historically opposed to fixing the health system seem ready to work with the reformers. Their public-spiritedness reflects enlightened self-interest: The health system is so unstable that even the drug industry and the insurance companies are worried that it will crash on top of them.
Health care reform could bail out these interests by adding the currently uninsured – fast approaching 50 million people – to their customer base, and by preventing more individuals and employers from dropping insurance altogether.
Remember Harry and Louise, the imaginary couple who appeared in the television ads that helped beat President Bill Clinton’s health plan 15 years ago? That middle-class duo, which is to say a great many people just like them, has switched sides in the debate. The insurance companies and the drug companies that paid for the ads know that Louise’s employer has probably restricted her health coverage or dropped her altogether. And who knows if Harry still has a job?
via Harry and Louise need health care reform.
Israel 141st out of 144 in Global Peace Index
Israel 141st out of 144 in Global Peace Index – Norman G. Finkelstein »
The Jerusalem Post
Only three countries in the world are less peaceful than Israel, according to Global Peace Index figures released this week.
The study, in its third year, was collated by the Economist Intelligence Unit for the Institute for Economics and Peace, an Australian nonprofit research body, and ranks 144 of the world’s nations for how “peaceful” they are.
This year’s report concludes that New Zealand is the most peaceful country, climbing three places since last year, with Nordic countries Denmark, Norway and Iceland positioned next and Austria in fifth place.
However, the study points out that the world has, overall, become less peaceful since last year’s report.
Israel is positioned 141st out of 144 countries, fourth from bottom, with only Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq ranking below.
via Norman G. Finkelstein » Blight Unto the Nations.
Ireland suffers fresh S&P downgrade
Ireland suffers fresh S&P downgrade - FT.com
Ratings agency voices fears over banks’ bail-out
Ireland’s sovereign credit ratings were cut for the second time in three months on Monday amid heightened concern about the soaring cost of bailing out the country’s ailing banking sector.
Standard and Poor’s cut Ireland’s long-term sovereign credit ratings to double-A with a negative outlook. It was previously double-A plus. The country lost its prized top-notch triple-A rating in March.
The ratings agency warned that Ireland could suffer further downgrades should the banking system deteriorate further.
via FT.com / Europe – Ireland suffers fresh S&P downgrade.
Doubts mount over US toxic asset plan
Doubts mount over US toxic asset plan - FT.com
Lenders turn cool on FDIC’s scheme
The controversial US toxic asset clean-up plan, aimed at clearing bad loans from US banks’ books to enable them to raise capital and lend freely, has fallen behind schedule, and may never be fully implemented.
The plan has fallen prey to concerns from potential investors and regulators and waning interest from the banks themselves. Investors fear that Congress may set caps on pay while regulators are beginning to doubt whether the plan is really necessary.
Last week, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which was supposed to provide finance for investors to purchase bubble-era bank loans, postponed plans for a pilot sale, saying it was less urgent than had been thought.
via FT.com / US & Canada – Doubts mount over US toxic asset plan.
More Financial Turmoil Ahead: A Stock Market Bear Rally Built on Sand
More Financial Turmoil Ahead: A Stock Market Bear Rally Built on Sand – by Bob Chapman
A recovery is supposed to be in the works in the midst of increased savings, declining debt balances on credit cards, more bankruptcies, higher unemployment and new wave of foreclosures. Consumer participation in GDP is down from 72% to 70.4%. Bank and other financial firms’ balance sheets are what they say they are and we have a stock market bear rally built on sand just as we had in 1931. And, lest we forget, bogus government statistics calculated to confuse professionals and investors alike.
What an upside down world. How do you make money when you are losing money? Wait until late July and in August when the second quarter earnings are released by financial firms. They won’t be pleasant reading. The market rally and much of the earnings are simply fraud. Wall Street and investors simply shrug their shoulders and look away. They know but they do not want to know. Ever present in the scams is the SEC, which has never seen a major firm they did not like. Acting on violations only when forced too at large firms and perpetually pursuing the small and medium sized brokers and brokerage firms and newsletter writers. Then there is the veracity of our government for which few have any respect, trust or confidence.
Our treasury department woefully short of revenues has the privately owned Federal Reserve monetizing sovereign debt because they cannot sell it all, some $300 billion in Treasuries and $750 billion in Agency debt as the Fed monetizes an additional $1.5 trillion in bank owned CDOs, collateralized debt obligations, so as to remove them from bank balance sheets so they can purchase Treasuries to compete the daisy chain of fraud. Ten-year Treasury note yields as a result have traded up to 3.84% from 2.35% just five months ago. Foreigners are sellers as an avalanche of Treasuries hit the street. The demand for Treasury funds over the next few years will be colossal. If government raises taxes the economy will fall further. As we forecast earlier the Fed could monetize $2.5 and $4 trillion in Treasuries and other toxic waste by the end of the calendar year. Incidentally, there is not a remote chance that the Fed will ever be able to withdraw funds from the system and every professional has to know that. The result is a collapsing dollar and higher gold and silver prices in anticipation of higher inflation. This year the dollar could easily break 71.18 on the USDX, the dollar index, versus six major weighted currencies. That would again cause, as it did from 11/07 to 6/08, countries and foreign businesses to reject taking dollars in trade. Such an event is in our crystal ball. Propaganda and smoke and mirrors won’t work this time.
via More Financial Turmoil Ahead: A Stock Market Bear Rally Built on Sand.
The genius of George Orwell
The genius of George Orwell
Next week marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Jeremy Paxman pays tribute to one of England’s greatest writers.
If you want to learn how to write non-fiction, Orwell is your man. He may be known worldwide for his last two novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. But, for me, his best work is his essays.
Who would have imagined that sixteen hundred words in praise of the Common Toad, knocked out to fill a newspaper column in April 1946, would be worth reprinting sixty years later? But here it is, with many of the characteristic Orwell delights, the unglamorous subject matter, the unnoticed detail (”a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature”) the baleful glare, the profound belief in humanity. Because what the piece is really about, of course, is not the toad itself, but the thrill of that most promising time of year, the spring, even as seen from Orwell’s dingy Islington flat.
When he produced articles like this, hair-shirted fellow socialists got cross. Why wasn’t he spending his time promoting discontent, denouncing the establishment, glorifying the machine-driven future? It is a mark of his greatness that Orwell didn’t care. They – whoever they might be – cannot stop you enjoying spring. The essay ends: “The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.”
It all reads so effortlessly. And yet it cannot have been produced without toil. He tells us in Why I Write that he found writing a book ”a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness” and even the shorter pieces, knocked out for magazines or newspapers, must often have been a chore. There is the research, for one thing. His generous, insightful analysis of Charles Dickens shows not merely a close familiarity with 13 of his novels, but also with those of Trollope, Thackeray and a host of long-forgotten writers, too. For his caustic piece on Boys’ Weeklies he evidently immersed himself in mountains of the things.
via The genius of George Orwell.
Wall Street Ends Hope for Homeowners Via Congress
Wall Street Ends Hope for Homeowners Via Congress
by Shamus Cooke
As if the bank bailouts weren’t proof enough that Wall Street owned Congress. History will likely show that these bailouts involved the largest transfer of wealth ever — from the working class to that small group of billionaires who own the corporations.
This fact is recognized by most people now and is such common knowledge that even the mainstream media feels comfortable discussing it…matter-of-factly.
These corporations have also exerted tremendous influence in other realms of politics, working towards destroying Obama’s campgain promises of health care, job creation, civil liberties, the Employee Free Choice Act, peace, etc.
In each case, the promised reform was gutted of its essence, and “compromise” versions of the bills are now being discussed: instead of universal health care, we will likely be universally mandated to purchase health insurance; instead of “job creation” we are told that the stimulus has “saved jobs” (contrary to the evidence); while troops are “drawing down” from Iraq, the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan is being escalated; instead of allowing workers to organize unions easier, a compromise version – Employee Free Choice Act, minus card check — seems more politically “pragmatic,” etc.
Even Obama’s smaller reforms face similar partial abortions in Congress. For example, Obama recently signed into legislation the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. But, as The New York Times pointed out, the bill “was missing its centerpiece: a change in bankruptcy law he [Obama] once championed that would have given judges the power to lower the amount owed on a home loan.” ( Ailing, Banks Still Field Strong Lobby at Capitol, June 6, 2009)
via Wall Street Ends Hope for Homeowners Via Congress.
Eradicate Capitalism and All Forms of Oppression
Eradicate Capitalism and All Forms of Oppression
The partisans of capitalism, and among them, prominently, the EU leaders, have lost all credibility. For years now they have trampled on the rights of peoples while not wavering when it came to making decisions directly opposed to their advertised principles in order to bail out major banks.
