Archive for October, 2009
To prove Muslim ’spying,’ right-wing authors planted spy
The pre-eminent Muslim advocacy group in Washington, DC, has greeted four Republicans’ accusations that it is trying to plant “spies” disguised as interns on Capitol Hill with outrage, derision and ridicule.
US House Reps. Paul Broun (R-GA), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Sue Myrick (R-NC) and John Shadegg (R-AZ) announced Wednesday morning that they want the House’s sergeant-at-arms to investigate claims made in a new book that the Council on American-Islamic Relations has a plan to infiltrate Congress with interns who would spy for the group.
CAIR says the evidence for the allegations made in the book is nothing more than documents showing the group is engaged in typical lobbying efforts in Congress. It also says the allegations made against them could be fuel for hate groups
Full Story: To prove Muslim ’spying,’ right-wing authors planted spy | Raw Story.
Why the U.S. Props Up Foreign Banks
Economist and former Vice Presidential candidate Pat Choate discusses his new book Saving Capitalism: Keeping America Strong and outlines why the U.S. is invested in foreign banks.
Full Story: Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and the Vulcan Three
Why did Wells Fargo, a reasonably healthy bank, merge with a debt-laden disaster like Wachovia in the middle of the financial crisis? Ask Vulcan Materials Co.
Last October, in a stunning turn of events at the height of the Wall Street crisis, Wachovia backed out of a deal with Citigroup and agreed to a $15 billion merger with Wells Fargo — the biggest bank merger ever. The Charlotte-based Wachovia had recently collapsed under the weight of its own mortgage portfolio and Citi had come to the rescue, offering a rock bottom $1/share that Wachovia accepted in order to avoid bankruptcy. A few days later, Wells Fargo swooped down with an offer worth seven times as much, and Wachovia gladly accepted.
The Wells Fargo deal confused most observers, infuriated Citigroup, resulted in weeks of intense legal wrangling, and ultimately went through. It was an odd marriage, pairing a Charlotte-based bank that had financed the sun belt’s housing bubble with a San Francisco-based bank that had largely avoided it.
How did the two banks come together? What was the real story behind this deal?
As it turns out, a Birmingham, Alabama-based construction aggregate supply company appears to have played a key role in this merger. Last week, I blogged about this bizarre discovery (part of our Spot.us research project) without offering too much detail. Today I’ll make my case.
Full Story: Eyes on the Ties » a blog by LittleSis » Blog Archive » Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and the Vulcan Three.
The Great Challenge of Our Time: Re-Creating America’s Great Middle Class
Marie Cocco -
In her final column, Cocco writes that we face “hard political tasks. But being pushed further down is harder, still. Because no one knows where the new bottom lies.”
The challenge of our time is to re-create America as a middle-class nation.
The idea does not find voice in the cacophony of the 24-hour news cycle. It has no place in the media’s daily digest of gossip, false controversy and ideological cant. It is barely mentioned in the halls of power, where the very officials who capitalize on the economic angst of working people to win election forget that this raw anguish — not the sophisticated arguments of lobbyists and campaign donors — is supposed to motivate them every day.
It is easy to blame the financial crisis, Wall Street’s breathtaking bonuses or the culture of excess that glittered until we found ourselves on the precipice of a second Great Depression. In truth, we’ve been dismantling the economic foundation of the middle class for more than three decades.
Climate Roulette
A frightening new climate change study says stop carbon emission…or we will have a tremendous “Oh, Shit!” moment.
Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation -
They say that everyone who finally gets it about climate change has an “Oh, shit” moment–an instant when the full scientific implications become clear and they suddenly realize what a horrifically dangerous situation humanity has created for itself. Listening to the speeches, groundbreaking in their way, that President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered September 22 at the UN Summit on Climate Change, I was reminded of my most recent “Oh, shit” moment.
It came in July, courtesy of the chief climate adviser to the German government. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, chair of an advisory council known by its German acronym, WBGU, is a physicist whose specialty, fittingly, is chaos theory. Speaking to an invitation-only conference at New Mexico’s Santa Fe Institute, Schellnhuber divulged the findings of a study so new he had not yet briefed Chancellor Angela Merkel about it. The study has now been published. If its conclusions are correct–and Schellnhuber ranks among the world’s half-dozen most eminent climate scientists–it has monumental implications for the pivotal meeting in December in Copenhagen, where world leaders will try to agree on reversing global warming.
Schellnhuber and his WBGU colleagues go a giant step beyond the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body whose scientific reports are constrained because the world’s governments must approve their contents. The IPCC says that rich industrial countries must cut emissions 25 to 40 percent by 2020 (from 1990 levels) if the world is to have a fair chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change. By contrast, the WBGU study says the United States must cut emissions 100 percent by 2020–i.e., quit carbon entirely within ten years. Germany, Italy and other industrial nations must do the same by 2025 to 2030. China only has until 2035, and the world as a whole must be carbon-free by 2050. The study adds that big polluters can delay their day of reckoning by “buying” emissions rights from developing countries, a step the study estimates would extend some countries’ deadlines by a decade or so.
Full Story: Climate Roulette.
Not Your Father’s Chamber of Commerce: National Organization Is Now a Tool of the Radical Right
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is often seen as an extension of the local Chambers of Commerce with which many of us grew up — the staid, nonpartisan organizations that not only advocated for local businesses, but were also a part of the broader fabric of communities across America. They lobbied local governments, but they also promoted small towns’ business districts, sponsored local parades and outfitted Little League teams.
But that image couldn’t be further out of date. The organization was formed some 90 years ago to represent an umbrella group of American businesses’ diverse interests. But under the leadership of Thomas J. Donahue, it has become increasingly partisan, even reactionary, in its steadfast opposition to even modestly progressive proposals in Congress, including those that are in the apparent interests of some of its member firms.
Matt Stoller noted in 2006, “the national Chamber of Commerce isn’t pro-business … it’s just a fully captured right-wing organization that has been taken over by the Republican Party.”
Full Story: Not Your Father’s Chamber of Commerce: National Organization Is Now a Tool of the Radical Right | Politics | AlterNet.
Curbing Climate Change While Capturing Lost Methane
To the naked eye, there was nothing to be seen at a natural gas well in eastern Texas but beige pipes and tanks baking in the sun.
But in the viewfinder of Terry Gosney’s infrared camera, three black plumes of gas gushed through leaks that were otherwise invisible.
“Holy smoke, it’s blowing like mad,” said Mr. Gosney, an environmental field coordinator for EnCana, the Canadian gas producer that operates the year-old well near Franklin, Tex. “It does look nasty.”
Within a few days the leaks had been sealed by workers.
Efforts like EnCana’s save energy and money. Yet they are also a cheap, effective way of blunting climate change that could potentially be replicated thousands of times over, from Wyoming to Siberia, energy experts say. Natural gas consists almost entirely of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas that scientists say accounts for as much as a third of the human contribution to global warming.
Full Story: By Degrees – Curbing Climate Change While Capturing Lost Methane – Series – NYTimes.com.
Reform-killing, Oligarchic Senate Still ‘Treasonous’ After All These Years
Where are gutsy muckrakers of yesteryear? In a stunning 1906 Cosmopolitan expose, journalist David Graham Phillips made history with his headline, “The Treason of the Senate.” He then justified his condemnation of mercenary senators, then cherrypicked by states and owned by nefarious Trusts:
Treason is a strong word, but not too strong, rather too weak, to characterize the situation in which the Senate is the eager, resourceful, indefatigable agent of interests as hostile to the American people as any invading army could be.
By 1914, the 17th Amendment mandated senators be popularly elected but, judging by today’s unevolved results, we have not yet salvaged one of the Founders’ worst blunders. This American replica of the House of Lords, our least democratic, least representative organ, lives on, still the blockage after all these years.
You’d think franchising ex-slave descendants, non-land-owning men and wise women would save us? Yet our pretend elections, especially when counting votes tests southern I.Q.’s, only obscure contemporary 1906-style corruption. We pay senators from, say, Oklahoma as dumb as posts, as willfully ignorant about science and economics as history, hence easy pickings for modern “trusts” run by smarter executives. Beyond the energy, mining, banking and endless war cartels, robber barons of health will spend $400 million fighting reform just this year, on top of $50 million channeled to Senate Finance committee members. None dare call that treason, just good business.
This senate, literally “council of old men”
Full Story: Reform-killing, Oligarchic Senate Still ‘Treasonous’ After All These Years | The Smirking Chimp.
Antitrust Division Wades Into Health Care Battle
Democrats have opened a new front on the health care reform battle: antitrust exemptions for insurance companies.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday held a hearing on a measure to repeal the 1946 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which put regulation of the health insurance industry in the hands of individual states.
Democrats complain that lax oversight has allowed the insurers to concentrate their market power. They argue that more competition in the health-insurance market would lower prices for consumers.
Now, the Department of Justice has thrown its support behind a bill sponsored by the Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to repeal the 1945 antitrust exemptions.
Full Story: Antitrust Division Wades Into Health Care Battle – Main Justice.
Publicly-Owned Banks Can Help States and Residents
Ellen Brown -
State and local leaders are considering creating publicly owned banks that can funnel credit to where it is needed most: directly into the local economy.
The credit crunch is getting worse on Main Street, despite a Wall Street bailout now in the trillions of dollars. The Federal Reserve’s charts show that “base money” is rapidly expanding—meaning coins, paper money, and commercial banks’ reserves with the central bank. But the money isn’t getting where it needs to go to stimulate economic growth: into the bank accounts of American businesses and consumers. The Fed has been pumping out money to the banks, and their reserves have been growing at unprecedented rates, but the money supply in the real economy has been declining.
According to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing last month in the UK Telegraph, U.S. bank credit and M3 (the broadest measure of the money supply) contracted over the summer at rates comparable to the onset of the Great Depression. In the summer quarter, U.S. bank loans fell at an annual pace of almost 14 percent. “There has been nothing like this in the USA since the 1930s,” said Professor Tim Congdon of International Monetary Research. “The rapid destruction of money balances is madness.”
Chartered banks are allowed to create credit on their books equal to many times their deposit base, but lately they haven’t been doing it. In more normal times, one dollar in base money has been fanned by the banks into $8.50 in loans. Today, one dollar in base money produces only one dollar in loans. Although the Fed has been frantically pushing cash into the banks, it can’t make them lend to consumers.
Full Story: Ellen Brown :: Publicly-Owned Banks Can Help States and Residents.
Dr Rowan Williams says climate crisis a chance to become human again
People should use the climate change crisis as an opportunity to become human again, setting aside the addictive and self-destructive behaviour that has damaged their souls, the Archbishop of Canterbury said today.
Dr Rowan Williams, head of the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, told an audience at Southwark Cathedral that people had allowed themselves to become “addicted to fantasies about prosperity and growth, dreams of wealth without risk and profit without cost”.
The consequences of such a lifestyle meant the human soul was “one of the foremost casualties of environmental degradation”.
