Archive for August, 2009
Stupidity: America’s REAL Enemy!
via YouTube – Stupidity: America’s REAL Enemy!.
Is America’s biggest enemy/obstacle authoritarianism, or stupidity?
I say stupidity.
And I feel kind of lonely taking that stance, but unless others do, I won’t be very lonely for long. But, by then it may be too late.
A democracy made up of smart people is a great thing. A democracy made up of misinformed idiots is a horrible thing-it’s an IDIOCRACY.
It’s about time to get below the surface of saying “both dems and reps suck” “i dont trust the government” “all politicians are liars”
Get beyond that and ask “DO the democrats suck AS BAD as the republicans? Do they REALLY?” “WHY don’t you trust the government?” “WHICH POLITICIANS ARE LIARS, and which politicians LIE about WHAT?”
We’ve had the superficial cynicism towards authority for a long, long time. It’s about time we looked deeper. Otherwise-we’ll get more of the same-and we can’t afford more of the same.
Single-Payer: From Off-the-Table to On-the-Floor
Single-Payer: From Off-the-Table to On-the-Floor - The BRAD BLOG :
But is it a fair fight? Why hasn’t House Leadership asked CBO for a real cost comparison to public-option plans?…
In an update to Small Victory for a Long-Term Single-Payer Strategy, I reported that “Rep. Anthony Weiner, (D-NY) will…make a motion before the House Energy & Commerce Committee to…replace H.R. 3200 [the hybrid, "public option plan] with H.R. 676 — single payer Medicare for All.”
In exchange for Weiner’s agreement to withdraw his amendment during the House Energy and Commerce Committee health care markup session, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) promised to permit Weiner to bring H.R. 676 to a vote on the House floor.
But will the House leadership direct the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide a comparative cost analysis between single-payer and alternative plans so that Congress and the American people can make an informed choice? And why have they refused to do so so far?…
One of the core arguments on behalf of a single-payer system is cost effectiveness. Many of the figures — like the fact that 31% of health care costs in the U.S. go to what I have called the unnecessary parasites, for-profit carriers and HMOs, as compared to administrative costs in the 1 to 2% range in single-payer countries — are well known by those who have paid attention.
via The BRAD BLOG : Single-Payer: From Off-the-Table to On-the-Floor.
FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Subpoenaed, Set to ‘Break’ Gag Order Unless DoJ Intercedes
OPS: It will be interesting if they let her do it. It will certainly suck up the news cycles from Health Care
FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Subpoenaed, Set to ‘Break’ Gag Order Unless DoJ Intercedes – The BRAD BLOG
Former agency translator called to testify in Ohio election case this Saturday on Turkish infiltration of U.S. government…
Unless the Dept. of Justice re-invokes their twice-invoked “state secrets privilege” claim in order to once again gag former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, her attorneys have notified the department by hand-delivered, sworn letter of declaration [PDF] this week, that she intends to give a public deposition, open to the media, in response to a subpoena this Saturday in Washington D.C..
Edmonds has confirmed her intentions to answer any questions asked of her during the sworn proceedings, fully and publicly, during conversations with The BRAD BLOG this week. She notes that her agreement with her former employer, the FBI — who fired her illegally after she filed whistleblower allegations about corruption and foreign infiltration in the linguistics department — includes certain non-disclosure requirements. However, those requirements do not preclude her answering to a legally issued court subpoena.
Murdoch to charge for all online content
OPS: LOL ! Who’s going to PAY for the drivel that comes out of a Murdoch operations?
Murdoch to charge for all online content – FT.com
News Corp reports fourth-quarter net loss
Rupert Murdoch has vowed to charge for all the online content of his newspapers and television news channels, going well beyond his prediction in May that the company would test pay models on one of its stronger papers within the year.
The comments by News Corp’s chairman came as he predicted a “high single digit” rebound in the group’s operating profits next year. The worst of the media sector slump might be behind the company, he said, as he reported “some good signs of life” in advertising.
via FT.com / Media – Murdoch to charge for all online content.
Appetite for risk returns to derivatives, says MF Global
OPS: they are going right back to do everything that cause the crash.
Appetite for risk returns to derivatives, says MF Global - FT.com
Broker upbeat as profits beat expectations
By Hal Weitzman in Chicago
The appetite for risk has returned to derivatives trading, MF Global, the world’s biggest broker of exchange-listed futures and options, said on Thursday as it reported quarterly profits ahead of Wall Street expectations even as they dropped by two-thirds from last year.
The broker said it made a net loss of $33m or 27 cents per share in the three months to the end of June, compared to net income of $14.4m or 2 cents per share in the same period last year. However adjusted for extraordinary charges and excluding stock compensation, eearnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was $31m, or 5 cents per share, slightly ahead of analysts’ average forecasts of 4 cents per share. Revenues in the quarter were $271.5m, down from $374.7m last year.
via FT.com / Companies / Financial Services – Appetite for risk returns to derivatives, says MF Global.
Bank boosts QE programme to £175bn
Bank boosts QE programme to £175bn - FT.com -
Sign of fears about economic recovery
The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee on Thursday surprised the markets by voting for a big extension of quantitative easing, extending its size by £50bn to £175bn.
The committee said it expected the announced programme to take another three months to complete. “The scale of the programme will be kept under review,” it said in a statement.
via FT.com / UK – Bank boosts QE programme to £175bn.
China-U.S. Trade Relations
China-U.S. Trade Relations – Economyincrisis.org
The largest drain on this economy is the annual deficit with China. As a result of protectionist currency manipulation and predatory import blockades, the U.S. is locked in a losing battle.
The United States has witnessed several major positive economic developments in the past few months. First of all, after pumping hundreds of billions of dollars in liquid assets into banks and finance houses, the collapse of Wall Street has been staved off. As a result, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and others reported massive profits in the last fiscal quarter.
Driven by strong banking numbers, the stock markets have been buoying significantly. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ each witnessed huge percentage gains in July. Each reported their strongest July numbers in a decade or more.
Total unemployment in this country is still rising, and the government may soon find itself unable to give benefits to the hundreds of thousands of new unemployment insurance applicants. But, the monthly increases are less enormous than they once were. In both January and February of this year the economy shed over 600,000 jobs. According to CNNMoney.com, in July the number decreased to just under 400,000.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Faulty Chinese Steel Delays Bridge Project
Faulty Chinese Steel Delays Bridge Project - Economyincrisis.org -
Due to faulty Chinese-produced steel, a project to repair a section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is facing delays that will likely push back the completion date and increase the cost.
Due to faulty Chinese-produced steel, a project to repair a section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is facing lengthy delays that will likely push back the completion date and increase the total cost of construction.
Welding issues on steel set to be used on the bridge have caused China-based steel fabricator Zenhau Port Machine Co. (ZPMC) to push back delivery to the Bay Area by at least two months. The steel shipments were originally scheduled to be delivered in the summer, but will not be delivered until September at the earliest. The entire project was scheduled for completion in 2013, however, that could now be in jeopardy.
The delay is almost certain to increase the overall cost of the project.
“We all know that delay means money. It always does,” Randy Rentschler of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission told San Francisco’s KCBS radio.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
America’s Greatest Threat
America’s Greatest Threat – Economyincrisis.org
The persistence of educational achievement gaps (between the U.S. and other advanced nations) imposes on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.
The greatest threat to the American economy may not be credit default swaps, obscene executive bonus packages, “too big to fail” financial institutions or the lack of health care reform, but rather the growing achievement gap between American public school students and their foreign counterparts, according to an April report by McKinsey & Co.
“The persistence of these educational achievement gaps (between the U.S. and other advanced nations) imposes on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession,” the report found.
According to the report, U.S. gross domestic product would have been nine to 16 percent higher in 2008 if it had stayed on pace educationally with Canada, Finland and South Korea. Doing so would have grown the American economy by $1.3 to $2.3 trillion last year if that were the case.
In nearly every area, American students are falling behind. In 2006, the U.S. ranked 18th out of 24 industrialized nations in high school graduation rates. In 1995, American students had the highest college graduations rates in the world. By 2006, America’s ranking had fallen to just 14th overall.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
U.S. Running out of Benefits
U.S. Running out of Benefits – Economyincrisis.org
With initial unemployment claimants on the rise and the job market looking particularly bleak, prolonged aid to the unemployed is running out.
American workers pay a portion of their taxes into a program which ensures that they will have government benefits if they are ever unemployed. Typically these benefits last for 26 weeks but extensions are available for up to 79 weeks, or 18 months.
The program was created in the 1930s as a means to sustain the unemployed through their toughest times, but the fund is quickly running out. According to The New York Times, 500,000 beneficiaries will be cut off by the end of September. An additional million or more will lose benefits by the end of the year.
With initial unemployment claimants on the rise and the job market looking particularly bleak, there may be little help for those who run out.
According to data collected by the National Employment Law Project, the average length of unemployment in the U.S. now exceeds the initial 26-week window in 42 states.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
What It’s Like To Be an Atheist in the Bible Belt
What It’s Like To Be an Atheist in the Bible Belt
Even in the South’s big cities, many atheists feel they have to stay closeted.
At the Lake Hypatia Advance, a social gathering hosted by the Alabama Freethought Association, a frequent metaphor was “coming out” as an atheist. “I am out to my parents.” “A few people are still in the closet.” “We had several people in our community come out to us.” One man said he came out to his parents twice, first as a non-Christian, years later as an atheist. (“Not in my house!” his mother said.) One woman told of an argument with her evangelical family in which “I outed my dad.”
In much of the American South and Midwest church membership and religious faith are assumed. (In my hometown of San Francisco, as in Manhattan, faith is more apt to evoke surprise.) People have often never met an admitted atheist. “Literally people think that we do have horns, or that we’re mean, or that we do not have kids,” said a Kansan. Even in a city like Atlanta, some people feel religious pressure. Ed Buckner, president of American Atheists, said the Atlanta Freethought Association has members who “never saw any need [to gather with others] until they came to Atlanta – and people behind you in line in the grocery store say ‘Do you know Jesus?’ And your boss asks what church you attend.”
(Because of such pressure, some people at Lake Hypatia asked that I not use their names or identifying information.)
via What It’s Like To Be an Atheist in the Bible Belt | Belief | AlterNet.
Anti-Government Ideologue Megan McArdle’s Amnesia About Her Privileged, Govt.-Funded Upbringing
Anti-Government Ideologue Megan McArdle’s Amnesia About Her Privileged, Govt.-Funded Upbringing
The “libertarian” Atlantic Monthly writer rails against public health care, yet her family trusted government enough to make them rich.
ust when you think you’ve seen so much hypocrisy that nothing can shock you, along comes Megan McArdle. McArdle, who blogs for the Atlantic Monthly, presents herself as a principled libertarian, fiercely denouncing any attempt to provide any sort of government-funded health care, because as she argues, big government is bad, bad, bad. She’s written some truly appalling things over the years as a shill for big corporate interests, recently defending Goldman Sachs because, as she wrote, “financial meltdowns offer no villains.”
Last week, McArdle posted an encyclopedia-length article on the Atlantic Monthly‘s site, denouncing Obama’s health care plan in a rambling piece that essentially boiled down to this: big government is a bad thing, and free markets are the medicine you need, even if you don’t like it, and even though you can’t afford it. McArdle’s post sparked a series of smackdowns, including Ezra Klein in the Washington Post, and Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake.
‘The Cove:’ Japan Has a Dark Secret It Hopes the World Will Never See
‘The Cove:’ Japan Has a Dark Secret It Hopes the World Will Never See | | AlterNet
Suspenseful and shocking film exposes the slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins and the billion-dollar industry that profits from selling them.
