Archive for December, 2009

8 Books That Predicted The Financial Crisis (PHOTOS, POLL)

Ever wish you had a crystal ball? Would have been convenient if there had been some warning about the kind of financial crisis we’re facing now. It would have been great if someone had told us how to prepare. Well, someone did–lots of someones–and they were even on the bestseller lists. I’m sure many were listening, but perhaps not enough. Here are some of the books that warned us about the present. Stay tuned for the list that warns us about the future.

Where to do we begin? By looking at economic waves. Long ones. Guess where we are now, crest or trough?

Full Story 8 Books That Predicted The Financial Crisis (PHOTOS, POLL).

Durbin: Banks And GOP Made A Pact To Kill Regulatory Reform

In a little-noticed but potentially explosive remark last Friday, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) accused Republican leadership of signing a political pact with the banking industry: in exchange for help defeating a measure that would make it easier for homeowners to restructure failing mortgages, GOP leadership in the Senate would help banks defeat any additional efforts at regulatory reform.

The allegation of a quid pro quo was based on an email that Durbin received last spring after his amendment to allow judges to modify mortgages for homeowners who enter bankruptcy was defeated on the Senate floor. During a discussion to promote publicly-financed elections on Friday, the Illinois Democrat relayed that, shortly after the defeat of his “cram-down” amendment, a “banker friend” forwarded him the note from Tanya Wheeless, president & CEO of Arizona Bankers Association.

“I have contacted the market presidents for each of the three banks (Chase, Wells and Bank of America) and explained that in my humble opinion it’s a big mistake to cut a deal with Durbin and alienate our (in Arizona) Senator,” Wheeless’s email reads. “I also told them that I thought this would drive a wedge in our industry. [Senator Jon] Kyl has pointedly told them not to make a deal with Durbin and then come looking to Republicans when they need help on something like regulatory restructuring or systemic risk regulation.”

Full Story Durbin: Banks And GOP Made A Pact To Kill Regulatory Reform.

Nurses unions merge, back healthcare overhaul

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Three nurses unions merged on Monday to form the largest-ever labor organization for U.S. medical professionals, which is expected to wield greater clout in collective bargaining and the national healthcare debate.

U.S. | Healthcare Reform

Leaders of the new 150,000-member National Nurses United, comprising union locals from Maine to Hawaii, said their top priority would be to seek to organize the overwhelming majority of registered nurses who remain without union representation.

Of roughly 1.5 million nurses who provide direct patient care in U.S. hospitals and clinics, about 80 percent have no union contract, NNU officials said.

The merger, approved unanimously by delegates to the founding convention in Phoenix, unifies the California Nurses Association, with 83,000 members in California and several other states; the United American Nurses, with 45,000 members, mostly the Midwest, and the 22,000-member Massachusetts Nurses Association.

Full Story Nurses unions merge, back healthcare overhaul | Reuters.

Liberal coalition posts $200,000 bounty on Chamber CEO’s freedom

A coalition of more than 100 liberal activist groups has posted a $200,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Tom Donohue, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.

“[Under] the leadership of Tom Donohue, [the chamber] has gone from a well respected trade organization to an extremist political organization dedicated to corrupting American democracy by elevating the profits of big corporations over the well being of the citizens they serve,” declared a Velvet Revolution press release. “The most recent example of this corrupt behavior is the Chamber’s announcement that it is spending more than $100 million to defeat initiatives to protect the environment and provide affordable health care to everyone.”

Responding to the charges, a chamber spokesperson suggested to Fox News that it is Velvet Revolution that deserves to be investigated.

“The media should be following the money trail behind this scurrilous group instead of giving credence to its outrageous tactics,” Eric Wohlschlegel said, according to Fox. He added that the chamber is weighing its “legal options.”

Full Story Liberal coalition posts $200,000 bounty on Chamber CEO’s freedom | Raw Story.

Fox News anchor suggests abortions would help control low-income population

Even by the standards of Fox News, which routinely takes a drubbing from liberal critics over sensationalist rhetoric, a comment by Fox News anchor Alisyn Camerota Monday seemed to toe the most outrageous line.

Camerota asked a guest — perhaps playing devil’s advocate — if there was benefit to a Democratic senator’s healthcare amendment which blocked federal funding for abortions.

“If there is no federal money used to subsidize abortions for low-income women, doesn’t that mean there will be more low-income babies, and do any of these amendments talk about the health care for them?” Camerota asked.

Full Story Fox News anchor suggests abortions would help control low-income population | Raw Story.

Iraqi cab driver was source for Iraq WMD claim, British MP says

A British parliamentarian claimed in an report published Tuesday that an Iraqi cab driver was the source of an infamous claim made by Prime Minister Tony Blair that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

The member of Parliament, a member of the conservative British Tory Party, claims that he was told by a British intelligence official that the claim actually came from an Iraqi taxi driver, and that it was considered highly unreliable but was tacitly backed by Blair’s government in public statements anyway.

According to the report, the taxi driver worker near Iraq’s border with Jordan. The cab driver is said to have made the comments while transporting two British intelligence officers, who overheard him talking.

“Under pressure from Downing Street to find anything to back up the WMD case, [British intelligence services] were squeezing their agents in Iraq for anything at all,” MP Adam Holloway wrote in his report, leaked to the British Daily Mail. “One agent did come up with something – the [claim that chemical weapons could be launched on British forces in Cyprus in] ’45 minutes,’ allegedly discussed in a high-level Iraqi political meeting.”

Full Story Iraqi cab driver was source for Iraq WMD claim, British MP says | Raw Story.

Cantor Can’t Name A Single GOP ‘Big Idea’ On Job Creation

Today, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) appeared at the Economist’s World in 2010 conference (attended by ThinkProgress), where he took exception to NBC’s David Gregory characterizing Republicans as “not really a party of ideas, because they don’t want to be.” Cantor claimed that it’s actually the media’s fault that no one hears about Republican ideas, because “it’s not as sexy of a story to cover our ideas right now.” But when the Economist’s Daniel Franklin gave Cantor an opportunity to present his big idea for job creation, Cantor couldn’t come through:

FRANKLIN: What is the big idea? “Jobs” is not an idea.

CANTOR: The big idea is to get, to get, to produce an environment where we can have job creation again. And see, that’s where the Obama administration’s agenda so clearly disadvantages the Democrats in this upcoming election in eleven months and advantages us.

Watch it:

Full Story Think Progress » Cantor Can’t Name A Single GOP ‘Big Idea’ On Job Creation.

OPS: …because Job Creation is  one of the issues that Republican’s simply do not care about.  It’s not on their agenda

Boxer’s message to men who support abortion riders: How would you like it if we singled out Viagra?

Today, the Senate began debate on Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) amendment to prohibit federal funds from being used for abortions or for plans that include abortion services. Igor Volsky notes that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stepped up and drew a parallel to help the amendment’s male co-sponsors better understand its repercussions. Since Nelson’s measure forces women to purchase special abortion riders — which require women to plan for unplanned pregnancies — Boxer challenged “the men who have brought us this” to “single out a procedure that’s used by a man or a drug that is used by a man that involves his reproductive health care and say they have to get a special rider”:

BOXER: There’s nothing in this amendment that says if a man some days wants to buy Viagra, for example, that his pharmaceutical coverage cannot cover it, that he has to buy a rider. I wouldn’t support that. And they shouldn’t support going after a woman using her own private funds for her reproductive health care. Is it fair to say to a man you’re going to have to buy a rider to buy Viagra and this will be public information that could be accessed? No, I don’t support that. I support a man’s privacy, just as I support a woman’s privacy.

Watch it:

Full Story Think Progress » Boxer’s message to men who support abortion riders: How would you like it if we singled out Viagra?.

Lobbyists Removed from Advisory Panels

According to The Washington Post, the new policy may result in hundreds, or even thousands, of lobbyists being ejected from federal panels upon which they serve.

A new policy by the White House ethics counsel may have a huge impact on the way lobbyists interact with federal advisory panels.

According to The Washington Post, the new policy may result in hundreds, or even thousands, of lobbyists being ejected from federal panels upon which they serve.

Right now the federal government is riddled with paid lobbyists who serve on dozens of congressional, judiciary, and executive panels. There are perhaps 1,000 or more advisory panels, with nearly 60,000 sitting members. The new law will bar all of Washington’s 13,000 registered lobbyists from serving, or continuing to serve, on any of these panels.

In his initiative to retake the political system from the special interests, this move is perhaps the most sweeping policy to come out of the Obama White House.

Full Story Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

OPS: Good move – if it’s actually true

The Shame and Folly of Obama’s Afghan War

By Dave Lindorff –

There are so many things wrong with Obama's “New and Improved” Afghanistan War that it's hard to know where to begin, but I guess the place to start is with his premise.

If America needs to be fighting in Afghanistan because Al Qaeda planned and launched the 9-11 attacks from there back in 2001, as the president claimed in his lackluster address to the cadets at West Point last week, then we would have to assume either that Al Qaeda is still there, or that if we were not there fighting, that Al Qaeda would be back to plan more attacks.

Well, we know Al Qaeda is not there, because US intelligence reports that there are “fewer than 100” Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan at most at this point, and probably a good deal fewer. Maybe even zero. Al Qaeda has long since moved on to Pakistan and thence to other countries far removed from Afghanistan (even Defense Secretary Robert Gates, after speculating that Osama bin Laden “might be” hopping back and forth across the border with Pakistan like a kid doing a double-dare game, concedes that in truth no one in the US has any idea where bin Laden is, or whether he is even in South Asia). But would Al Qaeda come back if the Taliban, ousted back in 2001 by US Special Forces, were to return to power in Kabul? Not likely. As the New York Times reported in last Sunday’s paper, the Afghan Taliban have convincingly broken with Al Qaeda, because of the latter organization’s targeting of the Pakistani government, which has long had a supportive relationship with the Afghan Taliban. Besides, the Taliban in Afghanistan have a clear goal of ruling Afghanistan, and the US has already demonstrated both that it can live and work with a Taliban government, as it was doing before the 9-11 attacks, and that it will punish the Taliban if they allow Al Qaeda a free hand inside their country. So the odds of a re-established Taliban regime in Afghanistan inviting Al Qaeda to move back in and set up shop are somewhere around zero.

Full Story OpEdNews – Article: The Shame and Folly of Obama’s Afghan War.

Free Trade Proponents Foolishly Push Forward

With President Barack Obama set to unveil new job creation policies next week, his critics on the right, including business groups and Congressional Republicans are offering up their own ideas.

With President Barack Obama set to unveil new job creation policies next week, his critics on the right, including business groups and Congressional Republicans are offering up their own ideas. Those ideas consist of the same boilerplate GOP economic stimulus of the past two decades: lower taxes and more so-called “free trade.”

Critics on the right would like to see the Obama administration and Congress actively work to finalize previously negotiated “free trade” agreements with Columbia, South Korea and Panama, which they say will boost U.S. exports and create American jobs, in spite of “free trade” failures America has seen so far.

“For most of 2009 we were willing to sit on our hands” Bill Lane, a government affairs official for Caterpillar Inc., told the Associated Press. “We can't maintain that anymore. It's time we started moving forward.”

According to Lane, the U.S. has paid $2.3 billion in tariffs to Columbia since the trade agreement was negotiated three years ago.

Full Story Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

Compete

Former U. S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings

“Meanwhile, competition within the global economy has grown more fierce, so we can’t simply afford to ignore the price of these wars.”

President Obama made an outstanding presentation at West Point, not only of our situation in Afghanistan but our dilemma here at home. He stated:

“But as we end the war in Iraq and transition to Afghan responsibility we must rebuild our strength here at home. Our prosperity provides a foundation for our power. It pays for our military; it underwrites our diplomacy; it taps the potential of our people and allows investment in new industry; and it will allow us to compete in this century as successfully as we did in the last.”

Talking along, he emphasized:

“In the end, our security and leadership does not come solely from the strength of our arms, it derives from our people, from the workers and businesses who will rebuild our economy.”

But earlier in his talk the President observed:

[Obama via da Afghanistan da luglio 2011] “Meanwhile, competition within the global economy has grown more fierce, so we can’t simply afford to ignore the price of these wars.”

Full Story Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.

11 Toxic Cosmetic Ingredients You Must Avoid

The greener we become, the more we have to scrutinize. I for one have cleaned up my home, my diet, my cleaning products and ““ of utmost importance ““ the products I put on my skin. I’m an avid ingredient reader and do the research ““ after all, my skin is the largest organ in my body! Here’s a list of some common skin and hair care chemicals we all need to avoid.