Small changes, such as setting up carbon reduction action groups, would help them reconnect with the world in addition to repairing some of the damage to the planet, because it was too much to expect the state to provide all the solutions.
Full Story: Dr Rowan Williams says climate crisis a chance to become human again | UK news | The Guardian.
BIODIVERSITY: Earth’s Life Support Systems Failing
The world has failed to slow the accelerating extinction crisis despite 17 years of national and international efforts since the great hopes raised at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The last big promise to act was in 2003, when government ministers from 123 countries committed to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.
Experts convening an international meeting in South Africa this week agree that target will not be met next year, which is also the International Year of Biodiversity.
“It is hard to imagine a more important priority than protecting the ecosystem services underpinned by biodiversity,” said Georgina Mace of Imperial College in London, and vice chair of the international DIVERSITAS programme, a broad science-based collaborative.
“We will certainly miss the target for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010,” said Mace in a statement.
Full Story: BIODIVERSITY: Earth’s Life Support Systems Failing.
Drop Health Insurer Antitrust Exemption, Top Dems. Urge
Note: Source is - Property and Casualty Insurance News and they can’t expected to be happy about this 
The Senate majority leader and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee today urged support for legislation that would repeal the antitrust exemption provided health insurers through the McCarran-Ferguson Act.
The comments by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate majority leader, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were made at a hearing today on the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act.
Sen. Reid and Sen. Leahy are co-sponsors of the Senate bill. There are six other co-sponsors, all Democrats.
Specifically, the hearing was titled “Prohibiting Price Fixing And Other Anticompetitive Conduct In The Health Insurance Industry.”
The legislation in both chambers would repeal the antitrust exemption accorded health insurers and medical malpractice insurers through McCarran-Ferguson. It was recently introduced by Sen. Leahy and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
The bills are S. 1681 and H.R. 3596.
Betting against America
By Garrison Keillor
Praying the country will slip into chaos, to make Obama look bad, is not a good place for a political party to be
Evidently some people were disappointed that Dick Cheney didn’t receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and believe me, I sympathize — I thought Philip Roth should’ve gotten the literature prize instead of that grumpy Romanian lady with the severe hair — but it was Mr. Obama whom the Norwegians wanted to come visit Oslo in December and stand on the balcony of the Grand Hotel and wave to the crowd along Karl Johans Gate, and, face it, Mr. Obama is going to draw a bigger crowd than Mr. Cheney would have. When a man has shot somebody in the face with a shotgun, people are going to be reluctant to line up en masse in his presence lest he get excited again. As for Mr. Cheney’s boss, he was an unlikely pick for the Peace Prize after it was revealed by a White House speechwriter in a recent memoir that Mr. Bush once said, “I whupped Gary Bauer’s ass.” Boasting about ass-whupping is not the mark of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The correct word is “whipping.”
Going to Oslo in December and sitting through a black-tie banquet with a bunch of wooden-faced Norwegians and eating herring and delivering a speech larded with bromides about international cooperation and no jokes is not what I’d consider a whee of a good time, frankly. Oslo is rather dark and murky in December. The sun rises during the first coffee break and sets right after lunch and this does not make for a festive mood. Bell-bottoms were not invented in Norway, nor was the mambo, or the convertible. This isn’t Carnival in Rio.
Full Story: Betting against America | Salon.
Editorial – That Promised Financial Reform
Pretty much everyone agrees on the causes for the country’s desperate financial mess: predatory lenders, weak regulations, even weaker regulators, and risky nigh unto incomprehensible financial instruments.
Congress’s willingness to address those problems will have its first real test on Wednesday when the House Financial Services Committee puts finishing touches on what could be essential reform legislation — or a major disappointment, depending on what they do.
At the top of the committee’s agenda is regulation of the largely unregulated and dangerously opaque multitrillion-dollar derivatives’ market. Next on the agenda is the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee the consumer-credit offerings of banks and other financial firms — including mortgages, credit cards, overdraft “protection” and payday loans.
Both reforms are crucial, and we fear both are in danger of being irreparably weakened.
Full Story: Editorial – That Promised Financial Reform – NYTimes.com.
Big banks, big pharma, big problems
New Scientist
I believe the financial meltdown has implications for pharmaceutical research.
MONEY has thrown society out of kilter. Banks that once appeared to have mountains of cash have collapsed. As a consequence of the global recession, governments now recognise that banking is too important to be left to the bankers. States have taken action, from wresting control of financial institutions to introducing new regulations.
I believe the financial meltdown has implications for pharmaceutical research. The running of large pharmaceutical companies carries a social responsibility that is as heavy as running any bank. Recently, however, this unwritten contract between society and drug companies has not been fulfilled. Is our health now too important to be left to big pharma?
To illustrate my concerns, let’s look at the treatment of heart disease. Many important cardiovascular drugs have been invented: statins, ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, fibrinolytics. But in the last 10 years, few of significance have emerged, even though the pharmaceutical industry has spent unprecedented amounts of money on research and development: in each year of that decade, Pfizer spent about $6 billion, Eli Lilly $3bn, and GlaxoSmithKline $2.5bn.
Full Story: Big banks, big pharma, big problems – opinion – 12 October 2009 – New Scientist.
Senior US Senator opposes Afghan ramp-up
The longest-serving US Senator made an emotional plea Wednesday against sending more US troops to Afghanistan, warning that the top military commander there had “lost sight” of the war’s key goals.
Democratic Senator Robert Byrd said in a speech to his colleagues that, if more soldiers must go fight the eight-year-old war, they should come from Washington’s international partners.
“The international community should step up and provide the additional forces and funding. The United States is already supplying a disproportionate number of combat assets for that purpose,” said Byrd.
Byrd, 91, who comes from West Virginia, said the United States should refocus the conflict on hunting down Al-Qaeda extremists and abandon a “broader scheme of nation-building which has clouded our purpose and obscure our reasoning.”
The senator took aim at the top US and NATO military commander, General Stanley McChrystal, for requesting up to 40,000 more US troo
Full Story: AFP: Senior US Senator opposes Afghan ramp-up.
Russia Declares Right to Nuke
Russia Officially Declares Right to Nuke Potential Aggressor
Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russias Security Council, said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper that Russia would consider an opportunity of using nuclear arms depending on circumstances and intentions of a potential enemy
Full Story: YouTube – Russia Declares Right to Nuke.
Dylan Ratigan To Chamber Of Commerce’s Tom Donohue: “You Talk Nonsense” (VIDEO)
Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, made an appearance on Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan Wednesday to tout the Chamber’s “American Free Enterprise” campaign to generate 20 million new jobs over the next decade. Ratigan seemed to be more interested in taking Donohue to the woodshed.
“The government can’t do it, the unions can’t do it, the trial lawyers can’t do it and it’s going to have to be done by the private sector,” said Donohue, explaining the Chamber’s multimillion-dollar campaign. “Let’s remind, let’s educate, let’s promote the idea that a free enterprise system with open capital markets and free trade and the ability to fail and get up and go again and the ability to be very successful is what brought us the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
Ratigan asked if Donohue favored idle speculation with taxpayer money and eliminating “the anti-competitive practices that surround the health practice in this country… or are you more in favor of lobbying the government to change rules to the benefit of special interests who can’t adapt to a real competitive marketplace?”
Full Story: Dylan Ratigan To Chamber Of Commerce’s Tom Donohue: “You Talk Nonsense” (VIDEO).
Grayson, Progressives Push Reid To Strong-Arm Lieberman, Conservative Dems
Reid pushed back Wednesday afternoon against the consensus that health reform is on him — after Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), laid the fate of the public option in the Majority Leader’s hands Tuesday night. “He would rather say anything so it wasn’t up to him,” Reid snapped Wednesday, en route to a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.).
Dodd said he expects the Senate finance and health bills to be reconciled by the end of next week. “The Leader will set the agenda,” he said.
* * * * *
Now that the primary responsibility for health reform has shifted to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, progressives are pushing him to get tough with conservative Democrats looking to delay progress of a unified Senate reform bill.
Full Story: Grayson, Progressives Push Reid To Strong-Arm Lieberman, Conservative Dems.
Apologies From Man Who Shaped Internet
Berners-Lee ‘sorry’ for slashes
The forward slashes at the beginning of internet addresses have long annoyed net users and now the man behind them has apologised for using them.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, has confessed that the // in a web address were actually “unnecessary”.
He told the Times newspaper that he could easily have designed URLs not to have the forward slashes.
“There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said.
He admitted that when he devised the web, almost 30 years ago, he had no idea that the forward slashes in every web address would cause “so much hassle”.
Full Story: BBC NEWS | Technology | Berners-Lee ‘sorry’ for slashes.
Photos of Military Deaths in Afghanistan Banned
NEW YORK The U.S. military in eastern Afghanistan recently changed its media embed rules to ban pictures of troops killed in the war.
“Media will not be allowed to photograph or record video of U.S. personnel killed in action,” says a ground rules document issued Sept. 15 by Regional Command East at Bagram Air Field.
This language is new. A version of the same document dated July 23 says, “Media will not be prohibited from covering casualties” as long as a series of conditions are met.
Pictures of American military deaths are rare, but until now they have not been officially banned during either of the ongoing wars.
The new language was added in early September, according to a military spokesperson, Master Sgt. Tom Clementson of Regional Command East Public Affairs. Clementson described it as “a clarification rather than a new rule.”
Full Story: Photos of Military Deaths in Afghanistan Banned.
Data: Afghan War Costs US $3.6 Billion Per Month
Health Care or Foreign Wars? Can’t have both -
CRS calculates cost of U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan
The United States spends about $3.6 billion a month in Afghanistan, according to data provided by the Congressional Research Service.
The average cost per month is calculated at an average 51,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but that number likely will go higher with the 68,000 troops the Obama administration already is planning on having in that country, and could double if President Barack Obama backs a reported request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to the country.
The cost of sending one U.S. soldier in Afghanistan for one year is $1 million versus an estimated $12,000 for an Afghani soldier, according to Steve Daggett, a specialist with the Congressional Research Service. Those numbers fall within the calculations that the Obama administration has been using. The Obama administration is calculating $1 billion per 1,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan.
Full Story: CRS calculates cost of U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.
Dem Infighting Over Wall Street Regulation
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan pushed back against her fellow Democrat, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), on Wednesday, sending a letter (PDF) opposing her effort to block states from having the ability to write bank regulations that are tougher than those imposed by a federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
The letter followed a meeting between the two politicians; Madigan also wrote to Democratic Illinois Reps. Bill Foster, Luis Gutierrez and Bobby Rush, but Bean is the most prominent Illinois figure on the House Financial Services Committee and the lawmaker has publicly opposed Madigan’s position.
On Wednesday, the committee took up a proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. As currently structured, it would set baseline requirements, but states would be able to toughen their own regulations. An amendment by Bean would prevent states from doing so and a vote could come as early as Thursday.
Full Story: Dem Infighting Over Wall Street Regulation.
