Archive for October, 2009
Chamber Of Commerce To Begin Ads Against Health Care Reform
Looking to build pressure on moderate Democrats, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it will begin airing new TV ads in seven states and on national cable television attacking the emerging legislation, including a government-run insurance option.
The chamber, the country’s largest business organization, says such a public plan would force tax increases, raise peoples’ health care costs and threaten employer-provided coverage that most Americans already have. The ad is slated to start Wednesday.
Chamber spokeswoman Blair Latoff said the ads would run in states including Maine, Louisiana and Arkansas – home to some pivotal moderate senators of both parties.
via Chamber Of Commerce To Begin Ads Against Health Care Reform.
Troops In Afghanistan Outnumber Taliban 12-1
There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn’t led to anything close to victory.
Now, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for tens of thousands more troops to stem the escalating insurgency, raising the question of how many more troops it would take to succeed.
The commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the extra forces are needed to implement a new strategy that focuses on protecting civilians and depriving the militants of popular support in a country where tribal militias may be Taliban today and farmers tomorrow.
via Troops In Afghanistan Outnumber Taliban 12-1.
OPS: and we still can’t beat them?
Penn archaeologist recreates ancient brews
Patrick McGovern had just emerged from the ancient burial chamber in one of the most extensively excavated archaeological sites in China when a local scientist presented him with what he calls “the real treasure.”
It was a sealed bronze drinking vessel that resembled a teapot from 1200 B.C.
With liquid still inside.
“I just about dropped over – a liquid sample from 3,000 years ago,” said McGovern, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.
He whisked a sample back to his lab in the basement of Penn’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. An analysis confirmed what he had suspected: a yellowish wine.
It was another eureka moment for McGovern, 64, who has spent the last two decades traversing the globe, from ancient capitals to remote villages, in a quest to uncover the secrets of ancient wine- and beer-making.
via Penn archaeologist recreates ancient brews | Philadelphia Inquirer | 10/13/2009.
Stem Cells from Fat Used to Grow Teen’s Missing Facial Bones
Surgeons report success in first human bone growth procedure using fat stem cells–with no culturing necessary
Stem cells so far have been used to mend tissues ranging from damaged hearts to collapsed tracheas. Now the multifaceted cells have proved successful at regrowing bone in humans. In the first procedure of its kind, doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center replaced a 14-year-old boy’s missing cheekbones—in part by repurposing stem cells from his own body.
The technique, should it be approved for widespread use, could benefit some seven million people in the U.S. who need more bone—everyone from cancer patients to injured war veterans.
“This is sort of the holy grail for a number of different surgeons,” says Jesse Taylor, a surgeon and researcher in the hospital’s Division of Plastic Surgery and one of the procedure’s lead physicians. The procedure could be used in plastic, orthopedic and neural surgeries, he notes. Some bone tissue had previously been generated from stem cells in the lab, but this marks hope for a surgical solution for those who need additional bone.
via Stem Cells from Fat Used to Grow Teen’s Missing Facial Bones: Scientific American.
Exercise makes cigarettes less attractive to smokers
Exercise can help smokers quit because it makes cigarettes less attractive. A new study from the University of Exeter shows for the first time that exercise can lessen the power of cigarettes and smoking-related images to grab the attention of smokers. The study is published in the journal Addiction. The study involved 20 moderately heavy smokers, who had abstained from cigarettes for 15 hours before the trial. During two visits to our laboratory participants began by being shown smoking-related and neutral images, and then spent either 15 minutes sitting or exercising on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity. Afterwards, they were again shown the images.
While the participants were shown the images, the research team used the latest eye tracking technology to measure and record their precise eye movements. They were able to show not only the length of time people looked at smoking-related images but also how quickly pictures of cigarettes could grab their attention, compared with non-smoking matched images.
The study showed an 11% difference between the time the participants spent looking at the smoking-related images after exercise, compared with the after sitting. Also, after exercise, participants took longer to look at smoking-related images. Exercise, therefore, appears to reduce the power of the smoking-related images to grab visual attention.
via Exercise makes cigarettes less attractive to smokers | Eureka! Science News.
Torching the Big Tent
Editorial - - NYTimes.com
The feeble pulse of moderation in the Republican Party is in danger of flat-lining in the Nov. 3 Congressional election in upstate New York. Luminaries like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have taken opposing sides over whether the party dare tolerate the official Republican candidate in the 23rd district — Dede Scozzafava, a six-term assemblywoman whose record includes refreshing tinges of centrism.
Ms. Scozzafava was nominated by local party leaders as eminently electable despite — or because of — her defense of women’s abortion rights and her tolerant views on same-sex marriage.
She is already shunned by many more ideologically narrow House Republicans, and deep-pocketed right-wing purists, pouring in hundreds of thousands of dollars, have driven up the poll numbers of Douglas Hoffman on the Conservative line. Barely noticed in the intramural scrum is the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens. He could profit most from the three-way split in the heavily Republican district, which was vacated by John McHugh, the G.O.P. moderate appointed secretary of the Army by President Obama.
via Editorial – Torching the Big Tent – NYTimes.com.
Obama to Sign Hate Crimes Bill Wednesday
Eleven years after Matthew Shepard’s death, President Obama will sign the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill into law during a White House signing ceremony Wednesday afternoon, White House officials confirm.
The long-sought hate crimes provision is part of the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill and will extend federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
Matthew Shepard a gay twenty-one year old college student was brutally. killed in 1998 Some of the Shepard family will be in attendance at the White House signing on Wednesday. Afterward there will be a reception with gay rights groups as well as civil rights leader to commemorate the occasion.
via Obama to Sign Hate Crimes Bill Wednesday – Political Punch.
Compromised Care: Psychotropic drugs given to nursing home patients without cause
Many Illinois residents get medications they don’t need or want. The result? A threat to the lives of our elderly.
Frail and vulnerable residents of nursing homes throughout Illinois are being dosed with powerful psychotropic drugs, leading to tremors, dangerous lethargy and a higher risk of harmful falls or even death, a Tribune investigation has found.
Thousands of elderly and disabled people have been affected, many of them drugged without their consent or without a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis that would justify treatment, state and federal inspection reports show.
Lloyd Berkley, 74, was in a nursing home near Peoria for less than a day before staff members held him down and injected him with a large amount of an antipsychotic drug, according to a state citation. A few hours later he fell, suffering a fatal head injury.
One woman was given a psychotropic drug partly because she refused to wear a bra. Nursing home staff administered an antipsychotic medication to an 87-year-old man because he was “easily annoyed.”
Ex-Team Executive Sounds an Alarm on N.F.L. Head Trauma
TAMPA, Fla. — Gay Culverhouse used to be the woman in the men’s locker room. Twenty years later, she’s their friend in the emergency room.
Sitting at a restaurant here Friday, only a few miles from where she once served as president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, she reconnected with a few company retirees. There was Richard Wood, the fearsome linebacker known as Batman whose searing migraine headaches and tendency to get lost while driving in his own neighborhood leave him scared for his future. Across the table was Scot Brantley, an even harder hitter through the 1980s whose short-term memory is gone. Then there was Brandi Winans, former wife of the former Buccaneers lineman Jeff Winans, who slipped into such inexplicable depression, fogginess and fury several years ago that their marriage splintered.
Culverhouse looked at disability forms, listened to stories, offered counsel and expressed regret. She has done the same via telephone this year for another half-dozen former Buccaneers with increasing cognitive problems in their 40s or 50s. Having followed story after story detailing how N.F.L. retirees are experiencing various forms of dementia at several times the national rate, and listening to the N.F.L. and its doctors cast doubt that football played any role in their problems, she has emerged after 15 years to reconnect with her players and sound an alarm.
Culverhouse has blood cancer and renal failure and has been told she has six months to live. She will testify before the House Judiciary Committee at its hearing on football brain injuries on Wednesday to, as she put it, “tell the truth about what’s going on while I still have the chance.”
via Ex-Team Executive Sounds an Alarm on N.F.L. Head Trauma – NYTimes.com.
Mind Your Tweets: The CIA Social Networking Surveillance System
That social networking sites and applications such as Facebook, Twitter and their competitors can facilitate communication and information sharing amongst diverse groups and individuals is by now a cliché.
It should come as no surprise then, that the secret state and the capitalist grifters whom they serve, have zeroed-in on the explosive growth of these technologies. One can be certain however, securocrats aren’t tweeting their restaurant preferences or finalizing plans for after work drinks.
No, researchers on both sides of the Atlantic are busy as proverbial bees building a “total information” surveillance system, one that will, so they hope, provide police and security agencies with what they euphemistically call “actionable intelligence.”
Build the Perfect Panopticon, Win Fabulous Prizes!
In this context, the whistleblowing web site Wikileaks published a remarkable document October 4 by the INDECT Consortium, the Intelligence Information System Supporting Observation, Searching and Detection for Security of Citizens in Urban Environment.
via Mind Your Tweets: The CIA Social Networking Surveillance System.
Ehud Olmert could face war crimes arrest if he visits UK
• Prosecution of Israelis likely, says solicitor
• Lawyers working on use of universal jurisdiction
Ehud Olmert, Israel‘s prime minister during the Gaza war, would probably face arrest on war crimes charges if he visited Britain, according to a UK lawyer who is working to expand the application of “universal jurisdiction” for offences involving serious human rights abuses committed anywhere in the world.
Neither Olmert nor Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister during the Cast Lead offensive, and a member of Israel’s war cabinet, would enjoy immunity from prosecution for alleged breaches of the Geneva conventions, predicted Daniel Machover, who is involved in intensifying legal work after the controversial Goldstone report on the three-week conflict. Neither are ministers any longer.
