Archive for July, 2009
How Clean Is Your Favorite Beach? Find Out Now
How Clean Is Your Favorite Beach? Find Out Now
The Natural Resources Defense Council just released an in-depth report on the water quality at popular vacation beaches across the nation.
The water at American beaches was seriously polluted and jeopardized the health of swimmers last year with the number of closing and advisory days at ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches reaching more than 20,000 for the fourth consecutive year.
Anne Curry reports on the study.
WATCH: video at link
via How Clean Is Your Favorite Beach? Find Out Now.
Truck Farm – Episode 2
Truck Farm is a Wicked Delicate film + food project.
Urban Agriculture
YouTube – Truck Farm – Episode 2.
Exxon Spends More on Lobbying than Entire Clean Energy Industry Combined
Exxon Spends More on Lobbying than Entire Clean Energy Industry Combined
Guess it pays to be the biggest oil company in the world–even though their profits are at the lowest they’ve been in six years, Exxon still managed to spend more money on lobbying efforts for the climate bill than the entire clean energy industry combined.
Even with their gargantuan effort, the oil company still felt slighted in the version of the climate bill that passed the House last month (coal and agriculture got far more free permits to pollute than the oil company). Perhaps they at least got a consolation prize? Maybe an “I Spent $15 Million on Lobbying and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt” tee, or something?
Because that’s how much the oil giant shelled out–$14.9 million over the last six months. As Bloomberg points out, that’s a solid 23% more than the $12.1 million clean energy companies spent all told. Altogether, oil and gas companies spent $82.2 million on Washington lobbyists, dwarfing the wind, solar, and biofuel companies that nonetheless spent more than ever before. From Bloomberg:
via Exxon Spends More on Lobbying than Entire Clean Energy Industry Combined : TreeHugger.
Ill. nuclear reactor shuts down
Ill. nuclear reactor shuts down – chicagotribune.com
BRACEVILLE, Ill. – A Will County nuclear reactor has shut down after electrical power flowing into its station was interrupted.
Exelon Corp. says the Braidwood Generating Station Unit 2 in Braceville declared an “unusual event” when the reactor automatically shut down Thursday evening. The company says the plant “responded safely and without incident.”
It says the station made a loud noise as it shut down because of released steam, but there was no health or safety risk to workers or the public. Exelon says local, state, and federal government officials were notified.
The company says the station will be fueled by two backup diesel generators until offsite power is restored. The cause of the power loss is being investigated.
Braceville is about 50 miles southwest of Chicago.
via Ill. nuclear reactor shuts down — chicagotribune.com.
H1N1 Pandemic: Pentagon Planning Deployment of Troops in Support of Nationwide Vaccination
H1N1 Pandemic: Pentagon Planning Deployment of Troops in Support of Nationwide Vaccination
Militarization of public health in the case of emergency is now official
by Michel Chossudovsky
According to CNN, the Pentagon is “to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials.”
“The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command’s Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary.
The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military.
It has yet to be determined how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces.
Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said. The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients.
As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called “execution order” that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.
Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said.” (CNN, Military planning for possible H1N1 outbreak, July 2009, emphasis added)
The implications are far-reaching.
via H1N1 Pandemic: Pentagon Planning Deployment of Troops in Support of Nationwide Vaccination.
In Poll, Wide Support for Government-Run Health
In Poll, Wide Support for Government-Run Health - NYTimes.com
Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The poll found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.
Yet the survey also revealed considerable unease about the impact of heightened government involvement, on both the economy and the quality of the respondents’ own medical care. While 85 percent of respondents said the health care system needed to be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt, 77 percent said they were very or somewhat satisfied with the quality of their own care.
via In Poll, Wide Support for Government-Run Health – NYTimes.com.
Erin Andrews 911 Call Released
Erin Andrews 911 Call Released
ATLANTA The ESPN reporter surreptitiously videotaped nude in a hotel room expressed frustration at being “treated like Britney Spears” when she called 911 to report paparazzi gathered outside her Atlanta area home.
In an audiotape released Wednesday, Erin Andrews is heard speaking with a 911 operator in suburban DeKalb County on July 22 to complain about two people parked in a car outside her home in a gated community.
Andrews identifies herself and tells the operator, “I’m all over the news right now,” and describes herself as “the girl that was videotaped in my hotel room in the nude.”
Clearly frustrated on the call, Andrews uses expletives to describe the two men whom she says also knocked on her door.
“I did nothing wrong, and I am being treated like (expletive) Britney Spears, and it sucks,” Andrews told the operator.
via Erin Andrews 911 Call Released.
House Approves $2 Billion For Cash For Clunkers Program
House Approves $2 Billion For Cash For Clunkers Program
WASHINGTON — The House has voted to rush an additional $2 billion into the popular but financially strapped “cash for clunkers” car purchase program.
The bill was approved on a vote of 316-109. House members acted within hours of learning from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the program was running out of money.
Called the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS, the program is designed to help the economy and the environment by spurring new car sales. Car owners can receive federal subsidies of up to $4,500 for trading in their old cars for new ones that achieve significantly higher gas mileage.
via House Approves $2 Billion For Cash For Clunkers Program.
Honda recalls 440,000 cars for airbag risk
Honda recalls 440,000 cars for airbag risk | Reuters
DETROIT (Reuters) – Honda Motor Co said on Friday that it is recalling another 440,000 vehicles — including some of its best-selling Accord and Civic models — for a potentially lethal airbag defect.
Honda said that the airbag inflators in some of its top-selling sedans can rupture because of too much air pressure causing metal fragments to shoot through the airbag and strike vehicle occupants.
One fatality and a number of injuries have been linked to the defect, Honda spokesman Sage Marie said.
The recall covers certain 2001 and 2002 Accords, 2001 Civics and some 2002 and 2003 model Acura TL sedans. The driver’s side airbag is the defective component on the affected vehicles.
via Honda recalls 440,000 cars for airbag risk | Reuters.
Legal battle puts Skype’s future in jeopardy, owner says
Legal battle puts Skype’s future in jeopardy, owner says – CNN.com
– A legal battle has put the future of Skype in jeopardy, according to eBay, which owns the online communications system.
If Skype loses the right to use a key part of its software and can’t create an adequate replacement, “Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible,” eBay said in its quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
There is no sign of Skype disappearing soon — a relief to the more than 480 million registered users who have video or telephone conversations online through the technology.
But the battle with Joltid, the company that created the piece of technology at issue, shows no sign of being resolved anytime soon, either.
Joltid complains that Skype broke its licensing agreement to use the technology. Skype filed suit against Joltid in Britain, saying it could not terminate the license agreement; Joltid struck back with a counterclaim saying Skype had broken the agreement.
via Legal battle puts Skype’s future in jeopardy, owner says – CNN.com.
Blue Dog opposition may be ‘underwritten’ by pharmaceutical giants
OPS: Flash – Man Bites Dog
Blue Dog opposition may be ‘underwritten’ by pharmaceutical giants - Raw Story »
Typical “Blue Dog” Democrats — moderate members of Congress who have been the most ardent among Obama’s own party in thwarting ongoing national healthcare legislation — receive 25 percent more campaign cash from the healthcare and insurance industry than other Democrats, an investigation has found.
In fact, a Blue Dog’s average receipts from the medical industry was just $3,625 less than that of the average Republican. Republicans have worked to block plans to enact universal health insurance legislation, saying that it would restrict individual choice and lead to the rationing of medical care.
Blue Dog Democrats say they’re for moderate fiscal policy and aim to reduce the overall cost of a health insurance measure. It appears, however, that their ideological opposition is underwritten by the industry most affected by proposed changes.
via Raw Story » Blue Dog opposition may be ‘underwritten’ by pharmaceutical giants.
Dem asks, ‘Why do we even need the insurance companies?’
OPS: That is the 6 Trillion dollar question and MUST be asked. Heath Insurance Industry is a Parasitic Dinosaur and must go extinct before we can move ahead
Dem asks, ‘Why do we even need the insurance companies?’ – Raw Story »
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), hoping to force the GOP to put up or shut up on health reform, introduced an amendment Thursday night that would have repealed medicare, thereby forcing Republicans to show their support for the largest form of government-run healthcare in the U.S.
Speaking to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Thursday broadcast, he took his point even further and wondered aloud why America even needs health insurance companies.
“What we’ve learned is that government-administered healthcare works pretty darn well,” he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday. “It’s got low overhead and people like it. So, when my colleagues pound the drum and pound the podium about how they hate government-run healthcare, I guess they haven’t looked at what they get.”
via Raw Story » Dem asks, ‘Why do we even need the insurance companies?’.
Coulter: Cops aren’t pulling over enough black people
Coulter: Cops aren’t pulling over enough black people – Raw Story »
Perhaps feeling guilty for referring to ‘birthers’ as ‘cranks’ recently, Ann Coulter made the absurd case to Larry King that police don’t stop enough African-Americans.
COULTER: In fact, I have been — at least in the initial crankiness by Professor Gates, I’ve been somewhat of a defender of his, in as much as I’m someone who travels a lot. I get a lot of — I get cranky, too, especially after a long trip from China.
What can’t be defended, I think, is the next 48 hours, the next week, when he could calm down and think, oh boy, I over-reacted. Wish I hadn’t done that. But I think that is a problem. Both aggrieved minorities and aggrieved females are told to take every slight, interpret everything as it’s because your black. It’s because you’re a woman. I don’t think that’s good for blacks or females. I don’t think it’s good for the rest of the country.
And there is one thing I’d like to say about the studies on racial profiling, and even the Bush administration coming out with them. The Bush administration itself suppressed a study that disproved eight billion racial profiling studies about the New Jersey State Troopers. There was a scientific study setting up cameras of people speeding. It turns out New Jersey State Troopers, by scientific evidence that was — the Bush administration kept rejecting and rejecting — were stopping, if anything, not enough blacks.
via Raw Story » Coulter: Cops aren’t pulling over enough black people.
Lobbyist Dick Armey’s Pollution Gospel: ‘As An Article Of Faith,’ It Is ‘Pretentious’ To Believe In Global Warming
OPS: Suicidal bastard. Ideology over survival.
Lobbyist Dick Armey’s Pollution Gospel: ‘As An Article Of Faith,’ It Is ‘Pretentious’ To Believe In Global Warming – Think Progress »
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) appeared as a witness for the Republican bicameral hearing on climate change legislation yesterday on Capitol Hill. Along with a cadre of polluter CEOs and Chamber of Commerce officials, Armey played his part leveling an array of attacks on any effort to transition to a clean energy economy.