OPS: Bean is DLC. She’d be a Blue Dog but they aren’t elite enough for her.
Note: Bean voted FOR the Bankruptcy Bill and with Tom Delay
on most major issues in her freshmen session.
Samoa Hit By Earthquake AGAIN
An earthquake with magnitude 6.0 has struck in the Pacific near Samoa, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.
The government seismologists said the quake was at a depth of 6.2 miles and occurred just after 2 p.m. EDT.
Its epicenter was 165 miles northwest of Hihifo, Tonga, and 1,630 miles north northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.
Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, says there is no threat of a tsunami. He says the quake’s magnitude did not exceed the threshold for a tsunami.
Full Story: Samoa Hit By Earthquake AGAIN.
Why Joe Biden Should Resign
Arianna Huffington:
Joe Biden met with CENTCOM chief Gen. David Petraeus this morning to talk about Afghanistan — an issue that has pushed the vice president into the spotlight, landing him on the cover of the latest Newsweek.
I have an idea for how he can capitalize on all the attention, and do what generations to come will always be grateful for: resign.
The centerpiece of Newsweek’s story is how Biden has become the chief White House skeptic on escalating the war in Afghanistan, specifically arguing against Gen. McChrystal’s request for 40,000 more troops to pursue a counterinsurgency strategy there.
The piece, by Holly Bailey and Evan Thomas, opens with details of a September 13th national security meeting at the White House. Biden speaks up:
Full Story: Arianna Huffington: Why Joe Biden Should Resign.
Germany: The Coming Energy Revolution
Electric cars, intelligent washing machines, mini power plants in your basement: Germany is on the verge of an energy revolution. SPIEGEL ONLINE looks at the latest developments in the smart grid and how it will change the relationship between consumers and energy suppliers.
The power grid of the future is one of humanity’s boldest visions. Gigantic wind farms in the sea and enormous solar fields in the desert are to generate the bulk of our power in the years to come. But consumers and companies are also producing energy with mini-power plants in their own basements and solar panels on the roof. And intelligent appliances are saving energy in our homes: washers, dryers and refrigerators that communicate with each other wash, dry or cool when electricity is cheapest. The information age is arriving at a new level: It’s becoming the electricity age.
The electricity age is imminent in six German regions: The technology of the future for smart energy management is going to be developed and tested, under the label E-Energy, in several cities. A number of projects will kick into high gear this month. Tens of thousands of homes and hundreds of companies are expected to participate in the field tests. Research will be conducted into the possibility, for example, of homes that can largely produce all the electricity required by a household, as well as energy exchanges that enable consumers to sell any excess, self-produced and environmentally friendly electricity at a profit back to the energy grid.
Full Story: Hive Electricity: The Coming Energy Revolution – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.
US documents point to secret Japan nuclear pact
Despite decades of denials by Washington and Tokyo, US officials believe they enjoyed a secret pact to transport nuclear weapons through Japan, newly declassified documents showed.
The disclosure came after Japan’s left-leaning government ended more than half a century of conservative rule and launched a probe into thousands of files to settle longstanding suspicions of a hush-hush pact.
Any evidence of an agreement would trigger charges of hypocricy as Japan is the only nation to have suffered nuclear attack and has campaigned for the worldwide abolition of the ultra-destructive weapons.
The National Security Archive at George Washington University released documents Tuesday showing US officials believed they had an understanding with Japan when the allies signed a new security treaty in 1960.
Full Story: The Raw Story | US documents point to secret Japan nuclear pact.
Mom Arrested for Washing Kid’s Mouth With Soap
A Florida couple is behind bars for some old school discipline
A Palm Bay woman and her boyfriend were arrested Monday for child abuse after the couple went old school to punish their 8-year-old daughter for swearing.
They washed her mouth out with soap.
We don’t know about you, but we would petition President Obama and Congress to make it mandatory for every parent to carry a bar of Irish Spring in their back pockets with all the profanity kids use today.
Police claim Adriyanna Herdener and Wilfredo Rivera went too far by placing a bar of soap in the girl’s mouth and letting it stay for 10 minutes. Herdener did not intervene in the discipline.
Full Story: Mom Arrested for Washing Kid’s Mouth With Soap | NBC Miami.
Judge closes Blackwater trial to public
Prosecution of five Blackwater employees could be thrown out over immunized statements
A US District Court judge has barred the public from attending — or the media from reporting on — hearings in the trial of five Blackwater employees charged over the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square in 2007.
A breaking story at the Washington Post reports that hearings to determine whether evidence against the accused was properly collected will be kept under wraps.
Full Story: Judge closes Blackwater trial to public | Raw Story.
BBC claims Obama to send 45,000 extra troops to Afghanistan
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Wednesday denied a BBC news report that President Barack Obama has already decided to send 45,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, on top of the 68,000 already serving there.
“It’s not true,” Gibbs said, insisting “the president has not made a decision.”
According to news reports, Obama huddled with his war council Wednesday for the fifth time, debating whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan as he maps a new strategy to quell the conflict.
Obama has said he hopes to unveil his plans in the coming weeks as he desperately seeks to contain the violence in Afghanistan fueled by the resurgent Taliban ousted from power eight years ago and al Qaeda militants.
Full Story: BBC claims Obama to send 45,000 extra troops to Afghanistan | Raw Story.
John Boehner (R-OH): Religion is not a choice but being gay is
You were born a Christian, not born gay. Religion is not a choice.
Or so the spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) would have you believe. Questioned about why the House’s top Republican opposes a hate crimes bill penalizing violence against gays, his spokesman said he “supports existing federal protections (based on race, religion, gender, etc) based on immutable characteristics,” just not protections for things like being gay — which conservatives occasionally claim is a choice.
“He does not support adding sexual orientation to the list of protected classes,” Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith added. The statement was made in an email to CBS News.
Full Story: Religion is not a choice but being gay is, GOP leader’s spokesman says | Raw Story.
Colbert: Scalia correct that ‘cross has nothing to do with Christianity’
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert complained mockingly on Tuesday that “our tradition of separation of church and state too often separates church and state.”
He pointed to the Supreme Court’s recent consideration of a case involving the constitutionality of an 8-foot cross elected as a memorial to World War I veterans on land that is now part of the federally-owned Mohave National Preserve,
Justice Antonin Scalia saw no problem with the memorial, arguing, “I assume it is erected in honor of all of the war dead. … The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of the dead.”
“Exactly,” Colbert agreed in his fake-conservative pundit persona. “The cross has nothing to do with Christianity. It’s just the normal symbol of the resting place of the dead. Like it’s just normal that picture frames are always sold with photos of white people in them.”
When the ACLU lawyer arguing the case noted, “There is never a cross on the tombstone of a Jew,” Scalia retorted “I don’t think you can leap from that to the conclusion that the only war dead that that cross honors are the Christian war dead. I think that’s an outrageous conclusion.”
Full Story: Colbert: Scalia correct that ‘cross has nothing to do with Christianity’ | Raw Story.
Steele: I’m The ‘Cow On The Tracks’ Trying To Block The Health Care Train
Today on Fox News, RNC Chairman Michael Steele railed against Democratic efforts to reform health care and said how proud he was that Republicans have stalled action. “They told us in June that there would be a health care bill on the President’s desk on Aug. 1,” he boasted. “I think our efforts helped change that dynamic.”
But with Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) supporting the passage of the Senate Finance Committee health bill — and with news that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) may be willing to break from GOP ranks to support legislation — the Fox News host asked Steele whether the health care “train” had left the station without Republicans on board. Steele then compared himself to a cow:
HOST: Very quickly, Chairman Steele. The feeling in some circles is that this health care train has left the station with President at the wheel, and Republicans better jump on board.
Full Story: Think Progress » Steele: I’m The ‘Cow On The Tracks’ Trying To Block The Health Care Train.
Republicans tout discredited insurance industry study.
Republicans tout discredited insurance industry study.
Several Republicans have embraced the discredited insurance industry-funded study which claims premiums would increase dramatically under the Senate Finance Committee’s health bill. While careful to avoid mentioning the study’s connection to the insurance industry, Republicans cite the study’s claim that premiums will increase by $4,000 and disingenuously argue that the Congressional Budget Office agrees with the insurance industry’s conclusions. Watch it:
The industry’s very selective analysis undermines its conclusions and exposes the study as an industry attempt to protect the bottom line. An actual analysis of Congressional Budget Office data has concluded that premiums in the exchange would be lower than they are in the none group market today. The Wonk Room has more
Full Story: Think Progress » Republicans tout discredited insurance industry study..
Sean Hannity on Nobel Peace Prize: ‘Frankly, I would’ve given it to George Bush.’
Sean Hannity on Nobel Peace Prize: ‘Frankly, I would’ve given it to George Bush.’
Last night, Fox News host Sean Hannity hosted a panel that debated the merits of President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. After complaining about Obama’s goal of eliminating nuclear weapons and claiming that the Nobel is undesirable because Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat receieved it, Hannity suggested an alternative recipient for the award — former President George W. Bush:
HANNITY: [Yasser Arafat] got the Nobel peace prize. Excuse me, a terrorist got the Nobel peace prize. Some people deservedly so. You know who else deserved it? Ronald Reagan. And frankly, I would’ve given it to George Bush.
Watch it:
Full Story: Think Progress » Sean Hannity on Nobel Peace Prize: ‘Frankly, I would’ve given it to George Bush.’.
10 Best California Green Economy Jobs
Green economy jobs provide a new hope to rebuild and shape the economy while bettering the planet. California is gearing up to be the nation’s clean technology leader and innovation center. Over the past three years, California has been the leading state in various green initiatives ranging from energy efficiency to clean technology venture capital investment. In addition to private investment, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken the necessary steps to foster the growth of a green economy by creating the California Green Corps.
With a 10% year of year growth in green jobs and continued public and private investment, the green economy offers plenty of opportunities in the way of jobs.
Below is a list of the ten best sectors within the California green economy.
Full Story: Campaigns That Matter – 10 Best California Green Economy Jobs.
U.S.: Foreign Policy Hawks Launch New Campaign Against Obama
Just days after the Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded Barack Obama its coveted peace prize, two of Washington’s most prominent foreign policy hawks launched a new group and ad campaign designed to depict the president as weak and defend the more aggressive policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
The new group, Keep America Safe, was co-founded by neo-conservative heavyweight William Kristol, who also edits The Weekly Standard; and Elisabeth (Liz) Cheney, the outspoken daughter of Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, who is believed to harbour political ambitions of her own.
“Amidst the great challenges to America’s security and prosperity, the current administration too often seems uncertain, wishful, irresolute, and unwilling to stand up for America, our allies and our interests,” according to the mission statement of the new group, whose third founder-director, Debra Burlingame, is also co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.
Full Story: U.S.: Foreign Policy Hawks Launch New Campaign Against Obama.