Ric O’Barry almost looks crazy. He is driving a car, with a mask over his mouth, crouching low in his seat, hoping not to be recognized.
If the authorities catch him, there’s no telling what will happen to him. He’s cruising through the misty streets of Taiji, Japan, a small town with a really big secret, he says. And it’s a secret that the town’s fishermen want to hide from the rest of the world at all costs.
This is how the documentary, The Cove, opens. And it turns out O’Barry is not crazy, he’s on a mission — probably one of the most important in the history of conservation. And it’s personal.
He used to be a world-famous dolphin trainer. He captured and trained the five dolphins who played Flipper in the hit TV show of the same name. The show’s popularity sparked a dolphin craze that has continued since the 1960s and has grown into $2 billion industry in the U.S. alone.
via ‘The Cove:’ Japan Has a Dark Secret It Hopes the World Will Never See | World | AlterNet.
Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?
Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? - Chelsea Green Publishing.
The following is an excerpt from the just-released book, Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert (Chelsea Green, 2009).
Dateline: February 1, 2009. It’s Super Bowl Sunday and throughout the nation millions of Americans have stocked their shelves and refrigerators with alcohol for the big game. In living rooms across the country, guests will enjoy the libations and gawk at the humorous beer commercials sprinkled liberally throughout the telecast. Like the Fourth of July and fireworks, the Super Bowl and booze are an American tradition. There is no societal stigma associated with this excessive drinking. It is all part of the celebration. Like the old saying goes: “We don’t have a drinking problem. We drink. We get drunk. No problem.”
But as the day’s festivities build to a climax, the nation is thrown into turmoil. Internet headlines announce that Olympic swimming hero Michael Phelps, who months earlier had electrified audiences throughout the world by winning eight gold medals in Beijing, had been captured in full digital glory taking a bong hit at a private party. The horrors! How could he do such a thing?
Almost immediately online articles appear, replete with quotes of disillusionment from anyone with even a tangential connection to the world’s most decorated Olympian. Hours later, Phelps issues a public statement. He apologizes for his “regrettable” behavior and “bad judgment,” and promises “it will not happen again.” Was Phelps’s apology issued because he was reportedly also drunk and “obnoxious” at the same party? Of course not. Being drunk in public is not the sort of behavior that triggers public outrage and social condemnation.Taking a hit or two of marijuana, on the other hand, most certainly is.
via Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? | DrugReporter | AlterNet.
Traders Fired in Shakeout Migrating to Firms Off of Wall Street
OPS: lift up the rock and the cock roaches scatter, but they don’t’ go away. The slime that facilitated the crash are still all around us and involved
Traders Fired in Shakeout Migrating to Firms Off of Wall Street - – Bloomberg.com
- Dominick Mondi, who joined Bear Stearns Cos. at age 25 in 1979, remembers how then Chief Executive Officer Alan “Ace” Greenberg called him every Feb. 10 — his birthday.
The collegial spirit began to fade when Bear went public in 1985. The firm grew into the largest U.S. underwriter of mortgage-backed debt, piled on leverage and topped 14,000 employees. Bear’s risks became incalculable, Mondi says. By 2005, the birthday calls to Mondi stopped.
He kept working 10 hours a day on the 10th floor of Bear’s Madison Avenue headquarters. Mondi says he traded more municipal bonds than anybody at the firm for 25 of the 28 years he was there. He never sold his shares, even at their January 2007 peak of $172.61. When Bear collapsed 14 months later and new owner JPMorgan Chase & Co. didn’t offer him a job, Mondi suffered what he calls a devastating loss, financially and emotionally. His first thought when his car was stolen was, “what else can they take from me?”
After living through the best and worst of Wall Street, Mondi, 55, packed up himself, his wife, Cynthia, and their three children and moved from Darien, Connecticut, to Winnetka, Illinois, 17 miles north of downtown Chicago. He’s resurrecting his career at Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc., a 72-year-old firm that started as a one-person brokerage in the waning days of the Great Depression.
via Traders Fired in Shakeout Migrating to Firms Off of Wall Street – Bloomberg.com.
Rachel Maddow Exposes “Fake” Protesters At Health Care Town Halls
OPS: Crimes against democracy. I tried to access the website recessrally.com as Rachel suggests – the site seems to be down this morning. Maybe it will be up later.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Exposes Corporate Backed “Fake” Protesters At Health Care Town Halls – 08/05/09
via YouTube – Rachel Maddow Exposes “Fake” Protesters At Health Care Town Halls.
The Public Option in Banking: How We Can Beat Wall Street at Its Own Game
The Public Option in Banking: How We Can Beat Wall Street at Its Own Game - HufPo
Ellen Brown
President Obama has repeated his call for a public option in health care, in order to create some competition for the insurance companies and keep them honest. We the people need to call for a public option in banking, in order to create some competition for the private banks and keep them honest.
In Wall Street’s latest affront to the public trust, the nine mega-banks graced with $125 billion in taxpayer bailout money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) were reported last week to be paying out billions of dollars in bonuses to their executives. At least 4,793 bankers and traders received more than $1 million each in bonus payments, although it was one of Wall Street’s worst years on record. After months of investigating banker compensation, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on July 30:
“The repeated explanation from bank executives that bonuses are tied to performance in a manner designed to promote (national economic) growth does not appear to be accurate.”
via Ellen Brown: The Public Option in Banking: How We Can Beat Wall Street at Its Own Game.
10 Health Care Reform Myths
OPS: Well, the Corporate media is finally get round to do it job….well sort of….OK they get a couple of things right
10 Health Care Reform Myths – CBS News
With Confusion and Misinformation Coming from Both Sides, CBSNews.com Explains What’s Really in the Bill
The intense debate surrounding health care reform is following lawmakers home this month as they depart Washington for the August recess with a reform bill in limbo.
Over the course of the past few months, the rhetoric from both the left and the right, from politicians and activists, has been heated and sometimes misleading. With a month with nothing to do but argue, both sides are sure to keep up the partisan and potentially deceitful messages.
“The more complicated an issue is, the more easily one can twist and distort the facts about it, and health care is as complicated as they come,” said Brooks Jackson, a veteran journalist and now the director of FactCheck.org. His organization, a nonpartisan, nonprofit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, tracks the factual inaccuracies and misleading statements that thread through political communications.
“A lot of the misstatements have stuck with the public,” Jackson said. “We’re talking about one sixth of the economy and one bill more than 1,000 pages long, so it definitely lends itself to distortion and fear-mongering.”
It can be complicated for citizens who simply want to follow the issue and know the facts. Here is a look at 10 myths being told by both sides of the debate, and the reality.
via 10 Health Care Reform Myths – CBS News.
White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost
White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost - – NYTimes.com
Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion.
Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm this week to a House health care overhaul measure that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers.
In response, the industry successfully demanded that the White House explicitly acknowledge for the first time that it had committed to protect drug makers from bearing further costs in the overhaul. The Obama administration had never spelled out the details of the agreement.
“We were assured: ‘We need somebody to come in first. If you come in first, you will have a rock-solid deal,’ ” Billy Tauzin, the former Republican House member from Louisiana who now leads the pharmaceutical trade group, said Wednesday. “Who is ever going to go into a deal with the White House again if they don’t keep their word? You are just going to duke it out instead.”
A deputy White House chief of staff, Jim Messina, confirmed Mr. Tauzin’s account of the deal in an e-mail message on Wednesday night.
via White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost – NYTimes.com.
Obama Administration Considers Splitting Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
Administration Considers Splitting Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac - – washingtonpost.com
The Obama administration launched a broad government effort this week to overhaul mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is considering splitting the companies and putting their troubled assets in a new federally backed corporation, administration officials said.
Such an approach would keep the government on the hook for losses into the indeterminate future but would also clear the way for the revamped companies to play a critical role of financing home loans throughout the country.
The move would dispense with one of the biggest burdens created by the financial crisis: the hundreds of billions of dollars in money-losing home loans owned by District-based Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government has already pledged nearly $2 trillion, including $85 billion in direct aid, to keep the mortgage market working through the firms.
via Obama Administration Considers Splitting Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac – washingtonpost.com.
Reagan Admin. Economist: ‘Just Wait Until You See Medicare and Medicaid Done…By the Government’
OPS: People at this level are not this stupid. They pretend to be this stupid and an example to their rank-and-file who ARE this stupid.
Reagan Admin. Economist: ‘Just Wait Until You See Medicare and Medicaid Done…By the Government’ – Think Progress »
Reagan administration economist Art Laffer appeared on CNN’s Newsroom yesterday to debate health care with CAP Senior Fellow Judy Feder. At the height of the debate, Laffer offered a curious argument against health care reform:
LAFFER: I mean, if you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they’re run well, just wait until you see Medicare, Medicaid, and health care done by the government
Watch it:
The reality is that we don’t have to “wait” for the government to take over Medicaid and Medicare because they are both already government-run programs.
Grassley Uses Kennedy’s Brain Tumor To Spread Fear Of Rationing
OPS: And Obama is sucking up to this evil bastard, thinking he can negotiate with him
Grassley Uses Kennedy’s Brain Tumor To Spread Fear Of Rationing – Think Progress »
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, has taken the lead role in negotiating the health care reform bill for the GOP. But earlier today during a radio interview with Iowa City’s KCJJ, Grassley steered the conversation with a caller toward rationing health care services among the elderly, one of the right wing’s favorite fearmongering tactics when it comes to health care reform. And as an example, Grassley cited Sen. Ted Kennedy’s (D-MA) brain tumor. Grassley said that in countries with government-run health care, Kennedy “would not get the care he gets here because of his age.” Instead, the government would decide to spend health care resources on younger people “who can contribute to the economy”:
GRASSLEY: In countries that have government-run health care, just to give you an example, I’ve been told that the brain tumor that Sen. Kennedy has — because he’s 77 years old — would not be treated the way it’s treated in the United States. In other words, he would not get the care he gets here because of his age. In other words, they’d say ‘well he doesn’t have long to live even if he lived another four to five years.’ They’d say ‘well, we gotta spend money on people who can contribute more to economy.’ It’s a little like people saying when somebody gets to be 85 their life is worth less than when they were 35 and you pull the tubes on them.
Listen:
via Think Progress » Grassley Uses Kennedy’s Brain Tumor To Spread Fear Of Rationing.
Rep. Perriello: Coal Fraudster Impersonated Women’s And Seniors’ Groups As Well
Rep. Perriello: Coal Fraudster Impersonated Women’s And Seniors’ Groups As Well - Think Progress »
The stack of forged letters opposing clean energy reform on behalf of the coal industry is growing. Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) has revealed that he not only received forgeries purporting to come from black and hispanic groups, but also senior citizen and women’s advocacy organizations as well.
Yesterday, Perriello’s office told reporters that in addition to the five NAACP letters and one Creciendo Juntos letter forged on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), “two other letters were forged to appear as if they had been sent by the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, a Charlottesville agency, and the American Association of University Women.” Perriello, who cast his vote in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act despite this fraud, discussed the scandal on Rachel Maddow:
via Think Progress » Rep. Perriello: Coal Fraudster Impersonated Women’s And Seniors’ Groups As Well.
The Incredible Shrinking Healthcare Reform
The Incredible Shrinking Healthcare Reform – | CommonDreams.org
by Norman Solomon
Like soap in a rainstorm, “healthcare reform” is wasting away.
As this week began, a leading follower of conventional wisdom, journalist Cokie Roberts, told NPR listeners: “This is evolving legislation. And the administration is now talking about a glide path towards universal coverage, rather than immediate universal coverage.”
Notions of universal healthcare are fading in the power centers of politics — while more and more attention focuses on the care and feeding of the insurance industry.