Prosecutions of Israeli political and military figures remain likely despite the failure to obtain an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the defence minister, when he visited the UK earlier this month, he said. In the Barak case a magistrate accepted advice from the Foreign Office that the minister enjoyed state immunity and rejected an application made on behalf of several residents of the Gaza Strip.
via Ehud Olmert could face war crimes arrest if he visits UK | World news | The Guardian.
Durbin: Progressives Forced Our Hand On Public Option
Democratic leaders were forced to include a national public health insurance option as part of health care reform by progressive Democratic senators who refused to support anything less, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Monday.
Durbin’s assessment was made to a handful of reporters following the announcement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that after weeks of talks with his colleagues he had determined that including a public option that states could opt out of was the best way to go.
For many years, it’s been centrist and conservative-leaning senators who have been scoring legislative victories by digging in their heels, so this represented a quite dramatic turnabout. It is difficult to remember the last time that progressives won a legislative victory by laying down firm demands and sticking to them. In the House, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has found its feet, too, and is locked in a final battle with conservative Democrats over the shape of a public option.
via Durbin: Progressives Forced Our Hand On Public Option.
FOX News Isn’t News. It’s a Political Operation.
FOX News is on a witch hunt, aimed at destroying the Obama administration and the progressive movement. Theyve already succeeded in pushing Van Jones out of the White House and badgered Congress into passing an unconstitutional bill to defund ACORN. Glenn Beck actually keeps an enemies list on a blackboard thats a regular part of his show.
ACORN is just the beginning. FOX has an enemies list, and theyre going to keep destroying progressive champions until we stop them.
Tell your Congressperson: If you vote to extend the Defund ACORN Act, youre just assisting FOX in their anti-American witch hunt.
via YouTube – FOX News Isn’t News. It’s a Political Operation..
Blue Dogs’ Fundraising Totals Plummet in Third Quarter
It’s official. The Blue Dog’s fundraising slowdown was not just a symptom of the dog days of summer. Newly released public disclosure forms indicate that over September, the coalition’s PAC took in its smallest monthly total yet this year.
Our analysis of the fiscally conservative and increasingly influential Blue Dog Coalition and its funding noted that the group’s political action committee had averaged more than $176,000 in receipts from other PACs over the first half of 2009. Their monthly haul dropped to a surprisingly low $27,000 in July, rebounded somewhat in August, and but then dropped again to just $12,500 in September.
That September money came from just three donations — $5,000 from accounting and professional services giant Ernst & Young’s PAC, $2,500 from the Food Marketing Institute PAC, and $5,000 from the National Rifle Association of America Political Victory Fund.
After raising $1.1 million from January to June, the committee raised less than $87,000 between July and September — less than it brought in during any one of the preceding five months. And in just three months, the Blue Dog PAC’s monthly fundraising average dropped by more than $50,000 — probably not the sort of fiscal conservatism the 52-member coalition was hoping for.
Android 2.0 Release: Google Unveils Its New Platform, Get Details HERE (VIDEO)
Google has officially unveiled the features of its new, highly-anticipated operating system: Android 2.0 (codename “Eclair”).
Check out the video below for details on what to expect in the new platform.
InformationWeek calls Android 2.0 “droolworthy.”
Gizmodo says, “it’s the Android we’ve been waiting for:”
Seriously, there’s all kinds of improvements: Searchable SMS, Exchange support, more in-depth camera controls, a better keyboard with full multitouch, a revamped browser with a better UI and HTML5 support, and it goes on.
via Android 2.0 Release: Google Unveils Its New Platform, Get Details HERE (VIDEO).
Soros Launches $50 mil Effort to Battle Free-Market Zeal
Converting the Preachers
“Large swaths of economics are going to have to be rethought on the basis of what’s happened.” So said Larry Summers, President Obama’s chief economic adviser, in an interview in the weeks after the markets crashed a year ago. Yet to a remarkable degree, economic thinking hasn’t changed very much at all. (Click here to follow Michael Hirsh).
Now financier George Soros is announcing a $50 million effort to speed things along. This week Soros is gathering some of the leading practitioners of the market-skeptic school, who were marginalized during the era of “free-market fundamentalism,” among them Nobelists Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Sir James Mirrlees. He’s also creating an “Institute for New Economic Thinking” to make research grants, convene symposiums, and establish a journal, all in an effort to take back the economics profession from the champions of free-market zealotry who have dominated it for decades, and to correct the failures of decades of market deregulation. Soros hopes matching funds will bring the total endowment up to $200 million. “Economics has failed not only to predict and explain what happened but has also failed to protect society,” says Robert Johnson, a former managing director at Soros Fund Management, who will direct the new institute. “That’s what the crisis revealed. The paradigm has failed. There is no guidance.”
via Soros Launches Effort to Battle Free-Market Zeal | Newsweek Voices – Michael Hirsh | Newsweek.com.
Meet The “Avenging Angel” Of The Economic Meltdown
The Smartest Guy in the Room
If New York was mother to many of the evildoers in the financial disaster that sent the economy into a tailspin, it’s also home to an avenging angel for the millions of ordinary Americans who lost billions of dollars in the meltdown.
The guy with the wings and the sword also wears robes: He’s federal Judge Jed Rakoff. The shock waves from Rakoff’s scathing denunciation last month of a proposed settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bank of America are still rippling through Wall Street and Washington.
Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis is on his way out, and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is pressing an investigation into the deal in which the bank purchased ailing Merrill Lynch last December without telling its shareholders that executives of the tottering brokerage were paid $3.6 billion in bonuses shortly before the takeover was announced. A congressional panel is also probing the deal.
via Dan Collins: The Smartest Guy in the Room.
“Showdown In Chicago”: Thousands Of Protesters Gather At Bankers’ Convention, Jesse Jackson, Labor Leaders Speak (VIDEO)
Thousands of people gathered in Chicago today in front of the American Bankers Association annual convention to protest what they consider to be the group’s long history of resistance to financial reform.
On the final day of a three-day protest directed at the banking industry’s top trade group, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson addressed a crowd of what is reported to be more 5,000 people, along with did AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, SEIU President Andy Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger.
WATCH a video excerpt of of Stern’s speech:
Rep Grayson calls Federal Reserve adviser “K Street whore,” stands by remark
The Florida Democrat who said Republicans want sick people to “die quickly” is again facing criticism for his rhetoric — this time for calling a senior Federal Reserve adviser a “K Street whore” in a radio interview.
Rep. Alan Grayson hurled the insult at Linda Robertson last month on the Alex Jones Show, a syndicated talk radio program, while discussing the Fed’s resistance to stronger congressional oversight. Robertson is a former Enron lobbyist and Clinton administration adviser who was hired by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke this summer to help with congressional relations.
Washington’s K Street is where many lobbyists, trade associations and law firms have their offices.
Revealed: Three years ago, Powell claimed Bush made US ‘less safe’
Colin Powell, the former secretary of state under President George W. Bush, appears to have had a change of heart about his change of heart on the Iraq war.
Powell, whose appearance at the UN in 2003 to sell the US’s Iraq invasion to a skeptical global public is now the stuff of history books, famously decried his former bosses in 2006, saying that the Bush administration’s policies made the United States less safe.
But in a speech in Fort Worth, Texas, on Monday, Powell praised the former president’s foreign policy, saying that “we are safer than we were before 9/11 because of President Bush,” according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
via Revealed: Three years ago, Powell claimed Bush made US ‘less safe’ | Raw Story.
House Republicans ‘growing frustrated’ with lack of GOP alternative health care bill.
In June, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) promised that an alternative health care reform bill would be introduced that Republicans could rally behind. “We’re putting the final touches on our bill,” Boehner said in July. Then, the chairman of the House GOP Health Care Solutions Group, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), admitted that the House GOP leadership was unlikely to introduce a bill. Now, The Hill reports that “some House Republicans are growing frustrated that their leaders have not yet introduced a healthcare reform alternative”:
Rep. Tom Price (Ga.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), revealed the schism within his party late last week.
House Republicans Pander To Tea Party Movement With Frivolous Resolution Inflating 9/12 Protest Numbers
Sign at the 9/12 march on Washington, DCEarlier today, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) released a “leader alert,” proclaiming, “Great Work, Congress: Speaker Pelosi’s House to Honor Confucius’ Birthday as Unemployment Nears 10 Percent.” “With millions of Americans looking for jobs and the nation’s unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, the U.S. House of Representatives today will take up a grand total of four non-controversial ’suspension’ bills,” said Boehner.
But Boehner’s “playing hooky” attack on Pelosi comes at an awkward moment, considering that just today, 76 House Republicans introduced a frivolous resolution aimed at playing to the conservatives’ tea party base by officially commemorating the Glenn Beck-inspired 9/12 taxpayer march on Washington. The resolution, introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), claims that “the fundamental American principles of limited government and personal liberty are under direct assault.” It also seeks to have Congress officially enshrine the inflated crowd numbers pushed by conservatives:
Insurance Stocks Plunged As Reid Announced Public Option, Spiked After Lieberman Vowed To Filibuster It
Insurance Stocks Plunged As Reid Announced Public Option, Spiked After Lieberman Vowed To Filibuster It
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that he would be including a version of the public option (with a state opt-out provision) in the Senate’s final health care bill. Although all of the details of the public plan are yet to be determined, progressives cheered the move. As Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) admitted, without all the pressure that progressives in and out of Congress put on legislators, it is unlikely there would have been a public option included in Reid’s final bill.
Yet this afternoon, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) broke with the Democratic caucus that he is a member of and vowed to join a Republican-led filibuster if the public option is not removed from the bill. In response, insurance company stocks — which plummeted Monday as Reid made his announcement — shot up after Lieberman made his announcement around 1:30 pm:
Landfill sites may be used to dump radioactive waste | Environment | guardian.co.uk
The government is poised to allow nuclear power generators to use ordinary landfill sites for dumping “hundreds of thousands of tons” of waste in an attempt to reduce the £73bn cost of decommissioning old reactors.
