Archive for October, 2009
Major Ground Offensive Begins In Pakistan But Few Expect It To Turn The Tide In The War
More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a ground offensive against al-Qaida and the Taliban’s main stronghold along the Afghan border Saturday, officials said, in the country’s toughest test yet against a strengthening insurgency.
The United States has long pushed the government to carry out an assault in South Waziristan, and it comes after two weeks of militant attacks that have killed more than 175 people across the nuclear-armed country. That has ramped up pressure on the army to act.
Pakistan has fought three unsuccessful campaigns since 2001 in the region, which is the nerve-center for Pakistani insurgents fighting the U.S.-backed government. It is also a major base for foreign militants to plan attacks on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan and on targets in the West.
Full Story: Major Ground Offensive Begins In Pakistan But Few Expect It To Turn The Tide In The War.
C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery
Probably not. But you would not know it from the C.I.A.’s behavior.
For six years, the agency has fought in federal court to keep secret hundreds of documents from 1963, when an anti-Castro Cuban group it paid clashed publicly with the soon-to-be assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The C.I.A. says it is only protecting legitimate secrets. But because of the agency’s history of stonewalling assassination inquiries, even researchers with no use for conspiracy thinking question its stance.
The files in question, some released under direction of the court and hundreds more that are still secret, involve the curious career of George E. Joannides, the case officer who oversaw the dissident Cubans in 1963. In 1978, the agency made Mr. Joannides the liaison to the House Select Committee on Assassinations — but never told the committee of his earlier role.
Full Story: C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery – NYTimes.com.
Obama Weekly Radio Address: Insurers Are “Filling The Airwaves With Deceptive And Dishonest Ads”
President Barack Obama pushed back against critics of his health care plan on Saturday with a stern warning that absent reform, costs will continue to rise and eventually devastate the U.S. economy.
The administration is trying to build momentum for the effort following a 14-9 vote this week by the Senate Finance Committee for legislation that would extend health care to millions of people.
Democrats hailed the vote as a victory, in part because the bill was supported by a Republican, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe. But the legislation faces considerable opposition with the health insurance industry, labor unions and large business organizations lining up against it.
“The history is clear: For decades rising health care costs have unleashed havoc on families, businesses and the economy,” the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. “And for decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop us.”
Full Story: Obama Weekly Radio Address: Insurers Are “Filling The Airwaves With Deceptive And Dishonest Ads”.
Kinky’s Back!
Kinky Friedman speaks with Marty Beckerman about why he’s running for Texas governor as a Democrat, the blood on Rick Perry’s hands, and the similarities between himself and Gandhi.
Kinky Friedman, bestselling mystery novelist and lead singer of the Texas Jewboys, ran a bombastic 2006 Texas gubernatorial campaign that made national headlines, raised funds with the help of Jimmy Buffett and Willie Nelson, and generated plenty of catchy one-liners such as, “The first thing I’ll do if elected is demand a recount.” He received less than 13 percent of the vote as an independent candidate, which convinced him this time to run as a Democrat—discussing policy instead of making punchlines—in the 2010 election. He claims that primary polls show him in first place, ahead of Republican incumbent Rick Perry.
“[Rick Perry] fast-tracked the execution of this innocent guy, Cameron Todd Willingham. That’s blood on his Christian hands. There are plenty of innocent people in this corrupt justice system, but Rick is more concerned with protecting that system.”
Full Story: Kinky’s Back! – Page 1 – The Daily Beast.
Brilliant! Roof Tiles Change Color to Save Energy
On a blazing summer day, a black roof gets miserably hot, while a white roof reflects the sun and keeps a home cooler. In winter, the warmth generated by a solar-radiation-absorbing black roof can save energy.
That’s well-known and simple enough. Unfortunately, you can’t have it both ways. Well …
A team of recent MIT graduates has developed roof tiles that change color based on the temperature. The tiles become white on a hot day and turn black when it’s cold outside.
When white, the tiles reflect about 80 percent of the sunlight that hits them. When they are black, they reflect only about 30 percent. The white state could save up to 20 percent of present cooling costs, according to other recent studies on the theory of all this. Savings from the black state in winter have yet to be quantified.
Full Story: Brilliant! Roof Tiles Change Color to Save Energy | LiveScience.
White House readies phone-tap case concession
The Obama administration may be on the verge of a major concession in a long-running legal battle over records about so-called telecom immunity.
An email obtained by POLITICO shows that the Obama Administration is preparing for the possible release of some details of the Bush Administration’s lobbying for legislation giving telecommunications companies immunity from lawsuits over their involvement in warrantless domestic wiretapping.
But even if they do release those details, the administration may press on with a legal battle to keep secret the identities of the companies involved in the program.
Full Story: White House readies phone-tap case concession – Josh Gerstein and John Bresnahan – POLITICO.com.
Minn. man suspected of encouraging suicides – Yahoo! News
A nurse who authorities say got his kicks by visiting Internet suicide chat rooms and encouraging depressed people to kill themselves is under investigation in at least two deaths and could face criminal charges that could test the limits of the First Amendment.
Investigators said William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, feigned compassion for those he chatted with, while offering step-by-step instructions on how to take their lives.
“Most importatn is the placement of the noose on the neck … Knot behind the left ear and rope across the carotid is very important for instant unconciousness and death,” he allegedly wrote in one Web chat.
Full Story: Minn. man suspected of encouraging suicides – Yahoo! News.
Millions to Rally Against Poverty This Weekend
Well over 100 million people around the world are expected to “stand up” this weekend to call governments to action on poverty, hunger, and gender inequalities — a set of global issues that most Americans say they would like their government to fund much more than it has.
What’s the Story?
Last year, some 116 million people worldwide took part in the weekend-long events to “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!” That set a new Guinness World Record for largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history. Organizers are aiming to break that record this year.
Participants are calling on their governments to take concrete steps to achieve the so-called Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets to cut extreme poverty and hunger in half, reduce HIV/AIDS and child and maternal mortality, get children into school, and ensure women’s equality in society, all while protecting the environment. World leaders agreed at a summit in 2000 to commit the funding and implement the programs necessary to achieve the goals by 2015.
“With just six years left until the deadline … ‘Stand Up’ will be a stark reminder that citizens will not accept excuses for governments breaking promises to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens,” said Salil Shetty, Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, in a statement this week.
Full Story: Millions to Rally Against Poverty This Weekend – Yahoo! News.
Lost Greek city that may have inspired Atlantis myth gives up secrets
The secrets of a lost city that may have inspired one of the world’s most enduring myths – the fable of Atlantis – have been brought to light from beneath the waters off southern Greece.
Explored by an Anglo-Greek team of archaeologists and marine geologists and known as Pavlopetri, the sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer’s heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented, experts say.
“There is now no doubt that this is the oldest submerged town in the world,” said Dr Jon Henderson, associate professor of underwater archaeology at the University of Nottingham. “It has remains dating from 2800 to 1200 BC, long before the glory days of classical Greece. There are older sunken sites in the world but none can be considered to be planned towns such as this, which is why it is unique.”
Full Story: Lost Greek city that may have inspired Atlantis myth gives up secrets | Science | The Guardian.
Honduran talks deadlocked over restoring Zelaya
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya said negotiations over Honduras’ coup are in “suspense” after the rival factions rebuffed each other’s proposals and his foreign minister called the internationally brokered talks a failure.
Negotiators for interim President Roberto Micheletti said talks would go on even though he spurned a proposal to allow legislators to vote on whether Zelaya could return to power. Micheletti offered a counterproposal calling for the Supreme Court to decide the matter, an idea immediately rejected by Zelaya.
“I had said that Micheletti was preparing to slap the Honduran people and the international community, and now he has done that,” Zelaya told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the Brazilian Embassy, where he took refuge after sneaking back into Honduras on Sept. 21 from his forced exile.
Full Story: Honduran talks deadlocked over restoring Zelaya – Yahoo! News.
What Glenn Beck Doesn’t Know About His Hero Thomas Paine
Our guest blogger is John Halpin, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and co-author of “The Power of Progress: How Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country.”
During his Fox News show yesterday, Glenn Beck declared that the members of his radical blackboard — including various Obama administration officials, SEIU, ACORN, and Center for American Progress CEO John Podesta — all support “social justice, environmental justice, REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH!” Watch it:
Full Story: Think Progress » What Glenn Beck Doesn’t Know About His Hero Thomas Paine.
The rise of the religious left
The Rise of the Religious Left — Why Christianity Isn’t Just for Conservatives. It’s easy to paint American Christians as right wing free-marketeers -– but the truth is far more complex.
It’s easy to paint American Christians as rightwing free-marketeers – but the truth is far more complex
The enormous political clout wielded by evangelical Christians in the United States is usually seen from the outside as a coup for rightwing zealots against any agenda that might be called “progressive”. But we should think again. The recent revelation that Michael Moore’s Catholicism emerges in his latest film as a centrepiece of his critique of capitalism is really no surprise. The claim in Capitalism: A Love Story that free markets are inconsistent with Christianity has wrong-footed Moore’s rightwing critics, but the right’s bid to monopolise religion has been challenged for some time.
As Austen Ivereigh points out, Moore’s anti-capitalist preaching is quite in keeping with Catholic traditions of social activism. What’s less known is that evangelical Christian churches – the supposed mainstay of rightwing politics in the US – are showing a leftwards drift. In fact many commentators believe that the presidency of George W Bush, which undoubtedly revitalised conservative Christians, was possibly their last act as a major force in the political landscape. The “religious right” has long played a pernicious role in US politics. Its insistence that preachers should be interested only in saving souls – a good alibi for neglecting the material needs of the poor – has consistently been contradicted by their complicity in free markets and vocal opposition to abortion and gay rights. But this is not the only story to tell about American Christianity. Arguably Obama’s election – won in part due to the successful courtship of a large section of the religious vote – suggests that it is not the most important one either.
Nearly every major social justice battle fought in the US has been supported, if not driven, by religious groups – which in statistical terms overwhelmingly means Christians. It’s widely known that the historically black church has been a key player in promoting justice for African Americans – from the abolition of slavery to the civil rights movements – as well as championing initiatives that support marginalised communities, both black and white. Beneath the more notorious rhetoric of Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who at one point looked likely to irreparably fracture Obama’s presidential bid, we can find him preaching the acceptance of homosexuality and the importance of works as well as faith. Wright’s work at Trinity United Church of Christ, the church Obama was a member of for over 20 years, involves programmes for HIV/Aids sufferers, drug rehabilitation, and housing support for Chicago’s impoverished South Side communities. That Obama’s association with such a church should have been so potentially disastrous for his candidacy is deeply ironic. But in the end, Obama’s religious identity did help him win votes.
Full Story: The rise of the religious left | Anna Hartnell | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
A Primer on Current Food Safety Politics for Non Policy Geeks
No One Wants to Die From Dinner — Here’s a Quick Primer on What’s Safe to Eat and Who’s Looking Out for Your Health. Thousands are dying every year from food-borne illness and we have a confusing morass of regulations and agencies charged with enforcing them. How to sort out the mess?