European government parties could have acted differently and nationalised the banks, thus retrieving the cost of the bailout on the patrimony of major shareholders and CEOs. The public credit instrument that would have resulted could finance socially useful and environment-friendly projects while guaranteeing individual savings. The crisis has brought back onto the agenda proposals that had been swept aside during the long neoliberal night such as a radical reduction of working time (with creation of jobs and no loss of pay) or indexation of wages and social benefits on the cost of living. Europe needs new financial discipline: company ledgers have to be opened to external and internal auditing (through the trade unions among others), all financial products must be regulated, and it must be forbidden for companies to have assets in any tax haven. Major means of production, trade, finance, communication and other services must be transferred to the public sphere and taken away from capitalists’ control. Access to public goods must be systematically promoted.
In a political perspective, European citizens must retrieve the political power that has been taken away from them. The populations who were able to have their say on the Constitutional Treaty turned it down, but leaders ignored their votes without a second thought. Meanwhile Venezuela , Ecuador and Bolivia show us the way. There, citizens elected a Constituant Assembly in order to draw up a new draft Constitution, which is to be discussed with social movements and sanctioned by referenda. In these three countries voters can now revoke any elected representative mid-mandate, whereas no European Constitution mentions any such highly democratic mechanism.
via Eradicate Capitalism and All Forms of Oppression.
Time to Break Up the Banks
Time to Break Up the Banks | CommonDreams.org
Video at link
Last April, I wrote about A New Way Forward, a new and growing movement organized via the web and founded by young people who want to take back the power of the ordinary citizen to affect our economic structure. The organization’s coming-out party took place last April 11 with more than sixty coordinated events coast to coast all making the case for alternative bailout plans based on the public’s interest.
This new video, which neatly breaks down the causes and effects of the economic crisis, is the basis for the next day of action staged by A New Way Forward.
Next week on June 10, at small and large events nationwide, there’ll be numerous screenings of the video along with panels, workshops, teach-ins, protests and rallies. As the banking industry continues its secret lobbying in DC, A New Way Forward advocates using antitrust laws and competition to limit the influence of big banks and shed light on the shadow banking sector. These events are part of a continuing effort to forge a serious grassroots discussion of the economy ad how to leverage antitrust law toward a more populist bailout. Find an event near you. If there’s nothing near you, click here for tips on how to host your own event.
via Time to Break Up the Banks | CommonDreams.org.
Debunking Canadian Health Care Myths
Debunking Canadian Health Care Myths | CommonDreams.org
As a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years, I am frequently asked by Americans and Canadians alike to declare one health care system as the better one.
Often I’ll avoid answering, regardless of the questioner’s nationality. To choose one or the other system usually translates into a heated discussion of each one’s merits, pitfalls, and an intense recitation of commonly cited statistical comparisons of the two systems.
Because if the only way we compared the two systems was with statistics, there is a clear victor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to dispute the fact that Canada spends less money on health care to get better outcomes.
Yet, the debate rages on. Indeed, it has reached a fever pitch since President Barack Obama took office, with Americans either dreading or hoping for the dawn of a single-payer health care system. Opponents of such a system cite Canada as the best example of what not to do, while proponents laud that very same Canadian system as the answer to all of America’s health care problems. Frankly, both sides often get things wrong when trotting out Canada to further their respective arguments.
As America comes to grips with the reality that changes are desperately needed within its health care infrastructure, it might prove useful to first debunk some myths about the Canadian system.
via Debunking Canadian Health Care Myths | CommonDreams.org.
Public Support Creation of Marine Nature Reserve
Public Support Creation of Marine Nature Reserve | CommonDreams.org
The ‘End of the Line’ for the World’s Oceans
More than four fifths of people support the introduction of a nature reserve in our seas to protect stocks of fish, according to a survey published today on World Oceans Day.
The poll came ahead of the launch of a film, The End Of The Line, which reveals the impacts of overfishing on the world’s oceans.
The documentary, by journalist Charles Clover, claims that industrial fishing is emptying the seas of fish, destroying the livelihoods of poor fishermen in places such as Africa and killing wildlife accidentally caught in the process.
And as fisheries ministers are accused of failing to tackle the problems, demand for species such as blue fin tuna, including from top restaurant Nobu, is driving the species closer to the brink of extinction than the white rhino, say campaigners.
via Public Support Creation of Marine Nature Reserve | CommonDreams.org.
Vermont Feed-in Tariffs Become Law
The Mouse That Roared: Vermont Feed-in Tariffs Become Law
Paul Gipe, author of Wind Energy Basics: A Guide to Home- and Community-Scale Wind Energy Systems, Second Edition, brings us this huge renewable energy news for the Green Mountain State: on Wednesday, May 27, Vermont became the first state to put into law a feed-in tariff for small wind generation, along with other small-scale renewables (Republican governor Jim Douglas allowed the bill to become law without his signature). This means that energy users who create their own renewable energy—be it through solar panels, wind turbines, or biogas—will get paid competetive rates for energy they put into the grid.
The tariff depends on the kind and size of the technology, and is based on the cost of generation plus a reasonable profit. Hopefully, this is just the first domino to fall in a far-reaching cascade that could stimulate small-scale renewable energy generation across the continent.
via The Mouse That Roared: Vermont Feed-in Tariffs Become Law : Chelsea Green.
Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting
Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting
To change the bulbs in the 60-foot-high ceiling lights of Buckingham Palace’s grand stairwell, workers had to erect scaffolding and cover precious portraits of royal forebears.
So when a lighting designer two years ago proposed installing light emitting diodes or LEDs, an emerging lighting technology, the royal family readily assented. The new lights, the designer said, would last more than 22 years and enormously reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions — a big plus for Prince Charles, an ardent environmentalist. Since then, the palace has installed the lighting in chandeliers and on the exterior, where illuminating the entire facade uses less electricity than running an electric teakettle.
In shifting to LED lighting, the palace is part of a small but fast-growing trend that is redefining the century-old conception of lighting, replacing energy-wasting disposable bulbs with efficient fixtures that are often semi-permanent, like those used in plumbing.
via Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting – Series – NYTimes.com.
Rare Look Inside A Tornado Caught On Tape (VIDEO)
Rare Look Inside A Tornado Caught On Tape (VIDEO)
The “Today Show” interviewed Mike Bettes of “The Weather Channel” and showed the extraordinary video he captured of the complete life cycle of a tornado. He’s involved in a project called Vortex 2, which is studying how to improve the accuracy of forecasting when and where tornadoes will happen, as well as the characteristics of tornadoes in general, with the ultimate goal of helping to save people’s lives.
The footage of this tornado is even more rare because the twister turned sideways, allowing Bettes and his crew to film the inside of the tornado from the top, something that he doesn’t believe has ever been done before.
Watch the footage below.
via Rare Look Inside A Tornado Caught On Tape (VIDEO).
Getting Healthy: A Tax-the-Rich Prescription
Getting Healthy: A Tax-the-Rich Prescription
To achieve anything that resembles meaningful health care reform, activists are realizing, we need to focus on the grand concentrations of wealth inside the health care industry — and beyond.
Later this month, in both the House and the Senate, lawmakers will likely begin “marking up” legislation that might finally give all Americans what the citizens of every other developed nation in the world already have: access to affordable health insurance.
How will lawmakers foot the bill?
“We’ll pay for it,” Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, promised last week, “in a balanced way.”
via Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality.
U.S.: Union Busting Getting Worse, Study Shows
U.S.: Union Busting Getting Worse, Study Shows
A new five-year study released last week reveals that private sector employer opposition to the efforts of American workers to form unions has intensified and become more punitive in recent years.
Conducted by highly-regarded labor expert and Cornell University professor Kate Bronfenbrenner, the study concludes that employers are using much more aggressive tactics – including threats of firing, actual firings, interrogation and plant- closing threats – in their campaigns to thwart workers’ organizing efforts. The anti-union tactics used today, compared to those of 20 years ago, include more coercive and punitive tactics designed to intensely monitor and punish union activity.
A 2007 study by Richard B. Freeman of Harvard University, cited by Bronfenbrenner, found that if all workers who wanted a union were given the opportunity to have union representation, the percentage of union-represented workers in the U.S. would be 58 percent. Instead, only 12.4 percent are represented by unions. Bronfenbrenner’s study illuminates the reasons why, including the heavy-handed employer anti-unionism and the failures of current labor law, and a largely toothless National Labor Relations Board, to protect workers’ rights to democratically choose unionism.
STUDY AVAILABLE ONLINE
via U.S.: Union Busting Getting Worse, Study Shows | World News |Axisoflogic.com.
Is Comcast Manipulating the American Media?
Is Comcast Manipulating the American Media? - OpEdNews »
I wanted to watch Meet the Press yesterday morning, so I went to put on channel ten, the station number for NBC for the 57+ years I’ve known it.To my surprise, there was no NBC on channel ten. There was a shopping channel.
I used my digital menu to check and the next channel up showed call letters for a local station that looked vaguely familiar. Imagine, after 50+ years, they’d failed to effectively brand the connection between NBC and WCAU or channel ten. I was extra confused because the station was not playing Meet the Press. They were showing a tennis tournament instead. If I didn’t have sports A.D.D., I’d know which tournament. It’s a major one.