Silent but deadly? Electric cars may be too quiet for pedestrian safety
OPS: This is a bullshit premise
Enjoy (or fear) the silence while it lasts. Battery-driven vehicles are touted for their potential to cut down on harmful emissions spewed for decades by gasoline-powered cars, but electric and hybrid vehicles may be too quiet to be heard by pedestrians, posing a particular danger to people without sight.
Although the relatively low number of electric and hybrid vehicles on the road as well as the lack of data to link pedestrian injuries to quiet cars make it difficult to validate these concerns, one option being floated is that of “car tones” to make up for the missing engine noise, reports The New York Times. The Times cites Nissan, Toyota, BMW and plug-in hybrid maker Fisker Automotive as companies all considering the addition of sounds that would more prominently announce the presence of their cars on the road. (Stories of Fisker’s plans to use speakers to pump out sounds “like something between a Formula One car and a jet plane” surfaced in March 2008.) “One possibility is choosing your own noise,” BMW told the Times.
Full Story: Observations: Silent but deadly? Electric cars may be too quiet for pedestrian safety.
Failed Regulators Having “A Lot of Fun” Telling Consumers They Don’t Deserve to Be Protected From Big Banks & Predatory Lending
It ain’t easy to be in the business of green. And by that, I don’t mean environmentally-friendly products.
Financial institutions are officially on the national, bipartisan shitlist. Even the corporate media is bashing them. The New York Times recently published a piece literally asking “Have banks no shame?”
Part of it is all that money we, as taxpayers, have invested in them. But the other portion of our collective hatred comes from their complete and utter lack of gratitude and humility. The Times article opened with a quote from a well-known economist asking, “How can [banks] be opposed to consumer protection as defined by [Tim Geithner,] a man who is the most favorable treasury secretary they have had in a generation? If he has decided that this is what they need, what moral right do they have to oppose it? It is unconscionable.”
As Congress cobbles together financial reforms to prevent the nation from going through another financial crisis similar to the one that continues to hold the nation’s commerce in a vice grip, the objections from banks, and their representatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have surprised and angered many, including the president of the United States. On Friday, President Obama spoke on his proposed financial reforms, specifically addressing the industry’s desire to sink the idea of creating a new consumer watchdog for financial products:
Blair should be tried for war crimes, say families of soldiers killed in Iraq
ANGRY families of British servicemen killed in Iraq told members of the official inquiry into the conflict that Tony Blair must be held accountable for taking the nation to war.
Many blamed the former prime minister for the deaths of their loved ones in an “illegal” conflict, and some even called for him to be prosecuted for war crimes.
Inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot has confirmed that Mr Blair will give evidence and insists he and his committee will not shy away from criticising individuals.
The panel has not begun hearing from witnesses, but yesterday it held the first in a series of meetings for bereaved families and Iraq veterans to say which areas they want it to examine.
Full Story: Blair should be tried for war crimes, say families of soldiers killed in Iraq – Scotsman.com.
How Deep Is D.C. Corruption? So Deep That When Obama Tries to Clean It Up, Lobbyists Publicly Spaz
David Sirota
I can’t tell what’s more outrageous and disgusting: The fact that lobbyists have been permitted to serve on the federal advisory boards that oversee policies affecting their clients, the fact that that has been occurring with almost no Establishment outcry for years, or the fact that lobbyists have the sheer audacity to publicly scream at the Obama administration for trying to end this form of institutionalized corruption.
That latter point is, of course, the good news announced on the White House’s website on September 23rd:
We wanted to take this opportunity to announce the next step in the President’s efforts to reduce the influence of special interests in Washington. The White House has informed executive agencies and departments that it is our aspiration that federally-registered lobbyists not be appointed to agency advisory boards and commissions. These appointees to boards and commissions, which are made by agencies and not the President, advise the federal government on a variety of policy areas.
The administration had previously been criticized – rightly, IMHO – for issuing a series of waivers on its much-touted lobbyist/ethics reforms. So this move is a welcome change in direction that suggests the White House is getting (at least a tiny a bit) more serious about rooting out some of the worst corruption in the government.
Bolton suggests nuclear attack on Iran
By Daniel Luban
This Friday, the American Enterprise Institute will host an event addressing the question “Should Israel attack Iran?” The event includes, among others, Iran uberhawk Michael Rubin and infamous “torture lawyer” John Yoo, but the real star is likely to be John Bolton, the former U.N. ambassador whose right-of-Attila views left him an outcast even within the second Bush administration. (Bolton was eventually forced out when it became clear that he would be unable to win Senate confirmation for the U.N. post.)
If Bolton’s recent rhetoric is any indication, his AEI appearance may accomplish the formidable feat of making Michael Rubin sound like a dove. Discussing Iran during a Tuesday speech at the University of Chicago, Bolton appeared to call for nothing less than an Israeli nuclear first strike against the Islamic Republic. (The speech, sponsored by the University Young Republicans and Chicago Friends of Israel, was titled, apparently without a trace of irony, “Ensuring Peace.”)
“Negotiations have failed, and so too have sanctions,” Bolton said, echoing his previously-stated belief that sanctions will prove ineffectual in changing Tehran’s behavior. “So we’re at a very unhappy point — a very unhappy point — where unless Israel is prepared to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s program, Iran will have nuclear weapons in the very near future.”
Full Story: LobeLog.com » Blog Archive » Bolton suggests nuclear attack on Iran.
OPS: Insanity runs deep in, and is a requirement of, the republican party
JPMorgan Chase Reports $3.6 Billion Profit in Quarter
A year after accepting a bailout from Washington, a resurgent JPMorgan Chase reported a second consecutive quarter of surprisingly strong profit on Wednesday, solidifying its position at the pinnacle of American finance.
JPMorgan’s results — $3.6 billion in profit for the third quarter — fanned hopes on Wall Street that the nation’s banking industry was entering a new period of prosperity, despite lingering troubles. The robust showing from JPMorgan, and tentative signs that consumer loan losses might soon peak, has set the pace for other big banks that will report results in coming days.
JPMorgan’s profit was powered by its investment banking division, where earnings more than doubled from the period a year earlier thanks to trading in the fixed-income markets and a flurry of deals. The results from that unit more than offset the bank’s losses on credit card loans and home mortgages, which continued to rise as consumers struggled with a weak economy.
Full Story: JPMorgan Chase Reports $3.6 Billion Profit in Quarter – NYTimes.com.
OPS: What banking/financial crisis? We were robbed.
New GOP website says party hasn’t had any accomplishments since 2004
The Republican Party launched a redesigned website Tuesday with a heavy emphasis on the social media tools that Democrat Barack Obama used so effectively to win the last presidential election.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said GOP.com, which stands for “Grand Old Party,” the party’s nickname, will “help Republicans compete in any race, in any state, at any time.”
However, the new Web portal is not without its share of problems.
“Flying around Twitter this morning is a link to the new site’s ‘Future GOP leaders’ page,” Talking Points Memo noted. “Instead of fresh faces, it the page lists ’404 Error: This page could not be found.’”
Full Story: New GOP website says party hasn’t had any accomplishments since 2004 | Raw Story.
Saudis want US to pay for reducing oil usage
If you thought the executives at Goldman Sachs were the kings of backroom finance, think again.
Goldman Sachs, meet Saudi King Abdullah.
A new gambit by the oil-dealing kingdom would have Western oil guzzlers paying for using less oil. Sounds like the opposite of reality, you say? The Saudis say it’s the only way they’ll be able to afford helping the fight against global warming.
The New York Times frames the Saudi idea as, “if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.”
Full Story: Saudis want US to pay for reducing oil usage | Raw Story.
Biden No Longer a Lone Voice on Afghanistan
A few hours after getting off a plane from America’s war zones, Joseph R. Biden Jr. slipped into a chair, shook off his jet lag and reflected on what he had seen. The situation in Iraq, he said, was much improved. In Pakistan, he said he saw encouraging signs.
Then he came to Afghanistan and shook his head.
“It has deteriorated significantly,” he said. “It’s going to be a very heavy lift.”
That was six days before Mr. Biden was sworn in as vice president in January, and just after he had met with President-elect Barack Obama, who had sent him on the fact-finding mission to figure out just what the new administration was inheriting. Mr. Biden’s assessment was even grimmer during his private meeting with Mr. Obama, according to officials.
Full Story: Biden No Longer a Lone Voice on Afghanistan – NYTimes.com.
The CBO’s Flawed Report on Medical Malpractice
By RALPH NADER -
Less Than One in Ten Malpractice Cases Results in a Legal Claim for Compensation
The CBO’s Flawed Report on Medical Malpractice
Stuart Hagen must either be greatly overworked or possessed of an overwhelmingly monetized mind.
As the author of a Congressional Budget Office’s reply to the request by Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) for an “updated analysis” of medical malpractice reform, Hagan neglected to mention a salient tragedy. About 100,000 Americans die every year from medical and hospital negligence or worse in hospitals alone.
That loss of life is greater than the annual combined fatalities from motor vehicle crashes, AIDS, and fires. This report on medical and hospital negligence came from physicians at the Harvard School of Public Health. Such preventable fatalities are associated with even larger numbers of preventable sicknesses and injuries. Tens of billions of dollars a year are the economic costs to victims, their next of kin and the economy.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), led by Douglas W. Elmendorf, is one of two Congressional offices left with any credible reputation-the other being the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The October 9, 2009 five page CBO report belies that reputation.
Full Story: Ralph Nader: The CBO’s Flawed Report on Medical Malpractice.
Former right-wing leader warns of religious right violence: ‘Anyone can be killed’
Frank Schaeffer is an outspoken critic of the politicized Christian evangelical right. He sees the “End Times” movement as anti-Semitic. He fears that a right-wing terrorist might assassinate the President of the United States.
None of these talking points would be novel on the left, but Schaeffer is hardly a bleeding heart liberal. His father, Dr. Francis Schaeffer, is considered to be the godfather of the modern religious right movement. Schaeffer himself took up the family mission and became a prominent speaker and writer, promoting many of the sentiments that have given rise to the politically active, extremely well organized and zealous movement of today. He left the religious right in the 1980s, and was a Republican until 2000.
In an interview with Raw Story, Schaeffer — who has a new book coming out this month called Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism) — discussed his concerns about the radicalization of the Christian right and the increasingly violent rhetoric he foresees turning into actual violence.
Full Story: Former right-wing leader warns of religious right violence: ‘Anyone can be killed’ | Raw Story.
Rampant corruption in Afghanistan is key issue: top general
The top commanding officer in Afghanistan has revealed a belief that “rampant government corruption” has given the Taliban and al-Qaeda an edge in the war. The conclusion came in a recent secret document put together by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. Though the document requests more troops, it warns that more troops may not prevent the Taliban from taking back Afghanistan.
Corruption in Afghanistan became public knowledge after the presidential election in Afghanistan was revealed as rigged by independent election observers. Fraud investigations discovered that 1.1 million ‘questionable votes’ were given to President Hamid Karzai, and that the subtraction of these votes was enough to push Karzai below 50 percent.