As the hearing progressed, most of the witnesses spent their time recycling months-old debunked studies. But Armey distinguished himself by invoking a religious argument to back up his smears against what he called “environmental hypochondriacs” filled with “eco-evangelical hysteria.” Armey claimed that in his world view, because God created the heavens and the Earth, it would be “quite pretentious” for people to believe God would permit global warming to even occur:
Republicans Reveal Their Hypocrisy On Health Care, Refuse To Support Bill To Kill Government-Run Medicare
Republicans Reveal Their Hypocrisy On Health Care, Refuse To Support Bill To Kill Government-Run Medicare - Think Progress »
For months, Republicans have been trying to scare Americans away from supporting a public option in health care reform, claiming that “government-run” medicine is akin to socialism and would be disastrous. But the government already runs several successful, well-loved health care programs — most notably, Medicare.
Yesterday, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) decided that it was “put-up or shut-up time for the phonies who deride the so-called ‘public option.’” He offered an amendment that would eliminate government-run Medicare:
Giuliani Hopes For No Health Care Reform, Says Those Making ‘$250k Or More’ Are ‘Struggling’
Giuliani Hopes For No Health Care Reform, Says Those Making ‘$250k Or More’ Are ‘Struggling’ – Think Progress »
Last night on Hannity’s Fox News show, former New York City Major Rudy Giuliani officially joined the ranks of his fellow conservatives who are trying to “kill” Obama’s health care agenda. “I hope there’s no hope for the health care plan this year,” Giuliani said bluntly at the outset of the segment.
Later, Hannity and Giuliani began discussing “all the taxes” Democrats allegedly “want to raise now.” “They basically — if you wake up in the morning, they’re probably going to tax that,” Hannity complained. Giuliani then took the opportunity to stand up for the “so-called rich”:
GIULIANI: We already have major distribution of wealth going on in this country. … Redistribution of wealth, from rich to poor. The rich pay — the so-called rich. We’re talking about $250,000 or more in New York City. I know this is hard for people to understand. These people sometimes are two-earner families. They’re really struggling.
Watch it:
Routine GI health needs not met
Routine GI health needs not met - USA TODAY
Soldiers, families go off base to get care
WASHINGTON — The number of Army medical centers and clinics that provide timely access to routine medical care has hit a five-year low, Army records show, often forcing soldiers and their families to seek treatment off base.
About 16% of Army patients, particularly family members, can’t get appointments with their primary physicians and are sent to doctors off the installation, according to the results of a nine-month Army review finished late last year. Some of those patients end up in emergency rooms or urgent care centers, says the study, which the Army provided to USA TODAY.
Army records show that 26 of its medical centers, hospitals and clinics are unable to meet the Pentagon standard requiring that 90% of patients get routine care appointments within seven days. Those are the worst results since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a 13% increase from 2005 in the number of medical facilities unable to meet the standard.
This year, the Army surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, authorized 12 medical facilities with the worst access problems to hire more primary care doctors, says Col. Ken Canestrini, who’s in charge of improving access to health care for soldiers and their families.
via USATODAY.com.
Report Shows Bonuses Paid by Bailed-Out Banks
Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts - NYTimes.com
Thousands of top traders and bankers on Wall Street were awarded huge bonuses and pay packages last year, even as their employers were battered by the financial crisis.
Nine of the financial firms that were among the largest recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York attorney general.
At Goldman Sachs, for example, bonuses of more than $1 million went to 953 traders and bankers, and Morgan Stanley awarded seven-figure bonuses to 428 employees. Even at weaker banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, million-dollar awards were distributed to hundreds of workers.
via Report Shows Bonuses Paid by Bailed-Out Banks – NYTimes.com.
House approves placing curbs on executive pay
House approves placing curbs on executive pay – || Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Government regulators could prohibit incentive-based pay packages at large U.S. financial institutions that encourage “inappropriate risks” under a bill approved on Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Heading next to the Senate, where its outlook is uncertain, the bill would also give shareholders in public corporations the right to cast annual, nonbinding votes on executive pay, giving them a louder, but largely symbolic “say on pay.”
The House Democrats’ bill, part of a broad push to tighten banking and market regulation, would also impose new standards on corporate compensation committees and compensation consultants, requiring them to be independent of managers.
Financial institutions with assets of less than $1 billion would be exempted from the regulation on incentive-based pay.
via House approves placing curbs on executive pay | U.S. | Reuters.
Chris Dodd diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer.
I wanted to let you know that I’ve been diagnosed with an early stage of prostate cancer.
This diagnosis is very common among men my age. In fact, one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point during their life.
Luckily, a routine test allowed my doctor to catch it at a very early stage, and my prognosis is excellent – we expect a full and speedy recovery.
I want to assure you that I’m feeling fine. As you know, we’ve been working hard to pass health care legislation and reform our nation’s financial system to protect consumers, and that hard work will continue.
After the Senate adjourns at the end of next week, I’ll have surgery to remove the cancer. After a week or two of recuperation, I expect to be right back to work.
After all, as a Member of Congress, I have great health insurance. I was able to get screened, seek the opinions of highly skilled doctors, consider all the available options, and choose the treatment that was right for me.
And I know you’ll agree that every American deserves the same ability.
We have health care legislation to pass – and an election to win. And I can’t thank you enough for your support.
Sincerely,
Chris
via ChrisDodd.com.
WHY SUPPORT CORPORATIONS THAT DON’T SUPPORT US?
WHY SUPPORT CORPORATIONS THAT DON’T SUPPORT US? – Jim Hightower |
Yes, our overall economy is a wreck – but you’ll be glad to know that one business sector is booming: outsourcing American jobs to India.
It almost makes you burst with patriotic pride, doesn’t it? Even as unemployment nears 10 percent across our country, more and more U.S. corporations are literally cutting out on America’s middle class, eliminating employees here as they shift their operations and jobs to low-wage workers 8,000 miles away.
Some in Washington talk about measures to keep good jobs in the USA, but greedheaded corporate executives lobby furiously to prevent any action. “Anything that stops the globalization activity,” declares David Cote, CEO of Honeywell, “will be harmful.”
via Jim Hightower | WHY SUPPORT CORPORATIONS THAT DON’T SUPPORT US?.
Obama’s reform plan is to “watch” Wall Street rather than restructure it
Where’s the audacity? Where’s the hope? – Hightower Lowdown |
Obama’s reform plan is to “watch” Wall Street rather than restructure it
Out in West Texas, an oxymoronic weather phenomenon known as a “dry rainstorm” often occurs. It’s particularly tough on farmers. These storms build with all of the tell-tale signs of a downpour headed toward the farmers’ fields– dark clouds on the horizon and lightning that flares like a pinball machine, followed by the promising clap and rumble of rolling thunder. But then–no rain. The clouds, lightning, and thunder blow right over the area, yet they deliver not one drop of the nurturing water the farmers are desperate to have.
This hard experience is why you’ll sometimes hear farm folks use a cautionary expression when others have high expectations that something good is about to happen. “I hope so,” they’ll say, “but remember–thunder ain’t rain.”
via Hightower Lowdown | Obama’s reform plan is to “watch” Wall Street rather than restructure it.
Japan reports record deflation
Japan reports record deflation
Unemployment hits six-year high
Japan set a new record for core consumer price deflation in June, while unemployment hit a six-year high, data released on Friday showed.
The 1.7 per cent year-on-year fall in consumer prices excluding fresh food and the 5.4 per cent jobless rate highlight the continuing troubles of the world’s second largest economy, despite a sharp rebound in industrial output over the last four months.
via FT.com / Asia-Pacific – Japan reports record deflation.
Eurozone inflation remains negative
Eurozone inflation remains negative – FT.com
Data fuel fears of deflationary phase
Eurozone inflation has plunged further into negative territory, with consumer prices in July down 0.6 per cent compared with a year before, as unemployment in the region rose to the highest level 10 years it was revealed on Friday.
The larger-than-expected fall in the annual inflation rate could stoke fears of a damaging deflationary phase in the 16-country bloc, even though the European Central Bank believes the rate will soon turn positive again.
via FT.com / Brussels – Eurozone inflation remains negative.
US recession now longest on record
US recession now longest on record - FT.com
GDP drops 1% in second quarter
Preliminary commerce department figures showed on Friday that US gross domestic product declined by an annualised rate of 1 per cent in the second quarter after declining by a revised 6.4 per cent during the first three months of the year. While the contraction was less severe than the in the previous three quarters, it was the first time since official figures started in 1947 that the US has suffered four consecutive periods of declining output.
via FT.com / US / Economy & Fed – US recession now longest on record.
Rove Concludes Second Closed-Door Meeting with House Judiciary;
Rove Concludes Second Closed-Door Meeting with House Judiciary; Spins His Side to WaPo, NYTimes - The BRAD BLOG
New email (released by Rove?) reveal ‘greater role than previously understood in the firing of federal prosecutors’
Continues the old ‘voter fraud’ canard…
Well, this is interesting…Seems Rove has now met a second time behind closed doors with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today, according to this breaking report from Washington Post which also includes a review of newly disclosed email showing he “and other high-ranking figures in the Bush White House played a greater role than previously understood” in the U.S. Attorney Purge.
via The BRAD BLOG.
Airforce Contract May be Split
Airforce Contract May be Split
The long-running battle between European aircraft maker Airbus and Chicago-based Boeing to replace the Air Force’s aging refueling tanker fleet could soon come to an end with the contract ultimately split between the two companies.
The long-running and often contentious battle between European aircraft maker Airbus and Chicago-based Boeing to replace the Air Force’s aging refueling tanker fleet could soon come to an end with the contract ultimately split between the two companies, The Chicago Tribune reports.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is set to unveil new requirements for the bidding process around Labor Day with the contract awarded to the winner by mid-2010. However, lawmakers included a provision in a defense funding bill that requires Gates to run the requirements by Congress, which could lead to more partisan bickering and the contact being divided in the end.
“The only way forward may be a joint buy,” aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told The Chicago Tribune Review, “although I don’t think anybody wants to admit that because it points to a politicized failure of the procurement system.”
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Christians Largely Mum on Torture
Christians Largely Mum on Torture
By Ray McGovern
Anyone harboring doubts that the institutional Church is riding shotgun for the system, even regarding heinous sin like torture, should be chastened by the results of a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.
Who but the cowardly crew leading the “Christian” churches can be held responsible for the fact that many of their flock believe torture of suspected terrorists is “justified?”
Those polled were white non-Hispanic Catholics, white Evangelicals, and white mainline Protestants. A majority (54 percent) of those who attend church regularly said torture could be “justified,” while a majority of those not attending church regularly responded that torture was rarely or never justified.
via Consortiumnews.com.
Obama’s Doctor Speaks Out for Single-Payer Healthcare Reform
Obama’s Doctor Speaks Out for Single-Payer Healthcare Reform | CommonDreams.org
by David L. Scheiner, M.D.
