Archive for January, 2010
Copenhagen Accord: Poor Response to Climate Deadline
Just 19 countries out of 193 have sent letters of intent to the United Nations to be part of a global climate change accord, the UN’s climate chief says.
[A demonstrator holds a signboard during a rally outside the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 12, 2009. (Reuters/Bob Strong)]A demonstrator holds a signboard during a rally outside the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 12, 2009. (Reuters/Bob Strong)
Countries met in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December in pursuit of a legally binding deal to follow the Kyoto protocol on limiting global warming.
But a deal was not reached, and instead talks concluded with a Copenhagen accord, a non-binding document crafted by a small group of countries that account for around 80 per cent of world carbon emissions.
The two-week meeting, hamstrung by contentions over wording and objections by developing countries, led to a UN “soft deadline” of January 31 for nations to take sides on the accord, which, amongst other things, limits global warming to below two degrees Celsius.
Full Story Copenhagen Accord: Poor Response to Climate Deadline | CommonDreams.org.
Game Changer: China Plans to Open Military Bases Worldwide
It has been speculated upon in open-source intelligence circles for years. So, there is little surprise for the rest of the world when it hears of China’s first major foray in its new role as a Superpower.
Although Americans might be surprised. That is, if they even hear about it before the Juarez, Mexico base goes live.
China mulls setting up military base in Pakistan
BEIJING: China has signaled it wants to go the US way and set up military bases in overseas locations that would possibly include Pakistan. The obvious purpose would be to exert pressure on India as well as counter US influence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Well, why not?
China already pays for our military imperialism by loaning us the money to play soldier. So, why shouldn’t the world’s new Superpower just cut to the chase and open their own bases?
Full Story Game Changer: China Plans to Open Military Bases Worldwide | Antemedius.
Pentagon to rank global warming as destabilising force
US defence review says military planners should factor climate change into long-term strategy
The Pentagon will for the first time rank global warming as a destabilising force, adding fuel to conflict and putting US troops at risk around the world, in a major strategy review to be presented to Congress tomorrow. The quadrennial defence review, prepared by the Pentagon to update Congress on its security vision, will direct military planners to keep track of the latest climate science, and to factor global warming into their long term strategic planning.
“While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden on civilian institutions and militaries around the world,” said a draft of the review seen by the Guardian.
Heatwaves and freak storms could put increasing demand on the US military to respond to humanitarian crises or natural disaster. But troops could feel the effects of climate change even more directly, the draft says.
Full Story Pentagon to rank global warming as destabilising force | World news | guardian.co.uk.
Obama to propose $3.8 trillion 2011 budget
President Barack Obama will unveil a $3.8 trillion (2.4 trillion pound) budget proposal on Monday for fiscal 2011, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The White House declined to comment on the report.
The newspaper said the budget would include $25 billion for struggling states and provide funding increases for programs at the Energy Department, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Census Bureau.
An administration official confirmed to Reuters that the budget would include a 6 percent increase in civilian research programs.
The budget would also provide more funds for military programs, including the Pentagon’s Special Operations forces, the U.S. Army’s Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Full Story Obama to propose $3.8 trillion 2011 budget – report – Yahoo!7 News.
OPS: Keep in mind that about 1/2 of this $3.8 T is INTEREST PAYMENT on the debt run up by: Reagan, HWBush, GWBush.
How to Reform Our Financial System
By PAUL VOLCKER -
PRESIDENT OBAMA 10 days ago set out one important element in the needed structural reform of the financial system. No one can reasonably contest the need for such reform, in the United States and in other countries as well. We have after all a system that broke down in the most serious crisis in 75 years. The cost has been enormous in terms of unemployment and lost production. The repercussions have been international.
Aggressive action by governments and central banks — really unprecedented in both magnitude and scope — has been necessary to revive and maintain market functions. Some of that support has continued to this day. Here in the United States as elsewhere, some of the largest and proudest financial institutions — including both investment and commercial banks — have been rescued or merged with the help of massive official funds. Those actions were taken out of well-justified concern that their outright failure would irreparably impair market functioning and further damage the real economy already in recession.
Now the economy is recovering, if at a still modest pace. Funds are flowing more readily in financial markets, but still far from normally. Discussion is underway here and abroad about specific reforms, many of which have been set out by the United States administration: appropriate capital and liquidity requirements for banks; better official supervision on the one hand and on the other improved risk management and board oversight for private institutions; a review of accounting approaches toward financial institutions; and others.
Full Story Op-Ed Contributor – How to Reform Our Financial System – NYTimes.com.
NASA To Outsource Space Travel To Private Companies As Part Of Obama’s Budget Proposal
Getting to space is about to be outsourced.
The Obama administration on Monday will propose in its new budget spending billions of dollars to encourage private companies to build, launch and operate spacecraft for NASA and others. Uncle Sam would buy its astronauts a ride into space just like hopping in a taxi.
The idea is that getting astronauts into orbit, which NASA has been doing for 49 years, is getting to be so old hat that someone other than the government can do it. It’s no longer really the Right Stuff. Going private would free the space agency to do other things, such as explore beyond Earth’s orbit, do more research and study the Earth with better satellites. And it would spur a new generation of private companies – even some with Internet roots – to innovate.
But there’s some concern about that – from former NASA officials worried about safety and from congressional leaders worried about lost jobs. Some believe space is still a tough, dangerous enterprise not to be left to private companies out for a buck. Government would lose vital knowledge and control, critics fear.