Coal Tar: Coal tar is used to treat eczema, psoriasis and other skin disorders and can be found in anti-itch creams and scalp treatments. It’s also a known carcinogen.

Diethanolamine (DEA): A lathering agent in soaps and shampoos, DEA isn’t carcinogenic by itself, but can react with other chemicals in products to create a carcinogen readily absorbed into the skin. Look for DEA in many forms, such as Cocamide DEA, Oleamide DEA and Lauramide DEA.

Formaldehyde: A frighteningly common ingredient in a variety of beauty products. Formaldehyde can irritate your eyes, nose and throat, dry out and irritate your skin and even cause asthma and cancer with repeated exposure.

more……….

Full Story 11 Toxic Cosmetic Ingredients You Must Avoid | EcoSalon.

Why the Marketing and Ad Industry Are Afraid of New Regulatory Watchdogs

The firms doing the spinning for some of the financial meltdown's biggest players have good reason to be worried. Their crimes, after all, went largely unnoticed.

Marketers are stepping up their campaign to undermine the Obama Administration’s proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Why are their lobbyists, including the interactive ad trade association representing Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Time Warner and the New York Times, worried about having to face a new formidable regulator? They fear coming under serious scrutiny for the growing role digital advertising of financial products plays in today’s online economy. Already a big business, financial service advertisers spent some $3 billion last year to target U.S. consumers online — for mortgages, credit cards, insurance, and loans for education. Online financial marketers have also so far been immune from criticism about their own activities that helped trigger the economic meltdown — remember the torrent of flickering interactive ads offering easy credit and mortgages? But a savvy new regulator might uncover how all those millions of online ads for subprime loans contributed to the fiscal debacle.

Banks, credit card providers, mortgage and insurance companies are already using the full range of contemporary advertising tools to target consumers, including social media, search marketing, interactive display ads, blogs, email and even Twitter. Last July alone there was nearly a mind boggling 36 billion online ads served to users for financial services, with almost 5 billion from Experian (a credit reporting company), 2.7 billion from Citigroup, and more than 2 billion from Bank of America. Financial marketers are taking advantage of the dizzying array of Ph.D. developed mechanisms designed to harvest the digital gold of the 21st Century — information about us, our online (and offline) travels, networks of friends, what we post online, the content we view, and what we place or discard in our electronic shopping carts. Increasingly, as we go online to search for financial information and services, companies scoop up data about our transactions online and combine it with the reams of offline information. For example, mortgage lenders are offered an “atomic” level of information on consumers, including “up-to-date transaction, credit, demographic and behavioral databases.”  Largely invisible are companies such as eBureau, which sells “instant insights” on our financial status to online financial services companies and other marketers. eBureau says it has a “vast data network that seamlessly integrates billions of records across thousands of databases that cover nearly all US adults and households,” adding over “3 billion new records each month.”

Full Story Digital Dollars: Why the Marketing and Ad Industry Are Afraid of New Regulatory Watchdogs | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet.

How The Religious Right Stole Christmas

Last holiday season, Bill O’Reilly was fuming a little bit more than usual.

The bombastic Fox News host declared that Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire had “insulted Christians all over the world” when she “allowed” a Winter Solstice display to stand next to a Christmas tree and a Nativity scene in the state’s capitol building.

But what O’Reilly failed to acknowledge in his op-ed for The Washington Times was that Gregoire was just doing her job. She was enforcing a court order that stemmed from a case between the state and O’Reilly’s friends at the Alliance Defense Fund.

The ADF, a Religious Right group, had represented a local man who wanted to erect a Nativity scene in the state capitol rotunda, forcing the state in 2007 to broaden its policy on displays.

That meant that when the next holiday season rolled around, the capitol rotunda had to be open to an atheist sign that stated, “At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Full Story How The Religious Right Stole Christmas | Americans United.

Why Fake Optimism Is the Worst Way to Deal with Life’s Problems

Looking at crap and calling it candy has become a growth industry. But experts say there are better ways to deal with crisis.

One of the funniest, sickest and catchiest scenes in film history was at the end of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Brian and about a dozen other guys have been crucified and while they’re waiting to die one of them launches into that impossibly perky little toe-tapper, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

This parody was written 30 years ago but its ironic ending of the whistling doomed feels totally appropriate for today; a time of crisis in which the desire to learn how to look at crap and call it candy has become a growth industry. Affirmations, visualizations and the long arm of the Law of Attraction — you attract what you put out — seem to be everywhere. Undoubtedly someone has met your doubts this year with the mantra “Think positive!” And how dearly we’d all love to believe that wishing could make it so.

Barbara Ehrenreich takes a long, comprehensive look at positive thinking in her most recent book, Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Ehrenreich delves into our country’s religious history, the way positive thinking has been absorbed into religion, psychology and economics, the ubiquity of motivational speakers, and why it might not be such a good thing to, say, avoid the news because it brings you down. One of the most memorable passages in the book is a call center worker who describes having to simulate happiness as “the kind of feeling you might get from getting a hand job when your soul is dying.”

Full Story Why Fake Optimism Is the Worst Way to Deal with Life’s Problems | Sex and Relationships | AlterNet.

OPS:  Crap for candy?  just wait until they pass that Health Care “reform” bill.  The Democrats will be using their extra big magic wand on that one

Target calls cops on nursing mother

Security guards at a Michigan store tell a woman that feeding her baby in public is illegal

While Mary Martinez was shopping in a Target store in Harper Woods, Mich., recently, her 4-week-old baby got hungry. And because some people still haven’t gotten it through their heads that women often use their own breasts to feed hungry babies, a security guard who saw her doing just that told her she had to leave because she was breaking the law. Which she was not. Target mistake No. 1.

When Martinez and her husband, Jose — a police officer who knew full well his wife wasn’t doing anything illegal — refused to leave, the security guard called the cops. Target mistake No. 2. Although the local officers who arrived confirmed that it is not against the law to breast-feed in public in Harper Woods, Mary Martinez says she felt humiliated and forced out of the store anyway. “Two security guards, the manager or team leader, two officers, they just made a spectacle and a scene. I feel like I can’t go to that specific Target anymore.”

Now, Target mistakes 1 and 2 can be written off as the poor judgment of individual employees, but 3 is the real eye-popper: When contacted by Detroit’s Fox affiliate, Target’s corporate headquarters said that breast-feeding is allowed in their stores, but “This specific situation escalated to a point where we were concerned for the safety of our guests, so law enforcement was called.” Are you kidding me? How on earth does feeding a baby “escalate” to a safety issue for other customers? Target’s corporate spokesperson does understand that when you give a quote to a media outlet, other people will end up hearing it, right? And also that words mean things?

Full Story Broadsheet – Salon.com.

Neither Canada nor the world can afford growth of dirty oil

Today in Copenhagen, the Harper government will walk into the UN climate summit not with the intention of transitioning Canada into a clean energy economy, but instead with the agenda of prolonging the oil industry frenzy in the tar sands in northern Alberta.

It is crunch time to stabilize the climate so that our children inherit a safe world. Scientists tell us there is no more room in the atmosphere for the heat-trapping gasses that result from our burning of fossil fuels, and that we must in fact reduce the concentrations of those gasses if we want some measure of security.

Into this historic moment steps the tar-sands industry, on the one hand breathless when describing the hundreds of billions of barrels of oil it could potentially get out of the ground, while on the other pleading to be seen as a minor global warming villain. But you cannot have it both ways.

The current estimate of recoverable oil from the tar sands is 175 billion barrels, which if processed and burned amounts to over 110 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This alone, if it happened quickly, is enough to increase global concentrations of heat-trapping gasses to levels that scientists consider more than dangerous.

Full Story Neither Canada nor the world can afford growth of dirty oil – thestar.com.

Supreme Court Should Reject Religious Discrimination at Public Universities, Says Americans United

Church-State Watchdog Group Calls on High Court to Affirm Lower Court Ruling in Calif. Law School Case

WASHINGTON – December 7 – The U.S. Supreme Court today announced it will hear a dispute from California involving an evangelical Christian club at a public law school that wants recognition and funding as an official campus organization, even though it discriminates on religious grounds.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the high court to use the case as a vehicle to make it clear that groups seeking public funding and official recognition on public college campuses must be open to all.

“This case is about fundamental fairness,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “If the student religious group wins, it will mean some students will be compelled to support clubs that won't even admit them as members. That's just not right.”

The dispute involves a branch of the Christian Legal Society at Hastings College of Law at the University of California in San Francisco. The group sought funding and official status from the school, even though it effectively bars gays and non-Christians from membership by requiring all officers and voting members to sign an evangelical Christian statement of faith.

Full Story Supreme Court Should Reject Religious Discrimination at Public Universities, Says Americans United | CommonDreams.org.

ACORN Report Finds No Illegal Conduct

ACORN employees caught in those undercover videos advising a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute on how to break the law acted unprofessionally and inappropriately, but did nothing illegal, an independent report has found.

The report, by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, recommends nine steps for ACORN to take in order to regain public trust in the wake of the scandal, including that it return to its “core competency – community organizing and citizen engagement empowerment, with related services.”

On the key question of potential illegal conduct, it finds:

While some of the advice and counsel given by ACORN employees and volunteers was clearly inappropriate and unprofessional, we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff; in fact, there is no evidence that action, illegal or otherwise, was taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers.

Harshbarger also notes that the videos were sometimes less than perfect representations of the events they depict. He writes:

Full Story ACORN Report Finds No Illegal Conduct | TPMMuckraker.

The Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial

Mother Jones

In 2006, according to the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of Americans saw “solid evidence” for global warming. By this fall, that figure had dropped to 57 percent—and just 36 percent said they believed that humans are to blame. That’s good news for climate change skeptics and deniers, who have spent years trying to perpetuate the illusion that the reality of climate change is up for debate. Never mind that the scientific consensus is firmly on the side of global warming—for anyone seeking an alternate view, there’s an entire parallel universe where junk science and bogus statistics ricochet through an echo chamber of kooky blogs, “nonpartisan” institutes, and fake “green” and “citizen” groups that are often acting on behalf of the oil and coal industry.

With Copenhagen kicking off and the overblown “Climategate” scandal making headlines, the deniers have even more fodder for their campaign to kill serious action to slow climate change.

Here’s a guide to the dozen loudest components of the climate disinformation machine.

note: each of the following is a link to additional info – at story source

* No. 1: ExxonMobil

* No. 2: Lord Christopher Monckton

* No. 3: American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

* No. 4: Plants Need C02

* No. 5: American Petroleum Institute (A.K.A. Energy Citizens)

* No. 6: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (A.K.A. ClimateDepot.com)

* No. 7: The Heartland Institute

* No. 8: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (A.K.A. The Idso Family)

* No. 9: FreedomWorks

* No. 10: Tennessee Center for Policy Research (A.K.A. Carnival of Climate Change)

* No. 11: Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security (A.K.A. FACES of Coal)

* No. 12: Institute for Energy Research (A.K.A. American Energy Alliance)

Full Story The Dirty Dozen of Climate Change Denial | Mother Jones.

Ruh-Roh! Fox News Shop Advertises “Holiday Must Haves”

Is there a turncoat in the War on Christmas at Fox News? Will heads roll when Bill O’Reilly finds out that the Fox News shop is promoting their “holiday must haves?” Or is this a tacit admission by the “fair and balanced” network that their yearly Christmas crusade is nothing more than a divisive stunt? Screen grab after the jump.

You can email Fox News at yourcomments@foxnews.com or the O’Reilly Factor at oreilly@foxnews.com and ask them to send Jesse Watters to investigate! Tell them we sent you! (H/T Mike D)

Full Story News Hounds: Ruh-Roh! Fox News Shop Advertises “Holiday Must Haves”.

A Fearful Price

Bob Herbert

I spoke recently with a student at Columbia who was enthusiastic about the escalation of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He argued that a full-blown counterinsurgency effort, which would likely take many years and cost many lives, was the only way to truly win the war.

He was a very bright young man: thoughtful and eager and polite. I asked him if he had any plans to join the military and help make this grand mission a success. He said no.

There was an article in The Times on Monday about a new study showing that the eight years of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan were taking an emotional toll on the children of service members and that the difficulties increased the longer parents were deployed.

There is no way that the findings of this study should be a surprise to anyone. It just confirms that the children of those being sent into combat are among that tiny percentage of the population that is unfairly shouldering the entire burden of these wars.

Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – A Fearful Price – NYTimes.com.