The move has triggered a swath of applications around the country from big corporations trying to cash in on this potential new business, but infuriated local councils and campaign groups.
The issue of waste is critical to the government as the stockpile is potentially much greater than previously thought and ministers are keen to encourage the power industry to build a new generation of reactors. Actions being considered by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and its Nuclear Decommissioning Authority include:
• Allowing the nuclear industry to use ordinary landfill sites for disposing of radioactive waste in a more extensive way.
via Landfill sites may be used to dump radioactive waste | Environment | guardian.co.uk.
Deal-Breaker for Climate-Change Treaty May Be U.S.
When Barack Obama was elected president, he was heralded as a possible savior for climate- treaty talks that had dragged on for years while George W. Bush rejected limits on U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.
“America is back” at the United Nations negotiating table, Democratic Senator John Kerry declared after the November election. Danish climate minister Connie Hedegaard said U.S. emissions policy moved forward 35 years overnight.
Instead, Obama may send empty-handed envoys in December to the table in Copenhagen where 192 countries will try to assign emissions reductions because Congress has given him no mandate. With the 27-nation European Union, Japan and Australia ready to pledge cuts of more than 20 percent only if other nations follow suit, the stage is set for promises to collapse.
via Deal-Breaker for Climate-Change Treaty May Be U.S. (Update2) – Bloomberg.com.
Wall Street’s Naked Swindle
Matt Taibbi
A scheme to flood the market with counterfeit stocks helped kill Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers — and the feds have yet to bust the culprits
On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who — made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness — “like buying 1.7 million lottery tickets,” according to one financial analyst.
But what’s even crazier is that the bet paid.
At the close of business that afternoon, Bear Stearns was trading at $62.97. At that point, whoever made the gamble owned the right to sell huge bundles of Bear stock, at $30 and $25, on or before March 20th. In order for the bet to pay, Bear would have to fall harder and faster than any Wall Street brokerage in history.
The very next day, March 12th, Bear went into free fall. By the end of the week, the firm had lost virtually all of its cash and was clinging to promises of state aid; by the weekend, it was being knocked to its knees by the Fed and the Treasury, and forced at the barrel of a shotgun to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase (which had been given $29 billion in public money to marry its hunchbacked new bride) at the humiliating price of … $2 a share. Whoever bought those options on March 11th woke up on the morning of March 17th having made 159 times his money, or roughly $270 million. This trader was either the luckiest guy in the world, the smartest son of a bitch ever or…
via Wall Street’s Naked Swindle : Rolling Stone.
After Media Pressure, Federal Judge Suspends Ban on Exit Polling
Exit pollsters and journalists can continue to approach voters near polling sites in New Jersey after a federal judge suspended a state high court ruling to ban the practice within 100 feet of voting sites.
The Oct. 23 ruling comes in response to a challenge by the National Election Pool — a consortium of news-media groups that includes the Associated Press, CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS — which use Election Day polling to gauge the mood and attitudes of the nation.
In granting a preliminary injunction less than two weeks before the state’s Nov. 3 gubernatorial election, U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan put on hold a Sept. 30 state Supreme Court decision to bar exit polling and all “expressive activity” within 100 feet of polling places. If upheld, the state high court’s ruling would have made New Jersey the only state to require exit pollsters and journalists to approach voters from a distance.
via After Media Pressure, Federal Judge Suspends Ban on Exit Polling.
OPS: A win for Democracy
Bush paid $3,571 per minute for motivational speech.
In 2007, President Bush said that he was looking forward to making a “ridiculous” amount of money on the lecture circuit after he left office, noting that his father often made $50,000-$75,000 per speech. Bush is now making far more than President George H.W. Bush. Yesterday, he spoke to nearly 15,000 people at the “Get Motivated!” seminar in Forth Worth, TX. He mostly focused on “lighter topics such as picking out a rug design for the Oval Office that reflected his ‘optimism.’” The Dallas News reports that for this 28-minute speech, Bush received at least $100,000 — a rate of $3571 per minute:
Bush, like other ex-presidents before him, was reportedly paid at least $100,000 to appear at the motivation seminar. He will headline another in San Antonio. [...]
via Think Progress » Bush paid $3,571 per minute for motivational speech..
Health Care Spending Is Driving Future Deficits
Without Reform, CBO Projects Medicare and Medicaid Spending Will Grow Rapidly
CBO estimates that federal spending on health care by 2019 will be the largest category of federal spending, outstripping defense, social security and all other programs, writes Michael Linden.
Health care is going to be the biggest driver of federal spending increases after interest payments on the national debt. The Congressional Budget Office projects that in 2019 outlays for Medicare and Medicaid—the two largest health care programs—will be almost two full percentage points of GDP higher than they were in 2008, even after accounting for the initial cost savings included in the president’s original budget plan.
In contrast, CBO projects that all defense and non-defense discretionary spending—the spending that Congress has to appropriate each year—will actually decline by about one percentage point of GDP. By 2019, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid will exceed the entire defense budget. Health care spending will be higher than total spending on all domestic discretionary programs and it will even surpass spending on Social Security.
via Health Care Spending Is Driving Future Deficits.
Report: Palestinians denied water
Israel is denying Palestinians access to even the basic minimum of clean, safe water, Amnesty International says.
In a report, the human rights group says Israeli water restrictions discriminate against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
It says that in Gaza, Israel’s blockade has pushed the already ailing water and sewage system to “crisis point”.
Israel says the report is flawed and the Palestinians get more water than was agreed under the 1990s peace deal.
‘Basic need’
In the 112-page report, Amnesty says that on average Palestinian daily water consumption reaches 70 litres a day, compared with 300 litres for the Israelis.
via BBC NEWS | Middle East | Report: Palestinians denied water.
Liberals to Obama: Time to step up
It’s time for your close-up, Mr. President.
Now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has announced he’ll try to push through a health care reform bill with a public option, liberals are turning their focus — and their frustrations — on Barack Obama, the man who brought them to the outskirts of the progressive promise land.
Even before Reid announced Monday that he would back a public option plan that would allow individual states to opt out of the controversial plan, progressives had begun to shift from pressuring legislative leaders to stiffening Obama’s spine on the issue.
Democratic senators and House members didn’t need to shift their attention to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: They have been grumbling for weeks that Obama needs to step up.
via Liberals to Obama: Time to step up – Politico.com Print View.
Go veggie to fight global warming, says expert
One of the world’s leading climate change gurus urged people to become vegetarian today, to help beat global warming.
Nicholas Stern, the author of an influential 2006 review of climate change, said methane emissions from cows and pigs were putting “enormous pressure” on the world and people needed to think about what they ate.
He told The Times: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It put enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”
The former World Bank chief economist was speaking ahead of the climate change conference in Copenhagen this December, which is expected to be attended by thousands of delegates from around the world.
via Go veggie to fight global warming, says expert – Climate Change, Environment – The Independent.
Wall Street firms should not be called banks, US official says
Wall Street institutions should only be called ‘banks’ if they take deposits and offer guarantees, says Sheila Bair.
Head of government insurer says legal constraints on using the word ‘bank’ needed to dispel confusion
One of America’s top financial regulators has suggested that Wall Street institutions should be banned from calling themselves “banks” in an effort to clear a fog of confusion about the word in both political and consumer circles.
Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), suggested that only commercial deposit-taking institutions, where customers’ cash is safeguarded by a guarantee, should be permitted to describe themselves as banks.
“Everything gets called a bank these days,” Bair told the annual conference of the American Bankers Association. “Wall Street firms, mortgage firms … Maybe there should be some legal constraints on who should call themselves banks – maybe only FDIC insured institutions should have that label.”
via Wall Street firms should not be called banks, US official says | Business | guardian.co.uk.
Christianity vs. Atheism Is Debated
HLN’s Joy Behar: Christianity vs. Atheism – Atheist Christopher Hitchens And Pastor Douglas Wilson Are Interviewed – 10/26/09
via YouTube – HLN’s Joy Behar: Christianity vs. Atheism Is Debated.
New York Fed’s Secret Choice to Pay for Swaps Hits Taxpayers
In the months leading up to the September 2008 collapse of giant insurer American International Group Inc., Elias Habayeb and his colleagues worked nights and weekends negotiating with banks that had bought $62 billion of credit-default swaps from AIG, according to a person who has worked with Habayeb.
Habayeb, 37, was chief financial officer for the AIG division that oversaw AIG Financial Products, the unit that had sold the swaps to the banks. One of his goals was to persuade the banks to accept discounts of as much as 40 cents on the dollar, according to people familiar with the matter.
Among AIG’s bank counterparties were New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., Paris-based Societe Generale SA and Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG.
By Sept. 16, 2008, AIG, once the world’s largest insurer, was running out of cash, and the U.S. government stepped in with a rescue plan. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the regional Fed office with special responsibility for Wall Street, opened an $85 billion credit line for New York-based AIG. That bought it 77.9 percent of AIG and effective control of the insurer.
via New York Fed’s Secret Choice to Pay for Swaps Hits Taxpayers – Bloomberg.com.
Woman Denied Health Care Insurance After Rape Tells Her Story (Video)
Christina Turner was drugged and raped by two men in 2002. After taking anti-HIV drugs prescribed by her doctor as a preventative measure, Turner was denied health insurance. The HIV drugs, Turner was told, raised too many health questions for her insurer.
Christina Turner’s story was part of a citizen journalism project by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund. Readers were asked to provide information and anecdotes about the inner workings of the insurance industry. Stories showing how victims of sexual assault can get tangled in the health insurance system were just one result of the project.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Turner on Monday night. She recounted her story and underscored the need for reform. She touted the web site awomanisnotapreexistingcondition.com and encouraged viewers to find out more about the issue.
Woman Denied Health Care Insurance After Rape Tells Her Story (Video).
Ares I-X: NASA Launching Brand New Rocket, First Step In Effort To Return Astronatuts To Moon
Cloudy weather is holding up a test launch of NASA’s newest rocket.