On the heels of the devastating article in the New York Times about a young woman who paid dearly for the horrifying practices and lack of oversight in the meat industry, the Center for Science in the Public Interest released a list of the top 10 riskiest foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Some of your favorite foods are on this list, including ice cream, berries and leafy greens, with tuna being the most surprising culprit. Though meat contains some of the most virulent contaminants, like the strain of E. coli that almost killed Stephanie Smith, it’s missing from the list, because it isn’t regulated by the FDA. It’s regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Confused yet?
Thousands of people are dying every year from food-borne illness and we have a confusing morass of regulations and agencies charged with enforcing them. Clearly we need a better system, but how to sort out the mess?
Full Story: A Primer on Current Food Safety Politics for Non Policy Geeks | EcoSalon.
How Climate Change Kills History
And other lessons from an unlikely organizer.
Politicians Have Failed in Efforts to Stave Off Climate Change, Now It’s Up to Us
—By Bill McKibben, Mother Jones
It’s eight days to our global climate day of action and I’m just headed back from Nashville, where I spoke to the annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I feel like one of those candidates on the eve of the election, scrambling across the landscape to make sure they leave no vote ungot. But truth be told, I don’t really know what I’m doing.
I’m an author turned part-time activist. Not out of desire—my bumper sticker should read “I’d rather be writing”—but out of frustration, and the sense that no one was really building a popular movement about climate change, and that it needed to be done. In this quest I’ve worked with a crew of young people, all recent college grads, and we’ve learned side by side about how to organize. Learned by experience, because there’s really no guidebook (so we wrote one last year, Fight Global Warming Now).
One of the things we’ve learned: Look for allies in unlikely places. Global warming can’t be a fight dominated by the environmental organizations. They’re simply not big enough—they’re scaled to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, not take on ExxonMobil. So as we’ve built 350.org, we’ve focused hard on finding friends elsewhere—across the developing world, for example, in the kind of places that have never had a say in this question. The result: The day of action on October 24 will be the most widespread day of environmental activism ever, and quite possibly the most farflung day of action about any political issue the planet has ever seen. We’re closing in on 170 countries. Practically the only ones left are incredibly small (San Marino) or incredibly impossible (North Korea).
Full Story: How Climate Change Kills History | Mother Jones.
Good Health Care Policy Makes Good Politics — And Vice Versa
Why Is Everyone Pretending Olympia Snowe Is so Darn Important?
David Sirota
I don’t get it.
I know that’s the simplistic refrain of every 10-year-old, but I’m 33 and I mean it: I just don’t get it.
Specifically, I don’t get why Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) — or any Republican senator, for that matter — is attracting so much attention.
In the last few months, Democratic senators eliminated the public option and substantially weakened their health care proposals in order to buy insurance industry acquiescence and, thus, Snowe’s vote. Now, based on the deafening media noise, all of American politics is focused on this unaccomplished backbencher and whether or not she will endorse the final bill. It is as if Republicans control Congress — as if Snowe, not Barack Obama, won the biggest presidential landslide since Ronald Reagan.
This is bizarre for what should be obvious reasons.
Full Story: Good Health Care Policy Makes Good Politics — And Vice Versa by David Sirota on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.
Russia ready to abandon dollar in oil, gas trade with China
Russia is ready to consider using the Russian and Chinese national currencies instead of the dollar in bilateral oil and gas dealings, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
The premier, currently on a visit to Beijing, said a final decision on the issue can only be made after a thorough expert analysis.
“Yesterday, energy companies, in particular Gazprom, raised the question of using the national currency. We are ready to examine the possibility of selling energy resources for rubles, but our Chinese partners need rubles for that. We are also ready to sell for yuans,” Putin said.
He stressed that “there should be a balance here.”
On Tuesday, Russia and China agreed terms for Russian gas deliveries at a level of up to 70 billion cubic meters a year. China also imports oil from Russia.
The Russian prime minister said the issue would be addressed among others at a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) finance ministers, who are to convene before the end of the year in Kazakhstan.
Britain’s Independent newspaper reported last Tuesday that Russian officials had held “secret meetings” with Arab states, China and France on ending the use of the U.S. dollar in international oil trade.
Full Story: Russia ready to abandon dollar in oil, gas trade with China.
Stopping the Great American Job Scam In Denver
David Sirota –
For the last month on my morning drive-time radio show on AM760, we have been discussing the Frontier Airlines situation, and how it serves as an important microcosm of all the debates about jobs, the economy, public policy, and corporate welfare inherent in Greg LeRoy’s terrific book called The Great American Jobs Scam — a scam that afflicts almost every community across the country.
The basics of the story are this: Frontier declared bankruptcy on April 10, 2008, ultimately got bought by Republic Airways in August of 2009, and has been reporting operating profit for 10 straight months (probably a big reason that Republic bought it, and Southwest tried to).
In recent weeks, however, Republic Airways has been threatening to slash Frontier jobs in Denver (the airline’s hometown) unless Denver and Colorado governments hand the company a series of special tax breaks. This is exactly what the Great American Jobs Scam is: a corporation using a threat to extract special giveaways.
This particularly ugly threat comes, of course, just as the city and state’s massive budget deficits are causing huge cuts to the most basic social services for the most vulnerable populations (the homeless, the indigent, the mentally ill, etc.). The question we’ve been discussing on the radio is whether Denver and Colorado should give in or not?
Full Story: Stopping the Great American Job Scam In Denver | The Smirking Chimp.
Eight years later, we still don’t get it in Afghanistan
Eight years. We’ve been in Afghanistan longer than any other war in American history. The party of the president who invaded Afghanistan has been repudiated at the polls. Yet we still haven’t altered the flawed strategy that allowed uneducated tribesmen with outdated weapons to defeat us year after year.
We haven’t learned a thing.
You can see the myopia in our leaders’ talking points. “Our goal (in Afghanistan) is to disrupt, dismantle, defeat al-Qaida and its extremist allies,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told ABC News’ “Nightline.” “But not every Taliban is al-Qaida. There are people who are Taliban, who are fighting because they get paid to fight. They have no other way of making a living.”
So few words. So much stupidity. Where to start? Here: Al-Qaida’s presence in Afghanistan in 2001 was negligible. Al-Qaida was a Pakistani phenomenon. Still is.
You’re welcome, have another: Not only is every Taliban not al-Qaida, there’s no such thing as a Taliban, as in: “That guy is a Taliban.” Members of the Taliban are called Talibs. You invade a country, send in 100,000 troops, presume to decide what form of government it should have and who should rule it — yet you still don’t know something as basic as what the members of the nation’s majority political movement are called? Still wondering why “they” hate us?
Full Story: Ted Rall: Eight years later, we still don’t get it in Afghanistan – Springfield, IL – The State Journal-Register.
Cindy McCain Bankrolled Conference That Called for Ban on Mercenaries
The ‘McCain Conference on Ethics and Military Leadership’ appears to be ahead of the senator when it comes to the US use of mercenary forces.
By Jeremy Scahill
A little-publicized US Naval Academy conference named after Senator John McCain and bankrolled by his wealthy wife, Cindy, issued a call earlier this year for the US government to ban the use of armed private security contractors like Blackwater in US war zones, stating bluntly, “contractors should not be deployed as security guards, sentries, or even prison guards within combat areas.”
“[T]he use of deadly force must be entrusted only to those whose training, character and accountability are most worthy of the nation’s trust: the military,” reads the executive summary of the U.S. Naval Academy’s 9th Annual McCain Conference on Ethics and Military Leadership, which was held in April at the Annapolis Naval Station. “The military profession carefully cultivates an ethic of ‘selfless service,’ and develops the virtues that can best withstand combat pressures and thus achieve the nation’s objectives in an honorable way. By contrast, most corporate ethical standards and available regulatory schemes are ill-suited for this environment.”
In 2001, Cindy McCain, who may be worth as much as $100 million, first endowed the McCain conference “in honor of her husband” with a $210,000 gift that was specifically intended to fund conferences that would “bring together key military officers and civilian academics responsible for ethics education and character developments.”
Full Story: RebelReports – Cindy McCain Bankrolled Conference That Called for Ban on Mercenaries.
House Panel Exempts Over 8,000 Banks From Oversight
Bowing to political pressure from community bankers, the House Financial Services Committee approved an exemption on Thursday for more than 98 percent of the nation’s banks from oversight by a new agency created to protect consumers from abusive or deceptive credit cards, mortgages and other loans.
The carve-out in legislation overhauling the regulatory system would prevent the new consumer financial protection agency from conducting annual examinations of the lending practices at more than 8,000 of the nation’s 8,200 banks, leaving only the largest banks and other lenders subject to the agency’s examiners.
Earlier in the day, the committee completed its work on a different contentious provision of the legislation when, on a nearly straight party-line vote of 43 to 26, it approved tougher regulations over the derivatives market. That provision, too, contained exemptions for many businesses.
The exemption for the banks was endorsed by the chairman, Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who saw it as necessary to win support for the overall bill from the committee’s moderate and conservative Democrats. Their support is particularly important because the Republicans are unified against the legislation.
Full Story: House Panel Exempts Over 8,000 Banks From Oversight – NYTimes.com.
Bonuses Put Goldman In Public Relations Bind
700k each for 31,000 employees -
A celebrated Goldman Sachs partner, Gus Levy, coined the maxim that long defined the bank, the savviest and most influential firm on Wall Street: “Greedy, but long-term greedy.”
But these days that old dictum is being truncated to just “greedy” by some Goldman critics. While many ordinary Americans are still waiting for an economic recovery, Goldman and its employees are enjoying one of the richest periods in the bank’s 140-year history.
Goldman executives are perplexed by the resentment directed at their bank and contend the criticism is unjustified. But they find themselves in the uncomfortable position of defending Goldman’s blowout profits and the outsize paydays that are the hallmark of its success.
Full Story: bonuses-put-goldman-in-public-relations-bind: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.
US military backs away from ban on photos of dead
Military leaders in Afghanistan have backed off an attempt to ban news organizations embedded with the Army from photographing or videotaping images of U.S. personnel killed in the war.
But there was still confusion Friday about what photographers will be allowed to capture on the battlefield. The ban put in place by regional commanders at the Bagram Air Field was partly in reaction to a controversy over distribution last month of a photo by The Associated Press showing a U.S. Marine mortally wounded in a grenade attack.
The AP distributed the picture to its members despite pleas by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and against the wishes of the Marine’s family in Maine.
Shortly afterward, the Afghanistan regional command changed the rules that reporters and photographers are required to sign before being embedded with a unit. The amended rules stated: “Media will not be allowed to photograph or record video of U.S. personnel killed in action.”
Full Story: The Associated Press: US military backs away from ban on photos of dead.
Rockefeller Says Democrats Can’t Tailor Health Care to Snowe
Senator Jay Rockefeller said Democrats shouldn’t tailor a health-care overhaul to the wishes of Republican Senator Olympia Snowe and need to push for legislation that includes a government-run insurance program.
“We can’t sort of hedge and say ‘what’s Olympia going to do,’” Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “We’ve got to decide what we want.”