Wall Street execs applying for gun permits ahead of bonus payments

It almost reaches the level of satire, but it has been reported that in advance of getting what will be six and seven figure Christmas bonuses, many of Goldman Sachs top executives have been applying for gun permits, concerned about the outrage the general public may feel towards them and Wall Street over the bonuses.

The report comes from Bloomberg News.

When Bloomberg News inquired of the NYPD about the Goldman executives applying for gun permits, they confirmed it though said it would be awhile before they could name names. At the same time no one at Goldman has claimed that there has been any death threats. Only, it seems, a lot of guilty consciences.

Bloomberg reported that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, in a statement “apologized for things he said were ‘clearly wrong’ “. Clear to a lot of people but which hasn’t gotten a lot of condemnation from Obama. Which is not likely to soothe the feelings on Main Street who already feel betrayed by Obama and the bailout policies he continued and expanded

Full Story Wall Street execs applying for gun permits ahead of bonus payments.

Coal is deadly, not cheap

Herald-Leader news article, “Commerce Lexington turns more pro-coal; Business group alters policy after E. Ky. trip”

By Stephanie Pistello, Ben Evans, Jeff Biggers and Ben Sollee

As world leaders gather for the Copenhagen Climate Summit, we disagree with Commerce Lexington that energy legislation is “the most immediate threat to Kentucky’s business climate.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. Dirty energy led to Lexington’s embarrassing selection last year as the worst carbon footprint contributor in the nation. Commerce Lexington has taken a giant carbon step backwards.

In 1776, Thomas Paine challenged our country to embrace the cause of independence over compromise. In a moment of crisis, he declared: “We have it in our power to make the world over again.”

Full Story Coal is deadly, not cheap – Op-Ed – Kentucky.com.

Is Ayn Rand Bad for the Market?

Does Ayn Rand Hurt the Libertarian Cause?

Say what you will about Ayn Rand, but one thing is certain: She had no use for common niceties. A grimly precocious, friendless Rand declared her atheism at age 13. “Atlas Shrugged,” Rand’s secular sermon-as-novel, boils with revulsion toward the “looters” and “moochers” who consume public funds. Rand scornfully excommunicated followers who disagreed with her, and in 1964 she told Playboy that those who place friends and family first in life are “immoral” and “emotional parasites.”

Shoddy manners aside, 52 years after the release of “Atlas Shrugged,” Rand seems to be roaring back. Sales are surging—Brian Doherty, author of “Radicals for Capitalism” (2007), recently calculated that in one week in late August, “Atlas” sold “67 percent more copies than it did the same week a year before, and 114 percent more than that same week in 2007.” Two buzzed-about Rand biographies hit the shelves this fall, and an “Atlas” cable miniseries is reportedly in the works. Designer Ralph Lauren recently listed Rand as one of his favorite novelists, and CNBC host Rick Santelli, whose on-air antibailout rant inspired hundreds of “tea party” protests across the nation, admitted the same. “I know this may not sound very humanitarian,” he said, “but at the end of the day I’m an Ayn Rand-er.”

To many, it doesn’t sound humanitarian at all. To be an “Ayn Rand-er” sounds, as the New York Times recently put it, “angry” and “vulgar.” In its review of the new Rand biographies, the New Republic bemoaned the “cacophony of rage and dread” surrounding Rand’s acolytes. Even in Rand’s heyday, many conservatives shrank from what they saw as her toxic blend of atheism, absolutism and ruthless individualism. “William F. Buckley must be spinning in his grave to hear all this chatter about Rand,” says Jennifer Burns, the author of “Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right,” “because it was a goal of his to make Rand an untouchable.”

Full Story Does Ayn Rand Hurt the Libertarian Cause? – WSJ.com.

Henry A. Wallace, The Danger of American Fascism

What is a fascist?  -  How many fascists have we?  -   How dangerous are they?

Henry A. Wallace  (V.P. United States Of America – 1944.)

The Danger of American Fascism

Henry A. Wallace  (V.P. United States Of America – 1944.)

An article in the New York Times, April 9, 1944.

From Henry A. Wallace, Democracy Reborn (New York, 1944), edited by Russell Lord, p. 259.

1. On returning from my trip to the West in February, I received a request from The New York Times to write a piece answering the following questions:

• What is a fascist?
• How many fascists have we?
• How dangerous are they?

2. A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.

3. The perfect type of fascist throughout recent centuries has been the Prussian Junker, who developed such hatred for other races and such allegiance to a military clique as to make him willing at all times to engage in any degree of deceit and violence necessary to place his culture and race astride the world. In every big nation of the world are at least a few people who have the fascist temperament. Every Jew-baiter, every Catholic hater, is a fascist at heart. The hoodlums who have been desecrating churches, cathedrals and synagogues in some of our larger cities are ripe material for fascist leadership.

The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned. The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

1. If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.
2. American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.
3. The European brand of fascism will probably present its most serious postwar threat to us via Latin America. The effect of the war has been to raise the cost of living in most Latin American countries much faster than the wages of labor. The fascists in most Latin American countries tell the people that the reason their wages will not buy as much in the way of goods is because of Yankee imperialism. The fascists in Latin America learn to speak and act like natives. Our chemical and other manufacturing concerns are all too often ready to let the Germans have Latin American markets, provided the American companies can work out an arrangement which will enable them to charge high prices to the consumer inside the United States. Following this war, technology will have reached such a point that it will be possible for Germans, using South America as a base, to cause us much more difficulty in World War III than they did in World War II. The military and landowning cliques in many South American countries will find it attractive financially to work with German fascist concerns as well as expedient from the standpoint of temporary power politics.
4. Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.
5. Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after “the present unpleasantness” ceases:
6. The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups. Likewise, many people whose patriotism is their proudest boast play Hitler’s game by retailing distrust of our Allies and by giving currency to snide suspicions without foundation in fact.
7. The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.
8. Several leaders of industry in this country who have gained a new vision of the meaning of opportunity through co-operation with government have warned the public openly that there are some selfish groups in industry who are willing to jeopardize the structure of American liberty to gain some temporary advantage. We all know the part that the cartels played in bringing Hitler to power, and the rule the giant German trusts have played in Nazi conquests. Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.
9. It has been claimed at times that our modern age of technology facilitates dictatorship. What we must understand is that the industries, processes, and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us. The myth of fascist efficiency has deluded many people. It was Mussolini’s vaunted claim that he “made the trains run on time.” In the end, however, he brought to the Italian people impoverishment and defeat. It was Hitler’s claim that he eliminated all unemployment in Germany. Neither is there unemployment in a prison camp.
10. Democracy to crush fascism internally must demonstrate its capacity to “make the trains run on time.” It must develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels. As long as scientific research and inventive ingenuity outran our ability to devise social mechanisms to raise the living standards of the people, we may expect the liberal potential of the United States to increase. If this liberal potential is properly channeled, we may expect the area of freedom of the United States to increase. The problem is to spend up our rate of social invention in the service of the welfare of all the people.
11. The worldwide, agelong struggle between fascism and democracy will not stop when the fighting ends in Germany and Japan. Democracy can win the peace only if it does two things:
    1. Speeds up the rate of political and economic inventions so that both production and, especially, distribution can match in their power and practical effect on the daily life of the common man the immense and growing volume of scientific research, mechanical invention and management technique.
    2. Vivifies with the greatest intensity the spiritual processes which are both the foundation and the very essence of democracy.
12. The moral and spiritual aspects of both personal and international relationships have a practical bearing which so-called practical men deny. This dullness of vision regarding the importance of the general welfare to the individual is the measure of the failure of our schools and churches to teach the spiritual significance of genuine democracy. Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions, we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.
13. Fascism in the postwar inevitably will push steadily for Anglo-Saxon imperialism and eventually for war with Russia. Already American fascists are talking and writing about this conflict and using it as an excuse for their internal hatreds and intolerances toward certain races, creeds and classes.
14. It should also be evident that exhibitions of the native brand of fascism are not confined to any single section, class or religion. Happily, it can be said that as yet fascism has not captured a predominant place in the outlook of any American section, class or religion. It may be encountered in Wall Street, Main Street or Tobacco Road. Some even suspect that they can detect incipient traces of it along the Potomac. It is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and “with malice toward none and charity for all” go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.

Full Story Henry A. Wallace, The Danger of American Fascism.

OPS:  Thanks to Thom Hartmann for reading this on his program today and bringing it to our attention

CBO report estimates premiums for group insured will stay flat or drop 3% if Senate HCR bill passes.

Honorable Evan Bayh
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:

The attachment to this letter responds to your request—and the interest expressed by many other Members—for an analysis of how proposals being considered by the Congress to change the health care and health insurance systems would affect premiums paid for health insurance in various markets. Specifically, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation have analyzed how health insurance premiums might be affected by enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as proposed by Senator Reid on November 18, 2009. I hope this information is helpful to you. If you have any further questions, please contact me or the CBO staff. The primary staff contact for this analysis is Philip Ellis.

Sincerely,

Douglas W. Elmendorf

———————————————-

Employment-Based Coverage

The legislation would have much smaller effects on premiums for employment-based coverage, which would account for about five-sixths of the total health insurance market. In the small group market, which is defined in this analysis as consisting of employers with 50 or fewer workers, CBO and JCT estimate that the change in the average premium per person resulting from the legislation could range from an increase of 1 percent to a reduction of 2 percent in 2016 (relative to current law).6 In the large group market, which is defined here as consisting of employers with more than 50 workers,the legislation would yield an average premium per person that is zero to 3 percent lower in 2016 (relative to current law). Those overall effects reflect the net impact of many relatively small changes, some of which would tend to increase premiums and some of which would tend to reduce them (as shown in Table 1).7

11-30-Premiums.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Millions in U.S. Drink Contaminated Water, Records Show

More than 20 percent of the nation’s water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.

That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.

Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards.

Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year.

Full Story Millions in U.S. Drink Contaminated Water, Records Show – NYTimes.com.

The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Sobering Update on the Science

On the eve of the Copenhagen conference, a group of scientists has issued an update on the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their conclusions? Ice at both poles is melting faster than predicted, the claims of recent global cooling are wrong, and world leaders must act fast if steep temperature rises are to be avoided.

by elizabeth kolbert

Ahead of talks in Copenhagen, a group of leading climate scientists has issued a new report summarizing the most recent research findings from around the world and concluding that scientists have underestimated the pace and extent of global warming. The report — titled “The Copenhagen Diagnosis” — finds that in several key areas observed changes are outstripping the most recent projections by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and warns that “there is a very high probability of the warming exceeding 2 °C unless global emissions peak and start to decline rapidly” within the next decade.

The report points to dramatic declines in Arctic sea ice, recent measurements that show a large net loss of ice from both Greenland and Antarctica, and the relatively rapid rise in global sea levels — 3.4 millimeters per year — as particular reasons for concern. Sea-level rise this century, it states, “is likely to be at least twice as large” as predicted by the most recent IPCC report, issued in 2007, with an upper limit of roughly two meters.

Full Story The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Sobering Update on the Science by Elizabeth Kolbert: Yale Environment 360.

The Psychological Implosion of Our Soldiers

US Army Specialist Lateef Al-Saraji, a decorated combat veteran, came back from the occupation of Iraq with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Saraji joined the military because he wanted to serve his country. He served well as a linguist and translator working under secret clearance with military intelligence, according to a letter of recommendation written by his commander following his tour in Iraq, “This letter is to inform you of my endorsement of SPC Alsaraji’s superlative performance and vital contributions to the command during our recent 15-month extended combat tour in Iraq.” Saraji is also a three-year trustee with American Legion Post 42 in Gatesville, Texas.

PTSD is often routed in one event, but more often, with the two ongoing occupations, it is rooted in multiple traumatizing events. While in Iraq, Saraji was horrified by discovering headless bodies of suspected spies caught by the Iraqi resistance, which were thrown in a canal near the building where he was based “so we would see them. I still have nightmares over the bodies in the water, all blue and foul-smelling,” he wrote of his experience.
Full Story t r u t h o u t | The Psychological Implosion of Our Soldiers.

Chavez: Venezuela acquires thousands of missiles

President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government’s military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia.

“They are preparing a war against us,” Chavez said during a televised address, repeating a charge he has been making for months. “Preparing is one of the best ways to neutralize it.”

Both Colombia and Washington deny having any plans to attack Venezuela, but Chavez argues they are plotting together a military offensive against Venezuela. Chavez says his government is acquiring more weapons as a precaution.