The Ares I-X rocket came within two minutes and 39 seconds of launching Tuesday morning. But the countdown was halted when a big cloud settled right over the pad after minor problems held things up earlier.
NASA has until noon to get the experimental flight going.
This is the first step in NASA’s effort to return astronauts to the moon.
via Ares I-X: NASA Launching Brand New Rocket, First Step In Effort To Return Astronatuts To Moon.
Obama to give $3.4 billion in grants for smart grid
President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce $3.4 billion in government grants to help build a “smart” electric grid that will save consumers money on their utility bills, reduce blackouts and carry power supplies generated by solar and wind energy, the White House said.
It marks the largest award made in a single day from the $787 billion stimulus package approved by Congress, and will create tens of thousands of jobs while upgrading the U.S. electric grid, according to administration officials.
The grants, which range from $400,000 to $200 million, will go to 100 companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and other partners in 49 states.
“It is fair to say that the current (grid) system is certainly outdated. It’s dilapidated,” Carol Browner, the president’s top adviser on climate change and energy issues, told reporters in a telephone briefing.
“Not only do we need to make the current system bigger and add more watts, but we need to make it function better,” she said.
via Obama to give $3.4 billion in grants for smart grid – Yahoo! News.
OPS: This is more akin to spending this money improving the buggy whip and horse collar. The ‘Grid’ is 19th Century technology. It is an antiquated dinosaur and an expensive inefficient danger to National Security. Power sources must implemented that are decentralized and local.
Colbert Eviscerates Gay Marriage Opponents (VIDEO)
Stephen Colbert returned to air last night after a week off with a particularly funny and diverse episode, tackling everything from George Will’s sartorial hypocrisy to gay rights. The latter segment focused on recent legislation passed in the state of Washington called “Everything But Marriage” which expanded the state’s domestic partnership law to offer same-sex couples the same rights as straight married people.
This legislation was met with deep dismay by Protect Marriage Washington, an anti-gay marriage group which collected signatures to get a referendum on the ballot to overturn the law, but refuses to produce the list of those who signed the petition to prove its validity to detractors. Enter Stephen Colbert. The host used rhetoric usually reserved to discuss the rights of homosexuals to turn the whole debate on its head and expose the inherent hilarity:
“I don’t believe it is a choice, I believe you’re born thinking gays don’t have the right to get married or even be joined in union. And folks, the gays have no right to out those people.”
WATCH:
via Colbert Eviscerates Gay Marriage Opponents (VIDEO).
House Democrats John Adler, Carolyn Maloney Move To Weaken Investor Protection Bill
Two House Democrats are planning to introduce amendments Tuesday to exempt small- and medium-sized companies from a key post-Enron reform. Consumer advocates and investor groups say that the proposed exemptions would severely undercut protection for investors and increase the chances for financial fraud.
Reps. John Adler of New Jersey and Carolyn Maloney of New York will attempt to amend the Investor Protection Act of 2009 — a bill designed to beef up investor protection — by adding in provisions that will undermine the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the 2002 law designed to increase investor confidence that was enacted after accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom rocked investors. The law was supposed to improve the accuracy, reliability, and transparency of corporate financial reporting by requiring firms to audit their financial statements and internal controls.
Adler, a member of the pro-business New Democrat Coalition, is proposing to exempt publicly-traded firms with market capitalization less than $700 million from a provision of Sarbanes-Oxley mandating an external audit of the firm.
via House Democrats John Adler, Carolyn Maloney Move To Weaken Investor Protection Bill.
U.S. official resigns over Afghan war
Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting
When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.
A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.
But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.
via U.S. official resigns over Afghan war – washingtonpost.com.
Investors save Chicago newspapers
The company which owns the Chicago Sun-Times has been bought by a group led by a local businessman, seven months after it filed for bankruptcy.
The paper – the 15th largest in the US – had been the latest publication to fall victim to the slowdown in advertising revenues.
But businessman James Tyree said his team saw “tremendous opportunity and untapped potential”.
The group paid $5m (£3.1m) for the firm and took on $21.5m of liabilities.
“Our intentions are to grow the company by seeking new revenue opportunities, to adapt and lead change in the rapidly transforming news industry, and to become profitable,” Mr Tyree said.
via BBC NEWS | Business | Investors save Chicago newspapers.
Scientology convicted of fraud in France, fined $900,000
A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than 600,000 euros ($900,000) on Tuesday but stopped short of banning the group as prosecutors had demanded.
The group’s French branch immediately announced it would appeal the verdict.
The court convicted the Church of Scientology’s French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used “commercial harassment” against recruits.
The group was fined euro400,000 ($600,000) and the library euro200,000. Four of the leaders were given suspended sentences of between 10 months and two years. The other two were given fines of euro1,000 and euro2,000.
via Scientology convicted of fraud in France, fined $900,000 | Raw Story.
McDonald’s pulls out of Iceland
Iceland edged further towards the margins of the global economy on Monday when McDonald’s announced the closure of its three restaurants in the crisis-hit country and said that it had no plans to return.
The move will see Iceland, one of the world’s wealthiest nations per capita until the collapse of its banking sector last year, join Albania, Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in a small band of European countries without a McDonald’s.
The loss of the Golden Arches highlights the extent of Iceland’s economic demise since the pre-crisis boom years when its “Viking Raider” entrepreneurs turned Reykjavik into an international finance centre and launched a buying spree of high-profile European assets.
via FT.com / Europe – McDonald’s pulls out of Iceland.
OPS: Reagaonomice and Friedmandism wasn’t so good for Ronald (or the People of Iceland) now was it?
Honda almost trebles profit forecast
Cash-for-clunkers schemes help to rekindle demand
Honda almost trebles profit forecast
Honda Motor on Tuesday trebled its net profit forecast for the year to Y155bn ($1.7bn), displaying resilience amid an industry crisis that has bankrupted two US competitors and dragged local rivals deep into the red.
Japan’s second-biggest carmaker, which is alone among the top three Japanese producers in forecasting a profit for the year to next March, now expects to increase its earnings by 13 per cent compared with a year earlier.
via FT.com / Companies / Automobiles – Honda almost trebles profit forecast.
OPS: Why are American tax dollars being used to support other countries rather than the American economy? Part of the reason is that the US Chamber Of Commerce lobbied heavily AGAINST the Buy American clause – and won.
Political Bomb-Throwing Over Debt Ceiling About to Commence
For the ninth time since 2002, lawmakers are set to raise the national debt ceiling, pushing it to over $13 trillion.
Senate Democrats are expected to vote on a measure to raise the debt limit by mid-November. The House has already done so, voting in April to raise the limit by nearly $1 trillion.
The Treasury Department, in an August letter to lawmakers, warned that the current debt ceiling of $12.1 trillion is on the verge of being surpassed. The federal government is currently just $211 billion away from breaching the limit.
That puts lawmakers in a very precarious situation. The American public is growing increasingly wary of government spending, and numerous opinion polls show that the overspending remains a top concern.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
America’s Massive Infrastructure Problem
Economist and former Vice Presidential candidate Pat Choate discusses his new book Saving Capitalism: Keeping America Strong and outlines how the U.S. can generate jobs while fixing its infrastructure problems.
Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Fox News promotes incoherent ‘Obama Change Index’ to argue the President is tanking.
FoxNews.com, the official website of the Fox News anti-Obama propaganda network, is promoting what it calls the “Obama Change Index.” The index purports to chart “the impact of policies promised by President Obama,” and conveniently graphs Obama’s progress on a scale of 0-700. It appears that Fox’s “change index” is tabulated by asking one Democratic, Republican, and Independent pundit what they think of Obama on 7 different issues: budget, stimulus, homeland security, foreign/military affairs, social issues, dealing with Congress, law and justice. While Obama’s favorable ratings have been going up recently, Fox News’ index unsurprisingly shows Obama tanking. Reddit user KingBeetle writes of the index, “I can’t even figure out what it means, but for some reason this week, Obama is down 271 points.” It’s now 282 points:
A couple of interesting observations from the “Obama Change Index”: On the week of 9/16/09, Obama scored a zero on Homeland Security for no apparent reason. Similarly, Obama scored a zero on “social issues” the week of 6/30/09 because he “tried to placate the gay community.”
4 Prisoners Facing Executions or Serving Extreme Jail Sentences Who Very Well May Be Innocent
Recent evidence shows that an executed Texas man was innocent. There are others who still might avoid that fate.
The tragic unraveling of the case against Cameron Todd Willingham — the Texas man executed in 2004 for killing his own daughters by supposedly setting fire to his house — seems to have crossed a major threshold in the debate over the death penalty in the past several weeks. For the first time in recent memory, there is devastating proof that an innocent man was put to death in this country.
Such a revelation, one might think, would give pause to even the most enthusiastic death penalty supporter. Yet Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has signed off on more than 200 executions, including Willingham’s, is only focused on protecting his political career. The governor, who faces a hotly contested primary race against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson next year, is going to great lengths to cover up evidence of Willingham’s innocence — particularly proof that he had this evidence in his hands before he signed off on his murder. At the same time, he continues to defend the death penalty in Texas as perfectly fine: “Our process works and I don’t see anything out there that would merit calling for a moratorium on the Texas death penalty,” he said last week.
Meanwhile, Texas is gearing up to execute another prisoner tomorrow, a man named Reginald Blanton, who has a very strong innocence claim of his own.
The Conservative Bible Project: Looking for Conservative Diamonds in a Liberal Dung-Hill
Andy Schlafly, son of Phyllis, wants to claim the Christian scriptures for conservatism. Why rewrite the Bible? Well, as everyone knows, Jesus is a pretty liberal dude. And everyone knows that “young girl” in Greek was really a euphemism for “bimbo.”