The reason I was a bit confused is because Comcast recently moved the local Philly area stations to new numbers on the dial. Instead of being 3, 6 and 10, their non-cable station settings, where they’ve been on cable forever, they now have new numbers. WTF?
via OpEdNews » Is Comcast Manipulating the American Media?.
China is now world No. 2 arms spender, report says
China is now world No. 2 arms spender, report says
STOCKHOLM (AP) — China has become the world’s second biggest military spender behind the United States, a Swedish peace research group said Monday.
Global arms spending rose 4 percent last year, but China increased its spending by 10 percent to an estimated $84.9 billion last year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its annual report on world arms transfers.
“China is continuing to acquire both domestic and foreign arms as it seeks to equip its armed forces for conditions of modern ‘informationalized’ warfare,” it said. Such warfare involves the use of precision weapons and high-tech information and communications technology.
Sam Perlo-Freeman, a researcher for the peace institute, said China had previously spent relatively little on its military.
“They are the second biggest military spender now, that does not mean they are the second strongest military power, because a lot of other countries have been at this game for a lot longer than China,” Perlo-Freeman said.
via The Associated Press: China is now world No. 2 arms spender, report says.
Democrats stoke grassroots healthcare campaign
Democrats stoke grassroots healthcare campaign
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – From a living room in Kansas to a bagel shop in New York to an Alabama church, Democrats have started mobilizing support for President Barack Obama‘s healthcare reform plans.
Suburban housewives and social workers mixed with Baptist ministers, college students, retirees and many others at grassroots gatherings over the weekend. Spurred by the Democratic National Committee’s burgeoning political machine dubbed “Organizing for America,” thousands of such meetings had been planned for Friday through Monday.
Those attending the scripted two-hour events viewed a videotaped message from Obama, shared personal stories and made local battle plans to counter the expected stiff opposition.
“It’s going to be a vicious fight,” said 76-year-old Hank Putsch who attended an organizing meeting on Saturday at a Kansas City restaurant. “The insurance companies and healthcare companies are gearing up to oppose this. We’ve got to get our voices heard.”
via Democrats stoke grassroots healthcare campaign | Reuters.
The Need for the Fed Transparency Act
The Need for the Fed Transparency Act
The Fed has never been subjected to an audit, or any of the accountability measures which other government offices must abide by. [OPS note: ....that's because the Fed is not a Government Agency. It is a private for-profit corporation]
There is a growing ground swell in the United States to amend our dealings with the Federal Reserve System. The Fed is the central bank of this nation; it controls our money supply, and has a good deal of control over the value of that currency. However, to this point it has never been subjected to an audit, or any of the accountability measures which other government offices must abide by.
Soon that all may change if the proposed Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 gains more momentum in Congress. The legislation has been pushed by Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) for years in his attempts to rein in the Fed. The bill has 175 co-sponsors in the House alone and on February 26, 2009 was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Most of the support for auditing the Federal Reserve System, which would be performed by the Government Accountability Office, has developed over the past year. The Bush administration left office after putting together a $100 billion stimulus package and a $700 billion financial bailout. At the same time it helped organize the $29 billion acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase, and had organized the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at incredible cost.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Rogue protein ‘spreads in brain’
Rogue protein ‘spreads in brain’ - BBC NEWS
Tau causes tangles in brain tissue
Scientists have shown a rogue protein thought to cause Alzheimer’s can spread through the brain, turning healthy tissue bad.
They believe the tau protein may share characteristics with the prion proteins which cause vCJD.
When injected into the brains of healthy mice it triggered formation of protein tangles linked to Alzheimer’s.
However, experts stressed the Nature Cell Biology study did not mean tau could be passed from person to person.
Tau is a protein present in all nerve cells, where it plays a key role in keeping them functioning properly.
But a rogue form of the protein can trigger the formation of protein clumps within nerve cells known as neurofibrillary tangles.
It is thought that these tangles are likely to be a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
via BBC NEWS | Health | Rogue protein ‘spreads in brain’.
Seas could rise four feet along US east coast, threaten Washington
Seas could rise four feet along US east coast, threaten Washington
Two to four feet in the next 91 years.
That’s the potential sea level rise along the eastern coast of the United States according to a new study. Already, the oceans are rising worldwide as ice melts from glaciers, Greenland and Antarctica — but the report says that sea level rise could be greater along the US East Coast because of various scientific phemonena.
The Washington Post reports:
Three studies this year, including one out last month, have made newly worrisome forecasts about life along the Atlantic over the next century. While the rest of the world might see seven to 23 inches of sea-level rise by 2100, the studies show this region might get that and more — 17 to 25 inches more — for a total increase that would submerge a beach chair.
via The Raw Story » Seas could rise four feet along US east coast, threaten Washington.
What it means when doctors and nurses are ejected from hearings on health care reform
What it means when doctors and nurses are ejected from hearings on health care reform
On May 12th a group of doctors and nurses were thrown out of a Senate hearing on health care reform when they got up to protest the hearings. They were protesting that not a single witness before the committee was there to advocate universal government health care which is the only real kind of health care reform that matters and is the form in place in most other western countries.
California’s Water Woes Threaten the Entire Country’s Food Supply
California’s Water Woes Threaten the Entire Country’s Food Supply
Nearly a third of the country’s food supply comes from California, but drought there may be a catastrophe for farmers — and the rest of us.
What a difference an administration makes. Samuel Bodman, the previous secretary of energy under the Bush administration, spent his short term stumping for nuclear power plant construction, polluting the hell out of the Earth, profiting off global warming and trying to significantly downplay America’s singular role in greenhouse-gas emissions.
The new one? Well, he’s a doom prophet with a Ph.D.
“I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen. We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California. I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going,” Steven Chu told the Los Angeles Times in February, shortly after taking office in January. “I’m hoping that the American people will wake up,” he added, just in case there was any confusion about the gravity of the situation.
That kind of apocalyptic foresight has made Chu a breath of fresh, dystopian air. For eight nearly insufferable years, the American public has had no shortage of political tools telling it everything is going to be all right, that the United States is the greatest country in the world, that reports of our impending environmental devastation have been greatly exaggerated, and so on. By contrast, Steven Chu is a Cassandra on a mission from reality. But few, especially in the state he singled out, feel like buying what he is selling.
via California’s Water Woes Threaten the Entire Country’s Food Supply | Water | AlterNet.
A Brief History of the Radical, Violent Right: How Racist Hate Groups Joined Up with Abortion Terrorists
A Brief History of the Radical, Violent Right: How Racist Hate Groups Joined Up with Abortion Terrorists
By James Ridgeway, MotherJones
Alleged murderer Scott Roeder was once a white separatist before he became an anti-choice zealot — many others have followed the same deadly path.
The revelation that Scott Roeder, the alleged murderer of Dr. George Tiller, belonged to an anti-government, white separatist group called the Montana Freemen might seem like an unlikely twist. After all, such groups are generally thought of as either indifferent to the issue of abortion or actively enthusiastic about its potential for reducing the nonwhite population. As it turns out, however, the journey from radical racialist to anti-abortionist isn’t as unusual as you might think.
Roeder’s connections to the right-wing fringe began well over a decade ago, according to the Kansas City Star. His ex-wife, Lindsey, said that after a few years of marriage, Roeder became increasingly involved with the Freemen and its anti-government ideology. “The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew. He became very anti-abortion…That’s all he cared about is anti-abortion. ‘The church is this. God is this.’ Yadda yadda.” Noting that she vehemently disagreed with her ex-husband’s views, Lindsey Roeder told the Star that he moved out in 1994. “I thought he was over the edge with that stuff,” she said. “He started falling apart. I had to protect myself and my son.”
In 1996, Roeder was arrested in Topeka after sheriff deputies stopped his car because it had no license plate. Instead, the Star reported, “it bore a tag declaring him a ‘sovereign’ and immune from state law. In the trunk, deputies found materials that could be assembled into a bomb.” Roeder was convicted, sentenced to two years probation, and told to stay away from far-right groups. A state appeals court subsequently overturned the conviction.
GOOD: Diamonds 101
If you’re planning on popping the question this year, you’re probably in the market for some jewelry. And we realize you might be too busy crafting the perfect proposal to research the pedigree of your engagement ring. That’s why we do the legwork for you in our latest video Transparency.
Obama’s Broken Promises
Obama’s Broken Promises – By David Sirota
President Obama has reneged on many of his campaign promises. Why are we letting him get away with it?
Though not (yet) having children of my own, I often consider what my future offspring won’t know about and will find humorous. I fantasize that they will have no idea what gasoline-powered cars or private health insurance policies are. But I also worry they will guffaw in disbelief when I tell them politicians once knew that breaking campaign promises without explanation had consequences.
Historically, Americans generally held campaign promises sacred. We understood that republican democracy makes us rely on pledges of future action as the metric for choosing representatives; we knew that politicians reneging on pledges without adequate reason were desecrating that democracy; and we therefore often punished promise-breakers accordingly.