Though McChrystal states that fewer troops will bring less risks, he believes that any new deployment has a high risk of failure. The report outlines three deployment options, the largest hypothetical deployment being one of 80,000 new soldiers. There are now 67,000 American troops in Afghanistan, with 1,000 more coming in December. McChrystal prefers the ‘compromise’ option of a 40,000 troop increase.
Full Story: Rampant corruption in Afghanistan is key issue: top general | Raw Story.
GOP senator faces wrath of right-wing activists
They’ve created a monster they can’t control
With today’s passing of a Senate health-care overhaul bill dampening right-wing morale, Republican activists are keeping up their spirits in hard times by focusing on the problems within their own party. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was ready to give a rallying speech to supporters in Greenville, South Carolina yesterday; instead, the senator faced heckling from a contingent of far-right protesters who believe he is too moderate for his own good.
Graham is known for having voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination back in July, against the recommendation of his own party. More recently, Graham has been ‘testing out lines’ in the GOP concerning global warming, presenting a willingness to compromise on clean energy legislation, according to Darren Samuelsohn of the New York Times. Decisions to cooperate and compromise across party lines have made Sen. Lindsey Graham into a target of the far-right ‘Teabaggers.’
A truck outside Monday’s rally had a toilet meant for ‘RINOs’(Republican in Name Only). During the rally, protesters shouted things like “Ron Paul,” “Sotomayor,” and “You are a country-club Republican.” When Graham listed off a few battleground states, activists responded with, “Move there!”
Full Story: GOP senator faces wrath of right-wing activists | Raw Story.
In Ohio, Huckabee takes a veiled shot at Boehner as a ‘phony Republican.’
Last year, just before Congress voted on the financial rescue package, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told his caucus in a closed-door session that he thought the bailout was a “crap sandwich” but that it should still be supported. Later, on the House floor, he called it a “mud sandwich” that still needed to be passed. Appearing in Ohio yesterday to boost gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee took a veiled shot at Boehner in an interview with ONN:
HUCKABEE: What has to happen is that Republicans have to start acting like real Republicans. The reason Republicans got defeated in 2006 and 2008 is because people couldn’t tell the difference between them and the Democrats. In fact, the Democrats weren’t spending any more. What has to happen is Republicans who get elected have to show that they actually believe in something and mean it when they get there. You can’t have phony Republicans, people that don’t have any convictions and, these guys who say they’re conservatives but they went out and supported a TARP bill last year? There isn’t anything conservative about that. There were a lot of Republicans who were wringing their hands saying ‘oh, TARP, it’s terrible but we’ve got to do it.’ No you don’t. You don’t ever have to do something that’s stupid. And that was stupid.
Full Story: Think Progress » In Ohio, Huckabee takes a veiled shot at Boehner as a ‘phony Republican.’.
Dow 10,000 Mark Nearing
The Dow Jones began the day at roughly 9,871 points, and a solid day of trading could potentially push that index near or beyond the 10,000 point mark – after just one hour the Dow stood at 9,950 points.
U.S. stock markets finished the day yesterday with their expected mixed results. The S&P lost 0.28 percent (3.00 points), and the Dow Jones lost 0.15 percent (14.74 points). Meanwhile the NASDAQ managed to just barely stay positive, gaining 0.04 percent (0.75 points) by the closing bell.
The major stock markets were expected to gain at the open today – after the first hour they had, on average, gained nearly 1 percent each. Overnight futures and world market movements indicate that today could present big gains for investors. The Dow Jones began the day at roughly 9,871 points, and a solid day of trading could potentially push that index near or beyond the 10,000 point mark – after just one hour the Dow stood at 9,950 points.
This market optimism is being fueled by strong earnings reports from corporations like JPMorgan Chase. According to CNNMoney.com, JPMorgan Chase’s profits increased six-fold in the last fiscal quarter. The bailed out institution was once on the verge of collapse, but after tens of billions of government capital it is leading the charge in finance.
Full Story: Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Comparing the U.S. to other Economies
Other countries like China, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany, and France treat their export industries as national treasures, unlike the U.S.
Other countries are coming up quickly. Take Japan. Although the American press has reported that the Japanese economy is a perennial basket case, the reality is very different. In the 60 years since the end of World War II, Japan has leveraged its meager resources (it has virtually no minerals and boasts just 4 percent of our land area) to pass almost every other nation in industrial productivity. So successful has its strategy been that as of 2004 it earned a current account surplus of $172 billion. This was the highest of any nation in history and three times that of China! And it contrasted with a current account deficit in the United States of $668 billion.
Although it is sometimes reported that Japan’s national debt is very high, the true position is a lot less serious than it appears. This is partly because Japan’s government debt numbers include an enormous amount of double-counting. In any case virtually all Japanese government debt is funded by Japanese citizens (whereas foreigners hold 47 percent of US government bonds, they account for just 4 percent of Japanese government bonds). Basically the Japanese are borrowing from themselves. So long as the Japanese nation has plenty of savings to fund the government’s spending, there is no issue. In any case much of Japan’s national debt goes to fund not Japanese government spending but rather US government spending! This is reflected in the fact as of February 2006, the Japanese government boasted official foreign currency reserves of $833 billion. These reserves are invested largely in US government bonds. The real problem is not in Japan but in the United States.
Full Story: Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Jobs for America’s Unemployed Teenagers
Pat Choate
The unemployment rate for Americans between the ages of 16 and 19 reached a Depression era level of 25.5 percent in August — the highest point since the Labor Department began keeping those records more than a half century ago. Most of these 1.5 million unemployed young people live in urban areas where few jobs exist and are unlikely to be created in the foreseeable future. If, as many economists predict, the national unemployment rate reaches double-digit levels and remains high for three or four years, the United States risks losing a major portion of this new generation to drift, sloth and crime.
Direct government employment is the fastest, surest and least expensive – if not the only – way to create enough new jobs for them. The problem is similar to the one that FDR faced in 1933 when half the nation’s young men aged 15 to 25 had only part-time work or none at all. FDR’s response was to quickly initiate a jobs program for them that ultimately became one of the most popular New Deal programs – the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
The CCC “boys,” as they often called themselves, were mostly school dropouts who never had held a full-time job. In the CCC, they received room, board, clothing and one dollar a day. Of the $30 per month, they were required to send $25 home, which kept many families from starvation during the Great Depression. Later, the CCC boys wrote scores of books and articles describing how the experience had changed their lives, giving them a purpose and a way out of crime-ridden neighborhoods, enabling them to be productive, responsible men.
Full Story: Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
‘What Up?’ RNC changes the name of widely mocked blog to ‘Change the Game,’ ditches floating Steele character.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) had a rough day yesterday as it tried to launch the new GOP.com. Visitors noticed telling gaps on the site (such as an empty “Future Leaders” section), significant distortions (like naming baseball legend and registered independent Jackie Robinson a “great Republican“), the accidental disclosure of RNC passwords and files, and constant outages. But one of the most widely mocked parts of the site was Chairman Michael Steele’s blog called “What Up?”
What Up?
After facing a day of ridicule, the RNC has quietly switched the name of the blog to “Change the Game.” It also ditched the floating Steele figure that would start walking and talking onto your screen. Robinson, however, is still listed as a Republican, and there are still no GOP accomplishments listed after 2004. Despite yesterday’s missteps, Steele said that he was happy about yesterday’s roll-out — especially when the site crashed and no one could access it. “This thing has exploded off the blocks,” Steele insisted. “It’s a good thing when you get another email from [RNC New Media Director Todd Herman] saying, ‘It’s down again.’” Hot Air’s Allahpundit disagreed, however, noting the universal ridicule the site engendered yesterday: “Way to score an own goal, pal, completely needlessly and amateurishly.”
Michele Bachmann doll suffering from lagging sales.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has been fond of drawing similarities between herself and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She said recently that Democrats are trying to “sabotage women like Sarah Palin, perhaps women like myself, or similarly situated women, to make sure that we don’t have a prominent national voice.” But as the toy-maker company HeroBuilders can attest, Bachmann is nothing like Palin when it comes to commercial appeal:
If U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s popularity was judged by the sales of her new action figure, she’d be in trouble.
The Connecticut-based toy company HeroBuilders has sold only 50 copies of the unlicensed action figure since its release on Sept. 25.
Bachmann, a Republican, represents Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District and has been a high-profile critic of President Obama and the Democratic Party.
“I’ll tell you this, she’s no Sarah Palin,” said Emil Vicale, CEO of HeroBuilders.
Full Story: Think Progress » Michele Bachmann doll suffering from lagging sales..
Light Pollution Bad for Astronomers and All Living Things
The Enormous Environmental Consequences of Artificially Lighting Up the Night. The nighttime sky shines brighter than it did less than 10 years ago with potentially serious consequences to humans, animals and ecosystem.
In every corner of the globe tonight, our nighttime sky shines brighter than it did less than 10 years ago with potentially serious consequences to humans, animals and ecosystem.
Plants, animals and humans developed with an internal clock — the circadian rhythm. It’s a 24-hour cycle that affects physiological, biochemical and behavioral processes in almost all organisms.
Civilization brought with it artificial light to homes in every village, town and city across the world, and as more buildings and factories came online, industrialization increased and the population continued to expand, our nighttime sky looked a lot like the day, changing our deep, dark sleep patterns and altering that 24-hour internal timekeeper.
With that, all living creatures’ lives changed in ways only now becoming clear to us.
Dawns the light
To understand light pollution, it’s important to know there are two different types: First, there is astronomical light pollution that obscures the view of the night sky, and the second kind is ecological light pollution, which alters natural light systems in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
CNN Can’t Have It Both Ways: It Can Either Broadcast Hateful Lou Dobbs or Have a Latino Audience
Latinos across America are intensely concerned about CNN’s hypocrisy: broadcasting Dobbs’ anti-immigrant extremism while running a Latinos in America special series.
By Roberto Lovato
As CNN begins broadcasting its Latino in America series (LIA) — its most important and expensive attempt to capture Latino audiences — Latinos are of one mind about the two faces of CNN. I know this because I just spent the last two weeks traveling the country talking to Latino communities about Lou Dobbs and CNN. I got to meet some of the more than 50,000 people who, in just the last four weeks, have signed our petition at bastadobbs.com.
What I heard among the many voices that make up the Latino United States — Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in New York, Cubans in Miami, Mexicans and Salvadorans and many others in the Southwest — was an unexpected unity and an intense concern about CNN’s Latino hypocrisy: thinking that a few hours of serious reporting on Latinos by sunny Soledad O’Brien can make up for thousands of hours of anti-Latino extremism from the dark Lou Dobbs. This paradox has Latinos everywhere asking questions about CNN — and so far we haven’t gotten much in the way of answers.
One questioner was Latino media executive Jeff Valdez, who, during the Los Angeles LIA screening, pointedly asked Soledad O’Brien, “Will Latino in America include Lou Dobbs?” The answer: no. That’s right, four hours about the Latino experience in the U.S., and not a word on the country’s most notorious anti-immigrant, anti-Latino “news” anchor.