I write today because years ago I was practicing medicine in an office on the South Side of Chicago with my partner and friend, Dr. Quentin Young, when a young community organizer came to see me as a patient. I became his personal physician for 22 years and he became president of the United States. I support and admire him and consider him to be the most promising president of my lifetime, which stretches back to 1938. But I respectfully differ with him on his approach to health care reform.
I speak to you today as an advocate for the single-payer approach to health reform, an expanded and improved Medicare for all, but I am hoping that President Obama and Congress will hear me also. As some of you may know, I was supposed to be at the recent town hall meeting at the White House where I was to ask a question of the president, but my visit was cancelled at the last minute, presumably to prevent the national airing of my views on health reform. Is the single-payer message so dangerous that it cannot even be discussed by Congress and the administration?
Yes, there are parties who stand to lose out under a single-payer program – the private, for-profit health insurance companies and their multimillionaire CEOs in the first place. The head of Aetna, for example, received $18.6 million in compensation last year. That’s obscene.
via Obama’s Doctor Speaks Out for Single-Payer Healthcare Reform | CommonDreams.org.
Blue Dogs Receive More Health Industry Backing Than Other Democrats
Industry Is Generous To Influential Bloc - washingtonpost.com
On June 19, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.
“The committees’ draft falls short,” the former pharmacy owner said in a statement that day, citing, among other things, provisions that major health-care companies also strongly oppose.
Five days later, Ross was the guest of honor at a special “health-care industry reception,” one of at least seven fundraisers for the Arkansas lawmaker held by health-care companies or their lobbyists this year, according to publicly available invitations.
via Blue Dogs Receive More Health Industry Backing Than Other Democrats – washingtonpost.com.
Blue Dogs Receive More Health Industry Backing Than Other Democrats
OPS: Can we just call it what it is: Bribery
Blue Dogs Receive More Health Industry Backing Than Other Democrats | CommonDreams.org
On June 19, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.
“The committees’ draft falls short,” the former pharmacy owner said in a statement that day, citing, among other things, provisions that major health-care companies also strongly oppose.
Five days later, Ross was the guest of honor at a special “health-care industry reception,” one of at least seven fundraisers for the Arkansas lawmaker held by health-care companies or their lobbyists this year, according to publicly available invitations.
via Blue Dogs Receive More Health Industry Backing Than Other Democrats | CommonDreams.org.
Health Care Tyranny by 13 Obstructionists
Health Care Tyranny by 13 Obstructionists | CommonDreams.org
by David Sirota
For those still clinging to quaint notions of the American ideal, these have been a faith-shaking 10 years. Just as evolutionary science once got in the way of creationists’ catechism, so has politics now undermined patriots’ naive belief that the United States is a functioning democracy.
The 21st century opened with a handful of Supreme Court puppets appointing George W. Bush president after he lost the popular vote—and we all know the costs in blood and treasure that insult wrought. Now, the decade closes with another cabal of stooges assaulting the “one person, one vote” principle—and potentially bringing about another disaster.
Here we have a major congressional push to fix a health care system that leaves one-sixth of the country without coverage. Here we have 535 House and Senate delegates elected to give all 300 million of us a voice in the solution. And here we have just 13 of those delegates holding the initiative hostage.
via: Truthdig- Health Care Tyranny by 13 Obstructionists
Health Reform Too Boring for Broadcast?
Health Reform Too Boring for Broadcast? | CommonDreams.org
Not at KQED
Over the weekend, Politico published one of those juicy, inside-the-industry stories that media execs love to read. The story trashed health care reform as boring television and noted that MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan called health care “bad for ratings.” As proof of Ratigan’s assertion, Politico cited the comparatively low turnout for the president’s health care news conference last week—24.5 million viewers, the smallest prime time audience of the Obama presidency. And, said Politico, Fox was right for not airing the president’s words—its episode of So You Think You Can Dance won first place in the eight p.m. time slot.
Politico consulted Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post, who said that indeed health care was “bad for ratings, but not talking about it is bad for the American people.” OK, we agree. Then John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC, weighed in: “It’s not only not a cable TV-friendly story; it’s not a journalism-friendly story.” Harwood, who also writes for The New York Times, opined that reporters need to understand the intricacies and nuances of health policy before they inform their audiences. Well, yes. We’ve been offering suggestions of how to do that for nearly two years now.
via Health Reform Too Boring for Broadcast? | CommonDreams.org.
On A World without Growth
On A World without Growth | CommonDreams.org
The following excerpts are from Herman Daly’s interview with ecological economist Tom Green:
Growth is widely thought to be the panacea for all the major economic ills of the modern world. Poverty? Just grow the economy (increase the production of goods and services and spur consumer spending) and watch wealth trickle down. Unemployment? Increase demand for goods and services by lowering interest rates on loans and stimulating investment, which leads to more jobs as well as growth. Overpopulation? Just push economic growth and rely on the resulting demographic transition to reduce birth rates, as it did in the industrial nations during the 20th century. Environmental degradation? Trust in the environmental Kuznets curve, an empirical relation purporting to show that with ongoing growth in gross domestic product (GDP), pollution at first increases but then reaches a maximum and declines.
Relying on growth in this way might be fine if the global economy existed in a void, but it does not. Rather, the economy is a subsystem of the finite biosphere that supports it. When the economy’s expansion encroaches too much on its surrounding ecosystem, we will begin to sacrifice natural capital (such as fish, minerals and fossil fuels) that is worth more than the manufactured capital (such as roads, factories and appliances) added by the growth. We will then have what I call uneconomic growth, producing “bads” faster than goods – making us poorer, not richer. Once we pass the optimal scale, growth becomes stupid in the short run and impossible to maintain in the long run. Evidence suggests that the us may have already entered the uneconomic growth phase.
via On A World without Growth | CommonDreams.org.
Answering the Lies About Health Care Page 425
Answering the Lies About Health Care Page 425
The Republicans and their right-wing henchmen (including some sitting members of Congress) are pulling out all of the stops to destroy any hope of meaningful health care reform in this country. The depths to which they’ve gone to achieve this and to scare the American public are truly unbelievable. There are viral emails, and blog posts based on those emails, rapidly spreading across the Internet, purporting to outline the basic features of the proposed legislation, H.R. 3200. There are outright lies in these emails and blog posts whose only purpose is to frighten the elderly and their care givers in an effort to defeat meaningful Health Care Reform.
Here is just one example, out of many, from one of those emails.
Baucus: ‘No idea’ how he’ll vote on Sotomayor
OPS: He’s a Blue Dog Republican in a Congress where Progressives supposedly out number BD’s. Why the hell does this clown have a committee chair?
Baucus: ‘No idea’ how he’ll vote on Sotomayor – TheHill.com -
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Thursday he hasn’t made up his mind on whether he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Baucus this summer has infuriated liberals on and off Capitol Hill by working to strike a deal with Republicans on healthcare reform. A “no” vote on Sotomayor would be adding fuel to the left’s fire at the Finance Committee chairman.
Baucus on Thursday twice told The Hill he is undecided on next week’s floor vote on Sotomayor.
via TheHill.com – Baucus: ‘No idea’ how he’ll vote on Sotomayor.
Crucial vote on single-payer Medicare for All Happening Today- Call Right Now!
Crucial vote on single-payer Medicare for All Happening Today- Call Right Now!
One week ago, we eagerly anticipated a crucial vote on single-payer Medicare for All ( H.R.676 ) in the House Energy & Commerce Committee, sponsored by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). But then seven BlueDogs waged a highly-publicized war against a “robust public option” and the vote was delayed for a full week.
We just learned the vote will be tomorrow ( Friday ). Based on all of your calls, we have nine single-payer Democrats: Tammy Baldwin, Michael Doyle, Eliot Engel, Anna Eshoo, Gene Green, Edward Markey, Janice Schakowsky, Anthony Weiner, and Peter Welch.
Lean Yes
Diana DeGette CO01 202-225-4431
Jane Harman CA36 202-225-8220
Christopher Murphy CT05 202-225-4476
Frank Pallone NJ06 202-225-4671 @FrankPallone
Bobby Rush IL01 202-225-4372
Five more Democrats are leaning single-payer but still uncommitted. Please call each one and give them one crucial reason to support single-payer from our petition:
http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-petition?cid=ZGVt…
(Be sure to sign our petition and forward it if you haven’t already.)
Be concise and practice in advance so you can speak quickly (or leave a voicemail) because they are getting swamped. Report the results of your calls here:
http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-committee-whip
Public Option Only (or Won’t Say)
Rick Boucher VA09 202-225-3861
Bruce Braley IA01 202-225-2911
G.K. Butterfield NC01 202-225-3101
Lois Capps CA23 202-225-3601
Kathy Castor FL11 202-225-3376
John Dingell MI15 202-225-4071
Charles Gonzalez TX20 202-225-3236
Jay Inslee WA01 202-225-6311 @RepInsleeNews
Doris Matsui CA05 202-225-7163
Jerry McNerney CA11 202-225-1947
John Sarbanes MD03 202-225-4016
Bart Stupak MI01 202-225-4735
Betty Sutton OH13 202-225-3401
Henry Waxman (Chair) CA30 202-225-3976
If you have more time, these 14 Democrats support a “public option” at best. But that “public option” (a new government program to compete with private insurance) was disastrously weakened this week by the BlueDogs. They banned the use of Medicare pricing to reduce costs and thereby expand availability. Try to persuade these 14 to vote for single-payer instead of a worthless BlueDog “public option.”
Don’t let anyone tell you single-payer can’t pass: the Kucinich Amendment for a single-payer “state option” passed by a shocking 25-19 bi-partisan majority in the House Education and Labor Committee on July 17. The Weiner Amendment will pass on Friday if enough Democrats vote for it!
A victory on the Weiner Amendment would make a huge difference. Please call as soon as you get this – night or day.
“Guaranteed Health Care” Rally
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to health care activists on Capitol Hill.
YouTube – “Guaranteed Health Care” Rally.
Overdraft Fees Land Customer $300 Fast-Food Charge
Overdraft Fees Land Customer $300 Fast-Food Charge - – Bloomberg.com
Tracy Hickman’s dinner for three at Taco Bell cost $11.99. She ended up paying $300 for overdraft charges triggered by the meal and other debit purchases.
Hickman says the expense resulted from delays in processing her child-support check at the Zanesville, Ohio, branch of Cleveland-based National City Bank. The 45-year-old customer- service representative said she uses a debit card more these days after canceling her credit cards because of high fees.
“I stopped using credit cards to keep me out of trouble and then got hit with overdraft fees,” Hickman said. “It’s not fair.”