Snowe, who this week voted for an $829 billion finance committee bill, is the only Republican to back an overhaul plan. Keeping the Maine lawmaker on board as the legislation moves through the Senate may help attract Democrats facing re- election battles and possibly other Republicans.
Full Story: Rockefeller Says Democrats Can’t Tailor Health Care to Snowe – Bloomberg.com.
Code Pink Delivers Afghan Petition To President
Using a meet-and-greet at a Democratic fundraiser Thursday night, Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans hand delivered a petition to President Barack Obama allegedly signed by Afghani women who want an end to the war in their country.
Evans was among those attending a sold-out Democratic Party fundraiser at San Francisco’s Westin St. Francis Hotel, with a Code Pink supporter paying $30,400 for a pair of tickets to the dinner. The tickets included a photo opportunity with the President.
She said she had collected signatures of Afghani women during a trip there last week on a petition that asked for a role in the peace process and demanding that the U.S. abandon plans to send in additional troops.
“The women there are really upset that they are not at the negotiating table,” said Evans, who was wearing a pink shirt with “End The Afghan Quagmire” stenciled on it. “He said: ‘What do you mean, I have (Secretary of State) Hilliary (Clinton)?’… I said no the Afghan women want to be at the negotiating table. He looked at me and said: ‘Oh.’”
Evans also said she showed Obama the message her t-shirt.
Full Story: Code Pink Delivers Afghan Petition To President – News Story – KTVU San Francisco.
Video: Bulk Survey for Release On The Street (a.k.a. Nuclear Dumping)
Families for a Clean Tennessee Surveys Tennesseans on the Street Regarding Bulk Survey for Release–or Nuclear Dumping.
Full Story: YouTube – Bulk Survey for Release On The Street.
Entergy CEO Warns Of Humanity’s Extinction If Climate Legislation Not Passed
Last week, over a hundred CEOs of American companies broke with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to lobby Congress to “pass comprehensive climate change and energy policy legislation this year.” The U.S. Senate is now considering the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, which would set a market-based limit on global warming pollution. Participants in a Clean Energy Economy Forum at the White House included J. Wayne Leonard, the Chairman and CEO of Entergy Corporation, the utility giant based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Speaking at the White House event, Leonard called for action on climate change and clean energy not just for economic reasons but starkly moral ones:
We are virtually certain that climate change is occurring, and occurring because of man’s activities. We’re virtually certain the probability distribution curve is all bad. There’s no good things that’s going to come of this. But what’s uncertain is exactly which one of those things are going to occur and in what time frame. In the probability distribution curve is about a 50% probability that about half of all species will become extinct or be subject to extinction over this period of time. What we will never know on an ex ante basis is whether or not man be one of those casualties or not.
We condemn Wall Street for taking risks with our economy — risks that all of you are trying very hard to reverse — but at the same time we’re taking exactly the same kind of risks, with no upside whatsoever, with regard to our climate, failing to practice even the basic risk management techniques in terms of climate change reduction.
Watch it:
Full Story: Wonk Room » Entergy CEO Warns Of Humanity’s Extinction If Climate Legislation Not Passed.
Bill Frist: ‘What The Obama Administration Is Doing Is Not Socialized Medicine’
This morning, former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) — who spent a year working as a doctor for the British national health service — argued that President Obama’s health care reform “is not socialized medicine” and predicted that Congress would pass a health care reform bill by December:
So first of all, what the Obama administration is doing is not socialized medicine. You hear a lot of people on the extreme say that socialized medicine is going to come in and control everything. Socialized medicine is where the government owns the hospitals. They own the doctors and they decide how much people are getting paid. And that’s not what’s in these bills.
Watch it:
Full Story: Wonk Room » Bill Frist: ‘What The Obama Administration Is Doing Is Not Socialized Medicine’.
Goldman’s Boom And Citigroup’s Bust Underscore How Much Main Street Is Still Hurting
In the last few days, a flurry of banks have released their earning statements for the third quarter of this year, and the differences between the banks that are doing well and those that are doing poorly highlights just how little of the banking sector’s recovery — and the recent Dow surge — is trickling down to the rest of America.
On the one hand, Goldman Sachs made $3.19 billion in the last three months. On the other, Citigroup lost $3.2 billion and Bank of America lost $1 billion. And the difference is, while Citi and BofA are still getting clobbered by losses on consumer items like mortgages and credit cards (to the tune of $8 billion and $9.6 billion, respectively), Goldman is reaping the benefits of its trading business:
Bumper third quarter profits at Goldman Sachs and another loss for Citigroup on Thursday highlighted the gap between the financial resilience of Wall Street and the woes of Main Street, fresh evidence that two Americas are emerging from the crisis. The diverging performance of investment banks such as Goldman and the retail banking operations of the banks such as Citi is problematic for an Obama administration that wants a strong Wall Street but is also under pressure to tackle the plight of ordinary people.
Full Story: Wonk Room » Goldman’s Boom And Citigroup’s Bust Underscore How Much Main Street Is Still Hurting.
Seventh Generation Founder: ‘The US Chamber Of Commerce Doesn’t Act In The Best Interest Of Business’
Last week, over 150 business leaders from major American companies came to the capital to tell Congress to “pass comprehensive climate change and energy policy legislation this year.” One of the corporate titans who participated in the We Can Lead effort was Jeffrey Hollender, the co-founder, executive chairman, and “chief inspired protagonist” of Seventh Generation, the leading producer of green household products. In an exclusive interview with the Wonk Room, Hollender had strong words for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, explaining that it made sense for prominent companies like Nike and Apple to cut ties to the chamber over its opposition to climate action:
I think the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t act in in the best interest of business. They represent what was historically best for business. They represent exactly what’s the polar opposite of the future of business. The chamber is a voice of the energy industry, of the coal industry. As you’ve seen in the last couple of days, Nike gives up its position on the board, Apple resigns — businesses will increasingly abandon the chamber because they are just so wrong on this issue. Not that they’re not wrong on most issues, but they’re more wrong on this issue than they usually are.
Watch it:
Full Story: Wonk Room » Seventh Generation Founder: ‘The US Chamber Of Commerce Doesn’t Act In The Best Interest Of Business’.
Nuclear dust rains on atomic parade
Watchdog reports to public prosecutor
It should have been a day of celebration, a moment to showcase France’s expertise in nuclear power built over decades of research and development.
Instead government ministers and local state representatives on Friday scurried for cover, cancelling their visits to the planned 50th anniversary celebrations of the Cadarache nuclear site in picturesque Provençal France.
Could the reason have been the embarrassing discovery of kilos of unrecorded plutonium that has for years been lying in the nooks and crannies of fuel manufacturing facilities at Cadarache – sparking worries over nuclear safety standards and questions for the public prosecutor?
Full Story: FT.com / Europe – Nuclear dust rains on atomic parade.
Countdown to next crisis
There is a reason why it is called a ‘cycle’
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock … Can you hear that? It is the countdown to the next financial crisis. I hate to say this just as green shoots are sprouting – the Dow crossed 10,000 points this week, banks are reporting bumper profits and the US recession is all but over – but there is a reason why it is called a “cycle”.
The recipe than turns today’s riches into tomorrow’s disasters is a familiar one.
Add a little bit of risk here, a sprinkling of financial “innovation” there, spice it up with greed to taste, let it simmer for a few years and, before you know it, you have a fully-baked hot crisis on your hands.
Full Story: FT.com / Markets / On Wall Street – Countdown to next crisis.
Millions to Rally Against Poverty This Weekend
Well over 100 million people around the world are expected to “stand up” this weekend to call governments to action on poverty, hunger, and gender inequalities — a set of global issues that most Americans say they would like their government to fund much more than it has.
[http://standagainstpoverty.org/]http://standagainstpoverty.org/
What’s the Story?
Last year, some 116 million people worldwide took part in the weekend-long events to “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!” That set a new Guinness World Record for largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history. Organizers are aiming to break that record this year.
Participants are calling on their governments to take concrete steps to achieve the so-called Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets to cut extreme poverty and hunger in half, reduce HIV/AIDS and child and maternal mortality, get children into school, and ensure women’s equality in society, all while protecting the environment. World leaders agreed at a summit in 2000 to commit the funding and implement the programs necessary to achieve the goals by 2015.
“With just six years left until the deadline … ‘Stand Up’ will be a stark reminder that citizens will not accept excuses for governments breaking promises to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens,” said Salil Shetty, Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign, in a statement this week.
Full Story: Millions to Rally Against Poverty This Weekend | CommonDreams.org.
Good News on Wall Street Means… What Exactly?
Matt Taibbi
Lloyd Blankfein, the company’s chairman and CEO, said Goldman is starting to see a rebound across many of its businesses even as the broader economy and consumers continue to struggle with rising unemployment and mounting loan losses.
“Although the world continues to face serious economic challenges, we are seeing improving conditions and evidence of stabilization, even growth, across a number of sectors,” Blankfein said in a statement.
via Goldman Sachs profit tops $3B on strong trading – Yahoo! News.
It’s literally amazing to me that our press corps hasn’t yet managed to draw a distinction between good news on Wall Street for companies like Goldman, and good news in reality.
I watched carefully the reporting of the Dow breaking 10,000 the other day and not anywhere did I see a major news organization include a paragraph of the “On the other hand, so fucking what?” sort, one that might point out that unemployment is still at a staggering high, foreclosures are racing along at a terrifying clip, and real people are struggling more than ever. In fact the dichotomy between the economic health of ordinary people and the traditional “market indicators” is not merely a non-story, it is a sort of taboo — unmentionable in major news coverage.
Here’s an example of the Dow-10000 coverage, from USA Today:
If investors view the Dow’s recovery as a signal that the economy and financial markets are healing, it could serve as a mood-altering boost. It might also lure skeptical investors hiding in safe fixed-income investments such as money market funds and certificates of deposit, which are yielding close to 0%, to move cash back into stocks, says Bruce Bittles, chief strategist at Robert W. Baird.
Full Story: Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – True/Slant.
Falcon Heene Balloon Case Referred To Larimer County Child Protection Agency
Update: The AP is reporting that local law enforcement officers have suspected Richard Heene of abusing his wife, but there has never been sufficient evidence to press charges:
The Larimer County Sheriff’s deputy who went to the home said he heard a man yelling and, once inside, noticed Mayumi Heene had a mark on her cheek and broken blood vessels in her eye. She said it was because of a problem with her contacts.
Richard Heene said he was yelling because his children stayed up past their bedtime.
The deputy concluded he didn’t have probable cause to make an arrest, but believed a physical altercation may have occurred. No charges were filed.
It was one of three 911 calls made from the home within the past year, but the only one in which a report was filed.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Aldereden said in a press conference Friday that his office spoke with the county child protection agency about the case in which 6-year-old Falcon Heene was thought to have been trapped in a flying-saucer-shaped balloon.
The Denver Post Reports:
Full Story: Falcon Heene Balloon Case Referred To Larimer County Child Protection Agency.
Astronomers Shocked: “The Edge Of The Solar System Is Tied Up With A Ribbon” (VIDEO)
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, has just produced new images of the solar system that has shocked astronomers. This first full-sized map shows 9 billion miles of atoms surrounding the solar system that scientists are describing as looking like a ribbon. This completely defied expectations: astronomers believed the atoms were evenly distributed rather than densely packed together in this ribbon formation.