How My Dispute with Joe Scarborough Sheds Light on the Civil War Within the GOP
Scarborough is trying to play the part of a ‘real conservative,’ appalled by the GOP fringe, but he’s just as unwilling to compromise with Obama’s agenda.
By Max Blumenthal,
Editor’s note: Both videos of Max Blumenthal’s appearances on MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough’s Morning Joe show appear at the bottom of this article.
Before I first appeared on Morning Joe on September 22, I was warned about Joe Scarborough’s tendency to filibuster guests he does not agree with, and to do so in a belligerent manner. But to my surprise, the former Republican congressman proved a remarkably genial host, presiding over a civil but spirited discussion of my book, Republican Gomorrah and extremism in the GOP.
Perhaps Joe’s civility was rooted in cluelessness; when I was announced on the set as “the YouTube Michael Moore,” Scarborough excitedly asked a producer if I was “the ACORN guy,” referring to James O’Keefe, the young right-wing activist whose hidden cameras prompted a congressional investigation into the Obama-linked community- organizing group. Nevertheless, by the end of my segment, Joe promised to bring me back on. “I want to debate you more on this,” Scarborough insisted.
Full Story: How My Dispute with Joe Scarborough Sheds Light on the Civil War Within the GOP | Politics | AlterNet.
Do Women Have the Blues?
Barbara Ehrenreich,
Feminism made women miserable. This, anyway, seems to be the most popular takeaway from “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness,” a recent study by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers which purports to show that women have become steadily unhappier since 1972. Maureen Dowd and Arianna Huffington greeted the news with somber perplexity, but the more common response has been a triumphant: I told you so.
On Slate’s DoubleX website, a columnist concluded from the study that “the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s gave us a steady stream of women’s complaints disguised as manifestos… and a brand of female sexual power so promiscuous that it celebrates everything from prostitution to nipple piercing as a feminist act — in other words, whine, womyn, and thongs.” Or as Phyllis Schlafly put it, more soberly: “[T]he feminist movement taught women to see themselves as victims of an oppressive patriarchy in which their true worth will never be recognized and any success is beyond their reach… [S]elf-imposed victimhood is not a recipe for happiness.”
But it’s a little too soon to blame Gloria Steinem for our dependence on SSRIs. For all the high-level head-scratching induced by the Stevenson and Wolfers study, hardly anyone has pointed out (1) that there are some issues with happiness studies in general, (2) that there are some reasons to doubt this study in particular, or (3) that, even if you take this study at face value, it has nothing at all to say about the impact of feminism on anyone’s mood.
Full Story: Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, Do Women Have the Blues?.
One nation, under illusion
THE HOARIEST and most oft-repeated cliche in American politics may be that America is the greatest country in the world. Every politician, Democrat and Republican, seems duty bound to pander to this idea of American exceptionalism, and woe unto him who hints otherwise. This country is “the last, best hope of mankind,’’ or the “shining city on the hill,’’ or the “great social experiment.’’ As if this weren’t enough, Jimmy Carter upped the fawning ante 30 years ago by uttering arguably the most damning words in modern American politics. He called for a “government as good as the American people,’’ thus taking national greatness and investing it in each and every one of us.
Carter was speaking when Watergate was fresh, and government had been disgraced, but still. The fact of the matter is that whenever anything really significant has been accomplished by our government, it is precisely because it was better than the American people.
Think of World War II, America’s entrance into which was strenuously resisted by the populace until Franklin Roosevelt carefully laid the groundwork and Pearl Harbor made it inevitable. Think of civil rights, which Lyndon Johnson pressed despite widescale opposition, and not just in the South. Even then it took more than 100 years. Or think of the current health care debate in which Americans seem to desire some sort of reform, just not a reform that would significantly help people in dire need, while the Obama administration is pushing to provide that assistance. In the end, government has inspired Americans far more than Americans have inspired their government. They are too busy boasting.
Full Story: One nation, under illusion – The Boston Globe.
Obama Must Get Going on Jobs
by Jim Hightower
Five days before taking the oath of office, Barack Obama called on the millions of people who had actively campaigned for him to be the engine for real change in America: “I don’t want them to just sit around and wait for me to do something. I want them to be pushing their agendas.”
He asked for it, so let’s shove this agenda into his line of vision: jobs. Middle-class jobs. Jobs with a future. Jobs doing useful work that contributes to American progress and the common good. Lots and lots of those jobs.
Obama has talked often about the need for more jobs. But he’s put little presidential heft into creating them, instead focusing most on extending unemployment benefits to assuage some of the pain of being jobless.
Incredibly, he tried for a while to rationalize his “banker-first” Wall Street bailout as a jobs stimulus! The argument went like this: rescuing failed bankers might induce them to make loans to corporations, which then might increase corporate production, which then might cause corporate executives to hire some Americans (unless, of course, they used the capital to expand operations in China). That’s a lot of “mights,” and, as we’ve seen, the money mostly remains in the tight clutches of the bailed-out bankers, producing little “trickle-down” benefit.
Full Story: Obama Must Get Going on Jobs by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.
Kucinich: Iran Sanctions would not Help Diplomatic Talks
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a long time advocate for peace and nuclear abolition, was today the only Member of Congress to speak out against H.R. 1327 – Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2009.
“In 1996, Congress passed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act which sanctioned foreign investment in Iran’s energy sector. There are those who have said it didn’t accomplish much. There are those who are now saying, that if we move forward with sanctions it would undermine the interests of nations, like China and Russia, which the U.S. needs to work with in order to bring Iran into the international community in a way that promotes international security.
“U.S. policy towards Iran for the last three decades has consisted of pressure, primarily in the form of economic sanctions, threats and isolationism.
“While U.S. economic sanctions have hurt Iran’s economy, U.S. policy over the last thirty years has not created any meaningful change in the behavior of the Iranian government.
“On October 1, there was a change. For the first time in the recent past, high level delegations from Iran, the US and other industrialized nations sat down to diplomatic talks. There was significant progress. Among the steps forward was an agreement by Iran to allow access by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the recently revealed planned enrichment facility.
“Yet, with signs of progress in these highly sensitive talks, we are proposing to punish Iran. We should be doing everything we can to ensure that diplomacy – and President Obama – succeed.
“Sanctions will not help with diplomatic talks or assist us in our efforts to bring Iran into a new position in the world community. The United States cannot be in a position of picking nuclear winners and losers. Ultimately, we need to get every nation involved in nuclear abolition,” said Kucinich
Full Story: Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Public Health Before Wall Street Wealth
By Robert Scheer
Wonderful. The 13 Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee get one faintly rational Republican to join them in a meaningless stab at health care reform and it throws the media into a titillated frenzy about what it all means. It means very little.
The main thrust of the proposal is to forcibly submit even more customers to the tender mercies of the insurance industry while doing nothing significant to cut costs. Insurers will now pretend that the burdens on them are onerous and will demand concessions to make this an even bigger boondoggle for the medical profiteers than George W. Bush’s prescription drug coverage initiative.
The insurers’ leverage with the few moderate Republicans and with conservative Democrats will prevent the merging of the Baucus bill with the more serious attempts at reform in other Senate and House proposals. While President Barack Obama was celebrating Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, for being “extraordinarily diligent” in working with the Democrats, she was already proclaiming the exit strategy she will use if the bill becomes worthwhile. “My vote today is my vote today,” Snowe said Tuesday. “It doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.”
Full Story: Truthdig – Reports – Public Health Before Wall Street Wealth.
Saying ‘No’ to a Wider Afghan War
Editor’s Note: President Obama is under growing pressure from Washington power centers to escalate the war in Afghanistan and accept the recommendation from his field commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, for about 40,000 more troops.
From the Washington Post to Sen. John McCain, Obama is getting excoriated simply for taking time to weigh the various options. However, in this guest essay, the Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland says the President should resist the pressure and just say “no.”
Although the politicians, media and public believe few things are more important than preventing another al-Qaeda attack on America, defending the founding principles of the republic would seem to be one of them.
The conventional wisdom is that the war in Afghanistan is a “war of necessity” that cannot be lost if the war against al-Qaeda is to be won. This proposition is only now being questioned because the fraud-plagued Afghan election makes a legitimate government almost impossible and because the war in Afghanistan has turned into an eight-year quagmire that is getting worse by the day.
Not only is the conventional wisdom wrong, but Gen. Stanley McChrystal should be fired, even if it means losing the war.
Full Story: Consortiumnews.com.
Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 a year
• Countries with restrictive laws most affected
• Global report shows overall fall in terminations
About 70,000 women die every year and many more suffer harm as a result of unsafe abortions in countries with restrictive laws on ending a pregnancy, according to a report.
The total number of abortions across the globe has fallen, the influential Guttmacher Institute says, but that drop relates only to legal abortions and is mostly the result of changes in eastern Europe.
There were 41.6m terminations worldwide in 2003, compared with 45.5m in 1995. But in 2003, says the report, 19.7m of these were unsafe, clandestine abortions. The numbers of those have hardly changed from 1995, when there were 19.9m.
Almost all the unsafe abortions were in less developed countries with restrictive abortion laws.
Full Story: Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 a year | Life and style | The Guardian.
Ford adds 4.5M vehicles to defective switch recall
Ford adds 4.5M vehicles to recall of defective cruise control switch that could cause fires
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will add 4.5 million older-model vehicles to the long list of those recalled because a defective cruise control switch could cause a fire.
The latest voluntary action pushes Ford’s total recall due to faulty switches to 14.3 million registered vehicles over 10 years, capping the company’s largest cumulative recall in history involving a single problem.
The recall covers 1.1 million Ford Windstar minivans that had a small risk of fire due to internal leaking from the switches. Ford said in a letter to federal regulators that it found a small number of reported fires linked to the problem during an internal investigation that began last year, but did not specify how many.
The remaining 3.4 million vehicles are Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models. Ford said there were no reports of fires with those models, most of them trucks and sport utility vehicles, but that they were included in the recall because they use the same switches. All vehicles covered by the recall are from the 1992 to 2003 model years.
Full Story: Ford adds 4.5M vehicles to defective switch recall – Yahoo! Finance.
UnitedHealth’s Helmsley Earns $57,000 A Day—Will It Increase After Obamacare?
The LA Times used the word “bonanza” recently in describing what Obama’s and Congress’ health care “reform” will mean to the insurance/pharma industries. Criminalizing the uninsured, i.e., making purchasing insurance mandatory, will bring massive profit-making for an industry whose profit-making already has crippled the present health care system so badly that 45,000 uninsured Americans die each year prematurely – unnecessarily — according to a recent Harvard study.