Customers are shifting to debit transactions from charge cards as credit lines have been lowered and banks have closed inactive accounts. Debit cards will be used in 60.2 percent of card transactions in 2010, or about $40 billion, up from 58.2 percent in 2008, according to the Nilson Report, an industry newsletter in Carpinteria, California.
via Overdraft Fees Land Customer $300 Fast-Food Charge (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.
KO Countdown : Health 090730 : Care Scare
Health 2009-07-30
Turning health care into health scare
Have the Blue Dog Democrats fallen for a Republican ruse with their August time out?
Newsweeks Howard Fineman discusses the GOPs scary stall tactics.
YouTube – KO Countdown : Health 090730 : Care Scare.
Weiner Challenges the Republicans to Put-Up or Shut-Up on Healthcare
Anthony Weiner introduces amendement to repeal Medicare; puts Republicans on the Spot
YouTube – Weiner Challenges the Republicans to Put-Up or Shut-Up on Healthcare.
Bank Failures on the Rise
Bank Failures on the Rise – Economyincrisis.org
Small banks which were not recipients of TARP funding have gone under in droves and the FDIC is working overtime just to keep up with the escalating wave of failures.
The banking system in the United States is still being overhauled in the wake of the financial collapse. Small banks which were not recipients of TARP funding have gone under in droves and the FDIC is working overtime just to keep up with the escalating wave of failures.
The “Failed Bank List,” has seen its population for this decade more than double during 2009 alone. From 2000 to 2008 a total of 54 American banks failed. Just eight months into 2009, the U.S. has already seen an additional 64 banks collapse. The latest wave came on July 24 when seven firms went under in one day – six of them were subsidiaries of the same Georgia-based Security Bank Corp.
The rash of collapses has put a great deal of strain on the FDIC, which is obligated to back client deposits within a prescribed range. For most customers, any deposits up to $250,000 will be supported by the government if the bank fails.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
‘Cash for clunkers’ victim of own success
‘Cash for clunkers’ victim of own success – The Raw Story
A government program offering car buyers cash towards the purchase of a new car if they trade in their gas-guzzling models has depleted its one billion-dollar budget in just a few days, officials said Friday.
The Barack Obama administration now is scrambling to find additional money to extend the wildly popular “cash for clunkers” program, which was launched just on Monday.
The program offers owners of old cars and trucks up to 4,500 dollars toward a new, more-efficient vehicle has proven wildly popular, with 22,782 trades certified by federal officials since its inception this week.
via The Raw Story | ‘Cash for clunkers’ victim of own success.
Colbert: Glenn Beck ‘has a deep-seated hatred for logic’
Colbert: Glenn Beck ‘has a deep-seated hatred for logic’ - Raw Story »
President Barack Obama is set to meet with Professor Henry Louis Gates and Sergeant James Crowley early Thursday evening to discuss how the black scholar’s arrest can be a “teaching moment.” Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert used his “The Word” segment to explain how racism is like farts and neither should be discussed.
“Nation, as you know, I don’t see race,” Colbert said. “People tell me I’m white and I believe them because my fridge is full of drinkable yogurt.”
Colbert blasted President Obama, because “six months after racism officially ended, he fanned the flames of prejudice by taking sides in the Gates arrest controversy.”
via Raw Story » Colbert: Glenn Beck ‘has a deep-seated hatred for logic’.
British hacker loses bid to avoid US extradition
British hacker loses bid to avoid US extradition – AFP »
A Brit accused of hacking into US military and NASA computers on Friday lost his latest legal bid to avoid extradition to the United States.
Gary McKinnon, who suffers from a form of autism, could spend life in prison if convicted by a US court of gaining access to 97 computers in 2001 and 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The High Court on Friday rejected his lawyers’ application for a judicial review of a decision last October by then home secretary Jacqui Smith to order his extradition.
McKinnon, 43, says he was only looking for evidence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) when he hacked into the US Navy and NASA space agency computers.
via AFP » British hacker loses bid to avoid US extradition.
After Handing Out Jumbo Stimulus Checks, Jindal Still Refuses To Give Obama Any Credit For Stimulus
After Handing Out Jumbo Stimulus Checks, Jindal Still Refuses To Give Obama Any Credit For Stimulus – Think Progress »
Yesterday on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer asked Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) about the state of the Louisiana economy. Jindal quickly boasted that he was “proud” of his state’s job growth and “economic development.” Given Jindal’s apparent belief that the recession is over in his state, Blitzer then asked if he was willing to give Obama “some credit” for the $3.2 billion dollars Jindal is accepting from the Recovery Act:
Nobody’s Talking About the Silver Bullet That Could Heal the Economy and Cure Most Social Ills
Nobody’s Talking About the Silver Bullet That Could Heal the Economy and Cure Most Social Ills | AlterNet
By Jeff Ritterman, M.D.
Fairer societies simply work better.
Imagine a guidebook on formulating social policy, with instructions on how to extend life expectancy, decrease infant mortality, improve child well-being, reduce obesity, lower homicide rates, decrease school dropout rates, lower teen pregnancy, increase levels of civic trust, improve voter turnout, decrease drug abuse, lower incarceration rates, decrease rates of mental illness, and improve social mobility based on merit.
There’s convincing evidence for all of this and more in The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (Allen Lane). To learn more, go to their Web site, www.equalitytrust.org.uk.
The core message is that the countries that distribute their incomes the most equally have the longest life expectancy and the highest quality of life.
The same is true for states within the U.S.; the more income equality, the longer the life span. Unfortunately, the United States is now the most unequal of the wealthy countries, with the exception of Singapore.
90 Salads In 90 Days: How a Committed Carnivore Convinced Herself to Enjoy Leafy Greens
90 Salads In 90 Days: How a Committed Carnivore Convinced Herself to Enjoy Leafy Greens - AlterNet
“No I didn’t lose any weight,” writes Fields, but her “energy levels shot through the roof.”
Confession: I hate the green stuff. Always have, since I was a little kid. Maybe it has something to do with my (otherwise sainted) babysitter, who used to boil Birdseye frozen veggies mercilessly on the stove for what seemed like hours, then feed us kids the resultant unidentifiable mush. Later, when I was introduced to salad, I was scandalized. “People eat this stuff? But… but… they’re chewing leaves!” To me, it tasted like I imagined cow’s cud must, based on the (admittedly few) times I’d been close enough to see a bovine masticating. In other words, vegetable matter was nothing I’d want to be cramming in my cakehole if there was any sort of alternative (like, for instance, cake) in the offing.
Dobbs ratings reportedly take a nose dive since eruption of birther controversy
OPS: So there IS a limit to right wing insanity after all
Dobbs ratings reportedly take a nose dive since eruption of birther controversy – | Media Matters for America
To wit: According to The Observer’s analysis of Nielsen data, in recent weeks, as criticism of Mr. Dobbs has continued to go up, his ratings at CNN have continued to go down.
Mr. Dobbs’ first began reporting on Obama birth certificate conspiracy theories on the night of Wednesday, July 15. In the roughly two weeks since then, from July 15 through July 28, Mr. Dobbs’ 7 p.m. show on CNN has averaged 653,000 total viewers and 157,000 in the 25-54 demo.
By contrast, during the first two weeks of the month (July 1 to July 14) Mr. Dobbs averaged 771,000 total viewers and 218,000 in the 25-54 demo. In other words, Mr. Dobbs’ audience has decreased 15 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo since the start of the controversy.
How Lou Dobbs scared Rush Limbaugh off the birther story
How Lou Dobbs scared Rush Limbaugh off the birther story | Media Matters for America
I can think of three (inadvertent) positives that came out of Lou Dobbs’ ill-advised embrace of the birther movement:
1) The CNN host has permanently tarnished his reputation
2) The birther movement is officially kaput (like, stick-a-fork-in-it done)
3) Rush Limbaugh is afraid to talk about birthers.
Talk about a win-win-win.
It’s true that Dobbs irresponsibly mainstreamed radical right-fringe players by championing their half-baked claims that Barack Obama isn’t a natural born citizen and is ineligible to serve as president of the United States. Dobbs, at least indirectly, lent the birther movement some fleeting credence as he dragged its misbegotten detective work into the spotlight. And it’s still vitally important to monitor Dobbs and call out CNN management for its dreadful hypocrisy on the birther issue (i.e. The story is “dead” but it’s OK for Dobbs to keep flogging it on national TV).
But there was some good news last week, and it came from watching Dobbs’ slow motion train wreck unfold on the airwaves. It came from seeing how eagerly — how convincingly — the birther claims were debunked, not only online by progressives, but within the mainstream press as well — the same mainstream press that’s often reluctant to show up high-profile media players such as Dobbs, no matter how badly it has botched the facts. And let’s not forget conservatives, who dismissed and ridiculed the birther claims.
via How Lou Dobbs scared Rush Limbaugh off the birther story | Media Matters for America.
Why the Pro-Life Movement Is on the Verge of Civil War
Why the Pro-Life Movement Is on the Verge of Civil War - AlterNet
When it comes to contraception, pro-lifers are alienating their own kind.
Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) is, in many ways, a typical pro-life American. He opposes abortion and, because of that, supports every effort to prevent the need for it. Just like most pro-life Americans, Ryan supports contraception — primarily because it is the most effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy, and thereby abortion. And yet because of this, Ryan no longer qualifies as “pro-life.” He was recently banished from the board of a national pro-life group he served on for four years. Ryan, in return, has turned vocal. He’s leading the call for common ground and pragmatism, and rallying the no longer silent majority of pro-lifers who support contraception. And he is provocatively trying to fight what he views as an unrepresentative slice of pro-lifers, those who can’t bring themselves to support contraception. “The new fault line,” says Ryan, “is not between pro-life and pro-choice people. It’s within the pro-life community. The question now is: ‘are you pro-life and pro-contraception, therefore trying to reduce the need for abortions, or are you pro-life and against contraception and you hope that people’s lives improve just by hoping it, wishing it so.’”
Ryan is committed to preventing abortion so much so that he, unlike every other pro-life legislator in Congress, spent the last few years working to identify the policies proven to reduce the need for abortion. This work, which he undertook with The Third Way, a center-left think tank, resulted in the “Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act.” It’s also called the Ryan-DeLauro bill, named for him and his co-sponsor Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT.) As thanks for his outspoken leadership in trying to make abortion less prevalent, Congressman Ryan was removed from the board of Democrats for Life of America, and with it, disowned by the pro-life movement at large. Pro-life publications have taken to qualifying his pro-life status as “allegedly” pro life or referring to him as someone “who claims to be” pro-life. Because of his support of prevention in 2007-2008 congressional session, Ryan received a “0″ rating from National Right to Life Committee. According to the pro-life establishment’s new standards, his support for prevention means he no longer qualifies as “pro-life.” And that means very few pro-life Americans will either.
via Why the Pro-Life Movement Is on the Verge of Civil War | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet.