Take a look at the map for yourself.
Full Story: Astronomers Shocked: “The Edge Of The Solar System Is Tied Up With A Ribbon” (VIDEO).
Texas Man Plans To Camp On GOP Rep’s Lawn If Congress Fails To Extend Unemployment Benefits
If Congress fails to pass an extension of unemployment benefits, Ricky Macoy of Quinlan, Texas plans to take it out on the Republican Party by camping on his congressman’s lawn.
“Ralph Hall is a good man,” said Macoy of his Republican representative, whom he said he has always supported. It’s the larger GOP Macoy has a problem with: “They’re not willing to help. They’re just playing political games.”
Every day 7,000 unemployed workers exhaust their benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project, and 1.3 million will have run out of their benefits by the end of the year. The House of Representatives passed a 13-week extension in September, but Republicans have held similar legislation up in the Senate.
Full Story: Texas Man Plans To Camp On GOP Rep’s Lawn If Congress Fails To Extend Unemployment Benefits.
Dylan Ratigan: Goldman Sachs’ Black Magic, Here’s How They Did It
How did Goldman, Sachs & Co. — saved a year ago by the US taxpayer — magically make $3 billion in 3 months a year later?
This as the US dollar collapses, unemployment soars and foreclosures hit a record?
Here is the Goldman, Sachs & Co. revenue break down for the past 3 months:
* Financial Advisory-M/A: 325 million.
* Equity Underwriting: 363 million.
* Debt Underwriting: 211 million.
* Trading-Principal Investments: 10 billion.
Notice that 10 billion is much bigger than two or three hundred million made from the traditional Wall Street businesses.
That $10 billion is evidence of their magic trick. For we the taxpayer gave Goldman Sachs the following:
Full Story: Dylan Ratigan: Goldman Sachs’ Black Magic, Here’s How They Did It.
SEC Hires 29-Year-Old Ex-Goldman Sachs Exec For Key Role
IN GOLDMAN WE TRUST?
For those who’ve lamented the various links between Goldman Sachs and the financial regulatory system, this certainly isn’t good news.
Bloomberg reports that the Securities Exchange Commission has named Adam Storch, a former Goldman exec, as its enforcement division’s first chief operating officer. Storch is actually just 29 years old and previously worked in Goldman’s business intelligence unit.
Here’s Bloomberg:
“The COO, who started Oct. 13, has “a great deal of background” in technology and managing processes and the pace of work, Robert Khuzami, head of enforcement, said yesterday in Washington. Storch, who worked since 2004 in a unit at Goldman Sachs that reviewed contracts and transactions for signs of fraud, will be charged with making the unit more efficient. Storch, reached by telephone at the SEC, declined to comment.”
Full Story: Adam Storch: SEC Hires 29-Year-Old Ex-Goldman Sachs Exec For Key Role.
Obama lags behind Bush in judicial appointments by more than 3 to 1
President Barack Obama may have been the constitutional law professor, but former President George W. Bush has schooled him in the science of judicial appointments.
During his first nine months in office, Obama has won confirmation for just three of 23 judges he nominated to federal judgeships — with a third of those victories being the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. At this point in his presidency, President Bush had confirmed eight, and President Clinton had confirmed nine.
Moreover, Obama has submitted just 23 names for appointments, whereas Bush had submitted 95 — more than three times as many.
Supporters say the White House has declined to put forth as many names because the pace at which judges are being confirmed in the Senate has become glacial. Under Senate rules, Republican senators can place anonymous holds on judges they don’t like.
Full Story: Obama lags behind Bush in judicial appointments by more than 3 to 1 | Raw Story.
US budget deficit hits record $1.4 trillion: govt
The US government closed its 2009 fiscal year with a record budget deficit of 1.417 trillion dollars, some 962 billion dollars higher than the prior year, officials said Friday.
The deficit amounted to 10 percent of US gross domestic product (GDP), the highest since 1945.
The huge jump in the budget shortfall stemmed from both declining revenues and a massive ramping up of spending in a fiscal stimulus to jolt the world’s largest economy from a prolonged recession.
Receipts for the fiscal year that ended in September totalled 2.105 trillion dollars while outlays were 3.522 trillion dollars, the Treasury said.
The officials however pointed out that the deficit was 162 billion dollars lower than the 1.580 trillion dollars projected by the administration of President Barack Obama, who inherited the red ink from his predecessor George W. Bush.
Full Story: The Raw Story | US budget deficit hits record $1.4 trillion: govt.
Billionaire, executives charged with insider trading | Raw Story
US authorities Friday charged a billionaire hedge fund manager and five others with insider trading that netted 20 million dollars on trades in Google, Hilton Hotels Corp. and other companies.
The Justice Department filed the charges which named Raj Rajaratnam, head of the Galleon Management hedge fund and listed on the Forbes magazine list of billionaires as the 559th richest person in the world with 1.3 billion dollars.
Also charged in the scheme were Danielle Chiesi and Mark Kurkland, employees of the New Castle hedge fund group of the defunct Bear Stearns; Rajiv Goel of Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp.; Anil Kumar of the consultancy McKinsey & Co; and IBM senior vice president Robert Moffat.
“All are charged with participating in insider trading schemes that together netted more than 20 million dollars in illegal profits,” said a statement from US Attorney Preet Bharara of New York.
Full Story: Billionaire, executives charged with insider trading | Raw Story.
Powell warned of ‘terror-industrial complex’ in 2007 interview
When MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann welcomed three former members of Monty Python to Countdown on Wednesday, his biggest surprise was a question from Terry Gilliam, “How come that Colin Powell interview about the terror-industrial complex didn’t become a bigger story?”
Olbermann was taken aback by the question, but by the next day he had uncovered Powell’s September 12, 2007 interview with GQ Magazine. Powell’s apology in that interview for his use of faulty intelligence prior to the Iraq War grabbed the headlines at the time, but he also delivered a far less-noticed warning against what Olbermann now calls “an entire aspect of the nexus of politics and terror.”
“What is the greatest threat facing us now?” Powell asked. “People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. … The only thing that can really destroy us is us. We shouldn’t do it to ourselves, and we shouldn’t use fear for political purposes—scaring people to death so they will vote for you, or scaring people to death so that we create a terror-industrial complex.”
Full Story: Powell warned of ‘terror-industrial complex’ in 2007 interview | Raw Story.
Maddow Calls Out Americans for Prosperity President: ‘Parasite Who Gets Fat On Americans’ Fears’
Maddow Calls Out Americans for Prosperity President: ‘Parasite Who Gets Fat On Americans’ Fears’
In May, the Wonk Room first reported on the sordid history of Republican operative Tim Phillips — who now heads the front group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) — with respect to his long history of orchestrating “grassroots” lobbying efforts for nefarious corporate and political clients. For example, Phillips helped run a “religious and pro-family” campaign for Enron’s largely successful attempt to achieve energy deregulation policies, and in another campaign used anti-Semitic attacks against Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) during Cantor’s first run for Congress.
Last night, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called Phillips out for using deceptive tactics and fear in his campaigns, noting in particular his role in creating the ads which portrayed former Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) — a triple amputee and Vietnam war veteran — as a terrorist sympathizer. Phillips stood by every single example of his work for his Republican and corporate clients, adding that he indeed does believe Cleland didn’t have the “courage to lead on the war on terror.”
Maddow extracted confessions from Phillips that he had in fact worked for a Jack Abramoff client to pressure members of Congress to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands — where Chinese workers were forced into prostitution and mandatory abortions — subject to federal wage and worker safety laws. Even given the deplorable conditions at the sweatshops, Phillips was unrepentant. “I don’t have an issue with it,” said Phillips, adding, “I’m not going to disown it.”
Full Story: Think Progress » Maddow Calls Out Americans for Prosperity President: ‘Parasite Who Gets Fat On Americans’ Fears’.
Why Republicans no longer matter
One of the biggest mistakes President Obama has made during the entire health care overhaul was to make an issue of trying to have bipartisan support. As they say in Brooklyn it was not only dumb it was stupid.
First, there is never any real need to have bipartisan support over anything except going to war. It ‘s been proved time and time again that bipartisanship doesn’t mean it’s a better idea because it has bipartisan support. And it doesn’t mean it will work any better. Bipartisanship is only insurance against failure so that if something fails the blame can be spread around. I pointed this out months ago when Obama made a bipartisan bill a goal. It was a mistake then and with so much attention now being paid to Olympia Snowe and her vote, it is still a mistake.
I also pointed out a little history. In 1993 every Republican in the House and every Republican in the senate voted against Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget. At the time the country was in a recession and Ross Perot had made the deficit and its elimination a major issue in the Presidential campaign and Clinton pledged to reduce the deficit. As part of his budget he included a 5c a gallon gasoline tax with all the revenue earmarked to reducing the deficit.
Full Story: Why Republicans no longer matter.
Labor slams ‘deeply flawed’ Finance health bill
The labor movement, in full-page ads in daily newspapers around the country, is warning lawmakers it will oppose any health reform bill that does not correct the “deeply flawed” version approved by the Senate Finance Committee.
The ads spell out what unions insist on as bottom lines for a final health care reform measure, including a public health plan option, lower costs for workers, employers paying their fair share and no tax on benefits any workers now receive at their jobs.
Labor launched its “real reform or bust campaign” a day after the nation’s health insurance industry launched an anti-reform advertising campaign and threatened massive premium hikes if measures making their way through Congress become law.
Full Story: Labor slams ‘deeply flawed’ Finance health bill » peoplesworld.
U.N. rights council criticizes Israel over Gaza
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed a U.N. report that accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza, passing a resolution that singled it out for censure without referring to wrongdoings by Hamas.
The report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone accuses both sides of war crimes in Gaza but is most critical of the Jewish state. Up to 1,387 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the war last December and January.
In a special session proposed by the Palestinians, 25 states including China, Cuba, Russia and Nigeria endorsed the resolution. Six including the United States voted against, and 11 abstained. Four, including France and Britain, did not vote.
Palestinian officials promptly called for further U.N. inquiries into Israel’s actions.
Full Story: U.N. rights council criticizes Israel over Gaza | International | Reuters.
Terror Act used on climate activist
Terror legislation was used to stop a British climate change activist from traveling to Denmark, it has emerged.
Chris Kitchen, 31, said he was prevented from crossing the border on Tuesday at about 5pm when the coach he was travelling on stopped at the Folkestone terminal of the Channel Tunnel.
Mr Kitchen told the Guardian that police officers boarded the coach and, after checking all passengers’ passports, took him and another climate activist to be interviewed under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, a clause which enables border officials to stop and search individuals to determine if they are connected to terrorism.
Full Story: Terror Act used on climate activist – Crime, UK – The Independent.
79.9 percent rate targets credit-challenged
79.9 percent rate targets credit-challenged
Gordon Hageman couldn’t believe the credit card offer he got in the mail.
“My first thought, it was a mistake,” Hageman said.