Full Story NASA To Outsource Space Travel To Private Companies As Part Of Obama’s Budget Proposal.
OPS: Another Dangerous and Stupid move.
Family link is found between Obama and Scott Brown
The president and the Massachusetts Republican senator-elect are 10th cousins, according to genealogy experts.
Reporting from Washington – President Obama has found another long-lost cousin: Scott Brown, the Republican state senator from Massachusetts who won the Senate seat long held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
The president and the senator-elect are 10th cousins, according to the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
Brown’s victory Jan. 19 over Democratic candidate Martha Coakley cost the Democrats their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and may have jeopardized passage of Obama’s top legislative priority — a healthcare overhaul.
Full Story Family link is found between Obama and Scott Brown – latimes.com.
Clock Is Ticking On LowPowerFM Bill
The Prometheus Radio Project says the Local Community Radio Act — which would open the door to potentially thousands of new low-power FMs — is “in the home stretch,” but there are still obstacles.
On the group’s website, Prometheus says, “In our fight to pass the Local Community Radio Act, every victory we celebrate comes with a new hurdle to overcome.” The group notes that the bill has passed out of committee in the Senate and must pass the full Senate to go to President Obama for signature, and that it still needs to be officially reported and filed.
Prometheus says, “2010 began in the throes of combative partisanship and a supreme court ruling that further deregulates corporate campaign donations, giving corporate interests and corporate media more power in government. But, we will not give in. We’ve seen grassroots supporters take action and make their voices heard, helping push the Local Community Radio Act out of the House of Representatives. We’re going to keep fighting and see this thing through to the end.
Full Story Radio Ink Magazine.
Pat Tillman cover-up focus of Sundance documentary
Six years after US sports star Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan, his family’s search for truth in the face of a US government cover-up has gripped audiences at the Sundance Film Festival.
Tillman, 27, was portrayed as an all-American hero when he turned his back on a multi-million-dollar American football career to enlist in the US military following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The initial account of his death — that he had died engaging enemy fire — elevated the Army Ranger to a near mythical status which was sealed by a nationally televised memorial service.
But eventually the truth emerged: the 27-year-old had died in a friendly fire incident and senior US Army commanders conspired to cover it up, in an attempt to use Tillman as a propaganda tool.
Full Story Pat Tillman cover-up focus of Sundance documentary – Yahoo! Canada News.
A Closer Look at the Federal Reserve
The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve are perhaps under more public and governmental scrutiny today than ever before. The Treasury’s budget shortcomings and the Federal Reserve’s continual lack of transparency are drawing serious criticism, but that is only part of the story. In the halls of Congress, and in the forum of public opinion the leaders of the two most influence organs of our economy are being pressured like never before.
In the case of Secretary Tim Geithner, his bailouts of the banking industry – which have failed to produce any recovery despite their costs – are becoming even more unpopular. At the same time, bailout watchdog Neil Barofsky has uncovered some possibly damning evidence showing collusion between Geithner, then the head of the New York Fed, and insurance giant AIG.
According to CNNMoney.com, the typically short life-span of a Treasury Secretary may soon run its course. Geithner was once a popular choice, but progressives were always worried about his Goldman Sachs pedigree and his insider status on Wall Street.
Full Story A Closer Look at the Federal Reserve | Economy In Crisis.
Can Obama Bring Change to U.S. Trade?
In his first State of the Union speech Wednesday night, President Barack Obama vowed to create two million jobs over the next five years by doubling America’s exports in that time. While that sounds like a fantastic idea, many economic believe that it is practically infeasible.
“We need to export more of our goods. Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America,” Obama said. “So tonight, we set a new goal: We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America.”
Although he offered no specifics on how to improve America’s exporting prowess, The New York Times reports that Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will deliver a speech on the matter sometime next week.
Full Story Can Obama Bring Change to U.S. Trade? | Economy In Crisis.
Will Al Jazeera English Revolutionize America’s TV News Landscape?
The Qatar-based TV international news channel has changed the face of Arab media, and its poised to do the same in North America.
There are three forces shaping the world, an Arab reporter I met in the Gaza Strip once told me: money, women, and journalism.
On the first and third counts, he might have been thinking of Qatar, where I pass by luxury shopping malls, glittering real estate developments, and, in a spirit of reasonableness, traffic signs that advise caution when driving the wrong way down one-way streets. Over the past decade, this tiny desert emirate of a million and a half people — a bump on the rib cage of Saudi Arabia, directly across the Persian Gulf from Iran — has asserted itself on the world stage in large measure by pouring money into, of all things, journalism. Since 1996, it has been funding Al Jazeera (Arabic for “the island”), the network that revolutionized the Arab media and is poised to do the same for the English-speaking world.
Passing through the security gate, where a Yemeni guard gives my documents the once-over, I enter the air-conditioned headquarters of Al Jazeera English, the international news channel the network launched in November of 2006. Inside the sweeping high-tech production facility, cameras roll as a young Australian anchor opens a segment on the South African elections, then passes the baton to his co-anchors at the channel’s three other broadcast centres, in Washington, London, and Kuala Lumpur.
Full Story Will Al Jazeera English Revolutionize America’s TV News Landscape? | Media and Culture | AlterNet.