“Thousands of missiles are arriving,” Chavez said. The former paratrooper-turned-president did not specify what type of missiles, but said Venezuela’s growing arsenal includes Russian-made Igla-1S surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Full Story Chavez: Venezuela acquires thousands of missiles – Yahoo! News.

US Elections: Supreme Court May Rule to Allow Unlimited Corporate Funding

The U.S. Supreme Court may rule on Tuesday, December 8th, or in the coming weeks, in the case of Citizens United v. FEC, that the American people are powerless to stop corporations from using corporate funds to influence state and federal elections. The restrictions on corporate expenditures in elections contained in the federal Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known as BCRA or “McCain-Feingold”) would then be violations of the First Amendment protections of free speech. To make this ruling, the Supreme Court would have to overrule two previous cases, including a 2003 decision, McConnell v. FEC, and a 1990 decision, Austin v. Chamber of Commerce, where the Court ruled that a Michigan law limiting corporate expenditures in elections did not violate the First Amendment.

Such a ruling would dramatically expand the new “corporate rights” doctrine that has transformed the First Amendment in recent years, and expose an already-corrupted political process to a new flow of billions of dollars of corporate money. The new ruling would dramatically dilute the vote and the voice of every American who does not control a large corporate treasury. Corporate profits alone – - after taxes – - amounted to over $1.1 trillion in 2006. (Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, Table 767). The average House candidate in 2008 spent $1.3 million, and the average Senate candidate spent $3.1 million. (Center for Responsive Politics, Price of Admission, 2008).

The courts have used the fabrication of the First Amendment corporate rights doctrine to strike down a range of democratic enactments in recent years, from those concerning clean and fair elections; to environmental protection and energy; to tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and health care; to consumer protection, lottery, and gambling; to race relations, and much more. A coalition of organizations plans to launch a campaign to undo this doctrine immediately following a ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.

Full Story US Elections: Supreme Court May Rule to Allow Unlimited Corporate Funding.

The Christian Myth of Jesus’s Birth

By The Rev. Howard Bess

many of the cherished beliefs about the birth of Jesus not based on  evidence, but on politically motivated mythology

Editor’s Note: In the modern age, religious mythologies – when mixed with politics – have led to very harmful and often bloody consequences, especially involving the leading monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

So, in this guest essay, Baptist minister Howard Bess reminds Christians that many of their most cherished beliefs about the birth of Jesus were not based on empirical evidence, but on politically motivated mythology:

The Advent season is a fun time. For many Christians, it is the happiest season of the year. The joy comes from the anticipation: “Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.”

Full Story Consortiumnews.com.

Laura Flanders » The F Word: Media Monsters Threaten Net Freedom

Comcast, the nation’s biggest cable and broadband Internet company, has plans to take over NBC Universal.

The result would be a new kind of media monster that would not only produce some of America’s most popular entertainment but also control viewers’ access to it.

Under the deal, which has been in the works for months, Comcast would pay $6.5 billion in cash up front and contribute $7.25 billion in cable assets to acquire a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from its current owner, General Electric. Comcast would control the joint venture’s day-to-day operations but Pentagon contractor GE would retain a 49 percent stake.

The likely impact on consumer choices? Well you tell me: the Washington Post reports that all in all, the joint venture would control more than one out of every five television-viewing hours.

Full Story GRITtv with Laura Flanders » The F Word: Media Monsters Threaten Net Freedom.

Decade of 2000s Was Warmest Ever, Scientists Say

'CLIMATE INACTION COSTS LIVES' -- Using fire ladders, firemen and police attempt to arrest Greenpeace protesters who scaled the walls and draped a banner on the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Monday December 7, 2009. (Photo/The Canadian Press/Fred Chartrand)

It dawned with the warmest winter on record in the United States. And when the sun sets this New Year’s Eve, the decade of the 2000s will end as the warmest ever on global temperature charts.

Warmer still, scientists say, lies ahead.

Through 10 years of global boom and bust, of breakneck change around the planet, of terrorism, war and division, all people everywhere under that warming sun faced one threat together: the buildup of greenhouse gases, the rise in temperatures, the danger of a shifting climate, of drought, weather extremes and encroaching seas, of untold damage to the world humanity has created for itself over millennia.

As the decade neared its close, the U.N. gathered presidents and premiers of almost 100 nations for a “climate summit” to take united action, to sharply cut back the burning of coal and other fossil fuels.

Full Story Decade of 2000s Was Warmest Ever, Scientists Say | CommonDreams.org.

Chilean judge rules ex-president was assassinated in 1982; 6 charged with murder, cover-up

A Chilean judge ruled Monday that former President Eduardo Frei Montalva was assassinated nearly 30 years ago and his killing covered up by people linked to the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Six people were charged in the case.

Frei, who preceded Salvador Allende as Chile's president and later became a leading critic of the military dictatorship, died in 1982.

An autopsy report blamed septic shock after stomach hernia surgery, but a new autopsy this year by University of Chile pathologists identified two chemicals in his body that attack the digestive system — one that is used in mustard gas and another found in rat poison.

Full Story Chilean judge rules ex-president was assassinated in 1982; 6 charged with murder, cover-up — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.

Go Go Hamsters pose potential health risk, says US watchdog

Consumer testing lab finds high levels of toxic chemical on top Christmas toy, as manufacturer insists product is safe

Parents desperate to treat their children to this year’s must-have Christmas present – a lifesize, robotic hamster – have been warned that the toy may contain excessive levels of a toxic chemical.

The Mr Squiggle Go Go Hamster contains potentially dangerous levels of a toxic chemical which has been linked to cancer, according to a US safety watchdog.

But British distributors and US manufacturers both rejected allegations that the popular toy, which is being rationed by retailers, could be dangerous to children.

Full Story Go Go Hamsters pose potential health risk, says US watchdog | Life and style | guardian.co.uk.

Hellen Thomas: This sure seems like Vietnam

President Barack Obama insists that his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 more troops is not Vietnam all over again.

Well, it sure reminds me of the perils and the price of that unwinnable war and the political chaos it wreaked at home.

In Afghanistan, the designated enemies are remnants of the weakened al-Qaida network and the native Taliban, which has been growing in strength despite the eight-year war started by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 catastrophe.

Obama is too young to remember the national turmoil during the Vietnam War that resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and thousands of Vietnamese. That war also ended the political career of President Lyndon Johnson, who decided not to seek re-election in 1968.

In his remarks Tuesday, Obama rejected any comparison between Afghanistan and Vietnam, calling it “a false reading of history.” He claimed that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan is supported by “a broad coalition of 43 nations,” that “unlike Vietnam, we are not facing a broad-based popular insurgency” and, unlike Vietnam, “the American people were viciously attacked from Afghanistan.”

Well, yes and no.

Full Story Albany, N.Y.: Timesunion.com – Print Story.

More than 50 papers join in front-page leader article on climate change | Media | guardian.co.uk

The Guardian has teamed up with more 50 papers worldwide to run the same front-page leader article calling for action at the climate summit in Copenhagen, which begins tomorrow.

This unprecedented project is the result of weeks of negotiations between the papers to agree on a final text, in a process that mirrors the diplomatic wrangling likely to dominate the next 14 days in Copenhagen.

Fifty-six papers in 45 countries published in 20 different languages have joined the initiative, and will feature the leader in some form on their front pages.

Among the titles taking part are two Chinese papers – the Economic Observer and the Southern Metropolitan – and India’s second largest English-language paper, The Hindu.

Full Story More than 50 papers join in front-page leader article on climate change | Media | guardian.co.uk.

Right Wing composed of the Liars & the Gullible – video

The Ed Show: Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL08) telling the truth  – again

State Unemployment Commissioners Implore Congress To Reauthorize Benefits Extensions

Labor commissioners and unemployment-agency officials from several states joined a coalition of labor and advocacy groups Monday to implore Congress to reauthorize unemployment benefits extensions set to expire at the end of the year. If Congress doesn’t act before its Christmas recess — and it might not — one million jobless workers will run out of benefits in January.

“There’s a profoundly human dimension to job loss, especially in this kind of economic recession,” said Pennsylvania Labor & Industry Secretary Sandi Vito at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “I have policymakers and people ask me all the time, ‘Do people really need all these weeks of benefits?’ The answer is yes.”

The National Employment Law Project and the Center for American Progress Action Fund released a report (PDF) with a state-by-state breakdown of benefits exhaustions from January to March. In all, 3.2 million people who would otherwise be eligible for extensions will lose their benefits over a three-month period unless Congress acts. The report stressed that economists consider unemployment benefits the most stimulative part of the stimulus bill.

Full Story State Unemployment Commissioners Implore Congress To Reauthorize Benefits Extensions.

5 Dem Congressmen To Call For Break-Up Of Biggest Banks

Five House Democrats will call this week for a return to a Depression-era law that separated Wall Street investment banking from Main Street commercial banking.

If adopted, the measure would give banks one year to choose between being commercial banks or investment banks. The nation’s biggest — those now commonly referred to as “too big to fail” — would be broken up. The Obama administration opposes the measure.

The amendment’s five co-sponsors — Maurice Hinchey of New York, John Conyers of Michigan, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Jay Inslee of Washington, and John Tierney of Massachusetts – want to restore the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which prohibited commercial banks from underwriting stocks and bonds. The act was repealed in 1999 at the urging of, among others, Larry Summers, now President Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser.

The five congressman all voted against the repeal then — and now they want it back.

Full Story Congressmen To Call For Break-Up Of Biggest Banks.

New Anti-Lieberman Ad Gets Personal About Public Option

A new ad campaign targeting Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) for opposing a public health insurance plan gets personal. Its main message: “It’s not about you. It’s all about Joe.”

It even has a new website: AllAboutJoe.org.

The ad is narrated by John Mertens, a Trinity College professor, longshot candidate for senate, and chair of the now-facetiously named Connecticut for Lieberman Party. (Motto: “Not the other way around.”)

The spot was put together by the liberal action group, Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Like earlier PCCC ads targeting wavering Democrats, this one plays off the support a government-run insurance plan has within that senator’s home state. But this one is unusually personal, accusing Lieberman of operating out of self-interest in saying he’d filibuster a public plan.

“Joe never forgets who he ran to represent: himself,” says Merten. “So Joe has a message for Democrats and all the voters who want him to support the public option. It’s not about you. It’s all about Joe.”

Full Story New Anti-Lieberman Ad Gets Personal About Public Option.

Hoyer: GOP Obstructionism Damaging The Institution Of Congress

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Mary.) offered a lengthy and searing rebuke of Republican leadership on Monday, claiming the minority party has traded an honest seat at the negotiating table for outright obstructionism.

Speaking before the Center for American Progress, the Maryland Democrat touched on many Democratic complaints about the friction inherent in the legislative process today. Further, he also expressed concern about the damage that obstructionism was causing to the institution of Congress as a whole.

“I also know, in closing, how easy it is to accuse me of being disingenuous for even making this argument,” Hoyer said, according to prepared remarks. “It’s easy to say that Democrats actually want extremism to be the face of the opposition–that we would be happy for the ‘Party of No’ to keep saying no. But that’s not true. When we say no to the work of legislating, we do real harm to the institution of Congress and our nation’s future.”

Full Story Hoyer: GOP Obstructionism Damaging The Institution Of Congress.

OPS: NO kidding.  And, the hate pedaling tea bagging monster you created is now out of your control and has turned on you.  So What are you going to do about it Steny?

Climate Change May Lead To A Sunken Australia

The prediction is dire.

Coastal towns will be left to fall into the sea by governments in Australia that won’t cough up the money to combat rising sea levels over the next 50 years. Billions of dollars will be wiped from the value of almost 250,000 homes at risk of flooding by the end of this century, including some of the most exclusive addresses in the country.

Property-owners could face the prospect of selling their land to governments in cut-price deals and leasing it back while they make alternative arrangements to move to safer areas in five- or 10-year relocation plans.

A bleak report by the Department of Climate Change has predicted a 1.1-meter sea level rise around the coast of Australia over the next 100 years. The study outlines the stark dangers of climate change.

Full Story Climate Change May Lead To A Sunken Australia.

Google CEO On Privacy: ‘If You Have Something You Don’t Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn’t Be Doing It’

Yahoo, Verizon, Sprint, and others have recently come under fire for sharing customer data with the authorities, and admitting to “spying” abilities that would “shock” and “confuse” customers.

A CNBC interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggests the search giant Google shouldn’t get off easy, and users should be wary of what Google knows about them — and with whom they can share that information.

CNBC’s Mario Bartiromo asked CEO Schmidt in her December 3, 2009 interview: “People are treating Google like their most trusted friend. Should they?”