Consider a new message that just went out from Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee, which inherited the Obama campaign’s 13-million email list. The short letter includes the same phrase seven times: “health insurance reform.”
via The Incredible Shrinking Healthcare Reform | CommonDreams.org.
Air Force asks for one corporate jet — Congress orders three
Air Force asks for one corporate jet — Congress orders three - The Raw Story »
Whoever told the media about this one is going to be fired.
Last month, Congressional appropriators ordered three $65 million corporate jets (at a total cost of nearly $200 million), just a year after calling out Detroit executives for taking their own planes to testify on the health of the auto industry.
But wait — it gets better.
“The Air Force had asked for one Gulfstream 550 jet (price tag: about $65 million) as part of an ongoing upgrade of its passenger air service,” writes Roll Call’s Paul Singer. “But the House Appropriations Committee, at its own initiative, added to the 2010 Defense appropriations bill another $132 million for two more airplanes and specified that they be assigned to the D.C.-area units that carry Members of Congress, military brass and top government officials.”
Not surprisingly, the dispensation for three new Gulfstream aircraft doesn’t stipulate which member of Congress made the request. In fact, Singer notes, the House Appropriations Committee doesn’t even consider the request an earmark “because the… Committee viewed the additional aircraft as an expansion of an existing Defense Department program.”
via The Raw Story » Air Force asks for one corporate jet — Congress orders three.
Goldman Sachs admits it’s under government investigation
OPS; OF course it should be- but will anything come of it?
Goldman Sachs admits it’s under government investigation -The Raw Story »
Investment bank Goldman Sachs made $100 million or more trading on the stock market on each of 46 trading days in the second quarter on 2009. In all, the company made at least that much money on 71 percent of the days it was doing business.
And the company revealed Wednesday that the US government is investigating its controversial compensation practices, and, perhaps more importantly, its trading in derivatives — the financial instruments widely blamed for last year’s financial collapse.
According to a report at Bloomberg news service, Goldman’s profits are an all-time record — beating the previous record, 34 days of $100-million profits, set by Goldman in the previous quarter.
Goldman, a major beneficiary of last fall’s bank bailouts, by some accounts now controls half of all the program trading (computer-based automatic trading) done on Wall Street.
via The Raw Story » Goldman Sachs admits it’s under government investigation.
No Health Insurance Due To Lack Of Enema
OPS: I didn’t know that Libertyville was a No Enema zone
No Health Insurance Due To Lack Of Enema
David Wheeland of Libertyville, Ill., lost his health insurance when he quit his job to care for his mother and uncle in 2007. He didn’t plan for the caretaking role to be a long-term thing, but that’s how it turned out. After about six months, he figured he should try to buy some health insurance on his own.
It was a mistake. An epic fail.
“I have always regarded health insurance as an appallingly immoral scam, but my experience has driven that conviction home more deeply than I could ever have imagined,” Wheeland, 58, wrote in an email to the Huffington Post.
In a phone interview, Wheeland said he first applied for insurance in late in 2007. He picked Humana because he’d seen a lot of their advertisements. He said a woman interviewed him over the phone for a good 45 minutes, asking questions about his health and employment. The woman was very nice.
“She kept saying, ‘God bless you.’ She said that about three times,” Wheeland said. “I have no idea why.”
via No Health Insurance Due To Lack Of Enema.
CNN Refusing To Run Health Care Ad Critical Of Insurance Industry
CNN Refusing To Run Health Care Ad Critical Of Insurance Industry - | The Plum Line
What on earth is going on at CNN?
The network — already taking criticism for declining to run an ad criticizing Lou Dobbs — is now refusing to run an ad nationally criticizing the insurance industry, the group that tried to place the ad tells me.
CNN’s reason: The ad “unnecessarily” singles out a top insurance industry executive by name for criticism.
The labor-backed Americans United for Change, a top White House ally in the health care wars, tried to book time on CNN and MSNBC for the ad, which hits the insurance industry for wanting to preserve the status quo and levels harsh criticism at insurance giant Cigna’s CEO, Ed Hanway.
“Why do insurance companies and Republicans want to kill health insurance reform? Because they like things the way they are now,” the ad says, and then slams Hanway’s annual salary of over $12 million and golden parachute retirement package of over $70 million.
Americans United for Change’s spokesman, Jeremy Funk, tells me that CNN refused to run the ad nationally. He says CNN emailed the following reason for rejection:
“This ad does not comply with our clearance guidelines because it unnecessarily singles out an individual company and person.”
via CNN Refusing To Run Health Care Ad Critical Of Insurance Industry | The Plum Line.
Conyers: “There is no one more disappointed than I am in Barack Obama.”
Conyers: “There is no one more disappointed than I am in Barack Obama.” - | Black Agenda Report
Progressive congresspersons may wind up voting against Obama on health care.” 
via Conyers: “There is no one more disappointed than I am in Barack Obama.” | Black Agenda Report.
Freshman Democratic lawmaker ‘physically assaulted at a local event’ by right-wing activists.
Freshman Democratic lawmaker ‘physically assaulted at a local event’ by right-wing activists. - Think Progress »
As lobbyist-run groups encourage conservative activists to “rattle” members of Congress at local town hall events, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the president of the freshman Democratic class has revealed that “at least one freshman Democrat” has already been “physically assaulted at a local event” by right-wing activists. Connolly warned that conservative groups had taken things to a “dangerous level“:
“When you look at the fervor of some of these people who are all being whipped up by the right-wing talking heads on Fox, to me, you’re crossing a line,’ Connolly said. ‘They’re inciting people to riot with just total distortions of facts. They think we’re going to euthanize Grandma and the government is going to take over.”
Recent events have given congressman good reason to be “fearful for their safety.” Last week, a protester hung an effigy of freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) outside his district office, and after a June 22 town hall meeting was disrupted by an “unruly mob” of tea party activists, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) had to be escorted to his car by police. ThinkProgress contacted Connolly’s office regarding the identity of the congressman who was physically assaulted, but we have not yet received a response.
Non-Organic Organic Food
Non-Organic Organic Food
Jim Hightower
When it comes to a healthy diet, I am not a purist. Too late for that because I grew up eating such culinary concoctions as toasted sandwiches constructed of Spam, white bread and that oddly orange, oddly spongy cheeselike stuff known as Velveeta.
As an adult, I even have been irresponsible enough to serve as a taster, judge and promoter of Spam creations that were served at a now-defunct annual event held in my town of Austin, Texas. Called “Spamarama,” the festival featured unspeakable and (often unswallowable) dishes made from the gelatinous, pink potted meat, including — get ready to gag — Spam ice cream.
So I am not quick to criticize every little diversion from 100 percent wholesomeness. For example, even though I’ve been an early and ardent advocate of organic production, I recognize that there are certain times when processors of organic foods (from beer to cheese) are unable to get essential ingredients that are produced organically. Thus, non-organic hops sometimes are allowed in organic beer. Indeed, the original law creating the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “certified organic” program recognizes such realities, allowing up to 5 percent of a certified product to consist of non-organic ingredients.
via Non-Organic Organic Food by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.
Toxic chemical still found in ‘BPA-free’ bottles: Health Canada
Toxic chemical still found in ‘BPA-free’ bottles: Health Canada
Health Canada scientists have found bisphenol A leaching into the liquid of plastic baby bottles marketed to parents as being free of the toxic chemical.
The study says “traces” of the toxin were found in “BPA-free” bottles while internal correspondence between a department official and the lead scientist went further, characterizing the amounts in two brands as “high readings.”
Manufacturers of non-polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, however, were quick to challenge the “shocking” results, saying there must be a problem with the way the agency conducted the research.
Government scientists conducted the tests on non-polycarbonate bottles last year after Health Canada announced an imminent ban on polycarbonate plastic baby bottles.
via Toxic chemical still found in ‘BPA-free’ bottles: Health Canada.
Obama team mulls new quarantine regulations
Obama team mulls new quarantine regulations - - - POLITICO.com
The Obama administration is quietly dusting off an effort to impose new federal quarantine regulations, which were vigorously resisted by civil liberties organizations and the airline industry when the rules were first proposed by the Bush administration nearly four years ago.
White House officials aren’t saying what their rules might ultimately require. But the previous administration proposed giving the federal government the authority to order a “provisional quarantine” of three business days — or up to six calendar days — for those suspected of having swine flu or other illnesses listed in a presidential executive order.
The Bush-era proposal would also have required airlines and cruise lines to store more information about domestic and international passengers, such as e-mail addresses, traveling companions and return flight information. The information would be subject to review by federal officials in a health emergency, though it would be voluntary for passengers to provide the data.
via Obama team mulls new quarantine regulations – Josh Gerstein – POLITICO.com.
7 Natural Hangover Cures that Work
7 Natural Hangover Cures that Work – : Planet Green
From someone who has tested them all and found hangover relief…
When suffering “the day after” it’s pretty common to question “the night before.” Was it really worth feeling this awful?! And then there’s the “I’m never drinking again” that you utter, feeling sick to your stomach just imagining the taste of alcohol ever touching your tongue again. Worse than feeling awful, hangovers can actually wreak havoc on your immune system, digestive track and organ function.
Hangovers happen when our already overburdened livers struggle to clear out the excessive amount of toxins and chemicals ingested from too much alcohol. Our blood sugar dips. Our bodies are dehydrated, and overall fatigue takes over. Basically, you are creating a toxic internal environment and your body is letting you know.
Forget about Over-the-Counter Remedies
While over the counter pain relievers are common practice for the hangover-inclined, you might want to think again before reaching for your aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen, all of which can come with some serious side-effects that are amplified by alcohol.
via 7 Natural Hangover Cures that Work : Planet Green.
Florida Bay’s Ecology On Brink Of Collapse
Florida Bay’s Ecology On Brink Of Collapse
ISLAMORADA, Fla. — Boat captain Tad Burke looks out over Florida Bay and sees an ecosystem that’s dying as politicians, land owners and environmentalists bicker. 
He’s been plying these waters for nearly 25 years, and has seen the declines in shrimp and lobster that use the bay as a nursery, and less of the coveted species like bonefish that draw recreational sportsmen from around the world.
“Bonefish used to be very prevalent, and now we don’t see a tenth of the amount that we used to find in the bay, and even around the Keys because the habitat no longer supports the population,” says Burke, head of the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association.
via Florida Bay’s Ecology On Brink Of Collapse.
Brazil Wants Its Residents To Pee In The Shower (VIDEO)
Brazil Wants Its Residents To Pee In The Shower (VIDEO)
RIO DE JANEIRO — New TV ads are encouraging Brazilians to save water – by urinating in the shower.
Brazilian environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica says the campaign, running on several television stations, uses humor to persuade people to reduce flushes.
The group says if a household avoids one flush a day, it can save up to 4,380 liters (1,157 gallons) of water annually.
SOS spokeswoman Adriana Kfouri said Tuesday that the ad is “a way to be playful about a serious subject.”
via Brazil Wants Its Residents To Pee In The Shower (VIDEO).
Demand At Food Banks Up, Even In Well-Off D.C. Suburbs
Demand At Food Banks Up, Even In Well-Off D.C. Suburbs
Mezmure Dawit, 22, showed up at the food bank in Fairfax, Va., looking for help. He said he’d lost his job as a maintenance man at an apartment building last month and he needed food for his 14-year-old brother and 18-year-old sister.
He said their father had left them five months ago. “He just left. No money, nothing,” said Dawit, wearing crisp blue jeans and a striped shirt. “It’s been hard, man.”
As the national unemployment rate nears 10 percent, more and more people are turning to food banks for help keeping food on their plates. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, reports that demand at food banks across the United States is up 30 percent from last year.
via Demand At Food Banks Up, Even In Well-Off D.C. Suburbs.