I’m not idealizing halcyon days that never were — just ask George H.W. Bush, who lost re-election in 1992 after trampling his “no new taxes” guarantee. Indeed, breaking campaign pledges was one of the surest ways for politicians to hurt themselves — until 2006.
via Obama’s Broken Promises | | AlterNet.
When Will Dick Cheney’s Tower of Lies Finally Come Tumbling Down on Him?
When Will Dick Cheney’s Tower of Lies Finally Come Tumbling Down on Him?
Arianna Huffington:
Dick Cheney’s statement to Greta van Susteren that “On the question of whether or not Iraq was involved in 9/11, there was never any evidence to prove that” is being widely portrayed as an admission.
But it’s less an admission than a PR move. Cheney has spent the better part of the last seven years doing everything in his power to convince the American people of the very connection he now says there was “never any evidence” of.
In 2004, even after the 9/11 commission found “no credible evidence” of Iraqi involvement in 9/11, Cheney was still claiming the evidence that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was “overwhelming.”
When he was asked in ’04 if Iraq was involved in 9/11, he said, “We don’t know.” Three years after the attack — and he still didn’t know? Even after they had tried every trick in the black book — including torture — to find a link?
via Arianna Huffington: When Will Dick Cheney’s Tower of Lies Finally Come Tumbling Down on Him?.
Will We Still Eat Meat, Drink Milk, and Fry Eggs in 2109?
Will We Still Eat Meat, Drink Milk, and Fry Eggs in 2109?
The world will be a much better place in 100 years if we rethink the way we eat.
Dateline: June 2109, in a high school social sciences class in Boise, Idaho.
Teacher: Good morning class. Today we are remembering what life was like in the days of Barack Hussein Obama, the first African American president of the United States. As you all know, President Obama did many things to distinguish himself as one of the greatest presidents our country has ever known.
Back in 2009, the country was in a fast downward spiral of financial disaster; but Obama and his cabinet — against all odds — implemented a plan that reorganized the way banks and public corporations did business. He made them accountable not only to the shareholders and government, but also to the environment and to the well-being of the workers. There were a couple of very dark years for a lot of people, but a second Great Depression was averted.
It was under President Obama’s leadership that this country was ushered into the era of peace and prosperity that we’ve experienced since then. Some argue that he saved the world from impending ecological collapse by appointing key agricultural and scientific people that made critical recommendations
via Will We Still Eat Meat, Drink Milk, and Fry Eggs in 2109? | Environment | AlterNet.
Obama Must Say No to the Coal Barons Desecrating Our Mountains
Obama Must Say No to the Coal Barons Desecrating Our Mountains
By Jim Hightower
Now is the time for us to flex some grass-roots political muscle and force Obama to stick to his promise to stop mountaintop coal removal.
Obama spaketh, and it was good: “We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains,” he proclaimed.
And, yea, in the mountains and down through all the valleys of the ancient land of Appalachia, hearts were filled with joy, for here was a prophet of hope who was signaling that a change was coming — at last, the endtime was at hand for the brutish coal-mining method called “mountaintop removal,” which is an abomination.
Even as the people rejoiced at this good news, coal barons trembled in their temples of black gold. For a decade, these mighty extractors of wealth had been allowed to accumulate unto themselves enormous profits by exploding the tops off the peaks in Appalachia, the oldest mountain range in all the land. With the top third of these awesome, forested mountains reduced to rubble, the barons used giant machines to strip out seams of coal, and then they simply shoved the rubble and toxic coal waste down the mountainsides, burying the valleys and streams below. It was a desecration — but the love of mammon made it the law of the land.
Then, behold, now the prophet became president, so he was in a position to put his words into action.
via Obama Must Say No to the Coal Barons Desecrating Our Mountains | Environment | AlterNet.
Fox Propaganda Site Goes to New Lengths to Distort Reality
“Fox Nation”, a website that’s the newest addition to Rupert Murdoch’s evil empire, deliberately misleads readers.
Fox Nation: The seedy underbelly of Rupert Murdoch’s evil empire?
Media Matters for America.
He’s called former Vice President Al Gore an “evil enabler” for speaking at Netroots Nation — an annual conference that draws thousands of progressive blog enthusiasts. He’s likened Markos Moulitsas, founder of the progressive blog powerhouse Daily Kos, to white supremacist David Duke. He’s even accused The Huffington Post of using the “same exact tactics that the Nazis used.”
To say that Fox News golden boy Bill O’Reilly is no fan of progressive blogs is an understatement akin to claiming the Hatfields and McCoys were mildly displeased with each other.
In fact, just last week, O’Reilly hosted a panel of lawyers who attempted, in vain, to explain that the conservative host’s “rights” aren’t violated by private criticism.
Back in March, while promoting its newly launched website TheFoxNation.com, Fox News ran advertisements telling viewers that it was “time to say ‘no’ to biased media and ‘yes’ to fair play and free speech.”
In short, Fox News was jumping headfirst into the blogging world with just the snake oil necessary to cure what ailed O’Reilly — a fair, honest, bias-free version of what he sees the left serving up.
via Fox Nation: The seedy underbelly of Rupert Murdoch’s evil empire? | Media Matters for America.
Right-Wing Terrorism Must Be Stopped
Rachel Maddow: Right-Wing Terrorism Must Be Stopped
By Rachel Maddow,
The tactics of anti-choice extremists are designed to change policy by terrorizing Americans. How do we stop them from committing violent acts?
Editor’s Note: The following is an edited version of a transcript from the Rachel Maddow Show.
We begin tonight with another deadly act of domestic terrorism. The first time a doctor was murdered by the modern anti-abortion terrorist movement in America was March 1993. Anti-abortion demonstrators were protesting at a clinic in Pensacola, Florida. As Dr. David Gunn arrived at a clinic, a young man named Michael Griffin shot Dr. Gunn several times in the chest with a snub-nose .38 revolver.
Michael Griffin, the killer, became a cause celebre among anti-abortion extremists. He was associated with the group called Rescue America, which said after Griffin killed Dr. Gunn that while they did not condone the killing, they didn‘t condemn it either.
Five months after Dr. David Gunn was killed, another doctor, George Tiller—yes, the same Dr. Tiller from today‘s headlines—was shot by a woman named Shelly Shannon. Shannon had written letters of support for Michael Griffin, who killed Dr. David Gunn. She called him a hero.
via Rachel Maddow: Right-Wing Terrorism Must Be Stopped | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet.
119 Million Americans Want a Public Health Option — Why Aren’t Politicians Listening?
Rarely has an issue more dramatically highlighted the question of whether our government represents the people’s interests or an industry’s.
119 Million Americans Must Be Wrong
By Robert Parry
As the health insurance industry and its defenders in Congress lay out their case against permitting a public option in a reform bill, perhaps their most curious argument is that some 119 million Americans are ready to dump their private plans and jump to something more like Medicare – and that’s why the choice can’t be permitted.
In other words, the industry and its backers are acknowledging that more than one-third of the American people are so dissatisfied with their private health insurance that they trust the U.S. government to give them a fairer shake on health care. The industry says its allies in Congress must prevent that.
The peculiar argument that 119 million Americans must be denied the public option that they prefer has been made most notably by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which is one of two panels that has jurisdiction over the health insurance bill.
“As many as 119 million Americans would shift from private coverage to the government plan,” Grassley wrote in a column for Politico.com. That migration, Grassley said, would “put America on the path toward a completely government-run health care system. … Eventually, the government plan would overtake the entire market.”
via Consortiumnews.com.
Just who is manipulating the appearance of Bin Laden tapes?
Just who is manipulating the appearance of Bin Laden tapes?
We cannot blame these Bin Laden appearances on George W. Bush anymore, as he is out of office and back home on his Crawford ranch in Texas. However, we can recall times when Bush needed a distraction, or to frighten the American people into accepting yet another violation of their rights, the tapes seemed to pop up with alarming punctuality.
The Pakistani press seems to be marveling at the fact that the most recent Bin Laden tape warning the Muslim world not to listen to President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo was released to their channel of choice, Al-Jazeera, at a time when Israel is just not pleased with the way things are going.
In a stunning report titled ‘Osama Bin Laden speaks from grave’, Pakistan confirms that Mr. Bin Laden ‘died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, citing a Taliban leader who attended the funeral’. The death is purported to have happened in late December 2001.
via NY Foreign Policy Examiner: Just who is manipulating the appearance of Bin Laden tapes?.
Nine Democrats “Just Say No” to Graham-Lieberman
Nine Democrats “Just Say No” to Graham-Lieberman
Keep dialing, Rahm. Howie Klein seems to be ahead of you:
I spoke with Alan Grayson (D-FL) about an hour ago and he said that this is a vote of conscience and that he will not be switching his vote against the supplemental.
I spoke with Steve Cohen (D-TN) as well and he said he’s still with us but will give the leadership a fair hearing.
As for my own representative, Diane Watson (D-CA), her office says she’s studying the changes the Senate made to the bill and will have an answer next week.