10 Ways to Stop the Corporate Dominance of Politics following Ctizens United v. FEC
It’s not too late to limit or reverse the impact of the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Citizens United v. FEC.
The recent Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited corporate spending in politics just may be the straw that breaks the plutocracy’s back.
Pro-democracy groups, business leaders, and elected representatives are proposing mechanisms to prevent or counter the millions of dollars that corporations can now draw from their treasuries to push for government action favorable to their bottom line. The outrage ignited by the Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission extends to President Obama, who has promised that repairing the damage will be a priority for his administration.
But what can be done to limit or reverse the effect of the Court’s decision? Here are 10 ideas:
Full Story 10 Ways to Stop the Corporate Dominance of Politics following Ctizens United v. FEC.
Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti
The five men and five women were in custody in the capital, Port-au-Prince after their arrests on Friday night. There are fears that traffickers could try to exploit the chaos and turmoil following Haiti's January 12 earthquake quake to engage in illegal adoptions.
One of the suspects, who says she is leader of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children’s Refuge, denied they had done anything wrong.
Full Story Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti – Yahoo! News.
Who Knows Where It’s Been? Me Vida Local II
Not all of them are bad, a few of them are actually a good deal, but in most cases you get what you pay for.
Alternet has an investigation and review of the food selections at the dollar stores. You know, the off brands.
Distributed foods and beverages hailing from unregulated countries abound in dollar stores. Royal Dansk Danish-style butter cookies for $1.29 are made in Indonesia and distributed by a company in Melville, New York. House Mill Honey Rings are produced in Argentina and distributed by outlets in Puerto Rico, Libya and Senegal. Pickles bottled in Turkey are marketed under the Italian name Forelli and distributed by Allied International Corporation, based in Virginia.
Not all of them are bad, a few of them are actually a good deal, but in most cases you get what you pay for.
Of course, the more expensive markets sell lots of foods that seem to be what they’re not. Everything is natural now, like nature intended. Chickens that gladly gave their lives. Potato chips the way they were meant to be. I don’t know if this is Deism, or Theism, or the cosmic recipe book of the Goddess. Maybe I think too much.
Continuing ‘Me Vida Local’, Mangiarelli’s Fruitlands in North Providence has good prices and seasonal produce. I make a kind of pie puttanesca, which is just that I cut up some marked-down fruit and bake it in a frozen pie crust.
Full Story Who Knows Where It’s Been? Me Vida Local II « Kmareka.com.
Dollar Stores: The Last, and Not So Healthy Eating Choice, Before the Food Lines
Dollar stores may be places to nab a bargain but for many they are the only place to buy food — the rock-bottom of the food chain, the last stop before the food pantry.
Dollar stores have proliferated like algae on a pool of stagflation. The 50-year-old Family Dollar chain marked the opening of its 500th store in 1982. By 2004 there were 5,000 Family Dollar outlets throughout America. In a statement for an article published that year in the Baltimore Daily Record, Retail Forward called dollar stores the “hottest and highest growth sectors of retailing.” Currently nearly 20,000 dollar stores of every variety dot the landscape. Just last week, the Family Dollar (which has grown by 1,665 outlets in the past six years) reported a 13 percent increase in its stock.
You can find almost any common household item in dollar stores: flimsy but colorful wrapping paper and Christmas decorations, novelty cosmetics and overstock cleaning agents, exotic knick-knacks and discontinued toys. Shoppers from all walks of life are drawn to these places: some to relax, some to stumble upon a bargain, others to cut a few strategic corners that will enable them to splash out on luxuries elsewhere. But a growing number of people shop at dollar stores because they can’t afford to shop anywhere else — and one of the things they really can’t afford is food.
Full Story Dollar Stores: The Last, and Not So Healthy Eating Choice, Before the Food Lines | Food | AlterNet.
Chilcot War Inquiry: Professor to launch ‘Nuremberg’ war crimes prosecution against Blair
Plans to bring a war crimes prosecution against Tony Blair based on last week’s bombshell evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry have been launched by a leading law professor.
The move could see Mr Blair follow former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic into a dock in The Hague.
Professor Bill Bowring says the revelation that the Government rejected Foreign Office warnings not to invade Iraq means there is a good chance Mr Blair can be ‘investigated, at the very least’ for war crimes.
‘We now know that the Government was explicitly warned beforehand that the UK risked being prosecuted for going to war,’ said Prof Bowring.
Full Story Chilcot War Inquiry: Professor to launch ‘Nuremberg’ war crimes prosecution against Blair | Mail Online.
OPS: Could BUSH be next? 
Call for Blair to face trial in Scotland
TONY Blair should be tried in a Scottish court for his decision to take the country to war in Iraq, according to a group of SNP MSPs.
The Crown Office, which leads prosecutions, is examining their arguments following the former prime minister’s appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry last week, in which he expressed “no regrets” over deposing Saddam Hussein.
A parliamentary motion calling for Blair to be prosecuted has been laid down at Holyrood and has been signed by eight MSPs. It cites the verdict of a Dutch commission of judges earlier this month, which concluded that the United Nations resolution used to go to war in 2003 was insufficient to justify military action.
The Nationalists claim that, as Scots law complies with international law, Scottish prosecutors have the power to investigate the findings. They say that if the Crown Office then finds that evidence compelling, they should prosecute Blair.
Full Story Call for Blair to face trial in Scotland – Scotland on Sunday.