Schmidt’s reply hints that if there’s scandalous information out there about you, it’s your problem, not Google’s.

Schmidt tells Baritoromo:

If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.

Full Story Google CEO On Privacy: ‘If You Have Something You Don’t Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn’t Be Doing It’.

AIG Executives Threaten To Quit Over Cuts Issued By Pay Czar

Five top AIG execs are threatening to resign if their pay is slashed significantly by Obama’s pay czar, the Wall Street Journal reports today.

The executives reportedly sent written warnings to AIG’s chief counsel over the weekend; two of the senior staff members have since retracted their threats.

Many AIG employees have fought back against the limits proposed by Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s so-called ‘pay czar.’ In a recent cover story, New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman pointed to a growing sense among many AIG employees that they’re being scapegoated for the behavior of just a few traders in the insurer’s financial products unit.

NYmag spoke to a few AIG executives and traders who accuse Feinberg of painting with too broad of a brush:

Full Story AIG Executives Threaten To Quit Over Cuts Issued By Pay Czar.

OPS:  Phuck ‘em.

Health Care Reform Could Skip Final Step, Roll Right Through House

The health care reform bill that passes the Senate might be the one that ends up on President Obama’s desk, bypassing the usual House-Senate conference committee and avoiding another 60-vote threshold to end a filibuster.

There is increased chatter on Capitol Hill about a possible “ping-ponging” of the Senate health care bill: that chamber would pass its health care bill, send it to the House and the House would be asked to pass it with no changes and send it directly to the president.

That limits the options of congressional critics — under the usual procedure, lawmakers dissatisfied with the bill pushed through their chamber can win changes through adroit political maneuvering in conference committee negotiations.

Full Story Health Care Reform Could Skip Final Step, Roll Right Through House.

Estimated TARP Cost Is Cut by $200 Billion

The Obama administration, buoyed by a resurgent Wall Street, plans to cut the projected long-term cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program by more than $200 billion, in a move that could smooth the way for the introduction of a new jobs program.

The White House and leaders in Congress are debating whether to use any of the remaining TARP funds for other domestic efforts, such as a jobs bill. Congress authorized $700 billion for the program during the height of the financial crisis.

The Treasury now estimates that over the next 10 years TARP will cost $141 billion at most, down from the $341 billion the White House projected in August. The reduction stems in large part from faster-than-expected repayments by some of the nation’s largest banks, as well as less spending on programs to help shore up the financial sector.

Full Story Estimated TARP Cost Is Cut by $200 Billion – WSJ.com.

Most U.S. States Can Be Energy Self-Reliant

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, but finally have the time to put up something. I feel like I normally share bad climate- and energy-related news: ice sheets are melting faster than expected, temperatures are rising more than expected, new and dire effects are being discovered, Congress is stupidly delaying progress on legislation, etc. There is plenty of good news in the climate and energy arena. People are taking matters into their own hands and actually doing something, and it’s becoming commonplace that they’re doing much more than replacing light bulbs in their house. This is one of those cases – but on a larger scale.

The New Rules Project in Minnesota released a second and updated edition of a report they originally issued in 2008, “Energy Self-Reliant States”. In this expanded edition, each state is assessed for commercial potential, not technical potential, of renewable electricity. The large picture: 64% of states can be self-sufficient in electricity from in-state renewables. An additional 14% can generate 75% of their electricity within their own borders. It argues for a decentralized energy approach, which makes the most sense to me. Why depend on your neighbor for electricity when you don’t have to, whether that neighbor is the state next door or another country. Keying on that decentralized approach, the report notes that 40 states could generate 25% of their electricity just with rooftop photovoltaic (PV) power. Generating energy exactly where it is used is by far the best way to go.

WeatherDem :: Most U.S. States Can Be Energy Self-Reliant

You can go to the website I link to above and download the report to see results for your own state, read more about the methodology, etc. I’m going to concentrate on my own state: Colorado.

Full Story SquareState.net:: Most U.S. States Can Be Energy Self-Reliant.

Report: Former Top Ensign Aide Subpoenaed By Ethics Committee

Sen. John Ensign’s (R-NV) former chief of staff, Mike Slanker, has reportedly been subpoenaed by the Senate Ethics Committee in connection with a probe into Ensign’s affair and subsequent severance payments.

Slanker has been a consultant to Connecticut senatorial candidate Linda McMahon’s campaign. A spokesman for the campaign confirmed to the Hartford Courant that Slanker received the subpoena.

As we reported last week, the Senate Ethics Committee has begun to send out subpoenas to key players in the scandal — a sign that the probe is heating up.
Full Story Report: Former Top Ensign Aide Subpoenaed By Ethics Committee | TPMMuckraker.

Bernanke signals zero rates on hold amid weak recovery

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday the US recovery has a “way to go” before it takes root, signaling interest rates will be kept extremely loose for some time to come.

“Though we have begun to see some improvement in economic activity, we still have some way to go before we can be assured that the recovery will be self-sustaining,” Bernanke said in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington.

The economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter after four straight quarters of contraction, but high unemployment remains a key obstacle to removing unprecedented public support of the economy.

Full Story Bernanke signals zero rates on hold amid weak recovery – Yahoo! News.

Blue Cross pushing plan to declare health reform unconstitutional

As the battle for health care reform rages on in the Senate, the powerful insurance consortium Blue Cross Blue Shield appears to have embraced some rather unorthodox methods for achieving its goals.

After months of fierce insurance industry opposition to the bill, Blue Cross is working secretively with conservative front group American Legislative Exchange Council to use the issue of states’ rights as a pretext to declaring health reform unconstitutional.

ALEC has for months worked to spread the notion that all the proposals put forth by President Obama and Democrats — including industry regulations and a public option — violate states’ rights. The group wrote a resolution declaring as much this summer.

A senior executive at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBS’ lobbying group) has admitted to Think Progress she played a vital role in crafting ALEC’s resolution, and insurance lobbyists have since worked in tandem with the group to promote it.

Full Story Blue Cross pushing plan to declare health reform unconstitutional | Raw Story.

Public option likely to be removed from healthcare overhaul

Chances for a so-called “public option” — under which the government would set up competitors to private health insurers — appear to be dimming.

With recent hard-edged comments by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who avers that he will vote to filibuster any bill that contains a public-run health insurer, moderates have been meeting to hammer out a deal. And a new alternative, according to Politico, has emerged.

Under the Democrat’s new plan, the government would create a national health insurance plan similar to those offered federal employees. It would replace the so-called “opt-out” version of the public option advocated by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Full Story Public option likely to be removed from healthcare overhaul | Raw Story.

Tea Party more popular than GOP in national poll

Want to become a congressman in a conservative district?

Then perhaps you shouldn’t run as a Republican. A national poll which gave respondents three choices — to support a generic Democrat, Republican or Tea Party candidate — put the Tea Party candidate over the Republican, 23 to 18 percent. Democrats led with 36 percent; 22 percent were undecided.

The Tea Party isn’t even a real party. However, a few more polls like this and things might change.

The poll was published Monday by Rasmussen Reports and surveyed 1,500 Americans.

Full Story Tea Party more popular than GOP in national poll | Raw Story.

Indiana soldier is first to die of toxic exposure in Iraq

If Lt. Col. Jim Gentry and his doctors were right about the cause of his cancer, the Indiana National Guard officer didn’t die for his country — he died for defense contractor KBR.

Gentry’s death from lung cancer last week is being recorded as the US’s first fatality from exposure to a cancer-causing toxin in Iraq, according to the Evansville, Indiana, Courier & Press.

In 2003, Gentry commanded a 600-strong force providing security for KBR’s refittal of the Qarmat Ali water-pumping plant, which provided water needed for oil extraction. Gentry and others claim that during that time they were exposed to hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxin that the Iraqis who had built the plant had used as anti-corrosive material.

Full Story Indiana soldier is first to die of toxic exposure in Iraq | Raw Story.

Palin left college in Hawaii because Asians made her uncomfortable: ‘They were a minority type thing.’

In the New Yorker, Sam Tanenhaus has a new review of the book “Sarah from Alaska,” written by two reporters who covered Palin during the 2008 campaign, in which he flags a passage about how Asian-Americans reportedly made Palin uncomfortable while she was in college:

She is equally circumspect on the issue of ethnicity, pointing out that Todd, whom she met in high school, is “part Yupik Eskimo” and opened her to the “social diversity” of Alaska. (Wasilla is more than eighty per cent white.) Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not. But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to Conroy and Walshe. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.” In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’”

Full Story Think Progress » Palin left college in Hawaii because Asians made her uncomfortable: ‘They were a minority type thing.’.

Report: Situation for Afghan women may ‘deterioriate’ as war is escalated.

Yesterday, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a new 96-page report titled “We Have the Promises of the World: Women’s Rights in Afghanistan,” which documents the poor state of women’s rights in Afghanistan. As The Guardian notes, the report concludes that the “plight of women in Afghanistan risks deteriorating further” as the U.S. and its allies prepare to ramp up their forces in the country:

The already dire plight of women in Afghanistan risks deteriorating further as the US and its allies take steps to turn around the war against the Taliban, according to a report by Human Rights Watch today.

Eight years after the Taliban were ousted from power, rapists are often protected from prosecution, women can still be arrested for running away from home, and girls have far less access to schools than boys, the report says. [...]

Full Story Think Progress » Report: Situation for Afghan women may ‘deterioriate’ as war is escalated..

Right-Wing Billionaire David Koch Funding SwiftBoat Campaign Against Global Warming Science

David Koch with his wife, Julie Right-wing billionaire David Koch, who along with his brother Charles owns the oil and gas empire Koch Industries, constantly presents himself as a champion of science. Next year, a wing of the Smithsonian will be named after him because of his generous donations. Indeed, in accepting Koch’s donations, the Smithsonian Human Origins Program director Rick Potts attempted to whitewash Koch’s philanthropist history:

POTTS: What we find in David Koch is a person who’s committed to doing things for the American public that has no relationship to politics

Koch apparently relishes this perception that his money buys. In an interview earlier this year, Koch pretended that he opposes organizations which politicize and distort science:

Q: What role do you think politics should play in educating the public about evolution?

Full Story Think Progress » Right-Wing Billionaire David Koch Funding SwiftBoat Campaign Against Global Warming Science.

Seton Hall law school study finds potential cover-up in alleged 2006 Gitmo suicides.

In June 2006, three terror suspect detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay died in custody. Initially, military officials ruled that their deaths were the result of suicide and described them as a “good PR move to draw attention,” a “tactic to further the jihadi cause,” and “acts of war.” Harper’s Scott Horton reports that a new study prepared by Seton Hall law school faculty and students has found “serious and unresolved contradictions” within the military’s subsequent (and heavily redacted) report on the detainee deaths:

[The report] challenges the Pentagon’s claims. It notes serious and unresolved contradictions within a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) report — which was publicly released only in fragmentary form, two years after the fact — and declares the military’s internal investigation an obvious cover-up. The only question is: of what? [...]

The study also notes that there has never been any explanation of how the three bodies could have hung in the cells, undiscovered, for at least two hours, when the cells were supposed to be under constant supervision by roving guards and video cameras.

Full Story Think Progress » Seton Hall law school study finds potential cover-up in alleged 2006 Gitmo suicides..

EPA finally makes it official: Greenhouse gases endanger the American public.

Lisa Jackson, EPA After years of denial, suppression, and delay, the United States government has finally officially recognized that greenhouse gases are dangerous pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The Obama administration has slowly worked on the decision, first sent to the White House by the Environmental Protection Agency in March, then opened for months of public comment through the summer. Less than an hour after the United Nations Climate Change Conference completed its opening day in Copenhagen, Denmark, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson made the “significant climate announcement” at 1:15 pm that global warming pollution endangers the health and welfare of the American public:

This administration will not ignore science or the law any longer, nor will we avoid the responsibility we owe to our children and our grandchildren. Today, I’m proud to announce that EPA has finalized its endangerment finding on greenhouse gas pollution and is now authorized and obligated to make reasonable efforts to reduce greenhouse pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Full Story Think Progress » EPA finally makes it official: Greenhouse gases endanger the American public..

Santorum ‘absolutely’ considering 2012 bid, says Palin has ‘some explaining’ to do if she runs.