A Paul Ryan (R-WI) staffer said things I can’t repeat on a family blog like FDL.
Massa, Moran, Grayson and likely Cohen are against. Readers report that Barbra Lee is a no, and that both Keith Ellison and Jan Schakowsky will oppose if the Lieberman amendment blocking the release of the detainee photos is included. Barney Frank and Louise Slaughter have also indicated they’ll vote “no” if Lieberman is in the conference report.
That’s 9 of the 38 needed to block passage. I’m actually a bit surprised that figure isn’t higher — you would think that Reps who have been collecting campaign contributions for years from anti-war activists based on their firm commitment to vote against funding the war would be a bit faster to express their opposition to this bill.
via Campaign Silo.
Hannity crops clip to claim Obama “decided to give 9-11 sympathizers a voice” in Cairo speech
Hannity crops clip to claim Obama “decided to give 9-11 sympathizers a voice” in Cairo speech | Media Matters for America
SUMMARY: Sean Hannity edited a clip of President Obama’s speech in Cairo to claim that Obama “decided to give 9-11 sympathizers a voice on the world stage.” In fact, the context of Obama’s words makes clear that Obama was condemning those who would “justify the events of 9-11.
On the June 4 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity stated that in his June 4 speech in Cairo, President Obama “decided to give 9-11 sympathizers a voice on the world stage,” then aired a cropped video clip of Obama saying, “I am aware that there are still some that would question or even justify the events of 9-11.” However, the context of Obama’s comments makes clear that Obama was condemning those who would “justify the events of 9-11″; immediately following the clip Hannity showed, Obama stated:
But let us be clear: Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody. And yet al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. They have affiliates in many countries and are trying to expand their reach. These are not opinions to be debated; these are facts to be dealt with.
Obama Administration Targets Environmental and Animal Rights Activists as Eco-Terrorists
Obama Administration Targets Environmental and Animal Rights Activists as Eco-Terrorists
What began under George Bush continues under Barack Obama – targeting dedicated activists with “one of today’s most serious domestic terrorism threats,” according former FBI Deputy Assistant Director of Counterterrorism John Lewis before a Senate panel in May 2005. Called “eco-terrorism,” it grew out of the 2001 USA Patriot Act that created the federal crime of “domestic terrorism” and applied it to US citizens as well as aliens.
In his February 2002 testimony before the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, James Jarboe defined eco-terrorism as:
“the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature.”
As a result, innocent people are targeted, accused, convicted and sentenced to hard time for constitutionally protected non-violent environmental activism or supporting animal rights. The so-called AETA 4 are four recent ones and face prosecution under U.S.A. v. Buddenberg for conspiracy to commit animal enterprise terrorism.
On February 19 and 20, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Joseph Buddenberg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope, and Adriana Stumpo and charged them with conduct relating to protesting, chalking the sidewalk, chanting, and leafleting – constitutionally protected rights under the First Amendment, but no matter.
In a February 20 press release, the FBI called the four “animal rights extremists suspected of terrorizing University of California researchers (and said they) used force, violence, or threats to interfere with the operation of the (U of C) in violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.” More on that below.
The FBI cited specific “threatening incidents” beginning in October 2007:
via Obama Administration Targets Environmental and Animal Rights Activists as Eco-Terrorists.
Big Pharma and Big Insurance go on the attack
Big Pharma and Big Insurance go on the attack | Salon
Lobbyists are working behind the scenes to kill the public option in the healthcare bill. And they’re succeeding.
By Robert Reich
I poked around Washington Friday, talking with friends on the Hill who confirmed the worst: Big Pharma and Big Insurance are gaining ground in their campaign to kill the public option in the emerging healthcare bill.
You know why, of course. They don’t want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better healthcare at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, “unfair” is anything that undermines their profits.
So they’re pulling out all the stops — pushing Democrats and a handful of so-called moderate Republicans who say they’re in favor of a public option to support legislation that would include it in name only. One of their proposals is to break up the public option into small pieces under multiple regional third-party administrators that would have little or no bargaining leverage. A second is to give the public option to states where Big Pharma and Big Insurance can easily buy off legislators and officials, as they’ve been doing for years. A third is to bind the public plan to the same rules that private insurers have already wangled, thereby making it impossible for the public plan to put competitive pressure on the insurers.
via Big Pharma and Big Insurance go on the attack | Salon.
The End of Both Parties
The Binary Fallacy and The End of Both Parties
(Wash., DC) The results of eight years of Bush-Cheney at the helm make the demise of the Republican Party an easy call. Our financial system is on life support. The major banks are insolvent, according to banking and legal authority William K. Black. If they’re not, they’re in intensive care. No matter how many trillions of dollars worth of infusions they receive, they’re not making loans. The economy is in a free fall with growth down 6% a quarter and job losses running at nearly 600,000 a month. We’re stuck in two catastrophic wars. Despite President Obama’s election, we’re viewed with suspicion and disregard throughout the world.
The public knows which party bears the primary blame for all of this and they’re not about to forget any time soon. The Republican Party is headed for the political graveyard.
They’re not going to rely on past achievements though. Through their self-proclaimed national leader, the odious Rush Limbaugh, they’ve chosen to attack the first Latino nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, for being a “racist.” Former Oxycontin addict Limbaugh said, “She brings a form of bigotry and racism to the court.” He went on to say that nominating her was like nominating Klansman and Aryan Nation advocate David Duke for the highest court.
via Scoop: Michael Collins: The End of Both Parties.
Obama’s poor choice for faith leader
Obama’s poor choice for faith leader | Salon
Why did a pro-choice president appoint someone to HHS who is against abortion AND birth control? Political payback?
une 7, 2009 | President Barack Obama’s appointment of Alexia Kelley, founder of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, as director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives took the pro-choice movement by surprise. On Thursday, the day that news of the appointment leaked out, Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center and a quintessential Washington insider, told me that she “hadn’t heard anything about it till today, and we are trying to get to the bottom of it.”
What Greenberger and others will want to know is why the post, which includes oversight of the department’s faith-based grant-making in family planning, HIV and AIDS and in small-scale research into the effect of religion and spirituality on early sexual behavior, has gone to someone who both believes abortion should be illegal and opposes contraception. That’s right — Kelley’s group of self-described progressive Catholics takes a position held by only a small minority, that the Catholic church is right to prohibit birth control. Were there no qualified religious experts who hold more mainstream views on family planning and abortion, views that are consistent with those of President Obama?
via Obama’s poor choice for faith leader | Salon.
Barack Obama is increasing stimulus spending
Barack Obama is increasing stimulus spending
President Barack Obama is announcing Monday that he is ramping up stimulus spending exponentially in the next three months, allowing the administration to “save or create” 600,00 jobs — four times as many as during the first 100 days since he signed the bill.
The spending plans include National Parks, summer youth jobs, veterans’ medical centers, police and teachers.
Obama will make the announcement during a late-morning Cabinet meeting, when Vice President Joe Biden will present a Roadmap to Recovery, which the White House calls “an Administration-wide effort to accelerate implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in its second 100 days.”
via Barack Obama is increasing stimulus spending – Mike Allen – POLITICO.com.
Sen. Grassley writes nonsensical tweets attacking Obama.
Sen. Grassley writes nonsensical tweets attacking Obama.
In his weekly radio address, President Obama declared “it’s time to deliver” on health reform. The White House is sending the message to lawmakers and the American public that it “is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers.” Apparently over-sensitive to the White House’s public calls to deliver on health care reform (or upset that the President is visiting Paris), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wrote these nonsensical tweets against Obama today:
via Think Progress » Sen. Grassley writes nonsensical tweets attacking Obama..
A Democratic Majority Is Not the Same As a Progressive Majority
A Democratic Majority Is Not the Same As a Progressive Majority
The lead story at the first day of the America’s Future Now conference, sponsored by the Campaign for America land the Institute for America’s Future, was a major health care an $82, million health initiative launched by a coalition of community health groups. If you didn’t catch my post Day One: We Took Back America, What Next? here it is.
Now I would like to share my thoughts about the conference as a whole, which went from June 1 through June 3. My expectations on walking in were high and I wasn’t disappointed, except for talking points from the official Obama team (Jared Bernstein, economic policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden,; John Podesta , former Clinton Chief of Staff, who led the President’s transition team; and Mitch Stewart, Director of Organizing for America.)
Speakers over the three days represented community organizers from forty states, union representatives, progressive members of both Houses of Congress (and in a few cases staffers subbing for their bosses.) While attendance was down this year from 2,500 last year to around 1,500 this time, this event — the ninth since 2003 when the first was held — enthusiasm was high.
via A Democratic Majority Is Not the Same As a Progressive Majority | ePluribus Media.