OPS: Blair, Bush and the Bush Crime Family should be tried in every country on the planet that has been effected by their criminal deceptions
Frank Rich: The State of the Union Is Comatose
we will soon enter the fourth decade in which Congress — and therefore government as a whole — has failed to deal with any major national problem, from infrastructure to education.
HANDS down, the State of the Union’s big moment was Barack Obama’s direct hit on the delicate sensibilities of the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision giving corporate interests an even greater stranglehold over a government they already regard as a partially owned onshore subsidiary. How satisfying it was to watch him provoke Alito into a “You lie!” snit. Here was a fight we could believe in.
There was more to admire in Obama’s performance as well. He did not retreat into the bite-size initiatives — V-chips, school uniforms — embraced by an emasculated Bill Clinton after his midterm pummeling of 1994. The president’s big original goals — health care, economic recovery, financial reform — remained nominally intact, as did his sense of humor. In a rhetorical touch William Safire would have relished, Obama had the wit to rush the ritualistic “our union is strong” so it would not prompt the usual jingoistic ovation.
Good thing, too, since our union is not strong. It is paralyzed. Many Americans were more eagerly anticipating Steve Jobs’s address in San Francisco on Wednesday morning than the president’s that night because they have far more confidence in Apple than Washington to produce concrete change. One year into Obama’s term we still don’t know whether he has what it takes to get American governance functioning again. But we do know that no speech can do the job. The president must act. Only body blows to the legislative branch can move the country forward.
Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – The State of the Union Is Comatose – NYTimes.com.
Progressives vs. the President
This isn’t the first column in which I’ve addressed this dynamic and it won’t be the last. So consider the following an overview or a recap of what I feel is the disconnect between President Obama and some vocal factions within the progressive movement.
Clearly there are progressives, most visibly in the liberal blogosphere, who have ventured well beyond the realms of being disillusioned with the president to being outright antagonistic and, in a broader movement sense, utterly self-defeating. I still believe that this is based upon a misreading of political reality and a misinterpretation of the president’s first year in office. In some cases, I believe this anger is genuine and fair, and many other cases, I believe it’s wholly unfair, misguided and, dare I say, wingnutty.
Stating the obvious by way of a preface, the goal of the progressive movement is to, of course, move government further to the left and thereby achieve progressive policies. The argument right now is about how best to achieve this goal in the context of the current political landscape. I’ve always thought that a successful progressive movement involved three things: an ongoing marginalizing of the far-right; arguing for progressive policies; and promoting and encouraging the careers of politicians and organizations that are best equipped to help pass progressive legislation.
Full Story Bob Cesca: Progressives vs. the President.
China Is Leading the Race to Make Renewable Energy
China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year.
China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.
These efforts to dominate the global manufacture of renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.
Full Story China Is Leading the Race to Make Renewable Energy – NYTimes.com.
Republican Leaders Forming New Political Group
At least half a dozen leaders of the Republican Party have joined forces to create a new political group with the goal of organizing grass-roots support and raising funds ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to people familiar with the effort.
The organizational details of the group, expected to be called the American Action Network, are still being worked out, but it is expected to contain both a 501(c)3 and a 501(c)4 component. In simpler terms, a 501(c)3 can advocate on policy matters while a 501(c)4 is an election arm.
Republican leaders expected to be affiliated with the group include former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie, and Republican donor Fred Malek.
Full Story Republican Leaders Forming New Political Group – Washington Wire – WSJ.
OPS: will this be the front fro collecting Corporate money and pretending it’s from people?
Paulson: Russia tried to exacerbate US financial crisis | Raw Story
Russian interests attempted to force the U.S. government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by selling off its holdings in the two entities in 2008, then urging China to do the same, according to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Paulson’s claim is carried by his forthcoming memoir, “On The Brink.” An early copy was obtained by Bloomberg News.
“The Russians made a ‘top-level approach’ to the Chinese ‘that together they might sell big chunks of their GSE holdings to force the U.S. to use its emergency authorities to prop up these companies,’ Paulson said, referring to the acronym for government sponsored entities,” Bloomberg reported. “The Chinese declined, he said.”
He reportedly added that he waited until returning to the U.S. before informing former President George W. Bush of what he called a “disruptive plan.”
Full Story Paulson: Russia tried to exacerbate US financial crisis | Raw Story.
OPS: Give me a phucking break. Same soup- -different bowl
UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Raw Story
The world needs a treaty to prevent cyber attacks becoming an all-out war, the head of the main UN communications and technology agency warned Saturday.
International Telcommunications Union secretary general Hamadoun Toure gave his warning at a World Economic Forum debate where experts said nations must now consider when a cyber attack becomes a declaration of war.
With attacks on Google from China a major talking point in Davos, Toure said the risk of a cyber conflict between two nations grows every year.
Full Story UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | Raw Story.
OPS: the March of Fascism
Obama to seek major increase in nuclear weapons funding
The Obama administration plans to ask Congress to increase spending on the U.S. nuclear arsenal by more than $5 billion over the next five years as part of its strategy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually rid the world of them.
The administration argues that the boost is needed to ensure that U.S. warheads remain secure and work as designed as the arsenal shrinks and ages nearly 18 years into a moratorium on underground testing and more than two decades after large-scale warhead production ended.