What our President and Congressional representatives, ostensibly employed by and committed to us, seem to be doing these days is exchanging true health care reform for their own campaign financing needs. It is the proverbial elephant (and donkey) in the room. To shift animal metaphors, these representatives are entrusting the public hen house to the foxes, in the guise of reform for citizens. Yes, waiving “no pre-existing conditions” would be of significant value, but what will be the giveaways? What devastating, small-print, loop-hole ambushes will unfold as painful epiphanies in our individual futures?
What happened to universal health care as a mandate because it is a basic human/civil right? The human or civil right aspect seems to be postponed to future generations to fight for. Meanwhile this President and Congress publicly celebrate their 5-bill “work in progress” and its agenda as so significant in history in terms of US health care reform. History will more likely record their greed and cowardice, as well as our obtuseness and/or cowardice as citizens.
Full Story: The Seminal » UnitedHealth’s Helmsley Earns $57,000 A Day—Will It Increase After Obamacare?.
Senate GOP To Oppose Employer Surtax Tied To Jobless Benefits
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Senate Republicans plan to object to Democrats’ plan to continue an expiring surtax on employers in order to pay for an extension of unemployment insurance benefits, a senior Republican aide said Tuesday.
Instead, the aide said, Republicans hope to offer an amendment that proposes using unspent funds from the $787 billion economic stimulus plan to pay for an extension of federal unemployment benefits.
Last week, Senate Democrats introduced legislation to extend benefits by 14 weeks in all 50 states, and another six weeks for those living in states with jobless rates higher than 8.5%.
Full Story: UPDATE:Senate GOP To Oppose Employer Surtax Tied To Jobless Benefits – WSJ.com.
BofA to charge annual fees on some credit cards
Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday it will charge a limited number of its credit card customers annual fees ranging from $29 to $99 starting next year.
“We’re testing this to see what the feedback is. In terms of any plans going forward, we haven’t made any decisions,” said Betty Riess, a spokeswoman for Bank of America. She said the fee is being “tested” on less than 1 percent of its credit card accounts globally, but declined to give specific numbers.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., had 80.2 million credit cards in circulation last year, making it the third-largest issuer of cards, according to CreditCards.com. Chase was first with 119.4 million cards, while Citi had 92 million.
The Bank of America accounts that will be charged fees were selected based on “risk and profitability,” Riess said. That means customers in good standing who never carried a balance — and never incurred interest charges or late fees — could be among those getting notices.
Full Story: BofA to charge annual fees on some credit cards.
Obama EPA releases Bush-era global warming finding
A controversial e-mail message buried by the Bush administration because of its conclusions on global warming surfaced Tuesday, nearly two years after it was first sent to the White House and never opened.
The e-mail and the 28-page document attached to it, released Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency, show that back in December of 2007 the agency concluded that six gases linked to global warming pose dangers to public welfare, and wanted to take steps to regulate their release from automobiles and the burning of gasoline.
The document specifically cites global warming’s effects on air quality, agriculture, forestry, water resources and coastal areas as endangering public welfare.
Full Story: Obama EPA releases Bush-era global warming finding – Yahoo! News.
White House blasts insurance industry
Linda Douglass, White House communications director for health policy, says the insurance industry’s “report” on the cost of the Baucus Bill suggests insurers are actually opposed to reform:
Video
Full Story: White House blasts insurance industry – Daily Kos TV (beta).
2010 California Marriage Protection Act PSA
Bonus video this week. The regularly scheduled episode of RNGG will be up next week.
Siv-Art Productions produced this PSA in support of the Marriage Protection Act of 2010, which will ban divorce in the state of California.
Full Story: YouTube – 2010 California Marriage Protection Act PSA (#2).
Halo Cloud Seen Hovering In Moscow Sky (VIDEO)
A mysterious halo-shaped cloud was seen hovering in the sky over the city of Moscow a few days ago. Lest you believe that this confirms your various conspiracy theories, meteorologists have ruled out any supernatural cause:
A spokesman from the city’s weather forecast said: ‘Several fronts have been passing through Moscow recently, there was an intrusion of the Arctic air too, the sun was shining from the west – this is how the effect was produced.’
He added: ‘This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive.
WATCH:
Full Story: Halo Cloud Seen Hovering In Moscow Sky (VIDEO).
Ford Recalls 4.5 Million Vehicles Over Defective Cruise Control Switch
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will add 4.5 million older-model vehicles to the long list of those recalled because a defective cruise control switch could cause a fire.
The latest voluntary action pushes Ford’s total recall due to faulty switches to 14.3 million registered vehicles over 10 years, capping the company’s largest cumulative recall in history involving a single problem.
The recall covers 1.1 million Ford Windstar minivans that had a small risk of fire due to internal leaking from the switches. Ford said in a letter to federal regulators that it found a small number of reported fires linked to the problem during an internal investigation that began last year, but did not specify how many.
The remaining 3.4 million vehicles are Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models. Ford said there were no reports of fires with those models, most of them trucks and sport utility vehicles, but that they were included in the recall because they use the same switches. All vehicles covered by the recall are from the 1992 to 2003 model years.
Full Story: Ford Recalls 4.5 Million Vehicles Over Defective Cruise Control Switch.
Mother Who Went Blind To Save Her Children’s Sight Struggles With Medical Debt
UPDATE: Due to an overwhelming response from the HuffPost community, we’re extending the length of this fundraiser and raised our goal to $15,000. Over 300 contributors have given $10,000 in just under seven hours. This is an amazing accomplishment for the first day of the Impact section, and we want to keep the good will going.
Thank you for all your comments. We want to keep hearing from you.
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On September 28, HuffPost featured the story of Monique Zimmerman-Stein, a mother who shares a rare genetic disorder with her children that causes blindness. Though Zimmerman and her family have health insurance, they are still saddled by astronomical debt from medical bills, which has forced this mother to save her daughters’ sight by sacrificing her own.
The St. Petersburg Times, which originally published the story, also posted a video of Zimmerman speaking out about her family’s health care predicament and her daughters’ future.
WATCH:
Full Story: Help The Steins: Mother Who Went Blind To Save Her Children’s Sight Struggles With Medical Debt.
Another Company May Leave Chamber of Commerce Over Extreme Position On Climate Change
The holding company owned by multi-billionaire Ronald Perelman is debating whether to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Huffington Post has learned.
Driving the debate is the controversial stance taken by the country’s biggest business lobby on climate change.
Executives at MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, which owns significant stakes in a range of companies, most notably cosmetics maker Revlon, have been holding internal discussions on whether to pull out of the chamber over its recent challenge to the Clean Air Act. Should McAndrews & Forbes withdraw from the powerful business lobby, it would be the latest in a string of high-profile defections.
Full Story: Another Company May Leave Chamber of Commerce Over Extreme Position On Climate Change.
Wexler To Resign From Congress
The Sun-Sentinel is reporting that Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Florida) will resign from Congress. Wexler hasn’t stated his reasons for resigning, but the Sun-Sentinel reports that he is “likely to take a public policy job that deals with the Middle East.”
There has been a lot of chatter around the blogosphere about why Wexler is resigning, but there is nothing conclusive yet. Wexler will give a press conference on Wednesday.
In the meantime, why not catch up on Colbert’s “Better Know a District – Florida’s 19th – Robert Wexler.” Tagline: “Robert Wexler enjoys cocaine and the company of prostitutes because they are fun things to do.”
Full Story: Wexler To Resign From Congress.
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe to vote for Senate Finance health bill: ‘When history calls, history calls.’
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe to vote for Senate Finance health bill: ‘When history calls, history calls.’
While Republicans were hoping to have all members in its caucus oppose health care legislation, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) announced today that she will vote for the Finance Committee’s bill, making her the only Republican to do so. “When history calls, history calls,” she told her colleagues, noting that she still had some criticisms of the bill. She also touted the legislation’s “bipartisan, landmark reforms.”
A second Great Depression is still possible
Over the past year the global economy has experienced a massive contraction, the deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. But this spring, economists started talking of “green shoots” of recovery and that optimistic assessment quickly spread to Wall Street. More recently, on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers crash, Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, officially blessed this consensus by declaring the recession is “very likely over”.
The future is fundamentally uncertain, which always makes prediction a rash enterprise. That said there is a good chance the new consensus is wrong. Instead, there are solid grounds for believing the US economy will experience a second dip followed by extended stagnation that will qualify as the second Great Depression. Some indications to this effect are already rolling in with unexpectedly large US job losses in September and the crash in US automobile sales following the end of the “cash-for-clunkers” programme.
That rosy scenario thinking has returned to Wall Street should be no surprise. Wall Street profits from rising asset prices on which it charges a management fee, from deal-making on which it earns advisory fees, and from encouraging retail investors to buy stock, which boosts transaction fees. Such earnings are far larger when stock markets are rising, which explains Wall Street’s genetic propensity to pump the economy.
Full Story: FT.com | Economists’ Forum | A second Great Depression is still possible.
American Police Force won’t give up info sought by Montana AG
A spokeswoman for a California company being investigated for its attempted take over of an empty Montana jail says the company will not provide financial documents and other information sought by the state’s attorney general.
Monday was the deadline to provide the documents following revelations that Michael Hilton – the lead figure of American Police Force – has a lengthy criminal background.
Company spokeswoman Becky Shay says Hilton sent a one-page fax to the attorney general’s office Monday saying he was no longer pursuing the project.
Full Story: American Police Force won’t give up info sought by Montana AG.
Matt Taibbi on Health Care Reform: Sick and Wrong
America’s disastrous health care system is responsible for incalculable amounts of illness, death, lost productivity and federal deficit — not to mention anxiety, anger and disgrace. And it’s not going to get fixed, writes Matt Taibbi in the new issue of Rolling Stone, because it’s encased in another failed system: the U.S. government. Rather than attempt to remedy the problem this summer, our government sat down and demonstrated its dizzying ineptitude. “We might look back on this summer someday and think of it as the moment when our government lost us for good,” writes Taibbi. “It was that bad.”
Taibbi breaks down the five steps Congress took to be sure no bill would pass — aiming low, gutting the public option, packing it with loopholes, providing no leadership and blowing the math — in his story, which is available on stands now. In a series of video interviews for RollingStone.com, Taibbi explores one of our system’s most severe flaws, explains how the government wedged itself into an awkwardly damning position, and looks at how the proposed bill would change the ordinary American’s life.
Perhaps the biggest flaw in the American health care system is that 31 percent of costs are associated with administration and paperwork. Here Taibbi examines the easiest way to eliminate the red tape:
Full Story: Matt Taibbi on Health Care Reform: Sick and Wrong : Rolling Stone : National Affairs Daily.
Take America back from the banks
Dean Baker
Reining in the financial industry’s power and greed will be a long, hard-fought war. But it is one that must be fought
The elites hate to acknowledge it, but when large numbers of ordinary people are moved to action, it changes the narrow political world where the elites call the shots. Inside accounts reveal the extent to which Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon’s conduct of the Vietnam war was constrained by the huge anti-war movement. It was the civil rights movement, not compelling arguments, that convinced members of the US Congress to end legal racial discrimination. More recently, the town hall meetings dominated by people opposed to healthcare reform have been a serious roadblock for those pushing reform.