Study: Bank Bonuses Far Exceeded Profits
Study: Bank Bonuses Far Exceeded Profits - CBS News
Several Bailed-Out Banks’ Bonuses Topped Their Net Income in 2008, According To N.Y. AG’s Report
Several financial giants that received federal bailout money in the last year paid out bonuses to employees in 2008 that greatly exceeded the amount of profit generated by the banks, according to a study on executive compensation released by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday.
Despite claims by bank executives that bonuses are tied to the company’s performance, the report states that “there is no clear rhyme or reason to how the banks compensate or reward their employees.”
Cuomo’s investigation “suggests a disconnect between compensation and bank performance that resulted in a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ bonus system.”
According to the report:
via Study: Bank Bonuses Far Exceeded Profits – CBS News.
Real Journalism: A Prerequisite for Real Debate on Healthcare
Real Journalism: A Prerequisite for Real Debate on Healthcare | CommonDreams.org
by Isabel Macdonald
For coverage of our delivery of FAIR’s ongoing petition demanding that the TV networks cover proposals for a single-payer or Medicare-for-all system to ABC News’ NYC studio, you can tune into Democracy Now!–a media outlet that could teach the networks a thing or two about how to contribute to, rather than interfere with, the public debate on healthcare reform.
If the public has managed to get any TV news at all about single-payer, or to hear the perspectives of the large numbers of physicians and citizens who support this proposal, it is thanks to outlets like DN! and shows like the Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.
Given that 59 percent of the public, and an equal percentage of physicians, support single-payer, according to recent polls, one would think that the inclusion of this proposal in the media debate would be a no-brainer for any self-respecting journalist.
After all, we hear so much about the soaring costs of U.S. healthcare and the tens of millions of uninsured Americans, and we know that single-payer systems have been successful in keeping healthcare costs down, while providing broad universal coverage, in other industrialized countries.
via Real Journalism: A Prerequisite for Real Debate on Healthcare | CommonDreams.org.
Grow a Pair, Obama
Grow a Pair, Obama – The Daily Beast
by Larry Flynt
In a Daily Beast exclusive, Larry Flynt, the notorious publisher of Hustler magazine, tells the president to toughen up, keep his campaign promises, and start whacking the Republicans.
President Obama:
You have proven to be a great campaigner. You have yet to demonstrate your ability to govern. Who needs the Republicans? They don’t know what compromise is. They’re just out to derail your presidency. Bitch slap ’em at every opportunity and put them in their place. They lost; you didn’t.
You need some gonads, Mr. President, and if you don’t have any, as Hillary would say, you’d better grow some.
As for disloyal Democrats, you need to yank the carpet out from under them. Remind them that their survival is dependent upon yours. Don’t pull punches, Mr. President. You need some gonads, and if you don’t have any, as Hillary would say, you’d better grow some.
You have failed to keep many campaign promises. You’ve ignored civil-liberty violations such as warrantless wiretapping. You passed a stimulus package that is obviously full of pork for Democrats. You handed over billions more in taxpayer dollars to crooked bankers. You listened to the very people who created our economic meltdown, the Mutt and Jeff team of Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. You’ve let the insurance lobbyists hijack health-care reform to the detriment of every man, woman, and child in America.
via Grow a Pair, Obama – The Daily Beast.
Banks Paid $32.6 Billion in Bonuses Amid U.S. Bailout
Banks Paid $32.6 Billion in Bonuses Amid U.S. Bailout – Bloomberg.com
Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and seven other U.S. banks paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008 while receiving $175 billion in taxpayer funds, according to a report by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo analyzed 2008 bonuses at nine banks that received Trouble Asset Relief Program financing from the U.S. government. New York-based Citigroup and Merrill, which has since been taken over by Bank of America Corp., received TARP funding totaling $55 billion, Cuomo said.
“When the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well,” Cuomo’s office said in the 22-page report. “When the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well. Bonuses and overall compensation did not vary significantly as profits diminished.”
The study, called “No Rhyme or Reason: The ‘Heads I Win, Tails You Lose’ Bank Bonus Culture,” comes as Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission examine whether to limit the compensation paid to top corporate executives.
via Banks Paid $32.6 Billion in Bonuses Amid U.S. Bailout (Update4) – Bloomberg.com.
Kucinich Calls for Debate on National Priorities, Speaks Against Military Funding Bill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2009
3:00 PM
CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Nathan White (202)225-5871
CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich,
Kucinich Calls for Debate on National Priorities, Speaks Against Military Funding Bill
WASHINGTON – July 30 – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today spoke out forcefully against the $636 billion Defense Appropriations bill, saying it continues to fund the immoral war in Iraq while ramping up U.S. operations in Afghanistan.
“We are discussing a $636 billion appropriations bill which will fund the continuation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress has been gripped for months by a debate surrounding health care reform, but we will only have a brief debate about spending $636 billion dollars and the wars that money will fund. That is not enough.
“We need to have a serious debate about the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the priorities of this nation. We need to discuss our options and we must immediately withdraw U.S. troops and contractors, not just combat troops, but all of our troops. It is time for this body to rethink the validity of funding military operations throughout the world when we have so many priorities that need to be addressed at home.
“Just today we saw a memo from Col. Timothy R. Reese, Chief, Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team, who wrote, ‘Our combat troops are currently the victim of circular logic. We conduct operations to kill or capture violent extremists of all types to protect the Iraqi people and support the Government of Iraq. The violent extremists attack us because we are still here conducting military operations.’
“The U.S. military is unmatched. Since 2001, total U.S. defense spending has increased by nearly 80 Percent. Furthermore, we are spending more on defense than all of the other countries of the world combined. 56 percent of the entire discretionary budget for fiscal year 2010 will be used to fund the defense department.
“I do not believe that the priority this body continues to place on funding our the military industrial complex is consistent with the priorities and values of the American people. This bill includes over $600 billion in spending while only a small fraction is dedicated to non-proliferation activities. However, in December 2008 World Public Opinion found that 77 percent of Americans favor an international agreement for eliminating all nuclear weapons.
“This war has taken the lives of 4,330 of our brave and honorable troops. Over 1 million Iraqi civilians have been killed. The war in Afghanistan has taken the lives of another 753 of our beloved military service members. As the U.S. continues to ramp up operations in Afghanistan, these numbers, as well as injury numbers, will continue to grow.”
Single-payer system cuts barriers to care
Single-payer system cuts barriers to care – Opinion – The Sun News
Beth Cardosi, M.D.
I’m a physician in South Carolina. I have firsthand experience regarding our broken, wasteful health care system.
On a daily basis I care for the uninsured who have no jobs (often because of layoffs or illness) and have no money or access to health care providers. These people often come to the emergency departments with minor issues that could be handled simply as an outpatient if there were a place for them to be treated, or they are seen with life-threatening illnesses because they couldn’t receive the proper treatment for their chronic illness (i.e. high blood pressure and diabetes) or couldn’t receive preventive care and now have untreatable cancer. These people show up where the care is the most expensive because they won’t get turned away.
But what I find happening more these days is that these numbers are growing. People often have jobs that don’t cover health care, or it’s too expensive for the small-business owner to afford (small businesses are paying twice what large businesses pay for the same coverage). People can’t afford their medications or even their co-payments for office visits if they are lucky enough to have insurance.
via Single-payer system cuts barriers to care – Opinion – The Sun News.
Health Care Realities
OPS: IF the Progressive caucus is larger than the Blue Dog mafia, why the hell have the BD’s and Republicans been running the show up to this point? Why is it NOW that the Progressives are finally “pushing back” on bills that Blue Dog Republicans and Republicans have created? If the Progressives are in the majority, why are there any Blue Dog Republicans in Chairmanships? And Why are Pelosi and Reid still in their positions? Where’s my change dude?
Health Care Realities - NYTimes.com
Paul Krugman
At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program — but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.”
It’s a funny story — but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It’s not just that many Americans don’t understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don’t understand the way American health care works right now. They don’t understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn’t be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.
And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all.
The key thing you need to know about health care is that it depends crucially on insurance. You don’t know when or whether you’ll need treatment — but if you do, treatment can be extremely expensive, well beyond what most people can pay out of pocket. Triple coronary bypasses, not routine doctor’s visits, are where the real money is, so insurance is essential.
via Op-Ed Columnist – Health Care Realities – NYTimes.com.
Daniel Patrick Boyd’s “Terrorist group” in North Carolina received substantial aid from the CIA in the past , says investigative journalist Wayne Madsen
Daniel Patrick Boyd’s “Terrorist group” in North Carolina received substantial aid from the CIA in the past , says investigative journalist Wayne Madsen.
Find more videos like this on 12.160Mhz
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) -Depression Cure
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) -Depression Cure
Researchers at the Depression Center and University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry have developed a new option for the treatment of depression called Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS).
The method is noninvasive (no surgery), involves no medications, and requires no sedation.
The treatment is specifically targeted at the thirty percent of individuals who do not respond or cannot tolerate present depression treatments.
rTMS uses highly focused pulsed magnetic energy (20 MHz) to stimulate nerve cells the area of the brain that is linked to depression. Treatments last 40 minutes and are administered daily for four to six weeks.
via Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) -Depression Cure.
Congress wants say on Wall Street pay
Congress wants say on Wall Street pay – Salon.com
“The problem with executive compensation is essentially, from the systemic standpoint, that it gives perverse incentives,” said Frank, D-Mass.
WASHINGTON — Congress wants to give the government a direct role in deciding how much executives on Wall Street are paid, after the nation’s biggest banks accepted billions in taxpayer money and still managed to distribute $1 million bonuses to thousands of employees.
The House was expected to pass legislation Friday by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, that would ban “incentive-based” pay that could threaten the economy or viability of the institution.
The bill, which would give regulators nine months to hash out the details, would give the government unprecedented say in how private corporations reward brokers and traders.
Democrats said excessive salaries and bonuses risk harming the broader economy.
via Congress wants say on Wall Street pay – Salon.com.
Foreign investors snap up African farmland
OPS: …and soon Fresh Water will become more important food or oil
Foreign investors snap up African farmland | Salon News
With population set to skyrocket, food is the new oil
Every crisis has its winners. A group of them is sitting in the Stuyvesant Room at the Marriott Hotel in New York. The conference room, where the shades are drawn and the lights are dimmed, is filled with men from Iowa, São Paulo and Sydney — corn farmers, big landowners and fund managers. Each of them has paid $1,995 to attend Global AgInvesting 2009, the first investors’ conference on the emerging worldwide market in farmland.