The increase is also required to modernize facilities — some dating to World War II — that support the U.S. stockpile and to retain experts who “will help meet the president’s goal of securing vulnerable nuclear materials worldwide . . . and enable us to track and thwart nuclear trafficking (a
Full Story Obama to seek major increase in nuclear weapons funding – Yahoo! News.
OPS: For Christsake. A military budget that is larger than the Military Budgets of ALL OTHER NATIONS ON THE PLANET – C O M B I N E D isn’t enough?
Italy follows France with a bid to ban the burqa
Burqas will be banned in Italy under laws proposed by the government yesterday.
Legislation to stop Muslim women wearing the hood and other full-face veils such as the niqab will be introduced, equal opportunities minister Mara Carfagna said.
France is already considering outlawing burqas and Miss Carfagna believes other European countries will follow suit.
She said: ‘This is about a sacrosanct battle to defend the dignity and rights of immigrant women.
Full Story Italy follows France with a bid to ban the burqa | Mail Online.
Grayson: “Obama Has Gone Too Far In Reaching Out To Republicans At The Cost Of Progress”
OPS: Obama has been bending over backwards to reach out to Republicans – while completely ignoring his Progressive Base. If he want Democrats, or himself in office after the next cycles, he’d better start reversing that fast.
Franken wants to keep foreign interests out of elections
DFL Sen. Al Franken announced today that he introduced legislation to change campaign finance laws. He’s making the announcement one week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums of money to buy ads supporting or opposing political candidates. Franken has introduced legislation that aims to keep foreign interests out of elections. Here’s part of the news release:
Since 1974, federal law has banned foreign companies from giving or spending in American elections. Nothing in our current laws, however, explicitly prohibits foreign companies from creating American subsidiaries or getting control of American companies and using them to flood the airwaves in support of their preferred candidates. Citizens United gives companies unlimited power to do that – and does not distinguish between American companies and companies that are owned or controlled by foreign interests.
“I was pleased to hear the President recognize the need for this bill in his address last night,” said Sen. Franken. “I think we can all agree that foreign interests have no place in American elections.”
The “American Elections Act of 2010″ was developed in coordination with Professor David Schultz of Hamline University School of Business in Minnesota.
Full Story Franken wants to keep foreign interests out of elections | Polinaut | Minnesota Public Radio.
List of 51 Senate Democrats Who Support a Public Option: What’s Stopping Them Now?
Jane Hamsher –
Some day, just for kicks, I’m going to collect quotes from every scold who called upon their volumes of wisdom about Senate procedure to decree that Joe Lieberman must be the ultimate decider on any health care bill, because after all it took 60 votes to pass anything. Because now, as we’ve known all along, that’s a self-imposed limitation that the Senate can surmount if they want to.
But let’s remember that back in August, when Chuck Schumer was pushing to pass health care through reconciliation, here was the guy who was running the health care show on behalf of the White House:
[Rahm Emanuel] acknowledged the political realities that have made the Finance Committee’s still-unfinished cooperative plan a center of attention.
“We have heard from both chambers that the House sees a public plan as essential for the final product, and the Senate believes it cannot pass it as constructed and a co-op is what they can do,” Mr. Emanuel said. “We are cognizant of that fact.”
And then he handed the keys over to Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln to write a wildly unpopular bill that is threatening to take down the party.
Full Story List of 51 Senate Democrats Who Support a Public Option: What’s Stopping Them Now? | CommonDreams.org.
On the State of the Union
Ralph Nader -
The President’s State of the Union Speech is the Big Speech of the year. Yet there is never an opportunity either for the press or the citizenry to promptly follow up with any questions or requests for clarifications. As a result, doubt and misunderstandings fester.
Watching President Obama’s speech the other evening before a joint session of vociferous members of Congress, quiet Supreme Court Justices and military brass, I jotted down a few items for the White House to consider.
First, Mr. Obama cited the Senate’s inaction four times in contrast to the House of Representatives. To add to his frustration, he cited the Republican leadership for insisting that “sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town.” What he did not do was to urge his fellow Democrats to change the filibuster rule by a simple majority vote.
Full Story On the State of the Union | CommonDreams.org.
Why does the US turn a blind eye to Israeli bulldozers?
Robert Fisk:
Most of the West Bank is under rule which amounts to apartheid by paper
“Palestine” is no more. Call it a “peace process” or a “road map”; blame it on Barack Obama’s weakness, his pathetic, childish admission – like an optimistic doctor returning a sick child to its parents without hope of recovery – that a Middle East peace was “more difficult” to reach than he imagined.
But the dream of a “two-state” Israeli-Palestinian solution, a security-drenched but noble settlement to decades of warfare between Israelis and Palestinians is as good as dead.
OPS: Because AIPAC is funding Congress?
In Cost Dispute, U.S. Halts Airlift of Haiti Quake Victims
The United States has suspended its medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims until a dispute over who will pay for their care is settled, military officials said Friday.
The military flights, usually C-130s carrying Haitians with spinal cord injuries, burns and other serious wounds, ended on Wednesday after Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida formally asked the federal government to shoulder some of the cost of the care.
Hospitals in Florida have treated more than 500 earthquake victims so far, the military said, including an infant who was pulled out of the rubble with a fractured skull and ribs. Other states have taken patients, too, and those flights have been suspended as well, the officials said.
Full Story In Cost Dispute, U.S. Halts Airlift of Haiti Quake Victims – NYTimes.com.