A Coup for Lobbyists at the White House
A Coup for Lobbyists at the White House – Truthdig – Reports – Truthdig – Reports –
By Amy Goodman
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, ousted in the middle of the night just over a month ago, enjoys global support for his return, with the exception of the Obama White House. Though Barack Obama first called the Honduran military’s removal of Zelaya a coup, his administration has backpedaled. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Zelaya’s attempt to cross the Nicaraguan border into Honduras “reckless.” Could well-placed lobbyists in Washington be forging U.S. foreign policy?
Lanny Davis was special counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998, functioning as lawyer, crisis manager and spokesman through Clinton’s various scandals. Davis has developed a lucrative specialty as a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, offering a “unique ‘Legal Crisis Communications’ practice,” helping people embroiled in investigations or scandal. According to recent congressional filings, Davis is lobbying for the Honduran chapter of the Latin American Business Council. Zelaya had recently increased the Honduran minimum wage.
Davis testified before Congress on July 10, saying his clients “believe the best chance for a solution is the dialogue between Mr. Zelaya and President [Roberto] Micheletti, mediated by President [Oscar] Arias, that is now ongoing in Costa Rica.” That is, until the Arias sessions resulted in a call for the return of Zelaya. Coup spokesman Cesar Caceres said, “The mediation has been declared a failure.”
via Truthdig – Reports – A Coup for Lobbyists at the White House.
For Fox, sharks on television becomes ‘breaking news’
For Fox, sharks on television becomes ‘breaking news’
In the unending clicker battle between Important Things that affect people’s lives and Scary Fish on a different channel, partisan broadcaster Fox News appears to have chosen sides.
Earlier today, the Fox network cut short an interview with Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) as she was dismantling host Trace Gallagher’s argument against the “Cash for Clunkers” program.
The network’s reason for interrupting the interview? “Breaking news”: There’s sharks on television. Really!
Ghallagher tried to argue that offering a fiscal incentive to purchase a new vehicle — while simultaneously getting costly gas guzzlers off the streets — is harmful to the poor because it drives up prices in the used car market.
“Aren’t you, in essence, by helping some people, hurting others?” he asked.
The point was shot down quickly by Sen. Stabenow, who countered that used car price
via The Raw Story » For Fox, sharks on television becomes ‘breaking news’.
Whistleblower is Dems’ best ammo in health care fight
Whistleblower is Dems’ best ammo in health care fight
Everyone is familiar with the street adage that one should not take a knife to a gunfight. They have probably even heard it way down in Washington, where the truth is hard to hear and even harder to see.
I would suggest that President Obama and his crew need to take that attitude into the health care battle with the Republicans. It is high time for the Dems to realize that you hunt elephants with elephant guns, not fly swatters.
The best ammunition is at least one highly placed whistleblower.
The whistleblower’s word can be strong enough to perforate the tough flesh of any argument made in defense of big-money interests presented as national concerns. The whistleblower has the ultimate credentials: he or she was there.
The whistleblower can say exactly what is actually happening, what the strategy is, and also can decode all of the false statements and pull the covers off all of the biggest and most indefensible lies.
Plenty of lies and distortions have been bought and paid for by the health industry, recently to the tune of about $1 million day. Who can deflect the power of that much money? Believe it or not, money is not invulnerable.
via Whistleblower is Dems’ best ammo in health care fight.
Seeing the big picture on health reform and cost containment
Seeing the big picture on health reform and cost containment
EPI’s Josh Bivens explains why federal spending on health care reform could produce big savings in total health costs over time. 
Last week, two hugely influential players in health care reform addressed the crucial issue of a reform’s impact on cost savings. One of these players saw the big picture; the other did not.
During a July 22 press conference, President Barack Obama made a strong case that the benefits of reform in containing costs would be felt throughout the entire American health system, not just by government. At one point he argued that “If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket.” President Obama further noted that the existing American system is vastly more expensive than those of our industrial peers, yet doesn’t generate better health outcomes. He urged health reformers to figure out what parts of our peer-country health systems should be emulated.
On July 16th, CBO director Doug Elmendorf took a much narrower view of the cost-savings issue during testimony before the Senate. When asked a question about reducing, or “bending the curve” of overall (not just federal) cost growth over time, Elmendorf answered the question entirely from the perspective of federal spending. He noted that aspects of the plans currently under debate in the Senate and House bills would add to federal spending in the form of subsidies to help people afford insurance coverage and other costs. When talking about potential health savings, Elmendorf noted that “the money is out there, but it is not going to walk in the government’s (emphasis added) door by itself….”
This assumption by Elmendorf — that health reform’s primary goal must be to reduce the growth of federal health spending — is tailor-made to block reform. It should be rejected.
via Seeing the big picture on health reform and cost containment.
Too complex to regulate?
Too complex to regulate? – EPI.com
There’s not much talk about credit default swaps on the unemployment line, but critics say a pattern of gambling that many Wall Street firms disguised as legitimate investing was a major cause of lost jobs, home foreclosures, and general economic instability.
Lawmakers seeking to prevent a repeat of the greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression are considering ways to impose tighter regulations on big investment banks, where trading of credit default swaps and other derivatives reached unsustainable levels, helping bring the economy to the brink of disaster in 2008. Although they are commonly described as a form of insurance against defaults on home mortgages, the credit default swaps sold by A.I.G. and other firms became so widespread and complex over the past decade that it became almost impossible for the banks themselves, let alone outside regulators, to sort out the real value of these popular investments or assess the risk.
The rise in trading of derivatives — sophisticated financial instruments whose value is derived from something else such as home mortgages — also underscores how far so many banks have strayed from what should be their main mission of providing lending to individuals and small businesses to help support growth in the general economy. Critics note that derivatives trading escalated to a rapid back-and-forth exchange of paper certificates where the value often had little connection to real economic activity.
If “Too Big to Fail” and “Too Connected to Fail” have become the slogans justifying the repeated government bailouts of some major banks and insurers such as A.I.G., these firms’ continued resistance to tighter government restrictions might be summed up as “Too Complex to Regulate.”
GE settles claims of fraud in accounts
GE settles claims of fraud in accounts – FT.com
Group pays $50m after SEC accusation
General Electric agreed to pay $50m on Tuesday to settle civil accounting fraud charges by US regulators, calling into question the conglomerate’s legendary ability to deliver consistent earnings growth.
The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission – which accused GE of bending the “accounting rules beyond breaking point” – involves a relatively small payment. But it is a blow for Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive, and Keith Sherin, chief financial officer.
via FT.com / Companies / Industrial Goods – GE settles claims of fraud in accounts.
Kucinich Urges Expanded Probe of Merrill Deal
Kucinich Urges Expanded Probe of Merrill Deal – – NYTimes.com
Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, pressed the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday to expand its investigation of possible violations of securities laws by Bank of America in its shotgun marriage to Merrill Lynch.
In a letter to Mary Schapiro, the chairwoman of the S.E.C., Mr. Kucinich said documents he had reviewed revealed that high-ranking officials at the Federal Reserve believed that Bank of America withheld material information about the deteriorating financial health of Merrill from shareholders in advance of the shareholder vote and that those actions could be violations of securities laws.
The documents show that the Fed’s general counsel, Scott Alvarez, believed that Bank of America could have broken securities laws by failing to update its proxy solicitation and public statements it had made about the merger after learning about Merrill’s losses before the shareholder vote on Dec. 5, Mr. Kucinich said.
via Kucinich Urges Expanded Probe of Merrill Deal – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com.
Private-sector employers cut 371,000 jobs in July
Job loss eases, but remains steep – ADP
Report says private sector jobs fell at the smallest monthly rate in 9 months, but separate survey says planned reductions surged 31%.
- Private-sector employment recorded its smallest monthly drop in nine months during July, but the number of job cuts announced in the month spiked 31%, according two reports released Wednesday.
Automatic Data Processing, a payroll-processing firm, said private-sector employers cut 371,000 jobs in July. It was the smallest monthly total since last October.
Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 350,000 jobs last month.
The June total was an improvement over May’s revised job loss of 463,000, which was originally reported at 473,000.
via ADP says job losses eased to lowest level since October – Aug. 5, 2009.
Senators, Advisers Urge Obama to More Than Double Afghan Forces
Senators, Advisers Urge Obama to More Than Double Afghan Forces - Bloomberg.com
President Barack Obama and top U.S. military commanders are being pressed by senators and civilian advisers to more than double the size of Afghan security forces, a move that would cost billions of dollars.
In letters and face-to-face meetings, the lawmakers and defense officials urged Obama, National Security Advisor Jim Jones and the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan to boost the Afghan National Army and police from current levels of 175,000 to at least 400,000.
“Any further postponement” of a decision to support a surge in Afghan forces will hamper U.S. efforts to quell an insurgency in its eighth year, Senators Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to the White House in a July 21 letter obtained by Bloomberg News.
via Senators, Advisers Urge Obama to More Than Double Afghan Forces – Bloomberg.com.
FRC’s Morrison Explains How Condoms Ruined Our Nation
FRC’s Morrison Explains How Condoms Ruined Our Nation – | Right Wing Watch
In recent week, Religious Right groups were nearly unanimous in their opposition to the legislation introduced by Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn seeking “common ground” in the debate over reproductive choice.
Though “aimed at preventing unintended pregnancies and supporting pregnant women,” the Religious Right immediately dismissed the effort as a “red herring,”a “travesty,” and an effort to increase abortions.
Among the various reasons they gave for opposing the bill was that, in the words of Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, “contains no funding for abstinence programs nor anything to encourage teens and young adults to refrain from risky sexual behavior.”
Today, Robert Morrison, a Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at FRC, took to the organization’s blog to provide an explanation of what is wrong with the bill’s lack of funding for abstinence programs, offering some rather bizarre “proof” of why “condom programs don’t work.”
via FRC’s Morrison Explains How Condoms Ruined Our Nation | Right Wing Watch.
Obama to unveil $2.4 billion for electric cars
Obama to unveil $2.4 billion for electric cars – - – msnbc.com
President will announce stimulus grants during Elkhart County visit
Venturing back to a region reeling from deep unemployment, President Barack Obama’s latest mission to hard-hit Elkhart County aims to show that his stimulus plan is producing tangible help — $2.4 billion in taxpayer grants to create electric cars and tens of thousands of jobs.
At a recreational-vehicle plant in northern Indiana, Obama on Wednesday will announce the grants and try to stabilize American confidence. His stop in Wakarusa, Ind., is part of a concerted economic campaign that also will see Vice President Joe Biden and four Cabinet secretaries holding events in five states.
via Obama to unveil $2.4 billion for electric cars – The Elkhart Project- msnbc.com.
Republicans will not defeat healthcare reform
Republicans will not defeat healthcare reform - | Salon
Conservative groups are trying to Astroturf their way to a defeat of healthcare reform
Robert Reich
On our drive across America, my son and I have spotted spiffy white vans emblazoned with phrases like “ObamaCare will raise your taxes” and “ObamaCare will put bureaucrats in charge of your health.” Just outside Omaha we drove close enough to take a peek at the driver, who looked as dutifully professional as the spanking new van he was driving.
This isn’t grass roots. It’s Astroturf. The vans carry the logo “Americans for Prosperity,” one of the Washington front groups orchestrating the fight against universal health. They’re using Congress’s August recess to heckle Democratic representatives when they meet with their constituents, stage erszatz local anti-universal health rallies, and fill home-town media with carefully-crafted, market-tested messages demonizing healthcare reform.