A man from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) gives the first presentation. Colorful graphs travel up and down his PowerPoint charts. Some are headed downward as the year 2050 approaches. They represent the farmland that is disappearing as a result of climate change, soil desolation, urbanization and the shortage of water. The other lines, which point sharply upward, represent demand for meat and biofuel, food prices and population growth. There is a growing gap between the two sets of lines. It represents hunger.
According to most prognoses, there could be 9.1 billion people living on Earth in 2050, about 2 billion more than today. In the coming 20 years alone, worldwide demand for food is expected to rise by 50 percent. “These are pessimistic prospects,” says the OECD man. He looks serious and even a little sad as he describes the future of the world.
via Foreign investors snap up African farmland | Salon News.
It just might be time for a Gen. George S. Obama strategy
It just might be time for a Gen. George S. Obama strategy | BuzzFlash.org
It just might be time for a Gen. George S. Obama strategy. Or perhaps a military metaphor would better inspire the White House to greater heights of determined animation; let’s say, the 1944 unbowdlerized words of Gen. George Patton to his troops: “I don’t want to get any messages saying, ‘I am holding my position.’ We are not holding a goddamned thing. Let the [reactionaries] do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time.”
THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter
Maybe it’s not hardwired in all human animals, but it unquestionably is in the American species: that headlong eagerness to accept dark rumors before upbeat facts, to relish the luringly sordid over the passably virtuous, to embrace the cynical tale while discounting the positive — all of which is why, for instance, those biennially grainy, slo-mo, B&W negative political ads work so consistently well.
It’s also why, as the New York Times reports, “President Obama’s ability to shape the debate on health care appears to be eroding,” as evidenced by the paper’s polling of his 10-point approval-rating drop since April, as well as other statistical downers, such as the NBC/Wall Street Journal’s finding that only 36 percent now ordain Obama’s health-care plan “a good idea.”
After all, consider which is the sexier in this double helix of unfolding events: Obama’s “opponents,” says the Times, “aggressively portray his overhaul plan as a government takeover” (as Obama counters that “nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care”), and “that,” continues the reporting, “could limit Americans’ ability to choose their doctors and course of treatment” (against which Obama then parries, “Under the reform I’ve proposed, if you like your doctor, you keep your doctor; if you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan.”)
No contest. Foreboding tales of despotic takeovers and brutal limitations will memorably capture the eye, ear, and brain, well before any defensive thrashings about. The former sticks, while the latter is greeted by, Yeah, but what about …
via It just might be time for a Gen. George S. Obama strategy | BuzzFlash.org.
Rove Played Greater Role in Prosecutor Firings Than Previously Known
Rove Played Greater Role in Prosecutor Firings Than Previously Known – - washingtonpost.com
Political adviser Karl Rove and other high-ranking figures in the Bush White House played a greater role than previously understood in the firing of federal prosecutors almost three years ago, according to e-mails obtained by The Washington Post, in a scandal that led to mass Justice Department resignations and an ongoing criminal probe.
The e-mails and new interviews with key participants reflect contacts among Rove, aides in the Bush political affairs office and White House lawyers about the dismissal of three of the nine U.S. attorneys fired in 2006: New Mexico’s David C. Iglesias, the focus of ire from GOP lawmakers; Missouri’s Todd Graves, who had clashed with one of Rove’s former clients; and Arkansas’s Bud Cummins, who was pushed out to make way for a Rove protege.
The documents and interviews provide new information about efforts by political aides in the Bush White House, for example, to push a former colleague as a favored candidate for one of the U.S. attorney posts. They also reflect the intensity of efforts by lawmakers and party officials in New Mexico to unseat the top prosecutor there. Rove described himself as merely passing along complaints by senators and state party officials to White House lawyers.
via Rove Played Greater Role in Prosecutor Firings Than Previously Known – washingtonpost.com.
With House food-safety bill on the verge of passing, questions remain
With House food-safety bill on the verge of passing, questions remain | Grist
The House will vote today on a momentous, controversial plan to overhaul a large swath of the nation’s food-safety system.
The vote comes amid yet another round of recalls. On Tuesday, the FDA announced the voluntary recall of “one lot” of salmonella-tainted cilantro, distributed by a company called Frontera Produce.
The agency did not define how much cilantro makes up a lot, but it must be, well, a lot, because “the lot in question, 118122, was distributed to two retail store chains in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana, and New Mexico,” the press release states.
Yet again, the sieve-like nature of our food-safety system comes into relief. According to the FDA:
This product originated in Mexico and was procured by Frontera Produce, who [sic] subsequently routinely tested for contaminants as part of their internal food safety program.
via With House food-safety bill on the verge of passing, questions remain | Grist.
75% Favor Auditing The Fed
75% Favor Auditing The Fed - Rasmussen Reports™
So much for the ongoing secrecy of the nation’s independent central banking system. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Americans favor auditing the Federal Reserve and making the results available to the public.
Just nine percent (9%) of adults think that’s a bad idea and oppose it. Fifteen percent (15%) aren’t sure.
Over half the members of the House now support a bill giving the Government Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative agency, the authorization to audit the books of the Federal Reserve Board.
Support for the bill has grown now that the Obama administration is proposing to give the Fed greater economic regulatory powers. The Fed which sets U.S. monetary policy was created as an independent agency to keep it free of politically-motivated interference.
via Rasmussen Reports™: The Most Comprehensive Public Opinion Data Anywhere.
Drastic Times, Draconian Measures
OPS: The Fascist Conservatives are winning
Drastic Times, Draconian Measures
For the vast majority of states, the recession has been accompanied by fiscal emergencies that have forced lawmakers to make extremely difficult decisions. In all, 39 states have reduced services to residents.
Unlike the federal government, states – with the exception of Vermont – are constitutionally required to balance their budgets each fiscal year, which has proven to be an extremely difficult task for most states as tax revenues plummet and residents increasingly require services.
According to The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 48 states have addressed or are still addressing budget shortfalls for the 2010 fiscal year totaling $163 billion.
Only mineral-rich states such as New Mexico, Alaska, and Montana have been spared. Those states have fared rather well as energy prices have steadily increased over the past year.
But, for the vast majority of states, the recession has been accompanied by fiscal emergencies that have forced lawmakers to make extremely difficult decisions. In all, according to the CBPP, 39 states have reduced services to residents.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Expert: Small Businesses To Be ‘The Most Helped’ By Healthcare Reform Plan
Expert: Small Businesses To Be ‘The Most Helped’ By Healthcare Reform Plan – On The Hill:
Congressional Democrats and other supporters of comprehensive healthcare reform are following President Obama’s lead in focusing on how reform will assist American small businesses.
In the battle to approve health reform in Congress, the White House Council of Economic Advisers last week released a report on the impact of health reform on the nation’s small businesses.
“The part of the economy that is going to be the most helped by health reform is small business,” says Peter Harbage, a fellow at the Center for American Progress, a well-known progressive think tank in Washington. “Today we have a system where small business owners are not only supposed to know their trade but they are supposed to understand the complexities of the health insurance market. Health reform can help ease that burden by simplifying the rules and making the rules more fair for small business.”
via On The Hill: Expert: Small Businesses To Be ‘The Most Helped’ By Healthcare Reform Plan.
Message to Democrats on filibusters: one strike and you’re out
Message to Democrats on filibusters: one strike and you’re out
Exactly where did these so-called moderate Democrats in the Senate get the inane idea they have a license to obstruct key features of the party’s agenda? Just who was the nitwit who told them it will be just fine, peachy keen even, if they decide to pay off their corporate overlords by joining a GOP filibuster? Who gave them the crazy idea that they have a God given right to prevent a fair up or down vote on one of their party’s top legislative initiatives, such as health care reform? Seriously, who’s the bozo who told them that? Because, I’ve gotta tell you, I want to give that dude a piece of my mind (and fair introduction to my boot).
Kent Conrad, a “Democratic” senator from North Dakota, for example, seems particularly enthusiastic about his potential seat on the Obstructionism Express. He’s been happily advising anyone who’ll listen that the public option in health care reform is dead in the Senate. Why? Because it can’t get 60 votes, or so Conrad insists, meaning that any plan which includes a public option will be filibustered to death: which is kind of big deal when you consider that a public option is absolutely essential to meaningful reform (now that the more logical and efficient single-payer option has been relegated to political Siberia by the media and political elite).
Health Care Reform: 450,000 Doctors Can’t Be Wrong
The U.S. has a catastrophically fragmented health care system that provides incentives for sick care instead of prevention. The system is in dire need of reform — reform to save lives, to save families and to save money for both patients and the American health care system.
Stand with more than 450,000 doctors who support health care reform. Call Congress: (202) 224-3121.
YouTube – Health Care Reform: 450,000 Doctors Can’t Be Wrong.
The Republicans Can’t Afford for America to Succeed: That’s Why They Oppose the Government Option
The Republicans Can’t Afford for America to Succeed: That’s Why They Oppose the Government Option | BuzzFlash.org
BUZZFLASH EDITOR’S BLOG By Mark Karlin
The goal of Wall Street in terms of consumers is to drive people into debt.
Given that America has been a nation that has experienced a steady decline in producing real “things,” our biggest product now — by far — is debt and the interest consumers pay on it. As some perceptive economists have pointed out, the stagnant and disappearing wages of the American worker have been replaced with staggering debt. And on this debt, we pay interest that goes to Wall Street — where they gamble it away — after buying off enough senators and representatives to ensure that they, in the words of Assistant Majority Leader Senator Dick Durbin, control Capitol Hill.
Therefore, if everybody is insured for healthcare, that means there will be billions of dollars in less debt for banks to charge usurious interest rates on.
Are you beginning to get the picture?
Republicans opposed Social Security in the ’30s and Medicare in the ’60s. They champion government aid for banks and businesses “too big to fail,” but call it welfare and a violation of “the free [really fixed] market” if aid is proposed for the broken working class.
Public Option Could Save Billions on Non-Emergency Treatment in ERs
Public Option Could Save Billions on Non-Emergency Treatment in ERs - Pensito Review »
As the debate over health care reform plays out in Washington, we’re hearing a lot from opponents of reform about the cost of government insurance but little in the way of countervailing arguments from proponents about savings.
One of the most pernicious dysfunctions of the current health care system is that it often puts uninsured people, particularly workers with low and mid-level incomes, in the position of going to emergency rooms for treatment for non-emergency medical problems. This not only puts additional stress on emergency services, it is the least effective way to deliver non-emergency treatment, primarily because ER doctors usually don’t know patients’ medical histories or have access to their records.
via Pensito Review » Public Option Could Save Billions on Non-Emergency Treatment in ERs.