Strong Public Option: 100% Coverage & Cost Control
Strong Public Option: 100% Coverage & Cost Control
For those who feel the need (I know, “it is the politically feasible thing to do”) to keep the private for-profit insurance companies in business, and allow people to keep what they have if they prefer, but also offer the strongest version of public option, there has been a better bill available all along:
Representative Pete Stark’s (chairman of the House Way and Means Health Subcommittee) H.R. 193, The Americare Health Insurance Act.
This proposal, unlike that of Obama/Baucus/Kennedy actually controls total costs while getting to truly 100% universal coverage, according to independent analysis by the Commonwealth Fund and Lewin Group. It is public option on steroids and single payer lite: The gist is that is expanded and improved Medicare for all, but you can keep the health insurance you have if you prefer. Unlike the public option proposals that the beltway insiders have decided to put forward, it really would be competetive with private insurance, and a chance to evolve into true single payer with the benefits therein.
via Strong Public Option: 100% Coverage & Cost Control | ePluribus Media.
Study reveals ‘hidden homeless’ in rural America
Study reveals ‘hidden homeless’ in rural America
The old, run-down trailer in the backcountry near Norridgewock wasn’t much to look at, but it was home.
That was before the landlord died, setting in motion events that left Michelle DeStoop, Bobby Landry and their six children without a place of their own.
After losing their home, they sold their car to a junkyard when they couldn’t afford to have it repaired. Without a car, they couldn’t get around. Low on money, they lost their meager possessions when they couldn’t pay the bill for storage.
Homelessness often means life in soup lines and on city streets, but as a new study commissioned by the state shows, it isn’t confined to cities. It also can be found across rural areas, so concealed that some people are surprised it exists at all, the study finds.
“It’s the hidden homeless,” said Melany Mondello of the Shalom House mental health housing organization, who headed the study and a resulting 32-page report called “Cost of Rural Homelessness.”
via Study reveals ‘hidden homeless’ in rural America.
Suspect in abortion doctor death warns of violence
Suspect in abortion doctor death warns of violence
WICHITA, Kan. – The man charged with murdering a high-profile abortion doctor claimed from his jail cell Sunday that similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as the procedure remained legal, a threat that comes days after a federal investigation launched into his possible accomplices.
A Justice Department spokesman said the threat was being taken seriously and additional protection had been ordered for abortion clinics last week. But a leader of the anti-abortion movement derided the accused shooter as “a fruit and a lunatic.”
Scott Roeder called The Associated Press from the Sedgwick County jail, where he’s being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. George Tiller one week ago.
“I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal,” Roeder said. He would not elaborate.
via Suspect in abortion doctor death warns of violence – Yahoo! News.
Major problems found in Iraq spending
Major problems found in Iraq spending
This is one Christmas gift U.S. taxpayers don’t need.
Construction of a $30 million dining facility at a U.S. base in Iraq is scheduled to be completed Dec. 25. But the decision to build it was based on bad planning and botched paperwork. The project is too far along to stop, making the mess hall a future monument to the waste and inefficiency plaguing the war effort, according to an independent panel investigating contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting.
The report is scheduled to be made public Wednesday at a hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform’s national security subcommittee.
via APNewsBreak: Major problems found in Iraq spending.
Obama Fast-Tracks Health Care Reform
OPS: BO wants to fast-track mandated private coverage before the Progressives and Single-Payer crowd gets any more of a foothold. Just getting more disgusted with BO every week.
SINGLE PAYER IS THE ONLY HEALTHY SOLUTION.
Obama Fast-Tracks Health Care Reform ABC News
Even as the President Urges Senate Democrats to Move Quickly, a Congressional Budget Office Ruling Lowers a Hurdle that Tripped Up the Clinton-Era Reform Effort
President Obama, with a strong assist from Congress’s budget watchdog, is moving healthcare reform to the fast track on Capitol Hill — with or without Republican support.
The next two months are a “make or break period” for getting healthcare done, the president told Senate Democrats at a White House meeting on Tuesday. Mr. Obama says he still wants a bipartisan plan, but Republicans worry that Tuesday’s Democrats-only meeting signals a new tack that may leave them behind.
Call it un-HillaryCare. The president’s rush to closure, even before details of the plan are in place, is in sharp contrast to the White House-driven healthcare reform effort in the first two years of the Clinton administration.
via Obama Fast-Tracks Health Care Reform – ABC News.
Supreme Court asked to block Chrysler sale to Fiat
Supreme Court asked to block Chrysler sale to Fiat
WASHINGTON (AP) – Three Indiana state pension and construction funds want the Supreme Court to block Chrysler’s sale to Fiat so they can pursue an appeal in hopes of getting a better deal.
The funds filed emergency papers at the high court early Sunday.
An appeals court in New York approved the sale Friday, but gave objectors until Monday afternoon to try to get the Supreme Court to intervene. Chrysler LLC wants to sell the bulk of its assets to a group led by Italy’s Fiat Group SpA as part of its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
The emergency request went first to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who handles such matters from New York. She can act on her own or refer it to the entire court.
via My Way News – Supreme Court asked to block Chrysler sale to Fiat.
Bank Profits From Accounting Rules Masking Looming Loan Losses
Bank Profits From Accounting Rules Masking Looming Loan Losses
June 5 (Bloomberg) — Big banks in the U.S. say they’re on the mend. The five largest were profitable in the first quarter, rebounding from record losses for the industry in the fourth quarter. Share prices have jumped, with the KBW Bank Index doubling since March 6.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, after “stress testing” 19 banks on their ability to withstand a worsening economy, declared in early May that Americans can be confident in the banks’ stability and resilience. Wells Fargo & Co. and Morgan Stanley were among banks raising $43 billion in new capital since then through share sales.
“With our capital and assets, stressed as they have been, we can go back to focusing all our attention on managing our business and restoring value,” Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said after Geithner’s examinations were completed.
via Bank Profits From Accounting Rules Masking Looming Loan Losses – Bloomberg.com.
Protests against Putin sweep Russia as factories go broke
Protests against Putin sweep Russia as factories go broke
From Vladivostok to St Petersburg, Russians are taking to the streets in anger over job losses, unpaid wages and controls on imported cars
Russia‘s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, is facing the most sustained and serious grassroots protests against his leadership for almost a decade, with demonstrations that began in the far east now spreading rapidly across provincial Russia.
Over the past five months car drivers in the towns of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, on Russia’s Pacific coast, have staged a series of largely unreported rallies, following a Kremlin decision in December to raise import duties on secondhand Japanese cars. The sale and servicing of Japanese vehicles is a major business, and Putin’s diktat has unleashed a wave of protests. Instead of persuading locals to buy box-like Ladas, it has stoked resentment against Moscow, some nine time zones and 3,800 miles (6,100km) away.
“They are a bunch of arseholes,” Roma Butov said unapologetically, standing in the afternoon sunshine next to a row of unsold Nissans. Asked what he thought of Russia’s leaders, he said: “Putin is bad. [President Dmitry] Medvedev is bad. We don’t like them in the far east.”
via Protests against Putin sweep Russia as factories go broke | World news | The Observer.
Russia: New world reserve currency a decade away
Russia: New world reserve currency a decade away
Moscow’s finance minister says China’s Yuan the ’shortest path’ to new world reserve; predicts ‘new major currency unions’ not soon to emerge
Developed nations are dragging their feet over reforms of the International Monetary Fund, where Moscow wants to have a greater say, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday.
“We already see a lot of foot-dragging and tripping-up along this path,” said Kudrin during Russia’s premier economic forum in Saint Petersburg.
“There is a need to make the IMF a true representative of the world’s leading economies. It’s not there right now,” he said, noting that China had a lower representation quota than Switzerland or Belgium.
The issue of IMF reform should therefore be raised “in earnest, in a bold way,” Kudrin said, adding countries should be “represented in proportion to the strength of these economies and their role in the world economy.”
via Raw Story » Russia: New world reserve currency a decade away.
Tennessee lawmakers approve handguns in bars, override veto
OPS: Well…. there will be fewer Republican voters by 2010
Tennessee lawmakers approve handguns in bars, override veto
Both the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Senate have overruled a veto by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen on a bill that makes carrying handguns into bars legal, it was announced Friday. Consuming alcohol while carrying a handgun will remain illegal, but those with a permit to carry a weapon will be allowed to do so in any restaurant or bar. Owners can still opt to ban handguns from their establishments.
Though the governor expected the state congress to vote against his veto, he stood by his decision in a statement released on Wednesday afternoon, after the House of Representatives voted 69-27 in favor of the override. “He’s disappointed with this action but that doesn’t change his belief that we can exercise our second amendment rights and common sense at the same time. He believes guns and bars simply don’t mix, and this legislation doesn’t provide the proper safeguards to ensure public safety.”
via Raw Story » Tennessee lawmakers approve handguns in bars, override veto.
White House won’t cross firefighter’s picket line to attend mayor’s conference.
White House won’t cross firefighter’s picket line to attend mayor’s conference.