In September, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) told Catholic leaders that he was “thinking about” a run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012. “I hate to be calculating, but I see that 2012 is not just throwing somebody out to be eaten, but it’s a real opportunity for success,” he said. Today on ABC’s Top Line, Santorum appeared to be leaning more towards running. “Absolutely — absolutely taking a look,” he said, adding, “[W]e need to stand foursquare on the traditional values.” When asked if Sarah Palin — another potential GOP candidate — is qualified to be president, Santorum dodged and later took a veiled shot at the former Alaska governor:

SANTORUM: No, I’ll let the people decide that. I think, you know, she’s done a lot to draw attention to herself that’s positive. She’s done some things that, you know, certainly are going to cause her to have to do some explaining if she runs for president. But right now I think she’s on a roll, she’s having a good time, she’s having an impact.

Watch it:

Full Story Think Progress » Santorum ‘absolutely’ considering 2012 bid, says Palin has ‘some explaining’ to do if she runs..

OPS:  Little Ricky has some splainin’ to do also

Getting tough with the church on the abortion amendment

Behind the scenes the senate is debating an anti-abortion amendment proposed by Senator Ben Nelson which goes beyond the language of the Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal funding ( see: taxpayer money) for abortion.

Nelson is proposing an amendment that would prohibit women from purchasing, with their own money, private money, insurance through the proposed insurance exchange, that would cover abortion procedures.

In the middle of the debate is the Catholic Conference of Bishops which has a strong lobbying presence in Washington staffed by over 350 and evidence is they were instrumental in writing the language that appeared in the House bill in the form of the Stupak ammendment

Full Story Getting tough with the church on the abortion amendment.

Emails Show bin Laden was Bush Talking Point, not Target

Millions of Messages Sent, but Only Handful Mention Al Qaeda Leader

“Missing” White House emails retrieved from Bush administration records indicate that top Bush Justice Department officials had little interest in the pursuit of Osama bin Laden or Mullah Mohammed Omar, head of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), prolonged correspondence has pursued “missing” emails between the Bush White House and Bush’s attorney general, deputy attorney general, associate attorney general, Office of Public Affairs, Office of Legal Counsel and Office of the Inspector General, in the Justice Department.

After a lengthy search, President Obama’s Office of Information Policy, which handles FOIA requests, found emails pertaining to Osama bin Laden or to Mullah Omar only in Attorney General and Office of Public Affairs records from the Bush administration. Alberto Gonzales, previously Bush’s White House counsel and then Attorney General, did not use email.

Full Story 09.22.burns.

Bolivian President Morales Empowered by Re-Election

Bolivian President Evo Morales was re-elected on Sunday, December 6th in a landslide victory. After the polls closed, fireworks, music and celebrations filled the Plaza Murillo in downtown La Paz where MAS supporters chanted “Evo Again! Evo Again!” Addressing the crowd from the presidential palace balcony, Morales said, “The people, with their participation, showed once again that it’s possible to change Bolivia… We have the responsibility to deepen and accelerate this process of change.”

Though the official results are not yet known, exit polls show that Morales won roughly 63% of the vote, with his closest rival, former conservative governor Manfred Reyes Villa, winning around 23% of the vote.

The Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), Morales’ political party, also won over two thirds of the seats in the lower house and the senate, meaning the MAS administration will have an easier time passing laws without right wing opposition.

Full Story Upside Down World – The Speed of Change: Bolivian President Morales Empowered by Re-Election.

Senate Dems May Open Up Medicare To Pacify Progressives

Senate Democrats are discussing the idea of expanding Medicare by lowering the age limit for the government-run insurance program, Democratic sources on the Hill tell the Huffington Post.

The proposal would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare by ten years. Those over 55 and under 65 (the current eligibility age) would be allowed to “buy-in” to the system. They would have to pay a premium for the coverage, which would alleviate the cost burden on the federal government, but would then receive the same benefits as other Medicare patients.

Crucial details — such as what that premium would be and the timing of the implementation — were not provided due to the sensitivity and ongoing nature of the deliberations. A high-ranking Democratic source off the Hill confirmed that such discussions are taking place.

“On its own, it's a good idea,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Monday afternoon. He added that Democrats are also looking at expanding Medicaid. “We're looking at both ends,” he said.

Full Story Senate Dems May Open Up Medicare To Pacify Progressives.

OPS: Medicare for ALL?  Now THAT is change we can believe in – and fight for – and support!  It’s about time they woke up

Margot Kidder: Ax Max

Time to Declare War on Democratic Blackmailers

By MARGOT KIDDER

The Democratic Party needs an intervention and then it needs to be sent to rehab. The lunacy behind the thinking of many traditional Democrats that any Democrat in Congress is better than no Democrat at all needs to be exposed and treated for the infectious disease that it is. But there is no 12 step program for corrupt politicians, and turning the problem over to God is just not going to cut it this time, no matter what Sarah Palin thinks .

The absence of democracy in a congress whose votes are bought, sold, and traded like pork bellies by big corporations in exchange for highly profitable votes and amendments on bills is a bi-partisan infection. And the pus is everywhere.

Give me a nut job for an enemy anytime. You can take aim at the obviousness of the problem and roll a strike 99 times out of a hundred. But if your enemy is disguised as a boring but harmless friend, and wears the same logo on his sweatshirt as you do, then landing a punch is like trying to slug mist. There’s no connection, no delicious smacking sound, there’s no obvious win. The fact that 20 to 25 percent of Americans support policies and politicians that are bat shit crazy is not as much a concern as the fact that 50 to 60 percent of Americans support politicians whose policies are for sale to the highest bidder, and exist independent of any underlying morality or consistent philosophy of government. Arlen Specter calls himself a Democrat for God’s sake. And so does Ben Nelson. And Blanche Lincoln. These are not Democrats; they’re Republicans in Donkey suits. And somewhat tasteful donkey suits at that. None of them would have strings of tea bags dangling from THEIR cowboy hats, you can bet the ranch on that. They are much more dangerous than Rush Limbaugh could ever hope to be.

Full Story Margot Kidder: Ax Max.

Prince Charles: Act Now on Global Climate Change

As climate change accelerates, so too will hunger, poverty, and perhaps even social unrest.

As the world edged into financial crisis, there were repeated warnings that we were headed for disaster. In the end, disaster struck. In many ways, the challenge of climate change has a similar feel, and the alarm bells are ringing just as loudly. But while it was possible to bail out the banks and to stimulate economic recovery with trillions of dollars of public finance, it will not be possible to bail out the climate—unless we act now.

Yet even when the basic science of climate change has been accepted by almost all scientists, many others still seem to think that it is unfounded, and that the world has more important questions to address. Reducing poverty, increasing food production, combating terrorism, and sustaining economic recovery are seen as more deserving of our attention. But this is a false choice, for climate change is not an alternative priority to all of these; it is in fact a “risk multiplier,” a factor that will undermine our ability to achieve any of these things.

Full Story Prince Charles: Act Now on Global Climate Change | Newsweek Environment | Newsweek.com.

America wakes up to the shift in global power

Andrew Sullivan

Last Tuesday night was a sobering affair if you are a supporter of America’s engagement with the world. In his defining speech on Afghanistan at the West Point military academy, Barack Obama’s own tone was extremely sober, and at times he seemed close to choking up as he weighed sending more young men and women into the wastes of Helmand. His audience of West Point cadets sat silently for the most part, some even fighting off sleep.

The pundits regretted that Obama had not pulled off a Henry V peroration, as if announcing a ninth year of counterinsurgency in a country thousands of miles away could be compared to Agincourt. And the polling found a public deeply ambivalent about extending the war further, while also afraid of the consequences of too rapid a departure.

This was a chastened rather than confident America. And it isn’t hard to see why. Obama emerged as a candidate, and then as a president, precisely because Americans saw that their country was so far off track. But the reason change was vital then is why the atmosphere is now so dire, and Obama’s inability to overcome it all (what human could?) has brought Americans back to the sobriety of their current predicament.

Full Story America wakes up to the shift in global power | Andrew Sullivan – Times Online.

Mayhill Fowler: Some Straight Talk on Afghanistan

This is not an 18-month commitment.

“I was really depressed when I learned he [Obama] was going to say it’s all about al Qaeda,” Marvin Weinbaum said. Weinbaum is a scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute and an Afghanistan expert who visited the White House during the months President Obama was crafting his new AfPak policy. Now he is working with the Afghan Familiarization Program to help prepare the civilians who are going in country, the “expeditionary forces” who will implement a significant part of the president’s new policy. On Friday he spoke to a group of journalists at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. (Watch the speech and the Q & A here.)

“But for political expediency reasons — and I understand, that’s what grabs the American people,” Weinbaum continued, going on to explain why al Qaeda is not the reason we are still in Afghanistan. Although I think Marvin Weinbaum is wrong on the subject of what grabs us Americans (I do not believe that the threat of al Qaeda is any longer one of those attention-grabbers), Weinbaum does know Afghanistan. “I’m one of the few people left who took any interest in Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s,” Weinbaum said. His discourse at the Knight Center is telling in many ways. Since the session is an hour-and-a-half long, I annotate the highlights below.

55:37 This is not an 18-month commitment. “I was in the White House last week. I’ll give you first-hand what their thinking is — it’s an indefinite commitment. . . . At 18 months we’re going to be evaluating whether our strategy is working. . . . We’re not saying forever…. We might go from 100,000 to 98,000 [troops] if we are succeeding.”

Full Story Mayhill Fowler: Some Straight Talk on Afghanistan.

Treasury Forecasts Smaller Loss From Bank Rescue

The Treasury Department expects to recover all but $42 billion of the $370 billion it has lent to ailing companies since the financial crisis began last year, with the portion lent to banks actually showing a slight profit, according to a new Treasury report.

The new assessment of the $700 billion bailout program, provided by two Treasury officials on Sunday ahead of a report to Congress on Monday, is vastly improved from the Obama administration’s estimates last summer of $341 billion in potential losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That figure anticipated more financial troubles requiring intervention.

The officials said the government could ultimately lose $100 billion more from the bailout program in new loans to banks, aid to troubled homeowners and credit to small businesses.

Still, the new estimates would lower the administration’s deficit forecast for this fiscal year, which began in October, to about $1.3 trillion, from $1.5 trillion.

Full Story Treasury Forecasts Smaller Loss From Bank Rescue – NYTimes.com.

56 Papers in 45 Countries Publish Joint Editorial

NEW YORK Tomorrow 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the perhaps unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. Many if not most will publish it on the front page, warning of a “profound emergency.”

The Guardian of London, which helped draft the editorial, published it today, with a note at the end. Here it is.

*

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.

Full Story 56 Papers in 45 Countries Publish Joint Editorial.

Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo: Space Tourism Craft To Be Unveiled

After five years of secret construction, the cloak is coming off a privately funded spacecraft designed to fly well-heeled tourists into space.

The long-awaited glimpse of SpaceShipTwo, slated for rollout Monday in the Mojave Desert, could not come sooner for the scores of wannabe astronauts who have forked over part of their disposable income for the chance to float in zero gravity.

“We’ve all been patiently waiting to see exactly what the vehicle is going to look like,” said Peter Cheney, a 63-year-old potential space tourist from Seattle who was among the first to sign up for suborbital space rides marketed by Virgin Galactic. “It would be nice to see it in the flesh.”

Virgin Galactic spokeswoman Jackie McQuillan promised a “theatrical unveil” followed by a cocktail party for paying passengers and other VIPs.

Full Story Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo: Space Tourism Craft To Be Unveiled.

Courts Examine Credit Raters’ ‘Intimate Relationship’ With Bankers (VIDEO)

A decade ago, the nation’s largest credit-rating companies developed a new line of business that boosted their profits and sent them on a hiring spree. They began rating complex investments that featured large packages of bonds sometimes based on subprime mortgages.

Editor’s Note: This is the last of three articles by the Investigative Fund on the credit rating companies.

A decade ago, the nation’s largest credit-rating companies developed a new line of business that boosted their profits and sent them on a hiring spree. They began rating complex investments that featured large packages of bonds sometimes based on subprime mortgages.

Now the raters are reaping the consequences of their embrace of Wall Street’s so-called structured financial products. For one thing, they are facing a flood of about 50 lawsuits – including one filed last month by the state of Ohio — for handing out inflated grades to many such investments that defaulted and cost investors billions of dollars.

But the more ominous development for the raters is that structured finance may have opened a crack in their long-standing shield for warding off investors’ lawsuits – the First Amendment defense.

Full Story Courts Examine Credit Raters’ ‘Intimate Relationship’ With Bankers (VIDEO)

Robert A. Iger: Two Common Sense Ways to Improve the Economy

It’s estimated that over 500,000 jobs have been lost in two of our most important industries, due to reasons that have nothing to do with our current economy.