Scientists Untangle Multiple Causes of Bee Colony Disorder
Scientists Untangle Multiple Causes of Bee Colony Disorder
A microscopic pathogen and pesticides embedded in old honeycombs are two major contributors to the bee disease known as colony collapse disorder, which has wiped out thousands of beehives throughout the United States and Europe over the past three years, new research at Washington State University has confirmed.
Working on the project funded in part by regional beekeepers and WSU’s Agricultural Research Center, entomology professor Steve Sheppard and his team have narrowed the list of potential causes for colony collapse disorder.
“One of the first things we looked at was the pesticide levels in the wax of older honeycombs,” Sheppard said. Using combs contributed by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Sheppard found “fairly high levels of pesticide residue.”
Bees raised in those hives “had significantly reduced longevity,” he said.
One easy solution is for beekeepers to change honeycombs more often. In Europe, for example, apiarists change combs every three years.
via Scientists Untangle Multiple Causes of Bee Colony Disorder.
Dismantling the Empire
Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire - Tomgram
And Ten Steps to Take to Do So
By Chalmers Johnson
However ambitious President Barack Obama’s domestic plans, one unacknowledged issue has the potential to destroy any reform efforts he might launch. Think of it as the 800-pound gorilla in the American living room: our longstanding reliance on imperialism and militarism in our relations with other countries and the vast, potentially ruinous global empire of bases that goes with it. The failure to begin to deal with our bloated military establishment and the profligate use of it in missions for which it is hopelessly inappropriate will, sooner rather than later, condemn the United States to a devastating trio of consequences: imperial overstretch, perpetual war, and insolvency, leading to a likely collapse similar to that of the former Soviet Union.
According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In just one such country, Japan, at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to U.S. military forces living and working there — 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan.
via Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Dismantling the Empire.
Vegetable gardens crop up in Seattle parking strips
Vegetable gardens crop up in Seattle parking strips- | Seattle Times Newspaper
he Seattle City Council is working to increase availability of affordable, locally grown food. One approach: allowing folks to grow vegetable gardens in parking strips — the no man’s land between sidewalk and curb.
We’ve all heard the foodie mantra: Eat Local.
It’s going gangbusters in grocery stores that increasingly tout local produce. Now, area government has gotten involved, too.
No, the City Council isn’t pushing expensive arugula. Instead, it’s trying to increase the availability of locally grown food, especially for those least able to afford it.
“I think there’s a real transformation happening,” said Branden Born, assistant professor of urban design and planning at the University of Washington.
Some of this shift involves research projects and nonbinding resolutions, which are essentially invisible to ordinary citizens. But for tangible evidence — actual growing evidence — you need look no further than the lowly curb in front of your home.
via Home & Garden | Vegetable gardens crop up in Seattle parking strips | Seattle Times Newspaper.
Food Companies Fight Soda Tax Proposal Despite Staggering Obesity Epidemic (VIDEO)
Food Companies Fight Soda Tax Proposal Despite Staggering Obesity Epidemic (VIDEO)
This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) held the first ever conference on obesity titled “The Weight Of The Nation.” Obesity is a serious public health crisis, and according to new numbers released by the Journal of Health Affairs, spending on obesity-related health costs has doubled over the last decade, reaching a staggering $147 billion a year.
But Americans did not get fat overnight, nor is it simply a result of gluttony, bad choices or laziness. Food policy over decades has made corn syrup-based junk foods like soda and processed foods, with little nutritional value, fast, cheap and easy. Huffington Post, in conjunction with the Gotham Gazette, just did a mapping project of the availability of fresh produce in New York City and found that the wealthier the neighborhood, the better the access to fresh, healthy food.
One proposal currently on the table to help fund President Obama’s health care initiative is a 3 cent tax on soda and sugary beverages — culprits in the high calorie, no nutritional value product market. This proposal would generate $24 billion over the next 4 years.
via Food Companies Fight Soda Tax Proposal Despite Staggering Obesity Epidemic (VIDEO).
SC Man Charged With Having Sex With Horse…Again
Rodell Vereen: SC Man Charged With Having Sex With Horse
A South Carolina man was charged with having sex with a horse after the animal’s owner caught the act on videotape, then staked out the stable and caught him at shotgun point, authorities said Wednesday.
But this wasn’t the first time Rodell Vereen has been charged with buggery. He pleaded guilty last year to having sex with the same horse after owner Barbara Kenley found him in the same stable and was sentenced to probation and placed on the state’s sex offender list.
Kenley said she noticed several weeks ago her 21-year-old horse Sugar was acting strange and getting infections again. She noticed things in the barn had been moved around – dirt piled up and bales of hay stacked near the horse’s stall at her Lazy B Stables in Longs, about 20 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach.
via Rodell Vereen: SC Man Charged With Having Sex With Horse.
Crooked Cops Caught Plotting To Frame Motorist (VIDEO)
Crooked Cops Caught Plotting To Frame Motorist (VIDEO)
Four Florida police officers are seen in the dashboard camera plotting to blame a traffic accident on the woman one of them had hit with their patrol car. WTVJ-TV’s Amara Sohn reports.
via Crooked Cops Caught Plotting To Frame Motorist (VIDEO).
Visa Quarterly Profit Jumps 73 % Amid Recession
Visa Quarterly Profit Jumps 73 Percent Amid Recession
BOSTON — Visa Inc. on Wednesday said its fiscal third-quarter profit jumped nearly 73 percent, as recent cost-cutting helped offset declining payment processing volume driven down by the recession.
Executives with the world’s largest electronic payment network said they see recent stabilization in the economy. They offered a slightly more optimistic outlook for Visa’s fiscal fourth quarter, citing recent moderation in the payment volume decline.
“The velocity of the downturn has slowed,” Chief Financial Officer Byron Pollitt told analysts on a conference call, adding that it was too early to characterize the shift as a broad economic turnaround.
via Visa Quarterly Profit Jumps 73 Percent Amid Recession.
Arianna Discusses Executive Compensation, Financial Crisis With Howard Dean (VIDEO)
Arianna Discusses Executive Compensation, Financial Crisis With Howard Dean (VIDEO)
Arianna appeared on “Countdown” tonight, guest-hosted by Howard Dean, to discuss the dysfunctional financial industry, and in particular Congress’s battle to ensure that executive compensation doesn’t stem from CEOs making risky moves that are not in the interest of shareholders and that could threaten the system itself.
WATCH:
via Huff TV: Arianna Discusses Executive Compensation, Financial Crisis With Howard Dean (VIDEO).
A 7-Step Plan To Boost Your Low Thyroid And Metabolism
A 7-Step Plan To Boost Your Low Thyroid And Metabolism
Mark Hyman, MD
Last week, I told you about low thyroid function and how it affects more than 30 million women and 15 million men.
So why are we seeing such an epidemic of thyroid problems?
Well, chronic thyroid problems can be caused by many factors …
via Mark Hyman, MD: A 7-Step Plan To Boost Your Low Thyroid And Metabolism.
Dems warn Baucus with gavel threat
OPS: It’s about damned time. No Blue Dog should have any power, other than their one vote, going forward. They are a obstructionist as any other Republican
Dems warn Baucus with gavel threat - TheHill.com -
In an apparent warning to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), some liberal Democrats have suggested a secret-ballot vote every two years on whether or not to strip committee chairmen of their gavels.
Baucus, who is more conservative than most of the Democratic Conference, has frustrated many of his liberal colleagues by negotiating for weeks with Republicans over healthcare reform without producing a bill or even much detail about the policies he is considering.
via TheHill.com – Dems warn Baucus with gavel threat.
Climate Bill Provides Real Cost Relief for Consumers
Climate Bill Provides Real Cost Relief for Consumers - Political Affairs Magazine -
While most people understand the urgency of climate change, one of the top concerns many working families have with a cap-and-trade system is added costs for energy.
During the House debate on the cap-and-trade program included in the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which passed in June, Republicans exploited this concern by inaccurately citing an MIT study that showed that some consumers could expect higher energy costs under a cap-and-trade system. While the MIT study actually reported a price rise of around $31 for most customers, the Republicans in blasting the climate change legislation claimed the report estimated prices would go up by more than $3,000 annually.
Bad math and fear-mongering aside, the impact of the cap-and-trade program on the cost of electricity, natural gas and home heating oil remains a real concern for working families.
Concerns about higher prices of energy come from the fact that under the cap-and-trade system the emission of greenhouse gas pollution will be regulated by requiring polluters to hold a permit, or an allowance, for each ton of carbon pollution emitted. Allowances will be purchased for between $10 now and $13.60 in 2016, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimate.
Charging this extra fee, some claim, will trickle down to households and smaller businesses in the form of higher prices.
via Political Affairs Magazine – Climate Bill Provides Real Cost Relief for Consumers.
U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq – Time ‘to Go Home’
U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’ – NYTimes.com
A senior American military adviser in Baghdad has concluded in an unusually blunt memo that the Iraqi forces suffer from deeply entrenched deficiencies but are now capable of protecting the Iraqi government, and that it is time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.”
Prepared by Col. Timothy R. Reese, an adviser to the Iraqi military’s Baghdad command, the memorandum asserts that the Iraqi forces have an array of problems, including corruption, poor management and the inability to resist political pressure from Shiite political parties.
For all of these problems, however, Colonel Reese argues that Iraqi forces are competent enough to hold off Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias and other internal threats to the Iraqi government. Extending the American military presence in Iraq beyond 2010, he argues, will do little to improve the Iraqis’ military performance while fueling a growing resentment.
via U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq – Time ‘to Go Home’ – NYTimes.com.
America’s Expansive Bioweapons Industrial Complex
America’s Expansive Bioweapons Industrial Complex
The dystopian British sci-fi film 28 Days Later opens with animal rights activists breaking into the Cambridge Primate Research facility to free chimpanzees used in a secret weapons program.
Terrified by the intrusion, a scientist warns the raiders that the chimps are infected with a genetically-modified pathogen. Ignoring his admonition, the chimps are let loose from their cages and immediately attack everyone in sight, unleashing a plague of unimaginable proportions.
Despite the film’s fanciful scenario (with animal rights’ campaigners clearly focused in the cross-hairs) this grim, cautionary tale does contain a kernel of truth. While marauding gangs of flesh-eating zombies haven’t invaded our cities, a subtler threat looms on the horizon.
The sixth anniversary of the murder of British bioweapons expert Dr. David Kelly on July 17, 2003, lifted the lid on more than government lies that smoothed the way for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq; it exposed the shadowy world of germ warfare research in Britain and the United States.
via America’s Expansive Bioweapons Industrial Complex.
GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans
GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans
We should think twice before we eat that next box of American breakfast cereal… SCIENTISTS ARE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO STUDY GMOs!