Some Republicans Fret That Opposition To New Obama Measures Could Seriously Backfire
Some senior Republican strategists and party veterans are beginning to fret that the party’s refusal to work with President Obama, even when he crosses onto their own philosophical turf, could ultimately erode some of the political gains they’ve made this past year.
Over the past two weeks, Republicans in Congress have united in nearly unanimous opposition to a series of ideologically conservative policy suggestions, starting with a commission to reduce the deficit, a pay-go provision that would limit new expenditures, and a spending freeze on non-military programs.
Opposition has usually been based on specific policy concerns or complaints that the measures aren’t going far enough. But the message being sent is that the GOP’s sole mission is presidential destruction.
Full Story Some Republicans Fret That Opposition To New Obama Measures Could Seriously Backfire.
Why do people often vote against their own interests?
…it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.
The Republicans’ shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US.
Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.
Last year, in a series of “town-hall meetings” across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms.
What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.
Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.
But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.
Full Story BBC News – Why do people often vote against their own interests?.
The Most Ridiculous Public Access Moments Of All Time (VIDEO)
In a world before YouTube, the only home for ordinary people with something to say was on public access television. Though it lacks the glamor and prestige of regular television programming it sure beat being committed to an institution.
Full Story The Most Ridiculous Public Access Moments Of All Time (VIDEO).
New Files Show Margaret Thatcher Was At Odds With US On Iran
Now we know why there were no Margaret Thatcher tea cups in 1979. The Iron Lady wouldn’t have it.
When her media adviser, Gordon Reece, said he had been inundated with requests to lend her image to such souvenirs, she swiftly knocked it down: “No (underlined) permission to be given at all on any grounds of any kind.”
Newly released files from the first year of Thatcher's 11-year run as British prime minister show her to be as decisive on the big issues as she was on the trivial ones that tied lesser figures into indecisive knots.
Full Story New Files Show Margaret Thatcher Was At Odds With US On Iran.
Incredible Images Of Electricity (PHOTOS):
Hirushi Sugimoto’s ‘Lightning Fields’
Forget acrylics and oils. Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto works with electricity.
Using hundreds of thousands of electric volts, a metal table, and a camera, Sugimoto captures the sparks, movement, and dynamism of electric charge in his ‘Lightning Fields’ series. (see photos below)
Wired explains how Sugimoto creates his photos:
He wields a Van de Graaff generator to send up to 400,000 volts through film to a metal table. The resulting fractal branching, subtle feathering, and furry whorls call to mind vascular systems, geologic features, and trees. “I see the spark of life itself, the lightning that struck the primordial ooze,” Sugimoto says.
Sugimoto writes in a description of his work,
The idea of observing the effects of electrical discharges on photographic dry plates reflects my desire to re-create the major discoveries of these scientific pioneers in the darkroom and verify them with my own eyes.
Full Story Incredible Images Of Electricity (PHOTOS): Hirushi Sugimoto’s ‘Lightning Fields’.
Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad May Be Based On Falsehood
A commercial featuring Tim Tebow and his mother Pam that is likely to air during Super Bowl XLIV may be rife with inaccuracies, according to power lawyer Gloria Allred.
The ad, which is expected to promote an anti-choice message, will be based on the theme “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.” The Christian conservative group Focus on the Family has paid for the spot. James Dobson, the group's founder, has a history of inflammatory statements and once said that gay marriage will “destroy the earth.”
Despite resistance from women's groups, the ad is expected to air during the Super Bowl. It is believed that the commercial will focus on Pam Tebow's 1987 pregnancy, during which time she fell ill in the Philippines. According to reports, doctors recommended that she abort the pregnancy, but she chose to go through with the birth of her son Tim.
Full Story Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad May Be Based On Falsehood.
Populism: Just Like Racism!
- Matt Taibbi -
It’s easy to see why politicians would be drawn to the populist pose. First, it makes everything so simple. The economic crisis was caused by a complex web of factors, including global imbalances caused by the rise of China. But with the populist narrative, you can just blame Goldman Sachs.
via Op-Ed Columnist – The Populist Addiction – NYTimes.com.
Normally one would have to be in the grip of a narcissistic psychosis to think that a columnist for the New York Times has written an article for your personal benefit. But after his latest article in the Times, in which he compares the “populism” of people who “blame Goldman Sachs” with exactly the sort of racist elitism I ripped him for last week, I think David Brooks might be trying to talk to me.
I think that’s at least part of what’s going on in his latest column, which is odd. If I were in his position, I probably would have punched me in the nose for the shot I took at him last week, but the response of David Brooks to being called out as a racist weenie is to write a passionate defense of the rich, one that includes the admonition that while blaming the wealthy is easy and feels fun, truly wise men should “tolerate the excesses of traders.”
Full Story Populism: Just Like Racism! – Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – True/Slant.
Justice Official Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo Probe
For weeks, the right has heckled Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for his plans to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.
While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.
Full Story Justice Official Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo Probe – Declassified Blog – Newsweek.com.
Roubini Calls U.S. Growth ‘Dismal and Poor,’ Predicts Slowing
New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who anticipated the financial crisis, called the fourth quarter surge in U.S. economic growth “very dismal and poor” because it relied on temporary factors.
Roubini said more than half of the 5.7 percent expansion reported yesterday by the government was related to a replenishing of inventories and that consumption depended on monetary and fiscal stimulus. As these forces ebb, growth will slow to just 1.5 percent in the second half of 2010, he said.