The wine distributor called the number on the offer, gave them the offer code and verified his information. Sure enough, it was right: the pre-approved credit card came with a 79.9 percent APR.
Yes, 79.9 percent.
The offer is for a Premier card from First Premier Bank, which is based in South Dakota. On its Web site, First Premier says it is the country’s 10th largest issuer of Visa and MasterCard credit cards. The site also says it “focuses on individuals who have less than perfect credit but are actually still creditworthy.”
“I think they’re trying to take advantage of me,” said Hageman.
Ya think?
Hageman acknowleged that his credit isn’t perfect, but he said it’s about average. He said the pre-approved offer didn’t mention the actual interest rate on the card — for that, he had to read the enclosed fine-print disclosure.
“I think you’re beginning to border on deception there,” San Diego State marketing professor Michael Belch said.
Full Story: No, You’re Reading That Right | NBC San Diego.
Dow 10,000 – So what?
Yesterday Economist Peter Schiff explained why the Dow is going up despite the fact that the underlying fundamentals are getting worse for the U.S. economy, the rise does not signify underlying improvement or that the economy is turning around.
YouTube – Dow 10,000 – So what?.
Weak Start for Wall Street
With poor profit results coming in from industry giants like Google, IBM, and General Electric, the morning could prove to be rocky
There was some worry early yesterday that the market’s fall in the morning would pull Wall Street off of its 2009 highs. However, investment finished with robust numbers to close the day. At 4 pm yesterday the NASDAQ was up 0.05 percent (1.06 points), followed by the Dow Jones which was up 0.47 percent (47.08 points). The S&P 500 led all markets by far, surging 2.18 percent (23.37 points).
Despite a strong finish yesterday, the expectation this morning was to see each market fall at the opening bell. With poor profit results coming in from industry giants like Google, IBM, and General Electric, the morning could prove to be rocky. Investors overseas have already seen morning woes turn into day-long losses, so the same could be expected in the U.S.
In other news, Bank of America issued a report Friday detailing a $2.2 billion quarterly loss. According to outgoing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, the losses are the result of increasing corporate and consumer delinquency – a problem which is not going away any time soon.
Full Story: Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
China’s Global Domination
“China is about to leave everyone behind in a big way,” C. H. Kwan, a senior fellow at the Nomura Institute of Capital Market Research, based in Tokyo, told The New York Times.
China’s rapid economic growth should propel it past Japan as the world’s second largest economy by next year, placing it firmly on the heels of the U.S. as the largest economy in the world, according to The New York Times.
In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Asian economic juggernaut is still growing rapidly. The Chinese economy is expected to grow roughly eight percent this year, down from the 10 percent growth that the Chinese averaged annually for the last two decades. The growth is still remarkable when considering that comparatively sized economies such as America’s and Japan’s are both expected to shrink in 2009.
China’s robust growth coupled with Japan’s economic woes should allow the communist nation to surpass the Japanese economy a full five years earlier than expected.
Full Story: Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Texas man faces execution after jurors consult Bible to decide fate
A convicted murderer faces execution in Texas after jurors consulted the Bible while deliberating on his sentence.
Amnesty International has appealed to the state to commute the sentence on Khristian Oliver, 32, who is due to die on November 5.
He was sentenced to death in 1999 for murdering a man whose home Oliver was burgling. The victim was shot in the face and beaten with his own rifle.
It later emerged that while deciding whether he should be given the death penalty, jurors consulted the Bible. Four jury members admitted that several copies had been in the jury room and that highlighted passages were passed around.
At one point, a juror reportedly read aloud from a copy, including the passage: “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.”
Full Story: Texas man faces execution after jurors consult Bible to decide fate – Telegraph.
Hemp Farmers Arrested Planting Hemp at DEA Headquarters
Hemp farmers, business owners and Vote Hemp representatives plant industrial hemp seeds on the DEA headquarters lawn and are arrested.
Full Story: YouTube – Hemp Farmers Arrested Planting Hemp at DEA Headquarters.
Pentagon mulls ending Bush-era first-strike doctrine
The most important and most controversial element of the “Bush Doctrine” on foreign policy is being reassessed by the Pentagon.
A news report Thursday states the Department of Defense is reviewing the policy of preemptive war, the notion that the United States can and should attack countries it believes will pose a threat in the future.
A strategy expert inside the Pentagon told Bloomberg News that the policy is under review, and if the Pentagon finds it no longer applies to current circumstances, it will be revoked in its next Quadrennial Defense Review.
Kathleen Hicks, a deputy undersecretary for strategy, told Bloomberg that the world is “more complex” than it was in 2002, when President George W. Bush announced the policy.
Full Story: Pentagon mulls ending Bush-era first-strike doctrine | Raw Story.
OPS: Why is the Pentagon ‘mulling ‘ this?
Isn’t this the President and/or Congresses decision?
White House met secretly with corporate healthcare lobbyists
The Obama Administration, which continues to take flak from liberal Democrats over its tepid support for a public health insurance plan that could trim industry profits, met privately with healthcare lobbyists and the aides to the chief Democratic proponent of the president’s overhaul in Congress.
Jon Selib, chief of staff to Senate Finance Commitee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Obama White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina met healthcare lobbyists at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee offices Apr. 15. The meeting, revealed by Politico on Friday, has not been previously disclosed.
“The previously undisclosed meeting April 15 at the offices of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee led to the creation of two groups — Americans for Stable Quality Care and a now-defunct predecessor group called Healthy Economy Now — that have spent tens of millions of dollars on TV advertising supporting health reform efforts,” Politico’s Ben Smith and Ken Vogel write.
Full Story: White House met secretly with corporate healthcare lobbyists | Raw Story.
Has Bank of America declared Obama administration outlaws?
Bank of America, the nation’s largest bank and the recipient of $45 billion of taxpayers’ money through the TARP bailout, has suggested that the Obama administration are outlaws.
“Since when does law apply to this administration?” asked BofA spokesman Bob Stickler, as quoted by CNN.
Stickler was discussing the issue of pay for the bank’s outgoing CEO, Ken Lewis. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Lewis, who announced his retirement from the bank last month, has agreed not to take any compensation for his work as CEO this year on the urging of President Barack Obama’s new “pay czar,” Kenneth Feinberg.
Full Story: Has Bank of America declared Obama administration outlaws? | Raw Story.
Public Option Opponent Mike Ross Proposes Opening Medicare To More Americans
The Hill is reporting that Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) — who led a group of seven centrist Blue Dogs who objected to a public option that reimbursed providers based on Medicare rates — is floating a proposal to open-up Medicare to Americans under 65, “but at a reimbursement rate much greater than current Medicare rates“:
I — speaking only on behalf of myself — suggested one possible idea could be that instead of creating an entirely new government bureaucracy to administer a public option, Medicare could be offered as a choice to compete alongside private insurers for those Americans eligible to enter the national health insurance exchange, but at a reimbursement rate much greater than current Medicare rates.
The last sentence is key: reimbursing providers who treat the new enrollees at market rates satisfies the provider community and conservative politicians from rural states who argue that their hospitals would close if they were reimbursed at Medicare rates. This scheme preserves the integrity of a single national program and takes advantage of Medicare’s administrative efficiencies to lower costs and spearhead delivery reforms. Still, Ross’ solution will likely save less money than a robust public option that uses Medicare-like rates and leverage
Full Story: Think Progress » Public Option Opponent Mike Ross Proposes Opening Medicare To More Americans.
Boehner Admits That He’s Now Heard From Supporters Of The Public Option
Earlier this month, House Republican Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) explained his strident opposition to a public health insurance option by claiming he had never met an American in support of it. “I’m still trying to find the first American to talk to who is in favor of the public option,” Boehner said. “This is about as unpopular as a garlic milkshake.”
Of course, the public option is supported by a majority of the nation, but also by a majority of people in Boehner’s home state of Ohio. Boehner’s comments elicited ridicule, as well as visits to his office by many supporters of the public option. The SEIU has a video of one such visit:
Q: So then now he can’t go on TV and say he’s never heard from real Americans about the public option or healthcare –
BOEHNER STAFFER: I think that if he could go back, he might restate that.
Watch it:
Full Story: Think Progress » Boehner Admits That He’s Now Heard From Supporters Of The Public Option.
Get Out Now
– In These Times
The case for an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan.
By ending the Afghan war, quickly and decisively, the president will match his rhetoric of home with reality. He will also save U.S. lives and create new openings for negotiation.
For all the talk of polarization and partisanship in U.S. politics, what’s remarkable is the extent to which President Obama has continued policies and practices of his predecessor, George Bush, in domestic economics and military affairs.
Economically, Obama has continued the bailout of Wall Street, maintained Bush-era tax cuts, pursued “stimulus” through large deficit spending and re-appointed Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman who was a Bush favorite.
In defense, Obama has broken with Bush on a few critical matters, notably by canceling expensive weapons systems and dropping (in September) an aggressive plan to impose a “missile shield” in Eastern Europe that Russia intensely opposed. Yet Obama has carried over Bush’s secretary of defense, Robert Gates; essentially stuck with Bush timetables on Iraq; and maintained historically record levels of Pentagon spending. The president has continued the war in Afghanistan, raising the number of American combat troops. In a speech on August 17, Obama even tried to construct a moral basis for the war, described it as “not a war of choice,” but “a war of necessity.” And as a necessary war, “a war worth fighting,” Obama has declared that only through the democratization of Afghanistan can the terrorist threat to the United States—in the form of al Qaeda—be eliminated from the country.
Full Story: Get Out Now — In These Times.
OBAMA MUST GET GOING ON JOBS
Jim Hightower
Just before taking office, Barack Obama called on the millions of people who were directly involved in his campaign to stay active: “I don’t want them to just sit around and wait for me to do something,” he said, “I want them to be pushing their agendas.”
Well, since he asked for it, let’s shove this agenda forward: Jobs. Middle-class jobs. Jobs with a future and a satisfying purpose. Lots and lots of those jobs.
Obama has talked often about jobs, but he’s put little presidential heft into creating them. Indeed, even as unemployment soars to 10 percent and the number of underemployed Americans almost doubles that percentage, the administration lacks a sense of urgency that ordinary families feel.
Full Story: Jim Hightower | OBAMA MUST GET GOING ON JOBS.
Why is L.A.’s district attorney helping Mexican drug cartels?
LAST Thursday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley announced a sweeping new plan to boost the profits of Mexican drug cartels, a plan almost certain to increase the slaughter these vicious gangs are perpetrating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Of course, Cooley didn’t call it that. He claimed, on dubious legal grounds, that all medical marijuana dispensaries in the county are illegal and announced plans to crack down on them. While no one denies that L.A.’s attempts – or, more accurately, nonattempts – to regulate these operations have been a mess, Cooley’s crackdown is guaranteed to make a bad situation worse.
While state law is not as precise as it might be in setting legal parameters for dispensing medical marijuana, guidelines issued last year by state Attorney General Jerry Brown make clear that dispensing collectives are legal and can include storefront operations.
“It is the opinion of this Office that a properly organized and operated collective or cooperative that dispenses medical marijuana through a storefront may be lawful under California law,” the guidelines state, so long as other requirements are met.