The Republican party’s fingerprints are all over this. FreedomWorks, another group now Astroturfing its way around America, is chaired by former House Republican Leader Dick Armey. Texas Republican Pete Sessions, who chairs the National Republican Campaign Committee, says the days of civil town halls are “now over.” Key Republican funders are forking out big bucks. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose ties to the GOP are legion, announced in June it would “develop a sweeping national advocacy campaign encompassing advertising, education, political activities, new media and grassroots organizing” to battle universal health and other Democratic initiatives.
via Republicans will not defeat healthcare reform | Salon.
Pavlov’s Microorganisms
Pavlov’s Microorganisms – SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
Microorganisms can predict changes in their environments—upending age-old biological tenets and giving new insight into non-neural genius.
When Russian physician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov trained his dogs to associate the sound of a bell with an upcoming tasty morsel, he established one of the founding tenets of modern psychology—classical conditioning. Now, more than a century later, molecular biologists are demonstrating a similar anticipatory capability in the world of microorganisms.
A team of molecular geneticists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel has discovered two cases where microorganisms make predictions about how their environments might change in the future, based on how they have changed in the past. They first examined the bacteria Escherichia coli, one of several hundred microbial species that harmlessly inhabit the human gut. E. coli settle in the lower intestines after cruising through the rest of the human digestive tract—a movement that entails a switch from a lactose-rich environment to a maltose-rich environment, and thus a switch in food sources for the bacteria. The Weizmann team found that upon exposure to lactose, the E. coli immediately begin activating small amounts of genes for digesting maltose as well, even though none is yet present. In other words, the E. coli are able to somehow comprehend the presence of the lactose and predict an upcoming meal of maltose.
Princeton molecular biologist Saeed Tavazoie first began investigating this strange phenomenon after reading a 2002 paper demonstrating that yeast, when exposed to a stressful stimulus such as extreme temperature, would activate a large set of genes that served no function to combat the stress. “There seemed to be a disconnect.” Tavazoie says. “And so we decided to step back and rethink the whole idea of how microorganisms respond to their environments.”
via Pavlov’s Microorganisms § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM.
Jellyfish significant contributors to large-scale ocean mixing
Jellyfish significant contributors to large-scale ocean mixing
Climate change scientists may need to rethink the factors governing the interaction of the world’s oceans, thanks to new findings published in Nature that show the global power input from swimming creatures such as jellyfish is as much as a trillion watts of energy, comparable to that of wind and tidal forces.
“The perspective we usually take is how the ocean – by its currents, temperature, and chemistry – is affecting animals,” says John Dabiri, a Caltech bioengineer who, along with Caltech graduate student Kakani Katija, discovered the new mechanism. “But there have been increasing suggestions that the inverse is also important, how the animals themselves, via swimming, might impact the ocean environment.”
Scientists have increasingly been thinking about whether the animals in the ocean might play a role in larger-scale ocean mixing, the process by which various layers of water interact with one another to distribute heat, nutrients and gasses throughout the oceans. Dabiri says that oceanographers had previously dismissed the idea that animals might have a significant effect on ocean mixing, believing that the viscosity of water would cancel out any turbulence created, especially by small planktonic, or drifting, animals.
via Jellyfish significant contributors to large-scale ocean mixing.
Creating Fat That Makes You Fit
Creating Fat That Makes You Fit - ScienceNOW Daily News
Eating grapefruit, climbing stairs, counting carbs–you’ve tried everything to shed the extra pounds. But still that stubborn paunch persists. Researchers might be one step closer to a solution for this persistent fat. They have found a way to turn ordinary skin cells into a type of fat that burns rather than stores calories. These cells might one day be used to help curb our rapidly expanding waistlines.
When most people think of body fat, they picture the whitish goo in love handles and saddlebags. These white fat cells store energy. Brown fat cells, on the other hand, burn energy and release heat. Scientists have known for decades that newborns and other baby animals have brown fat deposits that help them keep warm. Earlier this year, researchers discovered that adults possess functional brown fat too. Because brown fat burns calories, scientists have been searching for a way to harness it to fight obesity and obesity-related diabetes.
Bruce Spiegelman, a cell biologist at Harvard University, and colleagues took an important step in this direction last year when they published research suggesting that brown fat arises from muscle precursors. A key protein called PRDM16 appears to be involved in the transformation. When the researchers prompted muscle cells to manufacture PRDM16, they became brown fat cells. The process worked in reverse as well: Blocking expression of PRDM16 in brown fat cells led to the creation of muscle cells.
via Creating Fat That Makes You Fit — Willyard 2009 (729): 1 — ScienceNOW.
Undoing the Damage of Glaucoma
Undoing the Damage of Glaucoma – ScienceNOW Daily News
In people suffering from glaucoma, damage to the optic nerve can slowly degrade peripheral vision and, in the worst cases, eventually lead to blindness. But eyedrops containing nerve growth factor (NGF)–a protein that promotes the survival and growth of neurons in the developing brain–appear to prevent nerve damage in rats and restore some vision in three human glaucoma patients, the authors of a new study claim. Not everyone thinks the reported effect is real, however.
For the study, ophthalmologist Alessandro Lambiase of the University of Rome Campus Bio-Medica and colleagues first mimicked glaucoma in rats. The researchers recreated the most common form of the disease, in which increased fluid pressure inside the eye damages nerves, by injecting saline solution into a vein in the eye. They kept the intraocular pressure up for 7 weeks, killing about 40% of the neurons in the retina whose tail-like axons give rise to the optic nerve, which conveys visual information to the brain. However, in rats treated four times daily with NGF-laced eyedrops during the 7-week period, the death of these “retinal ganglion cells” was reduced by about 25%, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (The senior author on the paper is neuroscientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for the discovery of NGF and in April became the first Nobelist to celebrate a 100th birthday.)
Encouraged by these findings, the researchers asked three patients with advanced glaucoma to take the drops four times daily for 3 months. Peripheral vision, one of the main visual functions impaired by glaucoma, improved in two of the patients and got no worse in the third, the researchers report in the same paper. They also report improvements in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and in electrophysiological measures of nerve conduction in the visual system in some or all of the patients.
via Undoing the Damage of Glaucoma — Miller 2009 (803): 2 — ScienceNOW.
How Happy Is the Internet?
How Happy Is the Internet? - ScienceNOW Daily News
Blogging about your crummy day? Writing a song about unrequited love? Your words may help researchers monitor society’s mood swings.
It’s not so hard to figure out if one particular person–or a small group of people–is happy or sad. Psychologists hand out questionnaires or conduct interviews. But when it comes to gauging the happiness of an entire society, things aren’t so simple. Applied mathematicians Peter Dodds and Christopher Danforth of the University of Vermont in Burlington wondered if the Internet could help. The duo focused on two popular outlets for personal expression: blog posts and song lyrics. Besides providing large slews of data, the researchers believed that people are more honest in personal writings than during formal psychological tests. The scientists analyzed sentences from 2.4 million blogs, which were collected by a Web site called www.wefeelfine.org. The site searches blogs across the world for versions of the phrase “I feel” and then records the entire sentence. For songs, Dodds and Danforth downloaded more than 230,000 lyrics from www.hotlyrics.net, a searchable online database of song lyrics submitted by volunteers.
With the aid of their own computers, the researchers scanned the texts for more than 1000 emotionally charged words that a 1999 psychology study had ranked on a scale from 1 (miserable) to 9 (ecstatic). “Triumphant” and “love” topped the list with average scores greater than 8.7, whereas “disgusted” was one of the lowest at 2.45. The researchers then calculated an average happiness score for each text based on the words’ scores and frequencies.
via How Happy Is the Internet? — Torrice 2009 (803): 3 — ScienceNOW.
The Family’s Ties: The Family’s Long History
For decades, a secretive religious society has been operating out of Washington, D.C., providing support and shelter for the few members of Congress worthy enough to join. Ring of Fire first covered the story with author Jeff Sharlet several years ago, but only after the affairs of John Ensign and Mark Sanford did the organization gain national attention. Mike Papantonio talks about the group’s powerful ties to politicians, and offers some additional insight into their workings.
via YouTube – The Family’s Ties.
Turgidson Guillotine LLC, Made In America!
Turgidson Guillotine LLC, Made In America! - kirkus obscura
“Let them eat cake …”
- Marie Antoinette, a.k.a. Madame Deficit
So Mr. Eric Holder has brought up the issue of America being cowardly when regarding our discussion of race? A dear friend called me to let me know that they were startled by our new Attorney General’s comment. I reminded my friend that Mr. Holder is African-American and probably more qualified to make the observation. Certainly more qualified than say a successful, middle-aged white man who has never experienced prejudice based on race or lived in the American Deep South.
When did America become a place afraid to begin discussion of important issues? When did we become a nation confused by complex, critical thinking? Cowards regarding race? I would venture something far more provocative. We are a nation of lazy, one lunged mouth breathers waiting for someone, anyone willing to clean our soiled diapers, buy us a six-pack of liquid amber and make sure NASCAR is on our big screen wall mount, left turn, left turn, left turn … What have we really become? Bear with me for a moment, if you will.
via welcome to kirkus obscura – saving the world one truth at a time.
Senate will OK clunker extension this week: Reid
Senate will OK “clunker” extension this week: Reid – | Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate will approve a $2 billion extension of the “cash for clunkers” auto sales incentive by week’s end, Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday, giving new life to a successful program that has boosted industry sales to a 2009 high.
Reid told reporters after a White House meeting between Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama that there was enough support in the chamber to give the measure final congressional approval.
“We’ll pass ‘cash for clunkers,’ Reid said. “Before we leave here.” The Senate recesses this Friday.
The schedule for a vote was not clear and Republicans may want to debate the matter, which could push consideration to later in the week.
via Senate will OK clunker extension this week: Reid | Reuters.
As Congress Goes on Break, Health Lobbying Heats Up
As Congress Goes on Break, Health Lobbying Heats Up - - WSJ.com
Medical-device makers are adamant that U.S. health care needs fixing. They’re equally adamant that they shouldn’t have to pay for it.
“If you’re looking for savings, don’t come at us,” says Tim Trysla, a top industry representative. He has marched into the offices of 120 lawmakers, sometimes with General Electric Co. officials in tow, to argue that the government already provides so little reimbursement for high-tech medical scans that it shouldn’t chop payments further.
Groups of all stripes are blitzing lawmakers to shape a trillion-dollar health-care overhaul that would reach into every business and every home in the country. In the lobbying frenzy, many longtime allies are divided, often pitting hospital against hospital, retailer against retailer and doctor against doctor. And, not surprisingly, the fault lines emerge where the bills’ provisions would cost them money.
With the legislation now held up until after Congress’s August recess, interest groups are treating the next few weeks as a critical time for rank-and-file members to try to snare one-on-one meetings with lawmakers back in their home districts.
via As Congress Goes on Break, Health Lobbying Heats Up – WSJ.com.
Southern Rednecks Are The Killing GOP
OPS: Excellent! Go Rednecks!
A Tip for The GOP: Look Away – washingtonpost.com
Southern writer Walker Percy liked to poke fun at Ohioans in his novels, just to even things out a bit.
“Usually Mississippians and Georgians are getting it from everybody, and Alabamians,” he once explained to an interviewer. “So, what’s wrong with making smart-aleck remarks about Ohio? Nobody puts Ohio down. Why shouldn’t I put Ohio down?”
Percy, the genial genius, laughed at his own remark.
Now, apparently, it’s the Buckeye State’s turn to poke back. In a fusillade of pique, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich charged that Southerners are what’s wrong with the Republican Party.
via Kathleen Parker – Sen. George Voinovich and the GOP as a Party of the South – washingtonpost.com.