Vice President Biden and other key administration officials, who had been scheduled to attend the national mayor’s conference in Providence, RI, have backed out because they refuse to cross a picket line. The AP reports that there is “a years-long conflict between the Providence mayor, David Cicilline, and local firefighters over contract matters. Cicilline is the host of the conference in his home city, and the firefighters, backed by the International Association of Fire Fighters, plan to stage a picket line at the event.” The White House said respecting picket lines is the administration’s policy:
via Think Progress » White House won’t cross firefighter’s picket line to attend mayor’s conference..
Gingrich: Americans ‘surrounded by paganism.’
OPS: Newt thinks he can run for Prez carrying THIS kind of baggage? 
Gingrich: Americans ‘surrounded by paganism.’
On Friday, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Oliver North visited Rock Church in Hampton Roads, Virginia to give a three-hour long lecture on “Rediscovering God in America.” The speakers warned the audience about the “continuing availability of abortion, the spread of gay rights, and attempts to remove religion from American public life and school history books.” The Virginia-Pilot reported that Gingrich argued that, while Christianity is the foundation of American citizenship, Americans are experiencing a period where they are being “surrounded by paganism”:
via Think Progress » Gingrich: Americans ‘surrounded by paganism.’.
Shelby tries to blame Obama for bank bailouts that happened ‘last fall.’
Shelby tries to blame Obama for bank bailouts that happened ‘last fall.’
This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) why he believes the Obama administration is “taking us down the road to socialism.” Shelby said it was “obviously” the case, and pointed to last fall’s bank bailouts as the prime example:
WALLACE: Sen. Shelby, you say that the Obama administration is taking us down the road to socialism. Explain.
SHELBY: Well, obviously. So, they intervene last fall in the bank crisis. No one has ever done it on that scale before. Now the automobile crisis.
Shelby seemed to catch himself moments later, saying, “you have to go back to the Bush administration. They started it.” Watch it:
via Think Progress » Shelby tries to blame Obama for bank bailouts that happened ‘last fall.’.
The Ripple Effects felt from the Fallout of Detroit
The Ripple Effects felt from the Fallout of Detroit
The bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors threaten a wide scope of the economy far beyond their headquarters and assembly factories
The auto industry is tied intricately to millions of jobs in the United States. Even after cutting tens of thousands of jobs, it still supports a base of millions. The bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors threaten a wide scope of the economy far beyond their headquarters and assembly factories.
A recent piece in The New York Times<./em> describes the effects that will be felt by the declining orders and the impact they will have on the small shops in Michigan and around the country that relied on the Big Three for jobs. Machine shops, carpet suppliers, electronics makers, tool makers and many others depend on new car orders for their earnings. As U.S. orders plummet, the money going to the shops around the country is plummeting as well.
The only places where GM and Ford are still operating full-tilt is overseas, where they use overseas suppliers to fabricate and assemble their vehicles. None of the money changing hands comes back to support workers in the U.S.
The crisis in America’s auto industry has had shocking repercussions around the United States. In order to survive, suppliers have had to lay off workers and thousands of American employees have joined the growing ranks of the unemployed as a result. Some suppliers have turned to insourced producers like Nissan, Honda and Toyota to make ends meet, but even these foreign suppliers are facing a shrinking U.S. market.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Uncle Sam’s “F” Rated Bonds
Uncle Sam’s “F” Rated Bonds
The following article originally appeared on The Epoch Times.
Were the United States any other country, its bonds would lose their AAA rating.
Over the next four years, President Obama plans dramatic increases in spending on health care, environment, education, and federal employment. Yet, the private economy, which must be taxed, is likely to grow slowly, resulting in too much borrowing.
Despite the President’s best efforts, banks still face hundreds of thousands of home mortgage foreclosures. And they must work through new commercial real estate loan defaults created by the recent wave of retail and manufacturing bankruptcies.
Simply, banks will be lending less, and Americans will be buying and making fewer homes, cars and just about everything else. Yet, Obama’s federal revenues and borrowing projections assume robust growth and falling unemployment.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Paul Levinson’s Infinite Regress: Why One Strike Against the First Amendment Should Rule Sotomayor Out of the Supreme Court
Why One Strike Against the First Amendment Should Rule Sotomayor Out of the Supreme Court
As many of you know, I was disappointed by President Obama’s nomination today of Appellate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. As a lifelong advocate of the First Amendment and its protections of freedom of speech and press, and a critic therefore, of judges who do anything to dilute and undermine its protections, I wrote back at the beginning of this month that Sotomayor’s Anti-First Amendment Decision Should Disqualify Her for Supreme Court. The decision in question was the one that Sotomayor’s 3-judge Federal Second Court of Appeals made in New York last May, when it failed to uphold Avery Doninger’s claim that her First Amendment rights had been violated when her high school prohibited her from running for Senior Secretary, after she had posted on her off-campus Live Journal blog that school officials were “douchebags” for canceling an event.
I recognize that there are some who think Avery was justly punished, and/or the school did not violate her First Amendment rights when it punished her.
But I’d like to now address a different objection to the problem I have with Sotomayor – one which in fact has been the most frequently raised on my blogs and status reports on Facebook, etc.
For Many, Layoffs Are Their New Permanent Lifestyle
Despite what you might be reading about signs of hope, there’s no
rational basis for believing the unemployment crisis is ending anytime soon. I understand that they’re trying to find something positive to say, but many of us prefer to know the truth – like this:
For those receiving unemployment benefits, long-term joblessness has tested the limits of the system. In April, 47.1 percent of all people collecting state unemployment insurance exhausted the usual maximum of 26 weeks of benefits without finding work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the highest rate on record, going back to 1972, when the Labor Department began keeping track.
The $787 billion stimulus package that Congress passed in February contained $27.1 billion to help states extend unemployment benefits. As of mid-May, 2.5 million people were collecting extended benefits. The time limit has been increased to 59 to 79 weeks.
Workers who exhaust their benefits and don’t get new training tend to become disconnected from the labor force, said Harvard University economist Lawrence Katz. “A lot of them have ended up on disability rolls,” he said. “They’re basically never coming back into the workforce.”
via For Many, Layoffs Are Their New Permanent Lifestyle | Crooks and Liars.
The SEC Civil Suit Against Countrywide’s Mozilo: Why You Need to Know About “Parallel Proceedings”
The SEC Civil Suit Against Countrywide’s Mozilo: Why You Need to Know About “Parallel Proceedings”
The New York Times is reporting that the SEC has instituted a civil suit against Angelo R. Mozilo, David E. Sambol, and Eric P. Sieracki of Countrywide Financial alleging securities fraud and insider trading. The securities fraud aspect stems from alleged conduct whereby the defendants
hid from investors the high-risk nature of the loans the company was making. Countrywide needed to maintain its position as the leading lender in a white-hot mortgage market, the S.E.C. said, and underwrote increasingly dangerous loans, all the while assuring investors that its loans were top quality.
Angry members of the investing public may be disappointed or confused that this is a civil suit rather than a criminal indictment. However, they should not abandon all hope of seeing a criminal referral.
The S.E.C. brought its case against the former Countrywide officials on its own; Justice Department officials did not file criminal charges simultaneously with the commission, as is often the case. But a securities law expert said this did not guarantee that Mr. Mozilo and his former colleagues were clear of being charged by criminal authorities.
“It could mean that the Justice Department does not yet have a case proving the highest standard, beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Lewis D. Lowenfels, at Tolins & Lowenfels in New York. “They may want to see what facts come out in the discovery in the S.E.C. case and there might be other people they are interested in. Moreover, the S.E.C. is under so much pressure from Congress, they may want to move quickly and not wait for anybody.”
Welcome to the complicated and high stakes world of “Parallel Proceedings.” A parallel proceeding is one in which “both civil and criminal cases/investigations proceed at the same time” (USTP Manual 5-13.1). Parallel proceedings are a minefield of ethical and tactical conflicts for in-house counsel and defense lawyers. For example:
Federal Reserve to Hire Ex-Enron Lobbyist in PR Move to Counter Doubts about Fed’s Growing Power Over U.S. Financial System
Federal Reserve to Hire Ex-Enron Lobbyist in PR Move to Counter Doubts about Fed’s Growing Power Over U.S. Financial System
How is the Fed responding to:
(1) a bill in Congress with 190 co-sponsors to audit the Fed
(2) a new law giving the GAO some power to examine the Fed’s actions
and
(3) calls by many to abolish the Fed altogether?
A promise of 100% openness and full disclosure to Congress and the American people?
An agreement to stop all behind-the-scenes shenanigans?
An end to the whole scam of private bankers “creating” credit and bilking the taxpayers out of trillions in interest?
Of course not!
Instead, the Fed is . . . launching a new p.r. campaign to show everyone how wonderful Ben and the boys really are.
Private insurance companies push for ‘individual mandate’
Private insurance companies push for ‘individual mandate’ – Los Angeles Times
As momentum gains for reforms, insurers hope to turn it to their advantage by supporting a proposal that everyone buy coverage. It would be a boost for the industry, which has seen enrollment decline.
Some may find it hard to believe that the U.S. health insurance industry supports making major changes to the nation’s healthcare system.