In 2006, Andy Schlafly, best known as the son of notorious anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, launched a wiki site called Conservapedia as an alternative to Wikipedia. The nation’s sixth most frequently visited Web site had, he felt, become dominated by liberal and anti-Christian bias.
Now Schlafly has a new project: rewriting the Bible to free it from liberal bias. The new translation will be free of “emasculated” and “dumbed-down” language as well as “liberal wordiness.” So-called “later-inserted liberal passages” will be deleted entirely. All of these changes will be made by amending the King James Version of the Bible through an online wiki format.
While the Conservative Bible Project (CBP) has so far been regarded largely as a joke, it does raise some interesting questions. The idea of writing a sacred text through a wiki is largely unprecedented. The CPB also marks an escalation in what Robert S. McElvaine has called “Grand Theft Jesus”—the appropriation of the Christian tradition for political ends. Is Schlafly a profoundly cynical politician, attempting to manipulate religion in a way that would put Machiavelli and Karl Rove to shame? Or does he truly believe that the Bible has been tainted by “liberalism” for over a thousand years?
The Jefferson Bible as Precedent
Could a High-Fat Diet Make You Healthy and Prevent Cavities?
What if the secret to better health isn’t so much a matter of more fruits and vegetables, but a steady flow of butter and lard?
Susan Fallon founded the Weston A. Price Foundation 10 years ago with the goal of “providing accurate information about nutrition and showing scientific validation of tradition foodway,” she said.
Specifically, her foundation advocates for diets high in animal fat and stresses the importance of it particularly for pregnant women and young children.
Bring on the butter! And no, this isn’t your typical low-carb, Atkins-diet-style approach (although there are similarities). Her organization is based on the work of Weston Price (1870-1948), who was a Cleveland dentist. He spent the later part of his life traveling the world in search of remote populations so he could study their teeth and find out what ultimately leads to dental decay.
via Could a High-Fat Diet Make You Healthy and Prevent Cavities? | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
Our Economy Was a Scam and Now We’re Dead Broke
America is broke. And the easy credit, phantom “growth” economy has been exposed for what it was: a credit scam.
When Barack Obama took office it seemed to some of us that his first job was to get the national silverware out of the pawn shop. Or at least maintain the world’s confidence that it was possible for us to get out of debt. America is dead broke, the easy credit, phantom “growth” economy has been exposed for what it was. A credit scam. Even Hillary Clinton and Obama’s best efforts have not coaxed much more dough out of foreign friends. But at least we again have a few friends abroad.
So now we must jackleg ourselves back into something resembling a productive activity. No matter how you cut it, things will not be as much fun as shopping and speculative “investing” were.
The fiesta is over, the economy as we knew it is dead.
The national money shamans have danced around the carcass of our dead horse economy, chanted the recovery chant and burned fiat currency like Indian sage, enshrouding the carcass in the sacred smoke of burning cash. And indeed, they have managed to prop up the carcass to appear life-like from a distance, if you squint through the smoke just right. But it still stinks here from the inside. Clearly at some point we must find a new horse to ride, and sure as god made little green apples one is broaching the horizon. And it looks exactly like the old horse.
via Our Economy Was a Scam and Now We’re Dead Broke | Politics | AlterNet.
Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann Slam Fox News Propaganda About Their Meeting with Obama
The commentators point out that liberals could not get an invitation to meet with President Bush to save their lives, while Obama meets with liberals and conservatives.
Recently Fox news commentators pointed to a meeting between President Obama and liberal commentators including Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann as evidence that the President has a special — and unfair — relationship with left-leaning media. In the segment below, Maddow and Olbermann hit back, pointing to out that unlike Bush, who invited only conservative media stars to the White House, Obama has met with both liberals and conservatives. Transcript below:
RACHEL MADDOW: Since Mr. Olbermann and I have been brought into this story by FOX News in this national story of White House versus FOX News, FOX News has decided to bring us into it, let‘s set the record straight here on what‘s being alleged and how the presidential — how various presidential administrations handle the media.
I have been in national talk radio since 2004. And during the Bush administration, I tried many times to get myself invitations to the White House when they held White House availabilities for administration staff or even meetings with the president for talk radio hosts. And although these meetings were billed as talk radio meetings, just talk radio meetings, they were always, in practice, during the Bush administration, exclusively for right-wing talk radio hosts. So, I could never get an invitation, much to my chagrin.
In pandemic, Internet providers might need govt authorization to block popular websites
-’The DHS is responsible for ensuring that critical telecommunications infrastructure is protected.’
- Internet could get clogged during a pandemic
- SEC needs to make sure regulated companies have plans
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Securities exchanges have a sound network back-up if a severe pandemic keeps people home and clogging the Internet, but the Homeland Security Department has done little planning, Congressional investigators said on Monday.
The department does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said.
But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth.
via SEC, Homeland Security need Web backup, GAO says | Reuters.
Who Funds The Chamber Of Commerce?
Help HuffPost Find Out
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been vociferous in its opposition to White House initiatives on financial reform, health care reform and climate change legislation.
The pro-business behemoth boasts 3 million members (though that number has been disputed since it includes hundreds of smaller chambers around the country) and shelled out $34.7 million on lobbying expenditures in the third quarter of 2009.
Despite the widely-reported exodus of a few companies (Exelon, Nike, Apple) over its climate change stance, Chamber president Tom Donohue remains defiant, telling the Wall Street Journal:
via Who Funds The Chamber Of Commerce? Help HuffPost Find Out.
IRS Brings New Focus to Auditing the Rich
A new Internal Revenue Service enforcement unit targeting the very wealthy will help the tax agency decode partnerships, offshore trusts and other complex techniques used to hide income, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said Monday.
Dubbed the Global High Wealth Industry group, the unit will launch “a small number” of audits of individuals with assets or income in the tens of millions of dollars, Mr. Shulman told an accountants’ trade group. An IRS official said the group would begin work on these initial audits in the next month.
The high-wealth group, housed in the IRS’s large- and medium-sized business division, marks a sharpening of the IRS approach to auditing the very wealthy. Its creation is a response to the complex web of entities and transactions many high-net-worth individuals use to manage their financial affairs.
via IRS Brings New Focus to Auditing the Rich – WSJ.com.
OPS: Beleive this when some fat cat ends up in jail
Mayor Daley May Be Considering A Sale Of Chicago’s Water System
Private Firm Would Jack Up Rates For Residents, Watchdogs Warn
If the parking meter deal put a bad taste in your mouth, try swallowing this:
Chicago is considering leasing its water system to help fix the budget.
The new boss could charge whatever they want for water, CBS 2′s Roseanne Tellez reports.
Could it happen here in Chicago? It already has nearby. Homer Glen in Will County relies on Lake Michigan water, but the supply comes from a German-owned firm. Locals say there’s a lot more than water going down the drain.
It’s a vital resource you can’t live without. But in Homer Glen, the question is can you afford water. Residents say rates are breaking the bank.
via Mayor Daley May Be Considering A Sale Of Chicago’s Water System – cbs2chicago.com.
OPS: Da Mayer is insane. He must be stopped before he does any more damage to the City.
While Law School Tuition Skyrockets, Government Student Loan Limits Remain Stagnant
While law school tuition has skyrocketed over the past 15 years, federal loan limits have remained stagnant, putting more pressure on students to take out higher-cost private loans.
In 1994, students were limited to $18,500 in low-interest loans from the federal government. Fifteen years later, that limit has only increased to $20,500 though the $18,500 available to students in 1994 is worth $26,959.69 today in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Meanwhile, tuition and fees have tripled for in-state students at public law schools, and more than doubled for out-of-state students at public schools and those at private schools.
via While Law School Tuition Skyrockets, Government Student Loan Limits Remain Stagnant.
MSBNC Now Number One in Prime Time Among Legit News Channels, Fox Trails Wrestling
Now that Fox is officially the GOP informercial network, it has lost its top spot in news channel rankings, leaving the field to MSNBC:
For the first time, MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” beat CNN’s prime-time highlight, “Anderson Cooper 360,” and … Rachel Maddow’s programs both finished solidly ahead of “Larry King Live” in the prime-time hours.
In the past few months, the ruse that Fox was a news channel has collapsed under its own weight. In August, a poll found that three-quarters of Fox viewers said they believed as articles of faith lies and distortions about health care reform — disinformation that came straight out of the Republican Party talking points.
via Pensito Review » MSBNC Now Number One in Prime Time Among Legit News Channels, Fox Trails Wrestling.
US Chamber Shuts off TheYesMen.org and Websites of Hundreds of Other Activist Groups
Free Speech, Free Commerce Threatened by “Free Trade” Champion
WASHINGTON – October 23 – Hundreds of activist organizations had their internet service turned off last night after the US Chamber of Commerce strong-armed an upstream provider, Hurricane Electric, to pull the plug on The Yes Men and May First / People Link, a 400-member-strong organization with a strong commitment to protecting free speech.
“This is a blow against free speech, and it demostrates in gory detail the full hypocrisy of the Chamber,” said Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men. “The only freedom they care about is the economic freedom of large corporations to operate free of the hassles of science, reality, and democracy.”
After suffering embarrassment at the hands of the Yes Men on Monday, the Chamber immediately threatened legal action, then followed through Thursday by sending a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to Hurricane Electric Internet Services. In the DMCA notice, the Chamber claimed that the parody Chamber website operated by The Yes Men constituted copyright infringement, and demanded that the site be shut down immediately and that the creator’s service be canceled.
But the Yes Men are not served directly by Hurricane Electric, but by May First / People Link. And when Hurricane Electric shut down the fake Chamber of Commerce site (now relocated), they also took down the websites of 400 other organizations.
How to get your letter in the paper
Stay within the word limit, think locally and don’t call names.
Every month, the typical small-town newspaper editor receives hundreds or even thousands of letters from readers.
Still, many are unprintable either because they are too long, too confusing or just plain offensive.