Entertainment and tourism are two of the most promising areas for job creation in the United States as a whole and in Southern California in particular. They are both vital to the country’s economic well-being, not only for the jobs they create, but the spending they generate and the taxes they pay.

What’s more, the entertainment industry is one of our most successful exporters and makes a very significant and positive contribution to the nation’s trade balance.

While visitation to the U.S. doesn’t feel like an export business, in essence, it is. We export the promise our destinations offer as brands, or a means of encouraging people to come to our country, whether they wish to visit Disneyland, see our nation’s capital, or attend one of our universities.

Full Story Robert A. Iger: Two Common Sense Ways to Improve the Economy.

Robert A. Iger is President and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company

Obama Silent On Public Option In Speech To Senators

As President Obama finished his speech to the Democratic caucus in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room on Sunday afternoon, Joe Lieberman made his way over to Harry Reid.

The independent who still caucuses with Democrats wanted to point something out to the Majority Leader: Obama didn’t mention the public option.

Lieberman was beaming as he left the room and happy to re-point it out when HuffPost asked him what Obama had said about the public health insurance option, perhaps the most contentious issue still facing Democrats as they negotiate their way toward a final health care reform bill.

“Well, it was interesting to me — of course everybody hears with their own ears — that he didn’t say anything about the public option,” said Lieberman. “In other words, when he outlined how far we’ve come on the bill, he talked about the cost-containment provisions; he talked about the insurance market reforms; and he talked about enabling 30 million more people to get insurance. He said these are historic accomplishments, the most significant social legislation, or whatever you call it, in decades, so don’t lose it.”

Obama spoke for roughly 30 minutes and did not take questions, senators said afterward.

Full Story Obama Silent On Public Option In Speech To Senators.

An Orlando McDonalds Manager To A Trans Applicant: “We Do Not Hire F**gots”

I’m always a little amazed by blatant discrimination against anyone, especially if it’s easily documented. The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) is filing a complaint (lawsuit) today (December 7th, 2009) with the Florida Commission on Human Relations. It’s because an Orlando McDonald’s restaurant for refusing to hire 17-year-old Zikerria Bellamy because she is transgender. And, in the process of discriminating against her, she received a voicemail message from one of the McDonald’s managers:

By the way, I don’t use the the other f- word unless I’m quoting someone saying it. This is definitely a quote.

Maybe McDonalds corporate will again try to remind us that they are an lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) friendly organization, but individual restaurants seem to have a history of discriminating against LGBT people. Remember Kentucky’s “faggot” story? Remember New York’s Christina Sforza story? I do.

Full Story Pam’s House Blend:: An Orlando McDonalds Manager To A Trans Applicant: “We Do Not Hire F**gots”.

Saving Grace: One Family’s Struggle With Abortion and the Catholic Church

What Happened When an Anti-Choice Catholic Woman Needed an Abortion at Dr. Tiller’s Clinic. The Andersons were devastated to learn their unborn child wouldn’t live. Dr. Tiller showed them the compassion they so badly wished they had from their friends.

At the home of Gail and Robert Anderson, a large statue of the Virgin Mary sits in the yard, welcoming guests into the home while protecting the family that lives there. Next to the statue of Mary, inside a labyrinth of daisies, daffodils, tulips and roses is a stone engraved with the word grace. For the Andersons’ grace is not just a word or a concept taught through their strong Catholic faith, but the name of the daughter their hopes and dreams hung onto. It is the name of the daughter they said goodbye to in the Kansas office of a man named Dr. George Tiller.

Both coming from large families with faith deeply rooted in the Catholic Church, the Andersons looked forward to starting their own family with great anticipation, eagerly awaiting pregnancy test results each month in hopes that they would discover they were to become parents. The April morning that their hopes were realized is described by Robert as being one of the best days of his life. After breakfast, they went to the local bookstore together to purchase books on pregnancy, for him and for her, and celebrated by inviting their parents to dinner, sharing their news between the gumbo and the dessert.

“We were the first of our families to marry and were the first in our families to have children. With our parents around the table, we celebrated a generation being added – being first-time parents and first-time grandparents. It was a moment of love, hope and joy,” Gail says, thinking back to the day that was to change their lives forever, not knowing exactly how much would change.

Full Story t r u t h o u t | Saving Grace: One Family’s Struggle With Abortion and the Catholic Church.

We’re Doing a Heckuva Job Helping Those Devastated by the Economic Meltdown

Like the levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the safety net is failing Americans battered by the ‘Great Recession’ of 2008-2009.

The levees failed residents of New Orleans when Katrina battered their city. The safety net is failing Americans battered by the most recent Category 5 storm—the “Great Recession” of 2008-2009.

Category 5 storms are catastrophic: communities are ravaged; security is stolen; lives are lost. For millions of Americans, the Great Recession is just such a storm.

Unemployment is in the double digits; poverty and hunger are at record-high levels; foreclosures and homelessness are still climbing. The middle class is shrinking and many blacks, Latinos, single mothers and children are experiencing a full-blown economic depression. With such devastating conditions, our nation once again finds itself unprepared to face the ravages of an unnatural disaster.

Full Story We’re Doing a Heckuva Job Helping Those Devastated by the Economic Meltdown | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet.

‘The Case for God’ – Book Review

“We are talking far too much about God these days,” writes Karen Armstrong, author of “The Battle for God,” “Visions of God,” “The Changing Face of God” and “A History of God,” at the outset of her new book, “The Case for God.” Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.

Still, I think I understand: If the rest of us are suffering from a touch of God Fatigue, surely Armstrong, whose readable, literate books on particular religions and religion in general have earned her a respectable reputation, might well be sick to death of the topic.

But there is no avoiding the topic of God: It’s all the rage these days. God is under attack, and God’s attackers under counterattack, everywhere you look. Anyway, Armstrong’s real complaint is not that we are talking too much about God, but that there is too much talk of the wrong sort. We have misunderstood the very concept of God, and as a result “what we say [about God] is often facile.” She isn’t referring only to the so-called new atheists here—well, primarily she is referring to the new atheists, because they are the ones that really get her goat, but she is careful to assure us that the central modern misunderstanding of religion, which is to see it primarily as a matter of belief, is one shared by most religious adherents, and isn’t just a creation of their critics.

Full Story Troy Jollimore: Troy Jollimore on Karen Armstrong’s ‘The Case for God’ – Book Review – Truthdig.

10 Signs the Failed Drug War Is Finally Ending

2009 will go down as the beginning of the end of America’s longest running war. Here’s 10 reasons why.

2009 will go down as the beginning of the end of the United States drug war. I have worked at the Drug Policy Alliance promoting alternatives to the war on drugs for 10 years, and I can say without a doubt that there was more debate and movement toward sensible drug policies this year than in the last 9 years combined! Here are 10 stories that contributed to the unprecedented momentum to end America’s longest running war.

1) Three Former Latin American Presidents Call Drug War a Failure (February)

In February, the Latin-American Commission on Drugs and Drug Policy – co-chaired by three distinguished ex-presidents, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico -issued a groundbreaking report that declared the drug war a failure. The report further advocated the decriminalization of marijuana and the need to “break the taboo” on an open and honest discussion of international drug policy. The release generated hundreds of articles around the world and continues to be referenced by elected officials in Latin American and around the world.

2) Michael Phelps and the Bong Hit Heard Around the World (February)

The photo of Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Michael Phelps taking a “bong hit” at a party in South Carolina was plastered across the front pages of newspapers around the world in February. The image of Phelps inhaling marijuana, just a few months after setting a record for most gold medals won in a single Olympics, dealt a powerful blow to the lazy, “couch potato” stereotype of pot users. Kellogg’s promptly dropped Phelps as a spokesperson, badly misreading public sentiment. Dozens of columnists slammed Kellogg’s for this decision, and a major AP story reported on groups calling for consumers to “Drop Kellogg’s” for dumping Phelps. A few weeks later, the advertising trade magazine Ad Age reported that Kellogg’s brand favorability had tanked since it dropped Phelps – even more than when the company instituted a massive recall due to a problem with salmonella in its peanut butter.

Full Story 10 Signs the Failed Drug War Is Finally Ending | Media and Technology | AlterNet.

The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods

Once upon a time, some brave scientists had a noble dream of ridding food of nutrients. That dream is closer to reality than ever.

Once upon a time, some brave scientists had a noble dream of ridding our food of the plague of nutrients.

Today, at the start of the 21st century, the miracle of food processing has brought that dream closer to reality than ever before. From vitamin-free “blueberry bits” to spray-can cheese to avocado-free guacamole, food scientists have worked tirelessly to bring us new and exciting foods that contain as little nutrition as possible. Even apparently “healthy” foods such as soups have been ingeniously overloaded with so much salt you feel as if you’re eating French fries.

In this article, we’ll provide a handy guide to six uniquely unnatural processed foods that will hopefully serve as a blueprint for humanity’s eventual triumph over the tyrannical fist of Mother Nature.

Full Story The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.

An Affordable Truth

Paul Krugman

Maybe I’m naïve, but I’m feeling optimistic about the climate talks starting in Copenhagen on Monday. President Obama now plans to address the conference on its last day, which suggests that the White House expects real progress. It’s also encouraging to see developing countries — including China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide — agreeing, at least in principle, that they need to be part of the solution.

Of course, if things go well in Copenhagen, the usual suspects will go wild. We’ll hear cries that the whole notion of global warming is a hoax perpetrated by a vast scientific conspiracy, as demonstrated by stolen e-mail messages that show — well, actually all they show is that scientists are human, but never mind. We’ll also, however, hear cries that climate-change policies will destroy jobs and growth.

The truth, however, is that cutting greenhouse gas emissions is affordable as well as essential. Serious studies say that we can achieve sharp reductions in emissions with only a small impact on the economy’s growth. And the depressed economy is no reason to wait — on the contrary, an agreement in Copenhagen would probably help the economy recover.

Why should you believe that cutting emissions is affordable? First, because financial incentives work.

Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – An Affordable Truth – NYTimes.com.

MIT Breakthrough can generate electricity w ZERO CO2 emissions from Natural Gas

Scientists at M.I.T. have developed a novel process that has the potential to generate abundant electricity with zero carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

A Greener Way to Get Electricity from Natural Gas

Postdoctoral associate Thomas Adams and Paul I. Barton, the Lammot du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering, propose a system that uses solid-oxide fuel cells, which produce power from fuel without burning it. The system would not require any new technology, but would rather combine existing components, or ones that are already well under development, in a novel configuration (for which they have applied for a patent). The system would also have the advantage of running on natural gas, a relatively plentiful fuel source — proven global reserves of natural gas are expected to last about 60 years at current consumption rates — that is considered more environmentally friendly than coal or oil. (Present natural-gas power plants produce an average of 1,135 pounds of carbon dioxide for every megawatt-hour of electricity produced — half to one-third the emissions from coal plants, depending on the type of coal.)

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Their process uses a type of fuel cells powered by Natural Gas, with CO2 emitted in a pure stream that can be sequestered directly adding less costs than having to separate the CO2 from other combustion byproducts like would be necessary with a coal plant.

Zero emission electricity from Natural Gas would have an enormous advantage of already having a highly developed infrastructure in place. That could make a much more timely conversion of electricity generation from our dirtiest fuel coal, more feasible in the near future. This new fuel cell technology has an enormous potential to become a very important part of the mix of carbon cutting tools coming on line.

We have the opportunity to make substantial progress in the near future IF our governments can agree to expand the carbon market, in order to send the right price signals needed to bring new green technologies like this one on line. This new fuel cell technology could be instrumental in speeding the conversion of our economy to an environmentally sustainable one.

Technological breakthroughs like this one that make extensive use of existing infrastructure can make expanding the carbon market under an agreement following the Copenhagen Summit much more palatable to politicians and the entrenched corporate interests that wield so much influence. This new fuel cell technology has the potential to open up lucrative new markets for the Natural Gas Industry, creating a powerful ready made corporate constituency for the new technology.

Full Story Daily Kos: MIT Breakthrough can generate electricity w ZERO CO2 emissions from Natural Gas.

Bionic Lenses Aren’t Just for Cataracts Anymore

As someone who’s been nearsighted since I was a kid, I’m loving the new developments in intraocular lenses. There’s a new procedure gaining popularity that could give me super vision, without the irreversibility of LASIK.

IOLs have been around since the late ‘40s, but recent developments have made them pretty amazing. The newest procedure involves inserting the lens into the eye with the basic focus worked out. Then, once the eye heals, doctors can direct UV light at highly specific areas on the lens to fine tune the focus. The end result is amazing, custom tuned vision, better than 20/20 in many cases.