Shadow Housing Inventory: The Deception of the Foreclosure Numbers and the real REO Picture. A Case Study of Southern California Real Estate. How 40,000 Homes are Hidden From Public View by Banks
Shadow Housing Inventory:
The Deception of the Foreclosure Numbers and the real REO Picture. A Case Study of Southern California Real Estate. How 40,000 Homes are Hidden From Public View by Banks.
The much anticipated bottom in real estate is here! It is time to rejoice people. Let us for a second forget about the 336,000 foreclosure filings last month and the 26,000,000 unemployed and underemployed Americans. The time to buy real estate is now. If you didn’t buy a home yesterday do it now! Grab your phone, call up your agent with the glossy business card, line up your carefully saved down payment, and buy up that 900 square foot home in Culver City for $500,000 because this is it. We can also disregard the analysis from Moody’s that California’s unemployment rate will top 13 percent in 2010. Another estimate places the unemployment rate at 14 percent (we are at 11.6 percent today) so things will get worse before they get better but who cares! Real estate prices will go up on pure hype. The cash for clunkers Real Homes of Genius program.
In 2006, when I talked about the absolute shady underbelly of the housing industry including no-doc loans, forgeries, mortgage broker corruption, agent shenanigans, bought off appraisers, crony Wall Street, there was a sizable contingent that believed it was a tiny group of bad apples. I argued the vast majority of the industry was polluted and as we are now painfully finding out, that is the case. Last year, I started discussing the shadow inventory data and we had another group that simply did not believe this. They thought for the most part, only one or two homes were off the books and shadow inventory was basically a misguided assertion. Today, I am going to prove to you with Southern California data that there is a gigantic shadow inventory building. The Alt-A and option ARM tsunami will be the match that sets this housing tinder box off in 2010 (with the peaking unemployment rate). Keep in mind, we may have a national economic recovery but California housing is done for many years.
Report: Leahy blocks report on Mexico human rights
Report: Leahy blocks report on Mexico human rights
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., blocked the release of a favorable State Department report on Mexico’s human rights record, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Leahy’s action delays the release of $100 million in U.S. aid meant to help Mexico combat drug traffickers. The Merida Initiative, a $1.4 billion, three-year package, requires Congress to withhold some of the funding unless the State Department reports that Mexico is not violating human rights while prosecuting the drug war, the Post reported.
“Those requirements have not been met, so it is premature to send the report to Congress,” Leahy said in a statement released to the newspaper. “We had good faith discussions with Mexican and U.S. officials in reaching these requirements in the law, and I hope we can continue in that spirit.”
via News from The Associated Press.
The hidden truth behind drug company profits
The hidden truth behind drug company profits - - The Independent
Ring-fencing medical knowledge is one of the great grotesqueries of our age
This is the story of one of the great unspoken scandals of our times. Today, the people across the world who most need life-saving medicine are being prevented from producing it. Here’s the latest example: factories across the poor world are desperate to start producing their own cheaper Tamiflu to protect their populations – but they are being sternly told not to. Why? So rich drug companies can protect their patents – and profits. There is an alternative to this sick system, but we are choosing to ignore it.
To understand this tale, we have to start with an apparent mystery. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been correctly warning for months that if swine flu spreads to the poorest parts of the world, it could cull hundreds of thousands of people – or more. Yet they have also been telling the governments of the poor world not to go ahead and produce as much Tamiflu – the only drug we have to reduce the symptoms, and potentially save lives – as they possibly can.
Modified corn seeds sow doubts
Modified corn seeds sow doubts – - The Globe and Mail 
Consumer groups worry Health Canada ‘abdicated its responsibility’ to test seeds’ safety
Next spring, farmers in Canada will be able to sow one of the most complicated genetically engineered plants ever designed, a futuristic type of corn containing eight foreign genes.
With so much crammed into one seed, the modified corn will be able to confer multiple benefits, such as resistance to corn borers and rootworms, two caterpillar-like pests that infest the valuable grain crop, as well as withstanding applications of glyphosate, a weed killer better known by its commercial name, Roundup.
But a controversy has arisen over the new seeds, which were approved for use last month by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Health Canada hasn’t assessed their safety.
via Modified corn seeds sow doubts – The Globe and Mail.
Dems Pass Bill to Ban Bonuses
Dems Pass Bill to Ban Bonuses - Economyincrisis.org -
Some financial firms even went as far as to pay executives bonuses larger than the entire profit of the company last year.
Last Friday, before leaving Washington for their August recess, Democrats passed a bill designed to ban extravagant pay and bonus packages that encourage excessive risk-taking and pose a systemic risk to the nation’s financial system.
The bill would provide shareholders of companies with a non-binding vote on the pay packages of executives. However, more substantively, it would provide federal regulators with the means to curtail pay packages for any financial firm with more than $1 billion in assets.
The bill’s passage comes on the heels of a report released by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that found obscene bonuses are already back on Wall Street.
“Even a cursory examination of the data suggests that in these challenging economic times, compensation for bank employees has become unmoored from the banks’ financial performance,” the report by Cuomo’s office says.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
CARS: Economic Stimulus at its Best
CARS: Economic Stimulus at its Best – Economyincrisis.org
Cash for Clunkers started as a $1 billion rebate program – which was to last from July 1 to November 1, 2009 – it has become a sort of national phenomenon.
The United States Department of Transportation, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has organized perhaps the most talked about stimulus idea of the Obama presidency. It is called the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS); or as it is commonly known, “Cash for Clunkers.”
What started as a $1 billion rebate program – which was to last from July 1 to November 1, 2009 – has become a sort of national phenomenon. It was so popular with buyers and dealers that the original $1 billion is all but depleted, and on July 30 the U.S. House approved Senatorial approval which is hoped to come before the August recess.
The premise of the program is threefold: invigorate the auto industry, upgrade to more efficient vehicles, and boost consumer spending. The government is willing to foot $3,500 to $4,500 of the bill if you are willing to sign off on the rest of the purchase.
As a result automakers from Ford to Hyundai reported either increased sales, or much smaller declines in sales.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Buchanan Compares Al Gore To Birthers
MATTHEWS: So people like Al Gore have cooked this up to get what?
BUCHANAN: No, I think he believes it, Chris, like the Birthers believe it. He’s just like they are. It’s a religious belief with them.
YouTube – Buchanan Compares Al Gore To Birthers.
Why Can’t the U.S. Guarantee the Most Basic of Human Rights — the Right to Clean Water?
Why Can’t the U.S. Guarantee the Most Basic of Human Rights — the Right to Clean Water? - | | AlterNet
California is leading the way with new legislation to guarantee clean water for all, but the federal government is far behind.
The prime obstacle to guaranteeing a human right to water in international law has been the U.S. federal government, which also, by the way, opposes human rights to food and housing.
It is this somewhat surprising political dynamic that makes AB 1242 by California Assemblymen Ira Ruskin, D-Los Altos, so significant. The legislation, which establishes the right of every Californian to have clean water for basic human needs, passed a key state Senate committee in early July and may just be heading toward Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk this fall.
The concept of a human right to water is a hot topic at the United Nations and in international circles. Multinational companies are beginning to endorse the concept, with PepsiCo making a proclamation supporting the human right to water this past March.
What does a human right to water really mean? AB 1242 is a great first step, but the one-page bill is short on specifics.
The Only Option for Health Reform Is the Public Option
OPS: The only solution to the Health Care problem is Universal Single Payer. The Public Option is a distant second.
The Only Option for Health Reform Is the Public Option - | AlterNet
By every objective measure, the United States has a second-rate health care system — and the only way to fix it is to create a public option.
The United States has the most-expensive, least-efficient and, in many ways, most-ineffective health care system in the world.
But you wouldn’t know it if you listened to Republicans talk about the private health care insurance system or Democratic Blue Dogs whine about the costs of reform and complain about how unfair it would be to have private health insurance companies compete with a public health care option.
The World Health Organization ranks health care systems based on objective measures of medical outcomes, and the United States’ health care system ranks 37th in the world, behind Colombia and Portugal (which both spend far less on health care than the U.S.).
via The Only Option for Health Reform Is the Public Option | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
How We Became a Society of Gluttonous Junk Food Addicts
How We Became a Society of Gluttonous Junk Food Addicts – | AlterNet
Junk food is killing us slowly with diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But we can’t stop because we’re hooked, and the food industry is the pusher.
“Father of American cuisine” James Beard “loved McDonald’s fries,” while Paul Bocuse, an originator of nouvelle cuisine, once declared McDonald’s “are the best French fries I have ever eaten.” Masaharu Morimoto is partial to “Philly cheese steaks,” and Jean-Georges Vongerichten confesses a weakness for Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich. Other accomplished but less-famous chefs admit to craving everything from Peanut M&Ms, Pringles and Combos to Kettle Chips and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Having attended culinary school and cooked professionally, I can wax rhapsodic about epicurean delights such as squab, Beluga caviar, black truffles, porcini mushrooms, Iberico Ham, langoustines, and acres of exceptional vegetables and fruits. But I also have an unabashed junk food craving: Nacho Cheese Doritos. Sure, there are plenty of other junk foods I enjoy, whether it’s Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream or Entenmann’s baked goods, but Doritos are the one thing I desire and seek out regularly. (Not that I ever have to look that hard; I’ve encountered them everywhere from rural villages in Guatemala to tiny towns in the Canadian Arctic.)
via How We Became a Society of Gluttonous Junk Food Addicts | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border – Times Online
Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border
Head of the Israeli Northern Command: Israeli-Lebanese border that the peace of the past three years could “explode at any minute”.
Three years after Israel fought a bloody war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, there are fears that hostilities could erupt again — this time with the militant group better armed than ever.
According to Israeli, United Nations and Hezbollah officials, the Shia Muslim militia is stronger than it was in 2006 when it took on the Israeli army in a war that killed 1,191 Lebanese and 43 Israeli civilians.
Hezbollah has up to 40,000 rockets and is training its forces to use ground-to-ground missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, and anti-aircraft missiles that could challenge Israel’s dominance of the skies over Lebanon.
via Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border – Times Online.
Dump Dodd advocating FOR Suicide?
Dump Dodd advocating FOR Suicide? – | ePluribus Media
When I got to the healthcare event yesterday, these “Dump Dodd” nuts were out there screeching about communism and socialism. Never mind that they were essentially calling Medicare, the VA and the military’s Tricare “Communist and Socialist”:
Video at Link
They are now advocating FOR Sen. Dodd to commit suicide?
“How come we don’t just give Chris Dodd painkillers? Like a handful of them at a time! He can wash it down with Ted Kennedy’s whiskey…!”
Sorry. I couldn’t wait around long enough for them to spout the communist stuff again. But many were there for this healthcare event and heard these fringe nuts and can corroborate that fact. CTNewsjunkie has a great write up on the healthcare event and some more on the Dump Dodd crazies, and My Left Nutmeg does a great job figuring out who these Dump Dodd nuts are.
via Dump Dodd advocating FOR Suicide? | ePluribus Media.
Obama gives powerful drug lobby a seat at healthcare table – Los Angeles Times
Obama gives powerful drug lobby a seat at healthcare table
Reporting from Washington — As a candidate for president, Barack Obama lambasted drug companies and the influence they wielded in Washington. He even ran a television ad targeting the industry’s chief lobbyist, former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, and the role Tauzin played in preventing Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.
Since the election, Tauzin has morphed into the president’s partner. He has been invited to the White House half a dozen times in recent months. There, he says, he eventually secured an agreement that the administration wouldn’t try to overturn the very Medicare drug policy that Obama had criticized on the campaign trail.
via Obama gives powerful drug lobby a seat at healthcare table – Los Angeles Times.