That means it’s not that hard to get your letter published, provided you follow a few simple rules.
Here are a few tips to better your chances:
What to Do:
* Stay within the word limit. Each newspaper has a set limit on how long published letters are allowed to be, so check the limit before you start writing. The Beaverton Valley Times in Oregon, for example, asks for 300 words or fewer, while The Citizen in Auburn, New York, has a limit of 400 words.
via Congress.org – News : How to get your letter in the paper.
What If, Instead of Fox, Team Obama Tackled Insurance Profiteers
John Nichols, The Nation
Suppose President Obama and his aides had decided to take on the worst offender among the big insurance companies this fall.
Suppose the White House had highlighted the failure of the company to provide quality care, the abuses in which it has engaged and the behind-the-scenes campaigning by a self-interested corporation to influence the health-care debate in a manner that helps it while harming Americans.
Suppose presidential aides highlighted the initiative in broadcast and cable interviews and reinforced the message with carefully crafted talking points that said the insurance company’s top officers were not helping Americans to get medical care but rather engaging in self-interested profiteering.
Suppose activist groups such as MoveOn.org leapt in to help advance the cause by urging Democratic members of Congress to denounce and boycott the insurance company and its products.
via What If, Instead of Fox, Team Obama Tackled Insurance Profiteers.
Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet
People will need to consider turning vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.
In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”
Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.
Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.
via Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet – Times Online.
Wall Street adds insult to injury
Dean Baker
Bailed-out bankers don’t deserve million-dollar salaries, no matter how much they complain about limits on executive pay
Most people would have little difficulty getting by on $200,000 a year. Most people who had badly messed up on their job and put their employer in bankruptcy would be absolutely delighted to find themselves still earning $200,000 a year. That’s not the way it works on Wall Street.
When Kenneth Feinberg, Barack Obama’s compensation tsar for bailed out companies, issued his edicts last week on executive compensation, it prompted howls of outrage in the financial industry. The New York Times quoted one person who it identified as being “close to the board” at AIG as saying that the pay caps that Feinberg imposed were “insulting”.
The specific pay cap in question was a limit of $200,000 on the salaries that could be paid out by the financial products division of AIG. This was the division whose shenanigans bankrupted the company and required a $170bn infusion from the government. This limit also only applied to cash compensation. AIG could still pay out five or 10 times this amount in stock. And, the limit just applied to 2009. Who knows what these high rollers will earn in 2010?
via Wall Street adds insult to injury | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
Ford workers in Missouri, Michigan reject changes
Autoworkers in Missouri and Michigan overwhelmingly rejected a new contract with Ford Motor Co., a sign that the automaker and the United Auto Workers union are having trouble convincing some workers to accept changes that would lower Ford’s labor costs.
Ninety-two percent of workers at the Kansas City Assembly Plant voted against changes to their contract Sunday. The plant, which makes Ford F-150 pickups as well as the Ford Explorer and Mercury Mariner, employs around 3,700 people, or about 9 percent of Ford’s 41,000 UAW members.
Workers at plants in Livonia and Plymouth also rejected the changes in recent days, according to Gary Wolkowicz, a member of the UAW bargaining committee at the Dearborn Truck Plant and an outspoken opponent of the changes. The vote at the Sheldon Road plant in Plymouth, which makes climate control systems, was 80 percent opposed, while 52 percent of those voting at the Livonia transmission plant were against the deal.
via Ford workers in Missouri, Michigan reject changes: Associated Press Business News: F – MSN Money.
The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex Pt1
Larry Wilkerson: The beginning of the American “Imperial Rome” and Eisenhower’s warning
via YouTube – The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex Pt1.
Can Main Street Catch Up with Wall Street?
The Dow is up and many economists see an end to the recession. Try telling that to the rising ranks of those losing their jobs and houses
On the one hand, the Dow Jones industrial average once again danced around 10,000 last week. Earnings of Caterpillar (CAT), Google (GOOG), and Apple (AAPL) far exceeded expectations. If U.S. gross domestic product rebounds as expected on Oct. 29 and turns positive for the first time in 15 months, it would confirm that the recession ended in the third quarter, at least statistically.
Meanwhile, back on Main Street U.S.A., the picture is drastically different. Unemployment has doubled in a year, to 9.8% in September, and there are about six unemployed Americans for every job opening. Home foreclosure-related filings—including default notices, foreclosure auctions, and bank repossessions—are on pace to reach about 3.5 million this year, up from more than 2.3 million last year. Home prices are stabilizing, and sales of existing homes rose sharply in September, but much of the activity was spurred by the soon-to-expire federal tax credit for first-time home buyers. No wonder that 82% of Americans responding to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted Oct. 15-18 say the recession isn’t over.
Gap Between Leading, Lagging Indicators
It’s normal for Wall Street to recover more quickly than the job market in the wake of a recession. Figures like stock prices and the difference between short- and long-term borrowing costs are known as “leading indicators” because they tend to be among the first to signal a recovery. Unemployment and consumer credit volumes fit into the “lagging indicators” category that bounce back afterward.
via Can Main Street Catch Up with Wall Street? – BusinessWeek.
AP files lawsuit over video of grenade detonation in a Jail cell
The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Monday against the Wisconsin Department of Corrections seeking the release of a video that shows a powerful stinger grenade exploding after a guard dropped it inside a prisoner’s cell.
The lawsuit, filed in Dane County Circuit Court, alleges that the Corrections Department’s refusal to release the tape showing detonation of the device that sprays 180 rubber pellets in a 50-foot radius is a violation of the state open records law.
In refusing the AP’s request on July 29, the department said releasing the tape would expose the limitations of the prison’s surveillance camera system and thereby jeopardize security and the safety of inmates and staff. The AP’s lawsuit contends that was a false explanation because the video was taken by a hand-held camera, not a surveillance camera.
via AP files lawsuit over video of grenade detonation | StarTribune.com.
Democrats push for health benefits to start by 2010
Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year.
The most significant changes to the health care system wouldn’t kick in until 2013 — two election cycles away. With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they’ll have something to run on in the congressional midterm elections.
Democrats are anxious to mix the good with the bad since some of the pain would be phased in early, including more than $100 billion in industry fees that critics say could be passed on to consumers.
via Democrats push for health benefits to start by 2010 – Carrie Budoff Brown – POLITICO.com.
Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village Real Estate Deal May Flop
Tishman Speyer Properties, BlackRock Realty Advisors Paid $5.4 Billion In Record Sale
It was the most expensive real estate deal in U.S. history. Now it’s poised to become one of the biggest flops.
At the height of the real estate bubble in 2006, an investment group led by New York City real estate firm Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty Advisors paid $5.4 billion for a pair of gigantic Manhattan apartment complexes known as Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
The price seemed outrageous to many, but the company believed it had a winning strategy: It would aggressively convert thousands of rent-regulated apartments occupied by middle-class families into luxury units that would fetch top dollar.
Three years later, to the glee of many New York renters, the tactic has been a bust.
Tenants fought back, conversions happened much slower than expected and a state court ruled Thursday that about $200 million in the company’s new rent increases were improper.
Inside The Tripper’s Brain: Scientists Create 3D Maps Of Brains On Drugs (VIDEO)
“What does a trip to hell look like inside the mind?” this National Geographic segment asks.
Find out in the video below, which takes you “inside the tripper’s brain” to reveal how researchers are using scans and sensors to create 3D maps showing the activity of the brain on hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD.
WATCH:
via Inside The Tripper’s Brain: Scientists Create 3D Maps Of Brains On Drugs (VIDEO).
Dodd Wants Immediate Credit Card Rate Freeze
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, who is fighting for his political survival, proposed Monday an immediate interest rate freeze on existing balances for the estimated 700 million credit cards in circulation.
The legislation is unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate, where business-minded Democrats would join Republicans in casting the measure as draconian and unnecessary.
Banks say that capping interest rates would cut their profits and force them to lend less money, which would reduce spending and worsen the economy.
Dodd’s proposal seemed aimed at reconnecting the Connecticut Democrat with voters, many of whom have questioned his close ties to big banks after he was tied to a sweetheart loan scandal. The Senate Ethics Committee cleared him of violating any rules, although his poll numbers remain shaky.
Spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said the bill was not a political maneuver and only reinforced Dodd’s views that more consumer protections were needed.
“At a time when families are struggling to make ends meet, jacked-up rates can quickly create crushing debt,” Dodd said in a statement. “People need to be responsible with their money, but they shouldn’t be taken to the cleaners by outrageous rates.”
Congress has already passed legislation that puts new rules for credit card lenders into effect come mid-February. The law, signed by President Barack Obama in May, limits when and how banks hike rates. It does not set a cap on the amount of interest lenders can charge.
via Dodd Wants Immediate Credit Card Rate Freeze.
OPS: It would have been more impressive if he had ‘requested’ a rate freeze BEFORE some rate hit 80%
9 Signs of America in Decline
USNEWS
The sky isn’t falling, exactly. America isn’t on a fast track to irrelevance. Even in a state of total neglect, we could probably shamble along as a disheveled superpower for a few more decades.
But all empires end, and the warning signs of American decline seem to be blinking more consistently. In the latest annual “prosperity index” published by the Legatum Institute, a London-based research firm, the United States ranks as the ninth most prosperous country in the world. That’s five notches lower than last year, when America ranked No. 4. The drop might seem inconsequential, especially in the midst of a grueling recession—except that most of the world has endured the same recession, and other countries are bouncing back faster.
China and India have recovered smartly from the recession, for example. Brazil seems to be barreling ahead. Australia is growing faster than expected, prompting worry among government officials who fear they may have overstimulated the economy. The United States, meanwhile, is muddling through a weak, jobless recovery, and we have a lot of problems that could make prosperity feel elusive for a long time.
[See 4 problems that could sink America.]