Full Story: Why is L.A.’s district attorney helping Mexican drug cartels? – LA Daily News.
How to Have Sex Like a Virgin for Only 30 Bucks
By Tana Ganeva,
Who doesn’t want to have sex with virgins?
Purity has its price: it’s $29.90. At least that’s how much it costs to obtain the “artificial virginity hymen,” a plastic baggie filled with mysterious red crap meant to resemble the chaste secretions of a recently deflowered virgin.
“No more worry about losing your virginity,” reads the Web site of Gigimo, the Chinese sex-toy company that distributes the product. (Whew!) “With this product, you can have your first night back anytime.”
To bring back that magic, all you have to do is:
Insert this artificial hymen into your vagina carefully. It will expand a little and make you feel tight. When your lover penetrate, it will ooze out a liquid that look like blood not too much but just the right amount. Add in a few moans and groans, you will pass through undetectable.
On the site’s landing page, a very young-looking woman in a pink nighty, her bare breast partially covered by a digitally imposed pink heart, appears to be really looking forward to having her fake virginity taken.
Full Story: How to Have Sex Like a Virgin for Only 30 Bucks | Sex and Relationships | AlterNet.
Genesis Of Controversy: Report On Gideons’ Bible Distribution Is A Revelation
When I was in college, we could always tell when the relentless western Pennsylvania winter was finally losing its grip by two key events: A roving evangelist would appear on campus and scream at women he thought were immodestly attired, and the Gideons would stand outside the cafeteria and pass out copies of the New Testament.
I didn’t mind taking one. After all, I was an adult and it was my choice. But in looking it over, I noticed one thing: The first few pages emphasized the passage John 3:16. Many fundamentalists see this verse as the key to becoming “born again.”
John 3:16 is so important to the Gideons that in their Bibles, they list it in several languages. I was impressed because I had never heard of Sinhalese before, let alone seen an example. Alongside this was information about what the Bible says about sin, family life, Heaven and Jesus Christ – all reflecting a fundamentalist perspective.
My point is that the Gideon Bible isn’t just a Bible. It’s a certain type of Bible, one that reflects a fundamentalist interpretation of that book.
It’s one thing to get a version of the Bible intended to persuade you to change your religion at a public college. It’s quite another to get one in fifth-grade at a public school.
Full Story: Talk To Action | Genesis Of Controversy: Report On Gideons’ Bible Distribution Is A Revelation.
One industry that’s booming: debt collection
In the often murky waters of the debt collection industry, United Recovery Systems in Houston is considered a “whale hunter.”
In its search for clients, United isn’t looking for mom-and-pop businesses with a few hundred deadbeat customers. It wants bigger fish.
Its client roster includes national banks, international credit card issuers and domestic and foreign auto finance giants, each of whom count on United to make good on their bad accounts.
Full Story: One industry that’s booming: debt collection | McClatchy.
Obama Renews Bush’s 9/11 State of Emergency
On September 10th, President Obama reinstituted the national State of Emergency first declared by George W. Bush on September 14, 2001 by placing the following language in the Federal Register.
The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2009, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat.
As Dr. Harold C. Relyea, a specialist in national government with the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress, has written, “when the President formally declares a national emergency, he may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens.”
Yet, while Dr. Relyea opines that Congress and the judiciary, as well as public opinion, “can restrain the executive regarding emergency powers,” nothing of the sort has occurred.
Full Story: Obama Renews Bush’s 9/11 State of Emergency | CommonDreams.org.
Ruling could undo thousands of foreclosures
A real estate judge is refusing to reverse a landmark ruling that opens the door to voiding tens of thousands of Bay State foreclosures dating as far back as 1989.
“The foreclosure sales (in question are) invalid because they failed to meet the requirements of (Massachusetts law),” Land Court Judge Keith Long wrote yesterday in reaffirming a decision he originally reached in March.
Long denied a request from Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank to reinstate two Springfield foreclosures he invalidated in March because of flawed paperwork.
As the Herald first reported in June, the case centers on documents that banks and big investors must file any time they sell mortgages to each other.
However, some paperwork often gets lost, as mortgages typically change hands over and over again in today’s complex market.
Still, Long ruled that banks can’t foreclose on homes unless they have complete paperwork covering every time a specific loan changed hands.
Full Story: Ruling could undo thousands of foreclosures – BostonHerald.com.
Palin Plans New Political Group
Sarah Palin fans can expect to see a new Palin political organization surface as her memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” hits the shelves next month
“There will be an announcement about it coming up,” Palin associate Tim Crawford said Wednesday.
The New York Post reported this week that Palin’s new group will be called “Stand Up For Our Nation.” (News Corp. owns both the Post and The Wall Street Journal as well as HarperCollins Publishers, publisher of Palin’s book.) Crawford, who is treasurer of Palin’s existing political-action committee, SarahPAC, refused to provide any details about the new organization’s purpose or structure.
But Palin supporters say the former Alaska governor and last year’s GOP vice presidential nominee is eager to keep the public’s attention, even as she rakes in big earnings. “She wants to continue to be in a position to help causes dear to her heart and help people close to her,” said Fred Malek, a former fund-raiser for Sen. John McCain. Unlike many who were at McCain’s side during the 2008 campaign, Malek remains on friendly terms with Palin.
Full Story: Palin Plans New Political Group – Washington Wire – WSJ.
A Hatchet Job So Bad It’s Good
Paul Krugman -
In the past, the insurance industry’s power has been a major barrier to health-care reform. Most notably, the industry paid for the infamous “Harry and Louise” ads that helped kill the Clinton plan. But times have changed.
Last weekend, the lobbying organization America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, released a report attacking the reform plan just passed by the Senate Finance Committee. Some news organizations gave the report prominent, uncritical coverage. But health-care experts quickly, and correctly, dismissed it as a hatchet job. And the end result of AHIP’s blunder may be a better bill than we would otherwise have had.
For 2009, it turns out, is not 1993. Once again, Republicans have tried to kill reform with smears and scare stories. But all they seem to have killed with their cries of “socialism” and warnings about “death panels” is their own credibility. Some form of health-care reform is highly likely to pass.
Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – A Hatchet Job So Bad It’s Good – NYTimes.com.
Presidential Power Grows: Will You Love Every Future President?
David Swanson
Presidential power has been on a pathway of expansion beyond what the Constitution outlined, and what a government of, by, and for the people requires, since George Washington was president. That expansion, which hit the highway after World War II, got a turbo boost during the co-presidency of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
Some of the new powers that those two stole from Congress, the courts, the states, and us the people are being abused less severely in this new age of Obama; others, more so; but far more crucially, in a pattern followed by recent presidencies, all are being maintained, if not expanded, and thus more firmly cemented into place for future presidents to use. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, you are likely to strongly oppose some major decisions of some future presidents. So it shouldn’t be hard to envision some pretty undesirable consequences that might flow from presidential power that increasingly approaches the absolute.
Our television news and newspapers don’t seem terribly interested in this story, despite scraping its surface with reports on the many “czars” Obama has appointed or lectures on the importance of renewing, or only marginally amending, the PATRIOT Act. And Congress seems, if possible, even less interested. That’s not so surprising, given that we’ve replaced the three branches of government with the two parties, so that at any given time roughly half the members of Congress take as their leader a president who is theoretically supposed to execute the will of Congress. And the other half usually obey their party’s “leaders” in Congress, whose primary interest is in electing one of their own as the next president. Both parties continue to value presidential power itself either for its uses in the present, or for when their candidate is elected. Everyone wants to inherit the imperial presidency, not constrain it.
Full Story: David Swanson: Presidential Power Grows: Will You Love Every Future President?.
Here are the 30 Republican Senators, 3/4 of Their Representation, Who Voted to Enable Rape
BUZZFLASH EDITOR’S BLOG By Mark Karlin
A phony publicity-seeking Balloon Boy story can, in a moment, consume the attention of virtually the entire American media, but — as I wrote yesterday — there has ban nary a lick of coverage about 3/4s (30) of the Republican Senators voting to enable rape, as they did last week.
In fact, here’s a list of the names of the 30 Republican Senators who vocally argued that companies have a right not to be responsible for rapes of employees by other employees. Yes, read those 30 names because you won’t see them in any major corporate media coverage, what with the aftermaths of Balloon Boy to cover (once again showing how gullible and desperate corporate media is for “entertaining” news even if, from the beginning, the National Inquirer style event smelled like rotten fish).
Oh, and the corporate news media, as Jon Stewart pointed out, is also obsessed with the long-term attack on ACORN, because the Republicans have fed them talking points for years to undermine the organization that empowers poor people. The GOP, since Rove, has targeted ACORN because if poor people gain power and vote, the power of corporations to run America might be diminished.
Full Story: Here are the 30 Republican Senators, 3/4 of Their Representation, Who Voted to Enable Rape | BuzzFlash.org.
Louisiana justice of the peace denied marriage license to interracial couple, worried they might have children.
Louisiana justice of the peace denied marriage license to interracial couple, worried they might have children.
The AP reports that Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell has refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple because he believes that such marriages don’t usually last very long:
“I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house,” Bardwell said. “My main concern is for the children.”
Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.
Derivatives Reform Weakened By Two Little-Noticed Amendments
Two little-noticed amendments inserted Wednesday into legislation seeking to strengthen regulation of derivatives will allow private industry to continue to set rules and largely self-regulate, tying the hands of regulators who want more say in how these exotic financial instruments are traded.
Offered by Rep. Judy Biggert, an Illinois Republican, the provisions take away power the Obama administration proposed giving to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the regulator in charge of policing most types of derivatives. Rather, the power to supervise how derivatives are traded will rest with the clearinghouses and exchanges that house them. Furthermore, when the exchanges and clearinghouses change or offer up new rules, the CFTC will not be able to review them before they are finalized to ensure, for example, that they comply with existing law. Instead, the rules proposed by private industry will immediately go into effect.
These powers, which the CFTC has lacked since a major deregulatory law was passed in the waning days of President Bill Clinton’s final term, would enable the CFTC to exert the kind of authority many have criticized the agency for not using. Unregulated derivatives trading by the likes of AIG and Lehman Brothers nearly caused the collapse of the global financial system.
Full Story: Derivatives Reform Weakened By Two Little-Noticed Amendments.
Fannie, Freddie And Citi: The Rise Of The New Government-Sponsored Enterprise
JPMorgan Chase: $3.6 billion in profits in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs: $3.03 billion. Analysts expect a string of sky-high profit announcements to follow from other major Wall Street banks, all of them squirreling that cash away for historic bonus payments to executives.
In other words, it’s been a good year for government-sponsored enterprises — known in the industry as GSEs.
Traditional GSEs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been tagged as culprits in the financial collapse, with critics arguing that the institutions took on too much risk because their losses were guaranteed by the federal government. Such a situation, it was said, is unsustainable.
Full Story: Fannie, Freddie And Citi: The Rise Of The New Government-Sponsored Enterprise.
PHOTO: is this the one the GOP uses to blackmail Joe Lieberman?