New York City Files Tax Claim Against Lehman in Bankruptcy Court
New York Seeks Millions in Tax From Lehman – - NYTimes.com
Ever since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy last September, creditors have been lining up to get their share, from a $233 million claim from a former employee for deferred compensation to one for $160 for a bounced check from the American Red Cross in Millburn, N.J.
dd to that list a longtime friend and defender of Richard S. Fuld Jr., the former Lehman chief executive who has been much maligned for steering the financial firm into bankruptcy: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
via New York City Files Tax Claim Against Lehman in Bankruptcy Court – NYTimes.com.
Federal Program Helps Few Mortgage Holders
U.S. Effort Aids Only 9% of Eligible Homeowners – NYTimes.com
The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that only a small number of homeowners — 235,247, or 9 percent of those eligible — had been helped by the latest government program created to modify home loans and prevent foreclosures.
A report released by Treasury officials identified lenders who had made slow progress in offering more affordable mortgages, naming Bank of America and Wells Fargo as among those failing to reach large numbers of eligible borrowers.
While 15 percent of eligible homeowners have been offered help through the mortgage modification program, the low rate of actual mortgage reductions has frustrated administration officials.
Michael S. Barr, the assistant secretary for financial institutions, said in a news conference that there were “significant variations” in performance and that some institutions had made “an infinitesimally small amount” of progress.
via Federal Program Helps Few Mortgage Holders – NYTimes.com.
DNC video attacks birthers, GOP’s ‘mob’ tactics
DNC video attacks birthers, GOP’s ‘mob’ tactics – The Raw Story »
Following this morning’s frontal assault by the White House against dishonest coverage of the healthcare debate by right-wing news aggregator Matt Drudge, among others, the Democratic National Committee appears to be throwing its hat into the battle as well.
The DNC has produced a video of their own, which we bring to you below. It attacks so-called GOP “mobs” that have been cropping up around the country at Democratic lawmakers’ town hall meetings.
It was revealed early Tuesday that these groups are being organized by the same folks that coordinated the Swift Boat attacks against Sen. John Kerry in 2004, effectively sinking his bid to unseat his now departed opponent.
The group claiming credit for the angry scenes is called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, run by a former hospitals executive
via The Raw Story » DNC video attacks birthers, GOP’s ‘mob’ tactics.
Disgraced Bush-Era U.S. attorney still drawing a government paycheck.
Disgraced Bush-Era U.S. attorney still drawing a government paycheck. - Think Progress »
At the height of the crony Bush Justice Department era, the President appointed a 33-year-old attorney named Rachel Paulose, whose sole qualifications for the job appeared to be personal connections to high-ranking Justice Department officials, as the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota. Her tenure was an unmitigated disaster. Paulose mishandled classified information, retaliated against employees who were “disloyal,” and she “allegedly denigrated one employee of the office, using the terms ‘fat,’ ‘black,’ ‘lazy’ and ‘ass.’” At one point, four of her top lieutenants voluntarily demoted themselves in protest of her mismanagement of the office. Nevertheless, Paulose has somehow found a new job representing the United States in court. According to Main Justice, Paulose was hired last March as a senior trial counsel in the SEC’s Miami regional office. In light of her poor employment history, it’s unclear why Paulose was able to get this job now that her close friend Monica Goodling is no longer calling the shots.
via Think Progress » Disgraced Bush-Era U.S. attorney still drawing a government paycheck..
Coal industry flack says mountaintop removal solves ‘lack of flat space’ in Appalachia.
Coal industry flack says mountaintop removal solves ‘lack of flat space’ in Appalachia. 
Joe Lucas, ACCCEThe coal industry front group embroiled in an Astroturf scandal is now arguing that mountaintop removal coal mining helps communities “hampered because of a lack of flat space.” Joe Lucas, vice president of communications for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), told the Guardian that dynamiting the tops off of mountains is actually a boon to rural Appalachia:
I can take you to places in eastern Kentucky where community services were hampered because of a lack of flat space — to build factories, to build hospitals, even to build schools. In many places, mountain-top mining, if done responsibly, allows for land to be developed for community space.
More trouble at the IRS
More trouble at the IRS
Another IRS employee is in trouble, the third one this month alone.
First, there was the case of Edith Squillace, an IRS “contact representative” indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that she tried to back out of repaying a loan by threatening to have her benefactor audited.
Then, IRS revenue officer Mark Claybrooks was indicted by the feds for allegedly urging people who owed taxes to refinance with a mortgage company for which he worked. From 2003 to 2005, Claybrooks, who worked for the IRS in Walnut Creek, was also employed by Faith Mortgage Group in Antioch, refinancing personal-residence loans. Claybrooks received more than $20,000 from Faith Mortgage in exchange for referring at least two people to Faith Mortgage, the indictment said. Claybrooks pleaded not guilty Thursday.
via Crime Scene : More trouble at the IRS.
Blackwater’s New Whistleblowers
OPS: Blackwater’s kindred spirits are in our Military as well
Blackwater’s New Whistleblowers – - The Daily Beast
Startling new accusations against Blackwater and its founder Erik Prince include murdering informants, smuggling weapons, and promoting “Christian supremacy,” sex rings, and child prostitution.
New accusations targeting Blackwater USA founder and CEO Erik Prince were filed last night in federal court in Virginia.
The allegations—made by two men who claim that they are former Blackwater employees—link Prince to alleged homicides, arms smuggling and financial irregularities at the company. Blackwater, now called XE Services LLC, was until recently the largest private military contractor in Iraq, with a billion-dollar contract with the American government for security.
The men appear in the affidavits as “John Does,” claiming anonymity because they fear for their lives if discovered.
via Blackwater’s New Whistleblowers – Page 1 – The Daily Beast.
Mercenaries training US local police a new trend
Mercenaries training US local police a new trend 
There are many police and law enforcement officials who are concerned with the growing trend of using military-experienced mercenaries to train and work with local police officers in the United States, but there are many who believe the events of September 11, 2001 dictate the need for this new paradigm.
For example, Kentucky’s Lexington Police Department contracted Blackwater Security International to provide what’s described as homeland security training. Meanwhile that city’s Mayor Jim Newberry and its chief of police Anthony Beatty refused free training provided by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement federal program that prepares police officers to enforce immigration and border security as part of their duties.
Lexington is on the nation’s list of so-called Sanctuary Cities in which police officers are prohibited from working with ICE or Border Patrol agents in the United States. Critics are angry over the use of local tax dollars to hire Blackwater personnel to train the police.
via Mercenaries training US local police a new trend.
Bayer Exposed ( HIV Contaminated Vaccine )
Bayer Sells AIDS-Infected Drug Banned in U.S. in Europe, Asia – Unearthed documents show that the drug company Bayer sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine — Factor VIII concentrate, intended for hemophiliacs — to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, although they knew that it was tainted with AIDS. Bayer knew about the fact that the drug was tainted and told the FDA to keep things under wraps while they made a profit off of a drug that infected its patients. If these allegations are true, then both Bayer and the FDA are at fault for this catastrophe. FDA regulators helped to keep the continued sales hidden, asking the company that the problem be ”quietly solved without alerting the Congress, the medical community and the public,” according to the minutes of a 1985 meeting
via YouTube – Bayer Exposed ( HIV Contaminated Vaccine ).
40 Fantastic Time-Wasting Web Sites
40 Fantastic Time-Wasting Web Sites - PC World
Sure, you should probably be working. But why bother when you can vaporize hours by checking out these engaging Web sites?
Warning: Reading this story may be hazardous to your productivity. The Web sites within may divert you from the dull tasks in need of your attention and may cause you to goof off for hours instead.
Oh, who are we kidding? You weren’t going to get any work done today, anyway. So you might as well waste time in style–and these sites will help you do it. Figuring that you’re already familiar with the Facebooks and YouTubes and Onions of the Net, we decided that any further serious undermining of your motivation to labor entailed digging up some obscure nuggets to commingle with the more familiar destinations. Our only criterion: Every site should be entertaining and habit-forming. And we found ‘em–40 of ‘em. Now just put up your privacy screen, kick back, and start clicking. Caveat: If you get caught, it won’t do you any good to tell your boss that we’re the ones who suggested it. And let me say for the record that I didn’t waste any time on the organization of this list!
via 40 Fantastic Time-Wasting Web Sites – PC World.
The Benefits To Legalizing Pot You Haven’t Heard About (VIDEO)
The Benefits To Legalizing Pot You Haven’t Heard About (VIDEO)
The war on drugs may be a noble intention, but the illegal growing of marijuana is destroying our environment and we need to step in.
Primarily run by Mexican drug cartels in the fields of California — marijuana is the state’s largest cash crop generating nearly $14 billion a year — the marijuana growers aren’t your typical peace-loving hippies of the 70s. Hundred KW generators, diesel storage tanks, ATV vehicles and large quantities of animal poison are just some of the things involved here.
These men live illegally on farms all summer, putting tons of waste into the soil and water.
Irrigation tubes that snake for a mile or more over forested ridges. Pesticides that have drained into creeks and entered the food chain, sickening wildlife. Piles of trash and human waste in the most rugged and bucolic drainages.
via The Benefits To Legalizing Pot You Haven’t Heard About (VIDEO).
SEC Moves Closer To Banning Flash Orders
SEC Moves Closer To Banning Flash Orders
NEW YORK — The Securities and Exchange Commission is moving toward banning a trading practice that gives some brokerages a split-second advantage in buying or selling stocks.
SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said in a statement Tuesday that the agency is working to create a rule to ban the trades known as flash orders.
Flash orders give certain members of exchanges including Nasdaq, Direct Edge and BATS the ability to buy and sell order information for milliseconds before that information is made public. High-speed computer software can take advantage of that brief period to allow those members to get better prices and profits.
“I have asked the staff for an approach that can be quickly implemented to eliminate the inequity that results from flash orders,” Schapiro said. Any proposal to eliminate the orders would still have to be approved by the entire commission and be open to public comment before being implemented.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a critic of the orders, said in a statement that Schapiro personally assured him the SEC would ban the practice. Last month, Schumer sent a letter to the SEC urging it to eliminate flash orders and said that if it didn’t, he would write legislation to do so.
Banning flash orders is more about the perception of fairness than any practical change in trading, said Sang Lee, a managing partner at Aite Group. He noted flash orders only make up around 2 percent or 3 percent of total trading volume.
via SEC Moves Closer To Banning Flash Orders.
Up, Up and Away
Water-powered jetpack coming to a store near you
It’s not quite the jet pack we all dreamed as kids, but a Canadian company may have the next best thing. For a price of about $130,000 Jet Levitation will sell you a water-powered jet pack (of sorts) that can launch users 30 feet into the air.
The JetLev system’s only catch is that it attaches to a jet ski motor — and users are tethered by a 30-foot cable. The pack should be available this year.
Fox News recently ran a segment on the invention in which the editor of Discover magazine tried out the device. WATCH:
Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever
John Nichols
How should serious supporters of healthcare reform spend the month of August?
Not by getting trapped in the narrow “debate” between “party of no” Republicans who favor no reform at all, and Blue Dog Democrats, whose “reform” is to make a bad system worse.
And not by campaigning for “buzz words – “public option,” “employer mandates” – or whatever President Obama or Speaker Pelosi happen to favor this week. There will be plenty of advertising and organizing to that end, including a $15 million expenditure by the AFL-CIO.
Americans who want to tip the debate in the most progressive direction should take advantage an opening provided at the last minute during negotiations to get a bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
And they should do so by advocating even more aggressively for single-payer health care.
via Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever.