Real household income in America has flat-lined, for instance, which means many middle-class families are barely keeping up with inflation. The exploding federal deficit hamstrings the government’s ability to help. Healthcare is too expensive, America’s manufacturing base is eroding, and two open-ended foreign wars are draining the national treasury. This is not a recipe for building national wealth.
via 9 Signs of America in Decline – Rick Newman (usnews.com).
Anger, At Last
Esther Kaplan, The Nation [video at link]
In a brightly lit basement room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago tonight, Angel Seda was leading seven hundred people in a chant. “Tell me what you want, what you really want,” he called. Hundreds of voices shouted back, “Our homes back!” “Tell me what you need, what you really need.” “CFPA!”
CFPA?
Yep, you heard right, hundreds of people were chanting for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a new oversight body Barack Obama has proposed that could ban such disastrous practices as no-doc mortgages, payday loans, and no-warning overdraft fees on checking accounts. (A bill to create the agency made it through the House Financial Services Committee last week). Wonky, sure, but vital, too, and it was both hilarious and inspiring to see a roomful of Iowa farmers and Kansas retirees and preachers and teachers and utility workers jumping to their feet at the sound of those magic letters. One woman from Wichita, Arnetta Jefferson, told me she herself was facing the loss of her home and described “house after house after house empty” in her community, all from foreclosures. “I’m tired of it,” she said. CFPA! CFPA! CFPA!
via Anger, At Last.
Chamber Of Commerce President Questions Climate Change: ‘Is Science Not Right? I Don’t Know’
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a PR offensive after a series of high-profile member defections due to the Chamber’s denial of climate science and its aggressive lobbying against clean energy legislation. Earlier this year, Chamber officials pledged to put climate change science on trial in a “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century.” Not only has the Chamber spent millions trying to derail the clean energy bill in Congress, but a leaked memo also revealed that the Chamber has been assisting the oil industry in orchestrating astroturf “EnergyCitizen” rallies.
The PR strategy has been focused on lashing back at critics, while assuring the public that the Chamber actually does view climate change as a serious problem that must be addressed somehow. Chamber officials and representatives have been on a media blitz, seeking to rebuke the Scopes monkey trial comment and trying to strike a very different tone on the science of climate change:
Rep. Paul Broun Proposes Bill That Would Privatize Medicare
One of the great success stories of the modern American welfare state has been the Medicare system, which — since 1966 — has provided health insurance for all Americans age 65 and done so much more efficiently than private insurance. While Medicare may be a very popular program today, it was bitterly fought by the right when it was proposed. (Ronald Reagan even produced commercials claiming that the single-payer health care system for the elderly would lead to a dictatorship.)
In an attempt to reclaim the right’s rich tradition of opposing Medicare, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has proposed legislation that would roll back the Medicare system and replace it with a system of vouchers that seniors could use to purchase private insurance:
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun introduced his own health care reform bill last week that would, among other things, privatize the Medicare insurance program for seniors.
Broun’s bill would replace government benefits with vouchers that could be spent on private insurance or put in tax-free medical savings accounts.
“We’ve got to fix Medicare,” he said. “It’s headed in a direction that’s unsustainable.”
via Think Progress » Rep. Paul Broun Proposes Bill That Would Privatize Medicare.
Will the RNC apologize for racist Facebook photo?
Since Oct. 20, the Republican National Committee’s Facebook page has had a picture of President Obama with a caption reading “Miscegenation is a crime against American values”:
As Raw Story notes, the RNC finally took the photo down today, after readers at Democratic Underground first began discussing it on Sunday. While it’s likely that the RNC “wasn’t aware the racist photo was on their page and it wasn’t produced or posted by anyone at the RNC,” the group had attacked MoveOn.org for a similar incident in 2004. As Chris Harris at Media Matters Action Network notes, when “a web user posted a self-produced web video that compared President Bush to Hitler as part of a MoveOn.org video contest, the RNC acted as if the video had been produced by MoveOn itself.” According to the National Journal:
via Think Progress » Will the RNC apologize for racist Facebook photo?.
U.S. to unveil new too big to fail strategy
The Obama administration will soon make public a new approach to dealing with so-called “too big to fail” financial firms that would make it easier for the government to seize control of them and make major changes, an administration official said on Monday.
The strategy would make it easier for the government to oust managers, wipe out shareholders and restructure the firm’s outstanding loans, the official said.
Separately, a White House official said President Barack Obama will outline principles on the issue to Congress soon.
via U.S. to unveil new too big to fail strategy | U.S. | Reuters.
BuzzFlash Reports From the ‘Showdown in Chicago’ as Protesters Rally Against Big Banks’ Anti-Reform Lobbying
Though the stretch of South Wacker Drive is more Wall Street than it is Wild West, this week it is the scene of showdown in chicagowhat is billed as a “Showdown in Chicago.” Monday morning, a large group of protesters crowded the block surrounding the downtown Chicago headquarters of Goldman Sachs.
“Bust up big banks! Bailout? No thanks!” they screamed in unison. Their target was the American Bankers Association (ABA), the largest lobby group for financial institutions, holding their annual convention in Chicago this week.
The protest was organized by National People’s Action, a Chicago-based network of metropolitan, regional, and statewide organizations working to “build grassroots power.” Despite their recruitment of local heavy-hitters including the Service Employees International Union and Action Now, with cross-promotion from national groups such as MoveOn.org to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, there was a genuine grassroots feel to the event.
As businessmen and women in suits skirting the crowd had to walk in front of a cordon of Chicago cops in the street in order to get by, protesters young and old held a combination of signs registering their disgust with financial institutions. One grandmotherly-looking woman held a sign that said “Kidz say Goldman sux.” Another sign reached back to the language of Reaganomics, complaining of being “pissed” after “being trickled down on” for so long.
Senate Health Bill Includes Public Option
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that health-care legislation that comes before the Senate will have a government-run health-insurance option that states can choose not to carry.
The Nevada Democrat told reporters that, under the legislation, states would have until 2014 to choose to “opt out” of the public plan.
Liberal lawmakers and groups cheered Mr. Reid’s announcement. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.), who has argued forcefully in favor of a public plan, in a statement said he is “gratified to see the public option debate is alive and well in the Senate.”
via Senate Health Bill Includes Public Option – WSJ.com.
Rhetoric and Reality
Ralph Nader
I just received a letter from President Obama. Right there on the outside envelope are the words “I need you.” After not answering several letters which I have mailed and faxed to him, I was, for the briefest of moments, curious about this personal plea for help. Then, of course, I realized that it was a form letter from Mr. Obama via the auspices of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
I started reading the two page, single-spaced missive. His words prompt responses.
He opens with undeniable declarations, to wit: “There are times in the life of our nation when America’s course can only be set by the concerted effort of citizens determined to pull our country through.
This is one of those times—and your personal involvement in moving America forward is absolutely essential.”
Just what this “personal involvement” is all about is unclear, other than to make a “contribution of $25, $35 or even $50 to the Democratic National Committee” which is somehow supposed to make sure that “America’s families are actively engaged in the critical decisions that lie ahead.”
via Rhetoric and Reality – The Nader Page.
Former soldier wins $4.3m judgment from Army
A former soldier who lost his right hand when a bomb that he was disarming in Iraq exploded in 2004 has won a $4.3 million judgment against the U.S. Army in a disability discrimination case.
A federal jury in Ann Arbor on Friday reached a verdict in the civil case in favor of 38-year-old James McKelvey of Macomb Township.
Lawyer Kevin Carlson told the Detroit Free Press the case proved that the Army created a hostile work environment. The lawsuit said a boss and coworker at the Army’s Warren arsenal described McKelvey as “the cripple.”
A message seeking comment was left Saturday with a federal lawyer who handled the case for the Army.
The 2004 blast also shattered his face and voice box, and severely burned and damaged his left hand.
via Former soldier wins $4.3m judgment from Army – Army News, news from Iraq, – Army Times.
Kucinich on Obama 1/4: I’m Hopeful that Obama Will Take a Page out of FDR Rebuild America
October 25, 2009 Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Washington Journal
via YouTube – Kucinich on Obama 1/4: I’m Hopeful that Obama Will Take a Page out of FDR Rebuild America.
New bill to make seizure of US companies easier: report
A bill to be introduced in Congress by a key ally of President Barack Obama would make it easier for the US government to seize control of troubled financial institutions that are considered too big to be allowed to fail, The New York Times reported.
Citing a senior administration official, the newspaper said the measure would be proposed this week by Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, after extensive consultations with Treasury Department officials.
The legislation would make it easier for the government to throw out the financial company’s
via The Raw Story | New bill to make seizure of US companies easier: report.
LAPD’s ‘Orwellian’ anti-terror ads creeping out viewers
An ad released by the Los Angeles Police Department urging the public to participate in an anti-terror snooping program is being described by numerous observers and news sources by a single word: Creepy.
The one-and-a-half minute spot, which can be viewed below, features a multicultural line-up of speakers explaining why they participate in iWatch, a “neighborhood watch for the whole city,” as the ad describes it.
“If you see, hear, or smell something suspicious, report it. Reporting is easy. Use the web or the phone,” the speakers state. “A single report can lead to actions that can stop a terrorist attack. Think about that. Think about the power of that. Think about the power of iWatch.”
via LAPD’s ‘Orwellian’ anti-terror ads creeping out viewers | Raw Story.
George Will: US ‘probably in the process’ of legalizing marijuana
In the chronicle of America’s war against its marijuana users, conservative columnist George Will may have just earned credit for his own Walter Cronkite moment.
Appearing on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, the Pulitzer-winning journalist and longtime icon of America’s political right declared that with President Barack Obama’s new policy which respects the states right to allow medical marijuana, the United States is “probably in the process now of legalizing marijuana.”
He added that if there were to be a serious effort to fight the increasingly violent, powerful Mexican drug cartels, “you’d legalize marijuana,” the sale of which provides the gangs the vast majority of their funding.