“The headline number will look large and big, but actually when you dissect it, it’s very dismal and poor,” Roubini told Bloomberg Television in an interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “I think we are in trouble.”
Full Story Roubini Calls U.S. Growth ‘Dismal and Poor,’ Predicts Slowing – Bloomberg.com.
Regulators Shut Down Banks In 5 States
Regulators shut down a big bank in California on Friday, along with two banks in Georgia and one each in Florida, Minnesota and Washington. That brought to 15 the number of bank failures so far in 2010 atop the 140 shuttered last year in the punishing economic climate.
The failure of Los Angeles-based First Regional Bank, with nearly $2.2 billion in assets and $1.9 billion in deposits, is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $825.5 million.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the bank as well as the others: First National Bank of Georgia, based in Carrollton, Ga., with $832.6 million in assets and $757.9 million in deposits and Community Bank and Trust of Cornelia, Ga., with $1.2 billion in assets and $1.1 billion in deposits; Florida Community Bank of Immokalee, Fla., with $875.5 million in assets and $795.5 million in deposits; Marshall Bank of Hallock, Minn., with $59.9 million in assets and $54.7 million in deposits; and American Marine Bank of Bainbridge Island, Wash., with $373.2 million in assets and $308.5 million in deposits.
Full Story Regulators Shut Down Banks In 5 States.
Why Our Economy is Collapsing
The United States is in open competition with the same countries from which we buy our goods and finance our government. Our state, local, and federal governments continue to offer tax breaks and subsidies to foreign companies in exchange for few American jobs.
The United States is in open competition with the same countries from which we buy our goods and finance our government. These countries supply our consumption while simultaneously competing fiercely against our companies in international markets. Nations like India, Japan, and China, along with trade blocs like the European Union, rail against the U.S. when we use “protectionism” because they do not want to have their unfettered access to our market tampered with.
Other countries, like China and Japan, protect their companies by putting limits and restrictions on the amount of American-made goods flowing into the markets. The United States puts up no such regulations, and is thus flooded with foreign-made goods.
NAFTA, and other “free trade” agreements, favor the foreign producers. We are told by the WTO and the EU that we cannot and should not protect our own economy. Through “free trade” the U.S. must open itself to all foreign interests.
Full Story Why Our Economy is Collapsing | Economy In Crisis.
Open Markets and “Free Trade” Have Failed America
This article points out the glaring face that free markets do not work. Free trade is nothing more than open access to foreign companies,
Publisher’s Note: This article points out the glaring face that free markets do not work. Free trade is nothing more than open access to foreign companies, allowing them to destroy out economy with their predatory practices. Our leaders should take notice of this and learn from other nations who’s economic systems are more effective and efficient than ours currently is.
American policy makers poured money into the economy to stave off a full-blown Depression, intervening in the financial markets, the auto industry, the housing sector and other areas of the economy, causing the U.S. to lose its “free” rating, according to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom.
Conducted jointly by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, the study measure economic freedom on a 100 point scale based on 10 different attributes that acre scored and then averaged: Business freedom, trade freedom, monetary freedom, government size, fiscal freedom, property rights, investment freedom, financial freedom, freedom from corruption, labor freedom.
For the first time in the survey’s 16-year history, the U.S. lost points in the scoring, falling from a “free” economy to a “mostly free” economy. Still, according to the survey, the U.S. is the eighth most open economy out of 159 studies. However, the U.S. 2.7 point decline was the steepest of the world’s 20 largest economies.
Full Story Open Markets and “Free Trade” Have Failed America | Economy In Crisis.
Obama’s Strategy
On the campaign trail, conservatives viciously attacked the President’s rhetoric regarding renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but the American people would love to see such a stance in D.C.
President Obama’s State of the Union address has been the topic for a huge amount of political discussion in the past several days. The majority of progressively minded pundits believe that the President catered too much to the conservatives and his political “right”.
Obviously the majority of conservatives believe that the President’s rhetoric was far too “leftist” and at times even out of place and offensive. After having firmly entrenched themselves into an opposing position to everything the White House espouses it can be assumed that no amount of cajoling or pandering will swing them into the President’s favor.
The question now is, why bother pandering at all?
Full Story Obama’s Strategy | Economy In Crisis.
The Night They Drove Old EFCA Down
Scott Brown’s January 19 defeat of Martha Coakley in the race to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat has been greeted as a “game changer” for Barack Obama and his political backers. This GOP victory has deprived Democrats of their “filibuster-proof” super-majority in the Senate, making Obama’s health care plan—at least, in its current form–the most high-profile casualty of Coakley’s loss.
But, for trade unionists already disappointed with Obama, the collateral damage is far worse.
Now, the White House staffers and Congressional leaders who’ve been re-assuring them that labor law reform was next on Obama's agenda don’t even have 60 votes to prevent Republican filibustering of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)—in any form.
Full Story The Night They Drove Old EFCA Down – Working In These Times.
American Express CEO Gets 60 Percent Salary Raise
The CEO of American Express Co. is getting a 60 percent raise in his base salary.
Kenneth Chenault’s base salary rises to $2 million this year from $1.25 million, according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chenault, 58, also received options for 650,918 shares, at an exercise price of $38.10 per share, the company said in a separate filing dated Thursday. At that price, the shares are worth about $2.48 million. The options can be exercised in four equal annual installments beginning Jan. 26, 2011.