Flashback: Obama Supported Barrow In Primary Because He Would Fight For ‘Access To Affordable Health Care’
Flashback: Obama Supported Barrow In Primary Because He Would Fight For ‘Access To Affordable Health Care’
Last Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 31-28 to advance health care legislation. Five Democrats — Reps. John Barrow (D-GA), Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Bart Stupak (D-MI), Rick Boucher (D-VA), and Jim Matheson (D-UT) — joined Republicans in voting against the legislation, despite the inclusion of a number of concessions in the bill made to placate conservative Democrats.
Now, MoveOn is targeting Barrow and two other Blue Dog Democrats with a series of radio advertisements that will air in their districts starting Wednesday. Listen to the one directed at Rep. Barrow here:
President Obama, in a move that many progressives disagreed with, endorsed Barrow in his summer 2008 Democratic primary against progressive challenger Regina Thomas.
All In A Day’s Work: Rep. Kingston Smears The Stimulus On TV, Takes Credit For Stimulus Jobs In His District
All In A Day’s Work: Rep. Kingston Smears The Stimulus On TV, Takes Credit For Stimulus Jobs In His District - Think Progress »
Last week, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) joined other Republican House members to engage in lengthy, repetitive speeches droning on about why they believe the Recovery Act has been a failure. Per instructions given by Republican Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Republicans have been tasked with slamming the stimulus and asking “Where are the jobs?” as part of a “floor game” maneuver to slow down reform on other issues, especially health care.
On July 28th, Kingston’s press office fired off two releases bragging about a $106,901 grant for the Alma Police Department and a $138,286 grant for the Jesup Police Department in Georgia. These grants, distributed by the Department of Justice for the “hiring of new police officers, to combat violence against women, and to fight Internet crimes against children,” were fully-funded by President Obama’s Recovery Act. Nonetheless, Kingston took credit for them, calling the funds “local initiatives” unrelated to the policies set forth in Washington and a type of “tax relief” for local communities:
“We’ve seen from experience that local initiatives go a lot further toward solving local problems that policies set in Washington. This funding will provide tax relief by savings local tax dollars and, under the stewardship of Chief Livingston, will go a long way to fight crime more effectively through community policing.”
On July 28th, the same day he took credit for jobs created by the Recovery Act, Kingston took to the floor to slam Obama and the Recovery Act:
Ben Bernanke’s failure at the Fed
Ben Bernanke’s failure at the Fed | | | guardian.co.uk
Dean Baker
The Federal Reserve chairman is lobbying to keep his job, but his response to the financial crisis has been exceptionally poor
Departing from the normal practice of Federal Reserve board chairmen, Ben Bernanke has taken to barnstorming the country in recent months, giving public talks and recently appearing in a lengthy interview on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The reason for seeking a higher profile is simple: Bernanke wants to keep his job.
Bernanke’s term ends in January. He was appointed by President George Bush. It would be understandable if President Barack Obama wanted to get his own person into this vital position. On the other hand, Bernanke has never been a rightwing ideologue, and he is one of the country’s top monetary economists. In addition, Obama may be reluctant to change the Fed’s leadership at a time when the financial system and economy are still fragile, so Bernanke may have a decent shot.
Of course if we were to grade his performance at the Fed, it would be hard to give Bernanke anything other than hugely failing marks. After all, it was the Fed’s policy to allow the housing bubble to grow unchecked, with the idea that it could just pick up the pieces after it burst. This has led to the worst downturn since the Great Depression, likely costing the United States more than $6tn ($50,000 per family) in lost output.
While Alan Greenspan, Bernanke’s predecessor, may deserve more of the blame, Bernanke is a close rival. He was one of the Fed’s governors from 2002 to 2005, and then did a brief stint as head of the Council of Economic Advisers before taking over as Fed chair in early 2006. There were few people who were better situated to try to burst the bubble than Bernanke.
via Ben Bernanke’s failure at the Fed | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
Could Reconciliation Bring Single Payer Back From the Dead? GOP Obstructionists May Shoot Themselves in the Foot on Healthcare
Could Reconciliation Bring Single Payer Back From the Dead? GOP Obstructionists May Shoot Themselves in the Foot on Healthcare
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Meg White
There’s been a great deal of speculation of late as to whether the August recess could kill healthcare reform entirely. It’s starting to look like the alarmist claims about the power of the congressional vacation are a little Single-payer reconciliationoverblown.
Political math guru Nate Silver wrote when it was becoming clear at the end of last month that there would be no finalized healthcare bill before the August recess that the timeout is just fine. He predicted approval numbers would swing blue by the time Congress returned, and that media coverage was blowing the disadvantages of the break way out of proportion.
Southern states an epicenter for U.S. job losses
Southern states an epicenter for U.S. job losses -| | Reuters
MIAMI (Reuters) – America’s worsening job woes come with a southern drawl. States in America’s South, such as Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, have flipped during the recession from putting up robust employment numbers envied by other regions to posting many of America’s most painful rates.
Seven southern states now have double-digit unemployment rates, an unusual concentration in a country with a national rate in June of 9.5 percent. The list includes Florida, which two years earlier had one of the lowest jobless rates, at 4 percent.
“This recession has walloped the Sun Belt in ways that previous recessions have not,” said economist James Diffley, managing director for regional services at IHS Global Insight in Philadelphia.
via Southern states an epicenter for U.S. job losses | U.S. | Reuters.
Deconstructing the Right Wing Lies on the Health Insurance Bill
OPS: This article is the Mother Lode. It is a point by point debunking of one of the current viral 
emails created by the Corporate/Republican cabal that is lying (again) to keep the status quo. The website on which this article appears contains many more “debunkings” of other Right wing lies about Health care reform
Deconstructing the Right Wing Lies on the Health Insurance Bill – Please Cut the Crap!:
The right’s lies about the current health insurance proposals before Congress have rarely been compiled in such concise form before.
What follows is an article from the Right Wing blog ChronWatch:
via Please Cut the Crap!: Deconstructing the Right Wing Lies on the Health Insurance Bill.
Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder
Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder
By Jeremy Scahill
A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”
In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting “illegal” or “unlawful” weapons into the country on Prince’s private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies. The identities of the two individuals were sealed out of concerns for their safety.
via Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder.
Russian troops on high readiness in South Ossetia
Russian troops on high readiness in South Ossetia
Russian troops in the breakaway province of South Ossetia have been put on increased combat readiness amid rising tensions on the de facto border with Georgia, officials said Tuesday.
Andrei Nesterenko, the spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said the move was a response to Georgian “provocations” and meant to prevent more violence.
“The most important thing now is to prevent escalation and not to allow skirmishes to grow into bigger clashes,” Nesterenko said.
The situation near South Ossetia has become increasingly tense as the first anniversary of the Russian-Georgian war approaches Friday, with Georgia and Russia blaming each other for provocations and intentions to resume fighting.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the “lessons of last year’s Georgian crisis” in a telephone conversation late Tuesday, the Kremlin said in a statement. There was no elaboration.
Obama said during a recent summit in Moscow that Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected.
via Russian troops on high readiness in South Ossetia – Yahoo! News.
Gallup: 37 states that are either solidly or leaning Democratic
The Most Important Number in Politics Today 37
That’s the number of states that are either solidly or leaning Democratic in a series of Gallup tracking polls conducted over the first six months of 2009. Only eight states are solidly or leaning Republicans in that same data.
The numbers, which are based on party identification of adults in national tracking polls, paint a stark portrait of the challenge facing Republicans not just in the 2010 midterm election but also in the 2012 presidential race.
There are currently 29 states in which Democrats enjoy a 10-percentage point (or more) edge on party identification. Compare that to just four states where the Republican edge is ten points or higher (Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Alaska) and one (Alabama) that leans toward the GOP.
Add up the 29 states that are in the solidly Democratic category, according to Gallup, and you get 350 electoral votes; add up the four states in the solidly Republican category and you get 15 electoral votes.
via The Fix – The Most Important Number in Politics Today.
Economy Bouncing Back?
Economy Bouncing Back? - - CBS News Video
New figures show the economic decline has slowed and some economists and financiers are forecasting a robust recovery. But, as Anthony Mason reports, the unemployment rate is still expected to rise.
via Economy Bouncing Back? – CBS News Video.
Rove’s Spin Lands Him in Criminal Territory
Rove’s Spin Lands Him in Criminal Territory – OpEdNews – 
Did Karl Rove obstruct justice when he discussed his role in the the U.S. attorney firings with two major newspapers, violating an agreement he had with Congress?
Yes indeed, says Alabama lawyer and whistleblower Jill Simpson, who has testified under oath that Rove was part of a conspiracy to conduct a political prosecution against former Governor Don Siegelman.
Simpson says Rove violated 18 U.S. Code 1505 by granting interviews with The New York Times and the Washington Post, which ran last week after his second round of testimony before staff members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Rove also provided copies of selected e-mails to reporters, messages that apparently indicate his role in the U.S. attorney firings was small.
via OpEdNews – Rove’s Spin Lands Him in Criminal Territory.
GOP to America: Be Afraid… Please.
GOP to America: Be Afraid… Please.
America is in a real pickle. No, actually in a jar of pickles — deadly pickles. If the terrorists don’t get you, your own government will track you down and have your doctor kill your ass.
All this is true. At least, that’s what Republicans want you to believe. Let’s look at the new national threat level:
The Terrorists are Coming, The Terrorists are Coming!
Quick! Round up the towns folk. Get the old shotgun off the wall and jump in the pickup ready for action. Because, according to Republicans, Obama is going to import terrorists into the US! How many? Well, maybe as many as 229 of the little buggers. And the GOP wants you to worry about that. No wait, not just worry, they want you in a white-knuckle panic over it.
via OpEdNews – GOP to America: Be Afraid… Please..
Doggett undeterred by unruly right-wing mob, says he remains ‘more committed than ever’ to health reform.
OPS: Good on ya Doggett! Hang Tough
Doggett undeterred by unruly right-wing mob, says he remains ‘more committed than ever’ to health reform. - Think Progress »
In a recent interview with blogger-activist Mike Stark, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) pledged to vote against any health care bill that does not have a meaningful public plan. As ThinkProgress noted, Doggett is now being confronted by “angry, sign-carrying mobs” back home in his district which are being orchestrated by well-heeled lobbyists. Doggett released a statement yesterday explaining that he won’t be deterred by the mob:
This mob, sent by the local Republican and Libertarian parties, did not come just to be heard, but to deny others the right to be heard. And this appears to be part of a coordinated, nationwide effort. What could be more appropriate for the “party of no” than having its stalwarts drowning out the voices of their neighbors by screaming “just say no!” Their fanatical insistence on repealing Social Security and Medicare is not just about halting health care reform but rolling back 75 years of progress. I am more committed than ever to win approval of legislation to offer more individual choice to access affordable health care. An effective public plan is essential to achieve that goal.
Coal Lobbyists Now ‘Outraged’ By Fraud, But Kept Silent During Clean Energy Vote
Coal Lobbyists Now ‘Outraged’ By Fraud, But Kept Silent During Clean Energy Vote - Think Progress »
ACCCE: Who Supports Electricity From Coal?The top coal lobbying coalition in Washington, D.C. hid its knowledge of “fraudulent grassroots lobbying” while Congress voted against clean energy legislation on June 26, 2009. A background document from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) reveals that it learned two days before the vote on Waxman-Markey that Bonner & Associates had sent a dozen forged letters opposing the American Clean Energy and Security Act to at least three members of the House of Representatives:
Due to reported misconduct by a Bonner and Associates employee (who the firm states was subsequently fired), it appears that a total of twelve falsified letters were sent by that firm to the offices of Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, Congressman Christopher Carney and Congressman Tom Perriello.
via Think Progress » Coal Lobbyists Now ‘Outraged’ By Fraud, But Kept Silent During Clean Energy Vote.
-
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
-
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. 