Joe Lieberman, one time Democrat now “Independent Democrat,” (which means NOT a Democrat) has so consistently voted with the GOP for their ugliest, most regressive bills, and now opposes any form of public health insurance that will lower the cost of all insurance, that many of us have wondered if someone had a sexually compromising photo they were using to blackmail him.
Now we’ve found it.
No word yet if the chimp is a young George W. Bush.
We’ll have to change the spelling of “Blue Dog” for him to “Blew Dog.”
Full Story: fascArt: PHOTO: is this the one the GOP uses to blackmail Joe Lieberman?.
Foreclosures: ‘Worst three months of all time’
Despite signs of broader economic recovery, number of foreclosure filings hit a record high in the third quarter – a sign the plague is still spreading.
Despite concerted government-led and lender-supported efforts to prevent foreclosures, the number of filings hit a record high in the third quarter, according to a report issued Thursday.
“They were the worst three months of all time,” said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes.
During that time, 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter — whether a default notice, auction notice or bank repossession, the RealtyTrac report said. That means one in every 136 U.S. homes were in foreclosure, which is a 5% increase from the second quarter and a 23% jump over the third quarter of 2008.
Full Story: Foreclosures hit record in third quarter 2009 – Oct. 15, 2009.
Organizing The Biggest Day Of Action The World Has Ever Seen
Even two years ago, I was in complete despair about our chances of fighting climate change. But something’s changed. It’s not the science, which has gotten steadily worse. It’s the first signs that the planet’s immune system–conscious citizens ready to make a difference–is finally kicking in. Bloggers, in this metaphor, are key antibodies–they recognize threats, and rally people to take the steps needed. So this year’s Blogger Action Day is, in a sense, a test: is the planet now wired together in a way that will let it act swiftly, nimbly, decisively against the great trouble we’ve ever faced?
In particular, we at 350.org need your help spreading the word about what’s quickly turned into the biggest day of global action on climate ever–and perhaps the most geographically widespread day of political action the planet has ever seen. On October 24–a week from Saturday–citizens will hold thousands of rallies and events and demonstrations in almost 170 nations to demand that our leaders take tougher action heading to Copenhagen.
It’s the first day like it ever devoted to a scientific data point, the number 350. As in 350 parts per million carbon dioxide, which scientists began telling us two years ago was the most we could safely have in the atmosphere. It’s a tough number, because we’re already past it, at 390 parts per million and rising. And it’s tough because to get back to it we’d need much stronger and quicker action than most of our leaders–and even some of our old-line environmental groups–support.
Full Story: Bill McKibben: Organizing The Biggest Day Of Action The World Has Ever Seen.
Landrieu Says The Public Option Is Popular Because ‘Everybody Wants Free Health Care’
Of course, the public option hasn’t been crafted as “free health care.” …snip…
One of the most ardent opponents of including a new public health insurance plan in health reform legislation has been Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who in the past has said that she opposes a public option because it would “[undermine] the essence of [Senate] efforts to create a real market-based private sector model.”
Yesterday, MSNBC host host Tamron Hall confronted Landrieu over her opposition to the public option in light of its enormous popularity across the country. Landrieu responded to Hall’s questioning by saying that the reason most people want a public option is because “everybody wants free health care”:
HALL: Do you believe in the polling that says the American people want a public option? Do you believe in that desire from the folks that you and all of the others represent who say that they would like a public option to help offset these costs?
Full Story: Think Progress » Landrieu Says The Public Option Is Popular Because ‘Everybody Wants Free Health Care’.
Grassley Joins The ‘Tenther’ Fringe, Claims Health Care Reform Might Violate The Constitution
For months, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) worked with Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to try to forge a health care reform bill that could gain bipartisan support. Over the summer, President Obama showered praise on Grassley, saying that he was “sincerely” working towards finding a bipartisan solution. But over time, Grassley began to indicate that he was actually an opponent of reform. In August, he legitimized the “death panel” lie and sent a fundraising appeal asking for help in defeating “Obamacare.” Earlier this week, he voted against the Baucus health care bill.
Now, in an interview with NewsMaxTV, Grassley has truly moved to the fringe of reform opposition, saying that he thinks reform with an individual mandate might be unconstitutional:
GRASSLEY: Secondly, this is the first time in the 225 year history of our country that we have forced you as a constituent, any of our constituents, to buy a product. You know, you’ve been free to buy or not buy. But now for the first time you’re going to have to buy health insurance. If you don’t buy it, IRS is going to tax a family 1,500 dollars.
MARTELLA: In your view, is that constitutional, forcing somebody to buy it and punishing them through the IRS if they don’t.
Full Story: Think Progress » Grassley Joins The ‘Tenther’ Fringe, Claims Health Care Reform Might Violate The Constitution.
CNN’s Castellanos Problem: On-Air Contributor Revealed To Be Paid By GOP, Insurance Industry
The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent has confirmed that CNN contributor Alex Castellanos’ political consulting firm, National Media, is the ad buyer for the insurance industry group America’s Health Insurance Plan’s (AHIP) new ad blitz attacking Democratic health reform plans.
Not only does he fashion himself as the “father of the modern attack ad,” but Castellanos is also the father of the Republican approach to health reform. In July, Castellanos wrote a memo for the GOP leadership on how to kill health reform. The memo emphasized the use of buzzwords to characterize Democratic plans — like “risky” and “experiment” — but most importantly defined the ultimate goal: “If we slow this sausage-making process down, we can defeat it.” Additionally, according to the FEC website, the Republican Party has been paying Castellanos’ firm for media work. Starting on July 23rd, Castellanos received four payments totaling $434,336 from the Republican National Committee.
Since Castellanos is being paid by both the private health insurance industry and the Republican Party, why has the network given him a platform to attack President Obama’s plans to overhaul the healthcare system? Here’s a look at some recent comments made by Castellanos about health reform while appearing on CNN:
Full Story: Think Progress » CNN’s Castellanos Problem: On-Air Contributor Revealed To Be Paid By GOP, Insurance Industry.
Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media to Nazi Germany
Linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky criticizes right-wing media outlets, which he describes as delivering a message of paranoia and economic populism comparable to Nazis during the Weimar Republic. “There were people with real grievances,” says Chomsky. “The Nazis gave them an answer.”
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World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky has been pushing change in language, politics and culture for decades. The controversial expert on modern language explains why “the smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” – Commonwealth Club of California
Noam Chomsky, a professor of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, is the author of numerous books on U.S. foreign policy, including American Power and the New Mandarins, Political Economy of Human Rights (two volumes, written with Edward Herman), Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians, and Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World. His most recent books are Failed States and Perilous Power.
Full Story: YouTube – Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media to Nazi Germany.
Insurer ends health program rather than pay out big
Ian Pearl has fought for his life every day of his 37 years. Confined to a wheelchair and hooked to a breathing tube, the muscular dystrophy victim refuses to give up.
But his insurance company already has.
Legally barred from discriminating against individuals who submit large claims, the New York-based insurer simply canceled lines of coverage altogether in entire states to avoid paying high-cost claims like Mr. Pearl’s.
In an e-mail, one Guardian Life Insurance Co. executive called high-cost patients such as Mr. Pearl “dogs” that the company could “get rid of.”
A federal court quickly ruled that the company’s actions were legal, so on Dec. 1, barring an order by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Pearl will lose his benefits.
His medical treatment costs $1 million a year.
Full Story: Insurer ends health program rather than pay out big – Washington Times.
The people vs Wall Street
Bear Stearns bankers on trial in first criminal case of the credit crunch
Amidst the economic wreckage, after 7 million job losses and approaching 2 million home foreclosures in the US alone, with businesses and consumers around the world still struggling to get finance after the long credit crunch, Wall Street is finally on trial. A little piece of Wall Street, at least.
In the first major case against bankers at the heart of the financial meltdown, a jury of 12 mainly working-class New Yorkers will decide the fate of the two Bear Stearns managers whose hedge funds imploded in 2007, signalling the start of the crisis. Ralph Cioffi, 53, and Matt Tannin, 48, pocketed millions of dollars in pay during the boom years, but the events of 2007 left their investors nursing losses of $1.6bn (£1bn) and ruined forever the reputation of Bear Stearns, one of the oldest investment banks on Wall Street.
Dressed as if for a funeral, the pair sat impassively in the brightly lit courtroom in downtown Brooklyn yesterday as assistant US attorney Patrick Sinclair recounted what he said was a litany of lies that they told to investors. The two men were desperate to stop investors deserting their funds when the sub-prime mortgage market began to plunge, Mr Sinclair said. Mr Cioffi alone was paid $32m in the two years before the funds collapsed.
Full Story: The people vs Wall Street – Business News, Business – The Independent.
American Civil Liberties Union : European Union Calls For Global Abolition Of The Death Penalty
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
WASHINGTON – As part of a global campaign to end the death penalty, ambassadors of the nations of the European Union (EU) gathered at the Swedish Embassy today to call on all nations to abolish the death penalty. The event was held to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty, observed on Saturday, October 10.
The American Civil Liberties Union urges the Obama administration and all 35 U.S. death penalty states to heed the call of the EU and put a halt to the death penalty in the U.S. criminal justice system. Earlier this month, the ACLU delivered a statement on the flaws of the capital punishment system in the U.S. at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation of Europe (OSCE) in Warsaw, Poland. Since 1977, over 1,125 people in the U.S. have been executed. 52 people have been executed since October of 2008. As of January 2009, the number of people awaiting execution across the country was approximately 3,300.
The following can be attributed to Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program:
“The European Union today has thrown down the gauntlet to all nations to end capital punishment once and for all. The U.S. should heed domestic and international calls to bring an end to the death penalty. It is time to admit that the use of the death penalty in the U.S. has been a failed experiment with a very high cost in human suffering and inestimable damage to the country’s standing and image in the world as a beacon for human rights and democratic values.”
The following can be attributed to John Holdridge, Director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project:
Full Story: American Civil Liberties Union : European Union Calls For Global Abolition Of The Death Penalty.
POGO Opposes White House Nomination of Industry Cheerleader for Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) expressed its strong concern about President Obama’s choice of William Magwood to fill a vacant seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In a letter sent to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chair Senator Barbara Boxer and Ranking Member James Inhofe yesterday, POGO questioned Mr. Magwood’s ability to effectively oversee and regulate the more than 120 licenses and renewal applications currently and soon to be before the Commission, and opposed his nomination.
“This nomination flies in the face of the spirit of President Obama’s commitment to high ethical standards for the Administration’s appointees,” said POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian. “We believe it should be examined in the full light of public and congressional scrutiny.”
Since his retirement from government service in 2005, Mr. Magwood has been actively involved in efforts to advance nuclear industry business opportunities domestically and abroad. Mr. Magwood has also been an investor and an officer at Secure Energy North America Corporation, a company that is “working with industry and investors to develop novel approaches to finance new nuclear power stations in the United States.”
Full Story: POGO Opposes White House Nomination of Industry Cheerleader for Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Carbon Scam: Greenpeace report exposes how coal and oil companies are trying to use forest offset projects to cheat the climate
| Greenpeace USA
Big polluters do not want to invest in green jobs and clean skies in America. Instead, they want to keep on with their dirty business as usual and outsource pollution cuts to someone else on the cheap. One of the primary ways they are trying to pass the buck is with cheap forest offsets.