The industry, after all, scuttled President Clinton’s healthcare overhaul bid with ads featuring “Harry and Louise” fretting about change.
But this time, it turns out, the health insurance industry has good reason to support at least some change: It needs it.
via Private insurance companies push for ‘individual mandate’ – Los Angeles Times.
How the Other 0.00000003 Percent Lives
How the Other 0.00000003 Percent Lives by Adam Turl
Consider the 10 richest people in the country as of last September, according to the annual Forbes magazine list.
Back in February–when even the mainstream media was convinced the capitalist economy was in full-blown meltdown mode–Newsweek magazine ran an article titled “Why there won’t be a revolution.” Newsweek wanted to reassure the rich–and convince working people–that the masses weren’t getting ready to dust off their pitchforks and head to the town square.
“Americans might get angry sometimes,” they wrote, “but we don’t hate the rich. We prefer to laugh at them.”
Newsweek couldn’t be more wrong. The 10 percent of Americans who rely on food stamps, the 25 percent of Ohioans who are waiting in lines at food banks, the 500,000 people who lost their jobs last month and the millions more who can’t find work–these people aren’t laughing.
via Dissident Voice : How the Other 0.00000003 Percent Lives.
Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies
Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies – CNN.com 
This year, an estimated 1.5 million Americans will declare bankruptcy. Many people may chalk up that misfortune to overspending or a lavish lifestyle, but a new study suggests that more than 60 percent of people who go bankrupt are actually capsized by medical bills.
Bankruptcies due to medical bills increased by nearly 50 percent in a six-year period, from 46 percent in 2001 to 62 percent in 2007, and most of those who filed for bankruptcy were middle-class, well-educated homeowners, according to a report that will be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
“Unless you’re a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you’re one illness away from financial ruin in this country,” says lead author Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Mass. “If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that’s the major finding in our study.”
via Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies – CNN.com.
How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do
How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do
Robert Reich
I’ved poked around Washington today, talking with friends on the Hill who confirm the worst: Big Pharma and Big Insurance are gaining ground in their campaign to kill the public option in the emerging health care bill.
You know why, of course. They don’t want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, “unfair” is anything that undermines their profits.
So they’re pulling out all the stops — pushing Democrats and a handful of so-called “moderate” Republicans who say they’re in favor of a public option to support legislation that would include it in name only. One of their proposals is to break up the public option into small pieces under multiple regional third-party administrators that would have little or no bargaining leverage. A second is to give the public option to the states where Big Pharma and Big Insurance can easily buy off legislators and officials, as they’ve been doing for years. A third is bind the public plan to the same rules private insurers have already wangled, thereby making it impossible for the public plan to put competitive pressure on the insurers.
Kennedy Readies Health-Care Bill
Kennedy Readies Health-Care Bill - washingtonpost.com
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) has laid down the first marker in this year’s debate over how to revamp the nation’s health-care system, writing a bill that would put strict new requirements on individuals and businesses to purchase insurance.
As expected, the ailing chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and his staff have crafted comprehensive legislation that would guarantee health coverage for every American — but would require the vast majority to contribute to the cost, according to a draft of the bill obtained last night by The Washington Post. Some small businesses and low-income workers would be eligible for subsidies.
While at least five congressional chairmen are working on health-care reform bills, Kennedy is the first to complete detailed legislative language. The draft provides a partial road map for how the nation might address health coverage gaps and problems such as rising costs and inferior quality.
via Kennedy Readies Health-Care Bill – washingtonpost.com.
‘Single-Payer’ Supporters Challenge Democrats
‘Single-Payer’ Supporters Challenge Democrats - – washingtonpost.com
When President Obama convened a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, N.M., last month, he wanted to talk about credit card reform. But many in the crowd had a different agenda.
“So many people go bankrupt using their credit cards to pay for health care,” the first questioner said to applause. “Why have they taken single-payer off the plate?”
The “single-payer” activists had struck again. As Obama and congressional Democrats work to hammer out landmark health-care legislation, they face increasingly noisy protests from those on the left who complain that a national program like those in Europe has been excluded from the debate.
via ‘Single-Payer’ Supporters Challenge Democrats – washingtonpost.com.
Obama Says Congress Must Act to Fix ‘Broken’ Health-Care System
OPS: …but then BO has described Health care as a “luxury”
National health spending totaled $2.2 trillion in 2007, which was 16.2 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Health and Human Services Department.
Obama Says Congress Must Act to Fix ‘Broken’ Health-Care System
By Michael A. Fletcher
Stepping up his push to enact legislation to reform the nation’s health-care system, President Obama today declared, “The status quo is broken,” and he warned that the current system could eventually collapse if nothing is done to control spiraling costs.
With Congress poised to debate sweeping health-care legislation in the coming weeks, Obama warned that if “we do nothing, everyone’s health care will be put in jeopardy.”
Speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said that the fast-rising cost of health care is placing an unsustainable burden on personal budgets, small businesses and the federal government.
via Health-Care Reform 2009 – Tracking the National Health-Care Debate.
The Insanity of Ayn Rand: The Fountain-Brain-Dead.
The Insanity of Ayn Rand: The Fountain-Brain-Dead.
Yikes, darlings!
Tallulah Morehead:
I watch a lot of old movies on TCM, mostly because TCM are my initials. (I’m Tallulah Clytemnestra Morehead) and I just finished watching a doozy of a terrible movie on TCM, one that has to be seen to be disbelieved: the ultra-hilarious piece of right-wing objectivist claptrap, the movie of Ayn Rand’s ridiculous novel, The Fountainhead, starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, as glamorous, sexy Fascists, I mean an architect and his best gal.
I’m afraid Juliette’s blowing up the H-Bomb on that island on Lost must have screwed up the Time-Space Continuum. This can’t be Normal Reality, because this movie is the most absurd piece of twaddle I have sat through since the final season of Roseanne.
Enormously well-hung Gary Cooper plays Howard Roarke, the most brilliant, unpopular, and egotistical architect in the world. The movie is all about how people are always trying to get Howard Roarke to design buildings just like the same ones everyone else designs, but Howard is too great to listen to anyone, even his clients. People are always telling him his designs are too outré, although his houses are all Frank Lloyd Wright rip-offs, and his office buildings are all rectangular glass and steel structures that look exactly like every souless office building clogging the downtowns of every major city in the world, the very style that Jacques Tati spent his great movie Playtime attacking. “We can’t take a chance,” they always say to him, as though they were gambling their lives building an office tower or a block of flats. Has the designer of Disney Hall in Los Angeles been lynched yet?
via Tallulah Morehead: The Insanity of Ayn Rand: The Fountain-Brain-Dead..
Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative!
Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative!
ScienceDaily (June 5, 2009) — Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch?
If so, chances are you’re more conservative — politically, and especially in your attitudes toward gays and lesbians — than your less-squeamish counterparts, according to two Cornell studies.
The results, said study leader David Pizarro, Cornell assistant professor of psychology, raise questions about the role of disgust — an emotion that likely evolved in humans to keep them safe from potentially hazardous or disease-carrying environments — in contemporary judgments of morality and purity.
via Easily Grossed Out? You Might Be A Conservative!.
Man Sought for Threatening President Arrested
Man Sought for Threatening President Arrested - NYTimes.com
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man who allegedly told bank tellers while cleaning out his savings account in Utah that he was on a mission to kill President Barack Obama.
The Secret Service said Daniel James Murray, 36, was arrested Friday outside a casino in Laughlin, Nev., a gambling town 100 miles from Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona line.
He was charged Thursday in Salt Lake City with a federal count of conveying threats while talking to tellers last month at Zions First National Bank in St. George, Utah.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Bearnson said Murray was in federal custody in Nevada and likely will get a court date there Monday. Neither Bearnson nor the Secret Service would discuss whether Murray was considered to be a serious threat.
Charging documents say Murray, originally from Rexford, N.Y., is the registered owner of eight guns.
via Man Sought for Threatening President Arrested – NYTimes.com.
U.S. healthcare revamp to require medical coverage
U.S. healthcare revamp to require medical coverage
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers plan far-reaching insurance market reforms, and would require that businesses and individuals purchase medical coverage as they seek to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, an early draft of Senate legislation said on Saturday.
The legislation seeks to provide health coverage for all Americans and would prohibit insurance companies from refusing to cover anyone because of health history. It also would outlaw annual or lifetime limits on coverage.
The bill would require individuals and businesses to purchase insurance. The business community is likely to raise strong objections to the employer requirement in the measure, being drafted by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee headed by Senator Edward Kennedy.
The sweeping healthcare overhaul is a top legislative priority for Democratic President Barack Obama, who says he wants Congress to send him a bill by October.
via U.S. healthcare revamp to require medical coverage | U.S. | Reuters.
Thom Hartman on Obama
Hartman: Will Obama behave like Roosevelt or will he create a moment of opportunity for the right?
YouTube – Thom Hartman on Obama.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