Scientific Tests Must Be Approved by Industry First
by F. William Engdahl
One of the great mysteries surrounding the spread of GMO plants around the world since the first commercial crops were released in the early 1990’s in the USA and Argentina has been the absence of independent scientific studies of possible long-term effects of a diet of GMO plants on humans or even rats. Now it has come to light the real reason. The GMO agribusiness companies like Monsanto, BASF, Pioneer, Syngenta and others prohibit independent research.
An editorial in the respected American scientific monthly magazine, Scientific American, August 2009 reveals the shocking and alarming reality behind the proliferation of GMO products throughout the food chain of the planet since 1994. There are no independent scientific studies published in any reputed scientific journal in the world for one simple reason. It is impossible to independently verify that GMO crops such as Monsanto Roundup Ready Soybeans or MON8110 GMO maize perform as the company claims, or that, as the company also claims, that they have no harmful side effects because the GMO companies forbid such tests!
That’s right. As a precondition to buy seeds, either to plant for crops or to use in research study, Monsanto and the gene giant companies must first sign an End User Agreement with the company. For the past decade, the period when the greatest proliferation of GMO seeds in agriculture has taken place, Monsanto, Pioneer (DuPont) and Syngenta require anyone buying their GMO seeds to sign an agreement that explicitly forbids that the seeds be used for any independent research. Scientists are prohibited from testing a seed to explore under what conditions it flourishes or even fails. They cannot compare any characteristics of the GMO seed with any other GMO or non-GMO seeds from another company. Most alarming, they are prohibited from examining whether the genetically modified crops lead to unintended side-effects either in the environment or in animals or humans.
The only research which is permitted to be published in reputable scientific peer-reviewed journals are studies which have been pre-approved by Monsanto and the other industry GMO firms.
via GMO Scandal: The Long Term Effects of Genetically Modified Food on Humans.
A Secret Physiological Link Between Affinity for Guns & Affinity for Health Insurance Bureaucrats?
A Secret Physiological Link Between Affinity for Guns & Affinity for Health Insurance Bureaucrats? – Open Left::
by: David Sirota
In recent posts and in my last column, I noted that there’s an unspoken deal between D.C. reporters and “Blue Dog” Democrats to explain Blue Dog opposition to health insurance regulation, unionization, Wall Street reform and pollution controls as a direct outgrowth of them representing culturally conservative heartland districts. This “they’re just voting their districts” myth posits that culturally conservative working-class voters’ affinity for guns, love for Jesus and/or hatred of gays somehow automatically means they are huge fans of health insurance corporations, air pollution, abusive employers and Goldman Sachs executives.
What’s really amazing about this fairy tale is that it is so ingrained in Washington that it’s preposterous supposition isn’t even explained – it’s just assumed fact, presented as so totally obvious as to go without examination. This story about health care reform from the Wall Street Journal’s Naftali Bendavid provides a perfect example of what I’m talking about:
The Blue Dogs’ numbers expanded with the election of lawmakers such as North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler, an ex-Washington Redskins quarterback who opposes abortion, gun control and gay marriage…
Beyond health care, the Blue Dogs have helped delay a climate-change bill and block legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize…
Rep. Shuler, for his part, said that before agreeing to run, he spoke to Rep. Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to make sure he’d have the freedom he needed.
“One conversation I had with both of them before coming to Congress was, ‘I’m going to vote my district,’” Rep. Shuler said. “It’s one of those swing districts that can go either way…They’re aware of that.”
Global poll finds 73% want higher priority for climate change
Global poll finds 73% want higher priority for climate change – || guardian.co.uk
Britons among the most enthusiastic about action to stop global warming, while Americans among least willing to put environment first, according to global public opinion poll
A majority of peoples around the world want their governments to put action on climate change at the top of the political agenda, a new global public opinion poll suggests.
Unfortunately for Barack Obama though, who has put energy reform at the top of his White House to-do list, Americans are not necessarily among them.
Only 44% of Americans thought climate change should be a major preoccupation for the Obama administration, the survey co-ordinated by the University of Maryland’s Programme on International Policy Attitudes said. The only other two countries unwilling to see their governments make climate change a top focus were Iraq and the Palestinian territories. In 15 other countries though there was strong support for governments to do more to deal with climate change.
via Global poll finds 73% want higher priority for climate change | Environment | guardian.co.uk.
Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks Exclusively to ABC News
OPS: preparing the way for deepening the Police State…. “so we can protect your freedoms better” - no doubt
Holder: Homegrown Terror Threat Increasing – - ABC News
In ABC News Exclusive, Attorney General Eric Holder Says ‘American People Would be Surprised by the Depth of the Threat’
Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News in an exclusive interview today that he is increasingly concerned about Americans becoming radicalized and turning to terrorism.
“I mean, that’s one of the things that’s particularly troubling: This whole notion of radicalization of Americans,” Holder told ABC News during an interview in his SUV as his motorcade brought him from home to work. “Leaving this country and going to different parts of the world and then coming back, all, again, in aim of doing harm to the American people, is a great concern.”
Holder said the ever-changing threat of terror and the pressure to keep up with it weighs heavily on his mind as he tries to ensure that the government has done all it can to anticipate the moves of an unpredictable enemy.
via Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks Exclusively to ABC News – ABC News.
Florida’s Hydroponic Pot: House-Grown, and Super-Potent
Florida’s Marijuana Boom: House-Grown, and Potent – - TIME
California may be the center of the marijuana trade and the controversies over its legalization. But Florida has surpassed it in one important category: the Sunshine State is now the country’s leader in indoor marijuana cultivation. It is a potent distinction because most of the marijuana grown this way is cultured hydroponically — that is, mostly without soil and with a carefully calibrated cocktail of chemicals and lighting — to create some of the highest level of highs on the market.
In 2006, Florida law enforcement here discovered 480 homes growing marijuana indoors. Last year, 1,022 grow houses were busted. “This isn’t your grandma’s marijuana,” quipped a Miami-Dade narcotics officer at one bust as he tossed garbage bags stuffed with confiscated marijuana into an unmarked police truck. Levels of THC — the agent in marijuana that produces feelings of euphoria, and in some users mild hallucinations and paranoia — have risen dramatically because of indoor techniques. Thirty years ago, most marijuana contained about 7% THC. Today, indoor growers boast THC levels of 25% or higher thanks to the additional care that indoor plants receive. (See pictures of 4/20, the unofficial pot holiday.)
via Florida’s Hydroponic Pot: House-Grown, and Super-Potent – TIME.
Jobless claims rise more than expected
OPS: “more than expected” by those trying to keep a lid on this, apparently
Jobless claims rise more than expected – The Raw Story »
U.S. jobless claims rise slightly above forecasts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose slightly more than expected last week, but a gauge of underlying labor trends fell for a fifth straight week, government data showed on Thursday.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000 in the week ended July 25. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered to be a better gauge of underlying trends as it smoothes out week-to-week volatility, fell by 8,250 to 559,000.
This was the lowest level since late January. The weekly moving average has declined for five straight weeks.
via The Raw Story » Jobless claims rise more than expected.
The end of American empire — closer than we think?
The end of American empire — closer than we think? - OpEdNews –
The ability of the corporate state to pacify the country by extending credit and providing cheap manufactured goods to the masses is gone.
by Richard Clark
Online journalist of the year and Pulitzer prize winning author Chris Hedges spoke about his new book, Empire of Illusion, at the Berkeley Hillside Club July 21st, 2009, at a benefit for KPFA. Here are some of the things he said.
The tantalizing illusions offered by our consumer culture are vanishing as we barrel towards collapse. The ability of the corporate state to pacify the country by extending credit and providing cheap manufactured goods to the masses is gone. The pernicious idea that democracy lies in the choice between competing brands and the freedom to accumulate vast sums of personal wealth at the expense of others has collapsed. The conflation of freedom with the free market has been exposed as a sham. The travails of the poor are rapidly becoming the travails of the middle class, especially as the unemployment insurance runs out and people get a taste of Bill Clinton’s draconian welfare reform. And class warfare, once buried under the happy illusion that we were all going to enter an age of prosperity through unfettered capitalism, is returning with a vengeance.
Our economic crisis, despite the corporate media circus surrounding the death of Michael Jackson or the marital infidelity of Governor Mark Sanford, barrels forward. And this crisis will lead to a period of profound political turmoil and change. Those who care about the plight of the working class and the poor must begin to mobilize quickly to abandon the two-party system, to build a viable socialism, or we will lose our last opportunity to save our embattled democracy.
via OpEdNews – The end of American empire — closer than we think?.
Socialist Health Plan? In Norway, Obama’s Plan Not Even Close
Socialist Health Plan? In Norway, Obama’s Plan Not Even Close | CommonDreams.org
If Michael Steele and the Republicans really believe that President Obama is proposing a socialist health plan, they need to get out more.
I’ve just returned from a research trip to Norway, where their universal health system really is socialist. It’s also much less expensive than the current U.S. system, so maybe the Republicans would like it if they checked it out. The non-socialists in Norway support it because it works so well, especially compared with “the bad old days” of private medicine, when even the doctors’ association advocated for socialized medicine as the only affordable way to make quality care available to all Norwegians.
One reason Norwegians like their system is that it’s pro- economic innovation because it’s not tied to the employer. Norwegians are free to change jobs for more challenging opportunities, or try their wings as entrepreneurs, because they don’t have to worry about insurance – it’s with them wherever they go. Economist Jonathan Gruber of MIT is one of many economists who believe that U.S. employer-tied health insurance is a drag on progress. But Obama’s plan accepts the status quo even though it might not be affordable.
Norwegians like their system because it cuts red tape. The patient-doctor relationship isn’t complicated by multiple insurances; if you need care, you get it as a matter of right. No bills to pay, no plans to juggle, no worry about your dependents, and no worry about your becoming a burden to your children.
via Socialist Health Plan? In Norway, Obama’s Plan Not Even Close | CommonDreams.org.
Banks Urged to Increase Loan Help
OPS: Begging the Bank to do their job, and what WE KEPT THEM ALIVE to do.
Banks Urged to Increase Loan Help
After meetings that lasted nearly all day, Treasury officials were able to extract commitments from the executives to step up the pace of the loan modification program known as Making Homes Affordable.
The Treasury Department summoned executives from the nation’s 25 largest mortgage servicers to Washington, D.C. Tuesday to prod them to more than double the rate of loan modifications under the Obama administration’s plan to stem the tide of foreclosures.
After meetings that lasted nearly all day, Treasury officials were able to extract commitments from the executives to step up the pace of the loan modification program known as Making Homes Affordable, setting a new goal of 500,000 modifications by November.
“Today’s meeting was an opportunity to identify ways to accelerate the program and bring relief faster,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement. “Still, too many homeowners are at risk of foreclosure right now.”
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
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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. 