The new Greenpeace report Carbon Scam investigates how American Electric Power, BP and Pacificorp invested in the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project (NKCAP) in Bolivia to try and avoid cleaning up their own act. The investigation shows how NKCAP sponsors overestimated pollution cuts from the project by 90 percent, how overall deforestation rates in Bolivia have actually increased since the project started, and how fundamental questions about the project remain unanswered.
“When Greenpeace says the only reason American Electric Power wants to do this is because it doesn’t want to shut down its coal plants, my answer is, ‘You bet…” AEP CEO Michael Morris
What is the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project?
In 1997, the three energy giants entered into an agreement with the Bolivian government. They invested millions of dollars to expand and protect forests near the Noel Kempff national park from the threat of deforestation for 30 years. In return, the companies created carbon credits which they could buy and sell on carbon markets to “offset” their climate pollution make a tidy profit. NKCAP has being widely showcased by polluters as a model project to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).
The S-Word and Dr. Kevorkian’s Accountant
Greg Palast
Health care Rx from my socialist fire department.
Special Feature: Listen to Greg Palast speak with health insurance company whistleblower Wendell Potter. Press play for a short clip.
Tell me where it hurts, Mr. President.
What’s killing you, Barack, is what’s killing us all: an evil germ called “Medical Loss Ratio.”
“Medical Loss Ratio” [MLR] is the fancy term used by health insurance companies for their slice, their take-out, their pound of flesh, their gross – very gross – profit.
The “MLR” is the difference between what you pay an insurance company and what that insurer pays out to doctors, hospitals and pharmacists for your medical care.
I’ve totted it up from the raw stats: The “MLR,” insurance companies’ margins, is about to top – holy mama! – a quarter trillion dollars a year. That’s $2.7 trillion over the next decade.
Full Story: t r u t h o u t | The S-Word and Dr. Kevorkian’s Accountant.
Obama DOJ Hangs Siegelman Whistleblower Out to Dry
Cross Posted at Legal Schnauzer
Has President Barack Obama improved the U.S. Department of Justice since inheriting a dysfunctional mess from George W. Bush almost 10 months ago?
If you were to pose that question to Tamarah Grimes, a former paralegal in the DOJ’s Middle District of Alabama, she almost certainly would reply, “Heck, no!”
Grimes blew the whistle on prosecutorial misconduct in the case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, which took place under the Bush regime. But much of the abuse Grimes has suffered as a result has happened on Obama’s watch.
* RogerShuler’s diary :: ::
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Joan Brunwasser shines unflattering light on the Obama DOJ in a compelling two-part interview with Grimes at OpEd News. You can check out the full interview hereand here.
What conclusions can we draw from Brunwasser’s splendid piece? Failure to address abuses in the justice system is the great shame of the Obama presidency. And if the situation does not improve quickly–if Obama does not show some Alan Grayson-like guts on the matter–his presidency might be at risk.
As Grimes and Brunwasser make clear, it no longer is a matter of “looking back” at abuses under the Bush administration. The abuses are happening right now–under Obama. And there is little sign that they are going to be addressed anytime soon.
How long are progressives, who put Obama in the White House, going to tolerate an administration that turns a blind eye to grotesque abuses in the justice system.
Full Story: Daily Kos: Obama DOJ Hangs Siegelman Whistleblower Out to Dry.
Chamber Of Horrors
By Eliot Spitzer
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce must be stopped. Here’s how to do it.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the self-proclaimed voice of business in Washington—has been wrong on virtually every major public-policy issue of the past decade: financial deregulation, tax and fiscal policy, global warming and environmental enforcement, consumer protection, health care reform …
The chamber remains an unabashed voice for the libertarian worldview that caused the most catastrophic economic meltdown since the Great Depression. And the chamber’s view of social justice would warm Scrooge’s heart. It is the chamber’s right to be wrong, and its right to argue its preposterous ideas aggressively, as it does through vast expenditures on lobbyists and litigation. Last year alone, the chamber spent more than $91 million on lobbying, and, according to lobby tracker Opensecrets.org, it has spent more than twice as much on lobbying during the past 12 years as any other corporation or group.
Full Story: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce must be stopped. Here’s how to do it. – By Eliot Spitzer – Slate Magazine.
Goldman Sachs’s Tax Rate Drops to 1%, or $14 Million
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which got $10 billion and debt guarantees from the U.S. government in October, expects to pay $14 million in taxes worldwide for 2008 compared with $6 billion in 2007.
The company’s effective income tax rate dropped to 1 percent from 34.1 percent, New York-based Goldman Sachs said today in a statement. The firm reported a $2.3 billion profit for the year after paying $10.9 billion in employee compensation and benefits.
Goldman Sachs, which today reported its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999, lowered its rate with more tax credits as a percentage of earnings and because of “changes in geographic earnings mix,” the company said.
Full Story: Goldman Sachs’s Tax Rate Drops to 1%, or $14 Million (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.
The Truth About NAFTA
In the early 1990s the North American Free Trade Agreement was sold to the American people by promising endless benefits job creation and rising incomes for U.S. workers, cheaper goods for American consumers and unseen surges in exports to markets that had never before been open to U.S.
After initially embracing NAFTA on false pretenses, the first myth to be busted was the promise of an increase in trade surplus with Mexico. While the U.S. held a small trade surplus with Mexico prior to NAFTA, by 2007 that turned into a $91 billion trade deficit. With Canada and Mexico combined, the U.S. has turned a $24 billion deficit into a $190 billion deficit in just 15 years – an astounding 691 percent increase.
NAFTA has outsourced jobs to Mexico where labor is incredibly cheap and the environment is a mere after-thought, thus driving down wages and forcing American workers into more direct competition with one another. U.S. manufacturing employment declined from 16.8 million people in 1993 to 13.9 million in 2007.
Full Story: Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Ominous Signs for Specter’s Re-Election Bid
Although Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter leads his Democratic primary opponent and is running neck-and-neck in a general election matchup against Republican Pat Toomey, only 31 percent of the state’s voters want to see him re-elected and 59 percent said it’s time for someone else to have a chance, according to a Susquehanna Polling and Research survey conducted
Jim Lee told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “when I see a re-elect in the low 30s, that’s . . . near fatal.”
Sixteen percent of Republicans, the party Specter left this year, say Specter deserves another term, compared to 75 percent who say he doesn’t. Forty-four percent of Democrats would re-elect Specter while 45 percent want someone else, a strong indication that Specter has not been embraced by the party rank-and-file.
Full Story: Ominous Signs for Specter’s Re-Election Bid — Politics Daily.
Barnes & Noble E-Reader: First Pictures Leaked (PHOTOS)
As we reported before, the “e-reader wars” are going to be heating up given that book retailer Barnes and Noble’s new, branded e-reader is looming on the horizon.
The release of Barnes and Noble’s e-book reader is likely to intensify the competition between Amazon.com’s Kindle and Sony’s E-Reader, especially given some attractive product features offered by the Barnes and Noble reader.
Gizmodo writes about the forthcoming device:
The layout will feature a black and white e-ink screen like the Kindle has–and a multitouch display like an iPhone underneath other.
Full Story: Barnes & Noble E-Reader: First Pictures Leaked (PHOTOS).
Jon Stewart Takes On 30 Republicans Who Voted Against Franken Rape Amendment (VIDEO)
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration–a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations.
This year, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment that would deny defense contracts to companies that ask employees to sign away the right to sue. It passed, but it wasn’t the slam dunk Jon Stewart expected. Instead the amendment received 30 nay votes all from Republicans. “I understand we’re a divided country, some disagreements on health care. How is ANYONE against this?” He asked.
He went on to show video of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) arguing that it’s not the government’s place to decide who the government does business with and juxtaposed that with Republican sentiment on how the government should deal with ACORN. “I guess it’s an efficiency thing. You don’t want to waste tax-payer money giving it to someone who advises fake prostitutes how to commit imaginary crimes, you want to give it to Halliburton because they’re committing real gang rape.”
WATCH:
Full Story: Jon Stewart Takes On 30 Republicans Who Voted Against Franken Rape Amendment (VIDEO).
Dylan Ratigan, Michael Moore Slam Wall St. Over Latest Round Of Bonuses (VIDEO)
MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan and filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on the Today Show this morning to discuss the latest round of massive bonuses that Wall St. is doling out to their executives just a year after the financial industry paralyzed the economy.
With unemployment continuing to climb, and soon likely to break the 10 percent barrier nationally, Ratigan argued that Wall St. and Main St. are largely disconnected:
The government changed the rules on behalf of Wall St. to allow them access to trillions of our dollars, as Michael Moore has documented. When you have access to trillions of dollars of taxpayer money with no strings attached, it’s very easy to make a few billion dollars…
There is a direct connection between those you see suffering in films that Michael documents and the abdication of duty by our government to allow all the taxpayer money we all work so hard to create to be the plaything, the gambling toy, of the financial industry as opposed to forcing the financial industry to get back to the business of being investors, actually putting money into the economy as opposed to taking it out.
Moore expressed his disgust over the bonuses:
Full Story: Dylan Ratigan, Michael Moore Slam Wall St. Over Latest Round Of Bonuses (VIDEO).
The Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, research says
Ships will be able to sail in open water to the North Pole in the summer of 2020, according to a study that found a rapid acceleration in the loss of sea ice.
The Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, the study found, while the Earth will lose the white cap that can be seen in photographs taken from space.
The Polar Ocean Physics Group from Cambridge University compared measurements of ice thickness recorded by a Royal Navy nuclear submarine with those taken two years later in the same area by Pen Hadow, the explorer.
The two sets of measurements were consistent, revealing that the findings by HMS Tireless in 2007 were not an aberration caused by a particularly warm year.
Full Story: The Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, research says – Times Online.
U.S. Foreclosure Filings Jump 23% to Record in Third Quarter
U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to a record in the third quarter as lenders seized more properties from delinquent borrowers, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
A total of 937,840 homes received a default or auction notice or were repossessed by banks, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today in a report. One out of every 136 U.S. households received a filing, the highest quarterly rate in records dating to January 2005.
“The problem is prime loans going into foreclosure and people being underwater and losing their jobs,” Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said in an interview. “It’s a really bad number.”
Full Story: U.S. Foreclosure Filings Jump 23% to Record in Third Quarter – Bloomberg.com.
US spends $1 million per soldier in Afghanistan, government report says
The monthly cost of the US presence in Afghanistan isn’t quite as much as the planned 2009 bonuses at Goldman Sachs.
At $3.6 billion a month, however, the annual total does exceed the firm’s planned $23 billion in bonuses for the year.
That’s the taxpayer toll of the US war in Afghanistan according to the Congressional Research Service, which released their findings on Wednesday.
More telling, perhaps, is the per-soldier calculation the group revealed — the amount spent for each US soldier now costs American taxpayers $1,000,000 a year. The average was calculated based on the current US troop load in Afghanistan of 51,000 soldiers.
Full Story: US spends $1 million per soldier in Afghanistan, government report says | Raw Story.
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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. 