Those disgusted by the bank bailouts, and the bankers who brought us this recession, will have a chance to make their views known when the American Bankers Association has its annual meeting in Chicago this month. A large coalition of labour, community and consumer organisations are organising a protest at this “Showdown in Chicago“.
A big turnout at this event can make a real difference. Just to review the scorecard, most of the country is still suffering the fallout from the bankers’ irrational exuberance of the housing bubble era. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and other forecasters expect the suffering to endure for years to come.
Full Story: Take America back from the banks | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
Obama approves 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan – Yahoo! News
In an unannounced move, President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced publicly in March, The Washington Post reported.
The additional forces are primarily support forces — such as engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police — the Post said, bringing the total buildup Obama has approved for the war-torn nation to 34,000.
“Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000,” a defense official familiar with the troop-approval process told the daily.
Full Story: Obama approves 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan – Yahoo! News.
Some Coal Plants Cleanse the Air at the Expense of Waterways
For years, residents here complained about the yellow smoke pouring from the tall chimneys of the nearby coal-fired power plant, which left a film on their cars and pebbles of coal waste in their yards. Five states — including New York and New Jersey — sued the plant’s owner, Allegheny Energy, claiming the air pollution was causing respiratory diseases and acid rain.
So three years ago, when Allegheny Energy decided to install scrubbers to clean the plant’s air emissions, environmentalists were overjoyed. The technology would spray water and chemicals through the plant’s chimneys, trapping more than 150,000 tons of pollutants each year before they escaped into the sky.
But the cleaner air has come at a cost. Each day since the equipment was switched on in June, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north.
Full Story: Some Coal Plants Cleanse the Air at the Expense of Waterways – Series – NYTimes.com.
The Audacity of Greed: How Private Health Insurers Just Blew Their Cover
Robert Reich
The health-insurance industry has finally revealed itself for what it is.
Background: The industry hates the idea that’s emerged from the Senate Finance Committee of lowering penalties on younger and healthier people who don’t buy insurance. Relying on an analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers, insurers say this means new enrollees will be older and less healthy — which will drive up costs. And, says the industry, these costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. Proposed taxes on high-priced “Cadillac” policies will also be passed on to consumers. As a result, premiums will rise faster and higher than the government projects.
It’s an eleventh-hour bombshell.
But the bomb went off under the insurers. The only reason these costs can be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums is because there’s not enough competition among private insurers to force them to absorb the costs by becoming more efficient. Get it? Health insurers have just made the best argument yet about why a public insurance option is necessary.
Full Story: Robert Reich’s Blog.
Bills to lift Cuba travel ban gaining momentum in Congress
A powerful campaign to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba is rumbling through Congress, with both backers and opponents predicting eventual victory and a Cuban-American Senator holding a key vote.
Approval of the measures would have a profound impact on U.S.-Cuba relations, unleashing an estimated one million American tourists to visit the island and undermining White House control of policy toward Havana.
“There would be an explosion of contacts between Americans and Cubans . . . that would almost overshadow what the two governments are doing,” said Phil Peters, a Cuba expert with the Lexington Institute think thank in suburban Washington.
Full Story: Bills to lift Cuba travel ban gaining momentum in Congress | McClatchy.
Gore says ‘tipping point’ close for public push on climate change
The fate of the earth could end up determined by which tipping point is reached first: a physical shift that ushers in abrupt climate change with catastrophic consequences, or a social one, in which public attitudes rapidly coalesce around a mandate to address climate change. Or, neither could materialize, at least not imminently.
Al Gore believes the U.S. is on the brink of a political tipping point on the climate issue. Speaking to the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference in Madison, Wisc., last Friday, the former vice president said, “The potential for change can build up without noticeable effect until it reaches a critical mass. I think that we are very close to that tipping point.”
So what is a tipping point, actually? The term seems to be everywhere. It’s among the latest pop-sociology phrases to dominate public consciousness, along with “going viral.” That’s in large part due to the success of Malcolm Gladwell’s book by the same name, a volume that “presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does,” according to Gladwell’s website.
Full Story: Scholars and Rogues » Gore says ‘tipping point’ close for public push on climate change.
Obama backs off on big business
Obama has abandoned one of the planks of his campaign, his proposal to “end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.”
Scour, if you will, today’s Wall Street Journal opinion page to see if there is any mention of how one of the Journal’s lead stories on Monday, “Business Fends of Tax Hit,” conclusively proves that Obama administration policies resemble nothing close to socialism. You will scour in vain. The silence is deafening.
Funny — you’d think there would be more cheering. The Journal’s Neil King Jr. and Elizabeth Williamson make a pretty definitive case that Obama has abandoned one of the planks of his campaign, his proposal to “end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.”
Specifically, the Obama administration had hoped to raise $200 billion dollars by ending the tax break that allows “allows American multinationals to defer paying taxes on revenues earned abroad until companies repatriate them.” The WSJ article is a blow-by-blow description of how big business rallied its forces to oppose closing the tax-deferral loophole, and, apparently, won the battle.
Full Story: How the World Works – Salon.com.
Public Option Pressure To Stay On Reid
Although Senate Finance Committee is set today to approve a healthcare reform bill without a public option, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will find himself under pressure across Capitol Hill to include such a provision in the days and weeks to come.
The Finance Committee will approve a healthcare reform bill without a public option after its members defeated two attempts to include government-run healthcare in its reform plan. However, it will be up to Reid to put forward a single Senate bill that takes into consideration both the Finance legislation, and separate healthcare reform legislation approved this summer by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The HELP Committee bill includes a public option that would compete with private insurers.
President Obama has long supported inclusion of a public option, most recently in his address to Congress last month. Some 30 Democratic senators, led by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, have written Reid to make sure that the final health care reform bill includes a public health insurance option.
Full Story: On The Hill: Public Option Pressure To Stay On Reid.
Palestinian Memo: Hopes In Obama “Evaporated” After “Zionist Lobby” Pressure
The Palestinian president’s political party says all hopes in the Obama administration have “evaporated,” accusing the White House of caving in to pressure from the pro-Israel lobby and backing off a demand to freeze Jewish settlement.
Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party also accused the U.S. of failing to set a clear agenda for a new round of Mideast peace talks, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“All hopes placed in the new U.S. administration and President Obama have evaporated,” the document said. Obama “couldn’t withstand the pressure of the Zionist lobby, which led to a retreat from his previous positions on halting settlement construction and defining an agenda for the negotiations and peace.”
Full Story: Palestinian Memo: Hopes In Obama “Evaporated” After “Zionist Lobby” Pressure.
The Chamber’s Numbers Game
The Chamber of Commerce says it speaks for 3 million businesses. That’s hot air.
The nation’s largest business lobby may be much smaller than it appears. A review of archival press releases suggests that the US Chamber of Commerce—which will not disclose the names of its members—has vastly overstated its size in recent years, helping to make its controversial positions on health care and climate change look like a consensus of American businesses.
In testimony before Congress, statements to the press, and on its website, the Chamber claims to represent “3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions.” In reality, the number is probably closer to 200,000.
In February 1997, the Chamber’s membership figure mysteriously jumped from 200,000 to 3 million, where it has remained ever since. The first use of the bigger number came less than two weeks before Chamber president Richard Lesher retired, soon to be succeeded by current president Tom Donohue. In congressional testimony and a press release, the Chamber suddenly described itself as representing “an underlying membership of more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.”
Full Story: The Chamber’s Numbers Game | Mother Jones.
OPS: What – an anti-American rightwing Fascist organization lied?
Madoff In Prison Fight Over Stock Market: Report
For all of his billions in faked profits, convicted Ponzi Schemer Bernie Madoff recently got into a very real fight with a fellow inmate over the stock market, according to The New York Post.
Madoff, of course, is serving a 150-year prison sentence for a massive $68 billion fraud. The altercation, according to The New York Post, was over the state of the market and involved another older inmate, who left the fight “red-faced.” Madoff’s toughness, apparently, impressed a fellow inmate at the Butner, North Carolina facility that was quoted by the Post.
It’s not the first fight involving jailed financiers in recent weeks. Last month, Allen Stanford sustained injuries, including “two black eyes and a broken nose” while fighting with another inmate.
Full Story: Madoff In Prison Fight Over Stock Market: Report.
One Company Responsible For Nearly Half Of All Permanent Mortgage Modifications
Nearly half of the permanent home loan modifications under the government’s plan to help troubled borrowers come from a single company that handles less than three percent of the eligible mortgages.
Ocwen Financial declared Monday that it was responsible for 45 percent of the 1,711 modifications that have become permanent after a three-month trial period under the Obama administration’s $75 billion foreclosure prevention plan.
The rest of the mortgage servicers enrolled in the government’s Making Home Affordable program — including multi-billion dollar bailout recipients Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup — converted just 948 trial modifications into permanent ones.
Full Story: One Company Responsible For Nearly Half Of All Permanent Mortgage Modifications.
Gold pushes to fresh high
Gold prices reached a fresh all-time high on Tuesday while base metals staged a broad advance and oil prices rose as commodity markets gained support from further dollar weakness.
Gold reached $1,067.60 a troy ounce, another record, pushing past the previous peak of $1,061.20 reached last Thursday as bullion’s record-breaking run showed little sign of running out of steam.
Full Story: FT.com / Commodities – Gold pushes to fresh high.
Senate Finance Committee Health Care Vote Today
“Not Since Theodore Roosevelt Proposed Universal Health Care During The 1912 Presidential Campaign Has Any Such Bill Come This Far”
A Senate committee moved Tuesday toward a pivotal vote on a sweeping health care bill that fulfills President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. “It’s time to get the job done,” Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus declared as he convened his panel for the long-anticipated action.
“This is our opportunity to make history,” the Montana Democrat said. “Let us reform the health care system to control costs and premiums. Let us extend health care coverage to all Americans.”
The expected approval by Baucus’ committee would push a remake of the U.S. health care system closer to reality than it has been in decades. Four other congressional committees finished their work before August and for months all eyes have been on the Finance panel, the one whose moderate makeup most closely resembles the Senate as a whole.
The committee’s centrist legislation is also seen as the best building block for a compromise plan that could find favor on the Senate floor.
Full Story: Senate Finance Committee Health Care Vote Today.
BofA waives privilege on Merrill purchase
Bank will hand over documents relating to deal
Bank of America has agreed to a request from the office of Andrew Cuomo, attorney-general of New York, to waive the attorney-client privilege that Mr Cuomo claims is preventing him from determining whether charges should be brought against BofA’s top executives.
A source familiar with the matter said BofA sent Mr Cuomo’s office a letter late on Monday saying the bank would turn over documents regarding the legal advice that was given to the bank’s senior management in the weeks leading up to BofA’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, which closed on January 1.
Full Story: FT.com / Companies / Banks – BofA waives privilege on Merrill purchase.
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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. 