Not a new idea, sure, but one that resonated with me. I’ve always thought about getting LASIK, but I’m scared by how once that laser burns away at your cornea, there’s no going back. If my vision ever got worse, it’d probably be back to glasses and contacts. I’m sure plenty of you readers have had wonderful experiences with the procedure, but I’m really risk averse.

Full Story Bionic Lenses Aren’t Just for Cataracts Anymore – Science – Gizmodo.

The rise and fall of MySpace

In summer 2005, having spent the best part of four decades ­building a newspaper, film and television empire, Rupert Murdoch decided that the time had come to get serious about the internet. As founder and chairman of News Corporation, one of the world’s biggest and most powerful media conglomerates, Murdoch controls an eclectic portfolio of businesses ranging from The Sun newspaper to the movie studio 20th Century Fox. Yet with young people “watching less television and reading fewer newspapers”, as he observed that summer, News Corp desperately needed a bigger presence online.

The way in, it was decided after much deliberation among the News Corp top brass, was to buy Intermix, a Los Angeles-based company whose main asset was MySpace, a website that had been adding an astonishing 70,000 new users every day. MySpace was firmly at the forefront of Web 2.0, the label at that time applied to a new level of software functionality that helped internet users to interact directly with one another. As an online social network, MySpace offered a new kind of shared experience, ­connecting millions of users via interests in music, film and popular culture.

To say MySpace was a hot property back in 2005 is something of an understatement. Its rapidly expanding tribe of users had attracted the attention of other potential buyers. Viacom, for one, a rival media conglomerate that owns companies such as Paramount Pictures and Comedy Central, was eyeing it as a vehicle to revive its flagging MTV channel, a similarly youth-oriented brand.

Full Story FT.com / Reportage – The rise and fall of MySpace.

Obama the Realist

Newsweek –

Even as Obama increases troop levels, he is scaling back American foreign policy.

If you take just one sentence out, Barack Obama’s speech on Afghanistan last week was all about focusing and limiting the scope of America’s mission in that country. His goal, he said, was “narrowly defined.” The objectives he detailed were exclusively military—to deny Al Qaeda a safe haven, reverse the Taliban’s momentum, and strengthen the Kabul government’s security forces. He said almost nothing about broader goals like spreading democracy, protecting human rights, or assisting in women’s education. The nation that he was interested in building, he explained, was America.

And then there was that one line: “I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.” Here lies the tension in Barack Obama’s policy. He wants a clearer, more discriminating foreign policy, one that pares down the vast commitments and open-ended interventions of the Bush era, perhaps one that is more disciplined even than Bill Clinton’s approach to the world. (On the campaign trail, Obama repeatedly invoked George H.W. Bush as the president whose foreign policy he admired most.) But America is in the midst of a war that is not going well, and scaling back now would look like cutting and running. Obama is searching for a post-imperial policy in the midst of an imperial crisis. The qualified surge—send in troops to regain the momentum but then draw down—is his answer to this dilemma. This is an understandable compromise, and it could well work, but it pushes off a final decision about Afghanistan until the troop surge can improve the situation on the ground. Eighteen months from now, Obama will have to answer the core question: is a stable and well-functioning Afghanistan worth a large and continuing American ground presence, or can American interests be secured at much lower cost?

Full Story Zakaria: Obama the Realist | Newsweek Politics | Newsweek.com.

Kuwait sells Citigroup stake for $4.1 billion

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund said Sunday it booked a profit of $1.1 billion by selling the stake it took in Citigroup Inc. less than two years ago when the banking giant was strapped for cash.

The Kuwait Investment Authority said in a statement it sold the preferred shares after converting them to common stock for $4.1 billion. That works out to a gain of nearly 37 percent on its $3 billion investment.

Calls to the Kuwait fund for further details went unanswered. A Citi spokesman declined to comment.

Gulf Arab nations’ sovereign wealth funds have been heavy investors in U.S. and European companies, using their oil wealth to buy large stakes in companies ranging from Citi to Germany’s Volkswagen AG and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG.

Full Story Kuwait sells Citigroup stake for $4.1 billion – Yahoo! Finance.

Adviser: Obama plans to launch Bin Laden hunt anew

The United States will launch a new effort to track down Osama bin Laden who is believed to be hiding in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, a senior US official said on Sunday.

Intelligence reports suggest the Al-Qaeda chief “is somewhere inside north Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border,” said national security adviser James Jones.

Asked if President Barack Obama’s administration planned a fresh attempt to go after Al-Qaeda’s leader, Jones said: “I think so.”

Bin Laden was a “very important symbol of what Al-Qaeda stands for” and it was crucial to make sure he was on the run or captured, Jones, a retired Marine general, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

His comment that Bin Laden sometimes crossed to the Afghan side of the mountainous border contrasted with previous accounts from US officials that suggested the Al-Qaeda chief was hiding in Pakistan.

Full Story Adviser: Obama plans to launch Bin Laden hunt anew | Raw Story.

OPS: Here we go again

EU cracks down after 34 million fake pills seized in two months

The trade in counterfeit medicines in the European Union has exceeded the body’s worst fears, the European industry commissioner said on Monday.

The EU had seized 34 million fake tablets in just two months, Gunter Verheugen told German daily Die Welt — including antibiotics, cancer treatments and Viagra.

Verheugen said the European Commission was very concerned about the situation and said he expected the EU to take action to fight the menace of fake pharmaceuticals.

Full Story EU cracks down after 34 million fake pills seized in two months | Raw Story.

Obama administration says Guantanamo detainees will likely go to Illinois prison

Despite GOP concerns, facility seen as choice to replace Guantanamo

Despite opposition from congressional Republicans, the Obama administration is signaling that a state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., will probably become the new home for scores of terrorism suspects now housed at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Officials from the White House, Defense Department and U.S. Bureau of Prisons spent two hours last week briefing more than a dozen members of the Illinois congressional delegation in the office of Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.). To reassure skeptical Republicans, they emphasized security.

Although the officials left open the possibility that another site could be chosen, participants emerged from the session convinced that the U.S. government will buy the largely unused $145 million Thomson Correctional Center, which was built in 2008.

Full Story Obama administration says Guantanamo detainees will likely go to Illinois prison – washingtonpost.com.

Venezuela refashions seized banks into public entity

Venezuela’s government will create a new state-run financial institution out of four private banks that were shut down this week for alleged accounting irregularities, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday.

“We will create another large bank… as a result of a merger” between the closed institutions, Chavez announced on his weekly television and radio program “Alo Presidente.”

The new bank, to be called Banco Bicentenario — in honor of Venezuela’s 200th anniversary of independence next year — will be created from the remains of Confederado, Central, Bolivar and Banco Real, all shuttered to investigate the alleged irregularities.

State bank Banfoandes will also be involved in the merger, he added.

Along with those institutions, the Chavez administration also closed down Banco Canarias and BanPro.

Full Story Venezuela refashions seized banks into public entity | Raw Story.

Obama Advisers Soften Afghanistan Timetable, Suggest U.S. Troops May Not Pull Out In 2011

Obama Advisers Soften Afghanistan Timetable, Suggest U.S. Troops May Not Pull Out In 2011

In his Afghanistan policy address last week, President Obama said we would “begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.” In a series of in-depth profiles of the behind-the-scenes conversations that took place in the lead-up to this pronouncement, the Washington Post and New York Times report that the President wanted a strategy to get in and get out.

“The military was told to come up with a plan to send troops quickly and then begin bringing them home quickly,” the Times writes. “He had asked for a plan to deploy and pull out troops quickly,” writes the Post. Looking at a bell curve that laid out the timetable for the deployment and withdrawal of U.S. troops, Obama reportedly told his advisers: “I want this pushed to the left.” The Times writes, “In other words, the troops should be in sooner, then out sooner.”

But as administration officials touted the President’s Afghanistan strategy this morning on the Sunday political talk shows, they underscored that the U.S. troops may not be coming home in 2011:

Full Story Think Progress » Obama Advisers Soften Afghanistan Timetable, Suggest U.S. Troops May Not Pull Out In 2011.

Cancer From the Kitchen?

The battle over health care focuses on access to insurance, or tempests like the one that erupted over new mammogram guidelines

But what about broader public health challenges? What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air — or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?

This last week I attended a fascinating symposium at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, exploring whether certain common chemicals are linked to breast cancer and other ailments.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, the chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai, said that the risk that a 50-year-old white woman will develop breast cancer has soared to 12 percent today, from 1 percent in 1975. (Some of that is probably a result of better detection.) Younger people also seem to be developing breast cancer: This year a 10-year-old in California, Hannah, is fighting breast cancer and recording her struggle on a blog.

Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – Cancer From the Kitchen? – NYTimes.com.

Emails that rocked climate change campaign leaked from Siberian ‘closed city’ university built by KGB

Suspicions were growing last night that Russian security services were behind the leaking of the notorious British ‘Climategate’ emails which threaten to undermine tomorrow’s Copenhagen global warming summit.

An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has discovered that the explosive hacked emails from the University of East Anglia were leaked via a small web server in the formerly closed city of Tomsk in Siberia.

The leaks scandal has left the scientific community in disarray after claims that key climate change data was manipulated in the run-up to the climate change summit of world leaders.

Full Story Emails that rocked climate change campaign leaked from Siberian ‘closed city’ university built by KGB | Mail Online.

Sen. Grassley Spreads Lies On Comparative Effectiveness Research – video

Media Matters –

During a December 6, 2009 floor speech during the debate over health care reform, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) repeated a slew of falsehoods surrounding comparative effectiveness research.

Sen. Chuck Grassley:

The federal government will have a newly created comparative effectiveness research program. This program would be similar to the ones in Great Britain and other foreign governments that decide which treatments [sic] can and cannot have. Now I want everyone to understand that the principle of comparative effectiveness research in and of itself is not something that I oppose because I think when it’s used as a way of informing patients and providers about best practices, it’s a good thing to have. But I’m also worried this research could be used as a tool for government to ration care. [Grassley Floor Statement, 12/6/09]

The Federal CER Board Will NOT Make Recommendations

CER Council “Will Not Recommend Clinical Guidelines.” The published guidelines for the Federal Coordinating Council are very clear about the decisions its members will make: The Federal Coordinating Council For Comparative Effectiveness Research “will not recommend clinical guidelines for payment, coverage or treatment.” [HHS.gov, 3/19/09, emphasis added]

Full Story Sen. Grassley Spreads Lies On Comparative Effectiveness Research | Media Matters Action Network.

Entitled to Their Own ‘Facts’?

Ellen Goodman –

Boston – If you ever wondered why God invented the delete button, let me pass along the e-mail that arrived on the wings of various listservs directed at the Mainstream Media.

“How much do we love you?” the author asked the MSM. “Let me count the ways: You lie, omit, distort and skew what otherwise should be unbiased accounts of ALL news, not just what furthers the interests of the ‘fringe left’s”

As my finger hovered over “block sender,” I scanned the list of wrongs. No. 1 was the charge that we, the MSM, had hidden the fact that Bill Ayers was the real author of “Dreams from My Father.”

Full Story t r u t h o u t | Ellen Goodman | Entitled to Their Own ‘Facts’?.

Next Year, Employers Likely to See Surge in People Quitting

The job market remains the worst since 1983, but Novembe’s unemployment rate improvement — from 10.2 percent to 10 percent — may begin feeding an employee exodus.

Based on surveys, several management consulting and human resource organizations said about half of U.S. workers are likely to try to change jobs next year.

Among the indicators:

– Right Management surveyed 900 workers and found that 60 percent intend to leave their jobs in 2010.

Full Story t r u t h o u t | Next Year, Employers Likely to See Surge in People Quitting.

Haaretz: Moscow rejected US request to recognize a Jewish state

The Haaretz newspaper said on Friday that Moscow refused an American overture calling on the international quartet to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and give it the right to annex the major settlement outposts in the West Bank to its borders.

The newspaper said that US secretary of state Hillary Clinton proposed during telephone calls a week ago with the quartet members to issue a joint statement in this regard.

According to the newspaper, the statement was already prepared by the American administration and called for resuming the negotiations without preconditions in order to reach a peace agreement achieving the Palestinian’s goal of having an independent state on the 1967 borders, but with Israel keeping its major settlements in exchange for compensating Palestinians by giving them other lands.

Full Story Haaretz: Moscow rejected US request to recognize a Jewish state.