Will’s comments come not even a week after a Gallup poll found record-breaking support across the United States for the legalization of marijuana, with nearly half of U.S. citizens in favor and a clear majority of support emerging among liberals, Democrats and moderates
via George Will: US ‘probably in the process’ of legalizing marijuana | Raw Story.
Stimulus contracts go to companies under criminal investigation
The Department of Defense awarded nearly $30 million in stimulus contracts to six companies while they were under federal criminal investigation on suspicion of defrauding the government.
According to Air Force documents, the companies claimed to be small, minority-owned businesses, which allowed them to gain special preference in bidding for government contracts. But investigators found that they were all part of a larger minority-owned enterprise in Southern California, making them ineligible for the contracts.
The Air Force and the Army awarded the companies 112 stimulus projects at U.S. military bases, federal contracting records show. It wasn’t until Sept. 23 – more than a year after the criminal investigation started – that the Air Force suspended the firms from receiving new government contracts.
via Stimulus contracts go to companies under criminal investigation | Raw Story.
OPS: Does “Innocent until proven guilty” have to extend this far?
The Cover-Up Continues
Editorial – NYTimes
Bush’s Cover-Up of Abuse Turning into Obama’s Cover-Up
The Obama administration has clung for so long to the Bush administration’s expansive claims of national security and executive power that it is in danger of turning President George W. Bush’s cover-up of abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism into President Barack Obama’s cover-up.
We have had recent reminders of this dismaying retreat from Mr. Obama’s passionate campaign promises to make a break with Mr. Bush’s abuses of power, a shift that denies justice to the victims of wayward government policies and shields officials from accountability.
In Britain earlier this month, a two-judge High Court panel rejected arguments made first by the Bush team and now by the Obama team and decided to make public seven redacted paragraphs in American intelligence documents relating to torture allegations by a former prisoner at Guantánamo Bay. The prisoner, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British national, says he was tortured in Pakistan, Morocco and at a C.I.A.-run prison outside Kabul before being transferred to Guantánamo. He was freed in February.
via Editorial – The Cover-Up Continues – NYTimes.com.
Hitchens: Christianity is a fraud if it’s not literally true
If the story of Jesus Christ isn’t literally true, then Christianity is a fraud that promotes “a positively wicked doctrine,” conservative writer Christopher Hitchens told Fox & Friends Monday morning.
Hitchens, an avowed atheist whose 2007 book God is Not Great attempts to divorce conservatism from religious teachings, discussed the role of religion in American society in the wake of a recent study (PDF) that shows the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has roughly doubled in the past two decades, from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008.
The study, conducted by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, predicts that a full one-quarter of Americans will have no religious affiliation by 2028. The study notes that the number of non-believers among younger people is considerably higher than among older people, suggesting that the trend of Americans growing less religious will continue in coming years.
via Hitchens: Christianity is a fraud if it’s not literally true | Raw Story.
Former Fox News contributor: I left the network because I was ‘uncomfortable’ with Glenn Beck.
Today on CNN’s Reliable Sources segment, Washington Post reporter Howie Kurtz hosted Jane Hall, associate professor in the School of Communication at American University, to discuss the Obama administration’s criticisms of Fox News. Hall was a contributor to the network for 11 years and a frequent guest on The O’Reilly Factor and Fox News Watch. Kurtz asked Hall why she left Fox and whether she felt like she was “being used to give Fox a certain degree of legitimacy.” Hall replied that part of the reason she left was because of how “scary” Glenn Beck is:
HALL: No, I didn’t. The reason I left was in part because they’ve had less debates than they used to. It is a fair point to say how much debate is there on MSNBC? How many Republican strategists? We have a bifurcation of the media.
KURTZ: Wait a second. The reason you left is because you feel they have less debate than they used to. In other words, it used to be Hannity and Colmes, now it’s just Hannity. It used to be Bernie and Jane. Now it’s just Bernie.
HALL: I think there’s less debate than there was. And I’m also, frankly, uncomfortable with Beck, who I think should be called out as somebody whose language is way over the top. And it’s scary.
KURTZ: Was that a factor in your decision to leave Fox?
HALL: Yes, it was.
Watch it:
Gingrich Expresses Concern With Identifying Beck And Limbaugh As Leaders Of The GOP
Last week, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) — the chairman of the House Republican Conference — defended the influence of right-wing talk shows over the Republican Party. Pence claimed that it’s “hogwash” to suggest that pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck “only speak for a small group of activists.” In a similar vein, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) defended the influence of Limbaugh, Beck, and other commentators because, she claimed, they represent a “critical mass.”
Reflecting the emerging stranglehold over the Republican Party that Limbaugh and Beck now exert, the new cover of The Weekly Standard identifies Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin as the faces of the GOP (see image to the right). Yesterday morning on C-Span, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich expressed concern with the cover:
Well, I just think it’s interesting that two of the three people on the cover are talk radio hosts — Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. And they’re fine people, and they have big audiences, and that’s terrific. But you have a party that has Gov. Haley Barbour, it has Gov. Mitch Daniels, it has Gov. Tim Pawlenty. [...] You know, you can have a very, very intense movement of 20 percent. You can’t govern. To govern, you got to get 50 percent plus one after the recount.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Gingrich Expresses Concern With Identifying Beck And Limbaugh As Leaders Of The GOP.
OPS: And Beck and Limbaugh say the say about Newt – so they’re even
McCain dodges when asked if Cheney is ‘helping or hurting’ the GOP.
Yesterday on CBS’ Face the Nation, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) — a frequent face on the Sunday show circuit — joined conservatives George Will and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in denouncing former Vice President Cheney’s recent statement that President Obama is “dithering” on Afghanistan. “I wouldn’t use that language,” McCain said. But later in the segment, host Bob Schieffer asked if Cheney is “helping or hurting” the Republican Party with such comments. While noting that the former Vice President has the right to speak out, McCain dodged the question:
McCAIN: I think we should as much as possible say — and our message is, we want this strategy and we want to support the president and unite the country behind it. Let’s face it. The president, when he makes his decision — and again, I believe that he will– will have trouble with the base of his own party. And so the more united we can be behind him, I think the more the chances are of success and American public support.
“I don’t believe I heard you say whether you thought that was helpful or unhelpful,” Schieffer noted. “I don’t know. I would leave that to others to judge, really,” McCain again dodged. Watch it:
via Think Progress » McCain dodges when asked if Cheney is ‘helping or hurting’ the GOP..
Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year
The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.
The U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, the report from Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters, found.
“America’s healthcare system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars, and the opportunities to slow the fiscal bleeding are substantial,” the report reads.
“The bad news is that an estimated $700 billion is wasted annually. That’s one-third of the nation’s healthcare bill,” Kelley said in a statement.
via Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year | U.S. | Reuters.
The Fallacy of the GDP
If we used the more c
onservative accounting methods of most other advanced nations, our growth would not look so good.
The methods we use to calculate our GDP growth are a matter of great controversy among the world’s economic analysts. Just as the accounting of Enron differs from that of General Electric, the procedures our leaders use to calculate America’s economic growth are different from those used in Germany, Switzerland, or Japan. If we used the more conservative accounting methods of most other advanced nations, our growth would not look so good. American workers instinctively know this because they are acutely aware that living standards for ordinary Americans have not improved much in thirty years.
In any case, more and more of the country is becoming owned and controlled by foreign interests. Critical chokepoint industries are being taken over, and our government is ever more beholden to foreign lenders. The cumulative trade deficit (that is the extent to which total imports have exceeded exports) amounted to $4.6 trillion in current dollars over the last 20 years and this is equal to $5.4 trillion after adjusting for inflation. The average annual growth rate in real dollars for the trade deficit has been 24 percent over the past 10 years. Even if we take our government’s calculations of GDP growth at face value, this means our trade deficit increased nearly seven times faster than our GDP.
Since more and more of our consumer spending goes to imported goods, the higher our GDP goes, the higher our trade deficit goes. In the ten years to 2005, for instance, the trade deficit went from just 1 percent of our GDP to more than 6 percent. This deterioration reflects in part the fact that the share of our GDP that goes to consumer spending has increased from 67 percent to 70 percent.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
U.S. Stocks Rise
Market analysts with CNNMoney.com expected Wall Street to jump at the opening bell today, and their predictions came true in the first hours of trading.
Markets plunged on Friday, closing the week with a rally killing decline across the board. The S&P led all losses with a 1.22 percent decline (13.31 points). This was followed closely by the Dow Jones which lost 1.08 percent (109.13 points) and the NASDAQ which dropped 0.50 percent (10.82 points).
Market analysts with CNNMoney.com expected Wall Street to jump at the opening bell today, and their predictions came true in the first hours of trading.
However, Wall Street must still find a way to sustain the rally and gain beyond its previous peak. Despite strong earnings reports last week each of the three composites stalled just when they seemed to be set for huge gains. The heralded 10,000 point mark seems to be a barrier for investors; every time the Dow reaches above the threshold it is reined back in.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Made in China: importing America to its own death
America: made “in” and owned “by” China.
During the Bolshevik Revolution that led to communist Russia, Comrade Vladimir Lenin said, “Sell the capitalists enough rope and they will hang themselves!”
Nearly 100 years later, Lenin’s predictions reveal his veracity with chilling fruition. The United States bleeds $11 trillion in debt. It suffers a $700 billion annual trade deficit, mostly with China, which by the way thrives as a communist nation selling us lots of ‘rope’, i.e., consumer goods. We import another $700 billion in oil annually from other countries. We borrow $2 billion daily to float our sinking economy. The average American’s credit card debt equals $9,425.00 according to NBC’s Brian Williams. We suffer 15 million unemployed American workers and 35 million subsisting on food stamps.
How did Lenin’s foreshadowing come to pass? How could he know that we would bring our downfall upon ourselves?
via OpEdNews – Article: Made in China: importing America to its own death.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