Three other executives are getting smaller base salary increases ranging from 21 percent to 33 percent.
They are Vice Chairman Edward P. Gilligan, whose salary increases to $1.45 million from $1.1 million; Chief Information Officer Stephen J. Squeri, whose salary climbs to $1 million from $750,000; and Chief Financial Officer Daniel T. Henry, whose salary increases to $850,000 from $700,000.
Full Story American Express CEO Gets 60 Percent Salary Raise – Consumer – Money News Story – WEWS Cleveland.
Angry China retaliates over US arms deal for Taiwan
US in $6B arms sale to Taiwan
China lashed out Saturday with a raft of reprisals after Washington announced a 6.4-billion-dollar arms package for Taiwan, escalating the biggest Sino-US crisis yet under President Barack Obama.
Berating the year-old Obama administration for “crude interference” in its affairs, China said it was suspending military and security contacts with the United States, and imposing sanctions on US firms involved in the Taiwan deal.
The furious riposte came a day after the Pentagon approved the sale of Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and communications equipment for Taiwan's F-16 fleet of fighter jets among other weaponry.
Full Story AFP: Angry China retaliates over US arms deal for Taiwan.
GOP caucus bans state Sen. Pam Roach, tells her to get anger counseling
State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, has been banned from the Senate Republican Caucus after colleagues told her she has repeatedly mistreated staff and should get counseling to manage her anger.
A letter sent to Roach by Senate GOP leaders said an internal investigation had concluded “it would be best to physically separate you from the caucus staff and from other Republican Senators while we are working on the floor.”
Roach can still vote, but she is barred from the caucus room where her colleagues discuss legislation, and she cannot deal directly with caucus staff or counsel.
The punishment stems from an incident last year in which Roach berated a Senate staff attorney, telling him he should be fired.
Full Story Politics | GOP caucus bans state Sen. Pam Roach, tells her to get anger counseling | Seattle Times Newspaper.
China freezes US military ties
Beijing sanctions US defense firms, freezes arms control talks
China said Saturday it was suspending military exchanges and security talks with Washington and would impose sanctions on US firms involved in a 6.4 billion-dollar deal to sell arms to Taiwan.
A statement from the foreign ministry a day after Washington approved the sale said Beijing would also halt high level talks on arms control and non-proliferation.
“Cooperation between China and the US on key international and regional issues will also inevitably be affected,” the ministry said.
“China will also implement relevant sanctions on US companies involved in the arms sales to Taiwan,” it added.
Full Story Beijing sanctions US defense firms, freezes arms control talks | Raw Story.
GOP passes proposal requiring candidate loyalty to party platform
The Republican National Committee has passed a resolution denying financial support to any GOP candidate who does not endorse the party platform.
The rule is seen as less restrictive than a proposed “litmus test” requiring candidates to pledge their loyalty to at least seven out of ten core conservative positions. Despite this, it was strongly opposed by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and many state party chairs. It was strongly backed by conservatives, however, and passed without opposition on a voice vote.
The earlier litmus test proposal, offered by conservative activist James Bopp, Jr., had aroused widespread opposition. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Privately, many members of the committee disdained the proposal as silly and unnecessarily divisive at a time the party is on a political roll. A group of about two dozen state chairmen voted unanimously Wednesday to oppose the Bopp resolution, as it came to be called, and efforts were quietly underway to kill the resolution or render it moot.”
Full Story GOP passes proposal requiring candidate loyalty to party platform | Raw Story.
OPS: Becoming more and more like the Nazi Party every day. At some point they will execute another Coup and demand this from every citizen too.
After pledging to ‘reverse’ their spread, Obama increases nuclear weapons budget
“I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of [nuclear] weapons, and seeks a world without them,” President Barack Obama claimed during his first State of the Union speech.
“To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades.”
Yet, in the budget the Obama White House will send to Congress on Monday, the administration proposes a 10 percent spending increase on the nation's nuclear weapons budget, bringing the total to roughly $7 billion, according to McClatchy Newspapers.
Full Story After pledging to ‘reverse’ their spread, Obama increases nuclear weapons budget | Raw Story.
Obama’s jobs plan extends $5000 tax credit to businesses that hire new workers
US President Barack Obama unveiled a 33-billion-dollar package of tax cuts Friday to encourage small businesses to hire new workers, as he takes aim at 10 percent unemployment.
Obama, who has made job creation the top priority of his administration, spoke as the White House got a rare economic boost when GDP data showed growth for the fourth quarter at a higher than expected 5.7 percent.
“It is time to put America back to work. We have had two very tough years,” Obama said, as he toured a small factory in Baltimore, Maryland.
Full Story Obama’s jobs plan extends tax credit to businesses that hire new workers | Raw Story.
Obama calls out GOP hypocrisy for going to ‘ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against.’
President Obama appeared before the House GOP retreat in Baltimore today to offer a defense of his agenda while making good on his State of the Union promise to welcome ideas from the opposition party. In his introduction, Obama gave a strong defense of the stimulus package — which most economists agree has worked — saying, “there’s not a single person in here” would who would not be “going home to more laid off teachers,” firefighters, and police officers. Obama also chided Republicans for taking credit for the benefits while also bashing it:
And then the last portion of it was infrastructure, which as I’ve said, a lot of you have gone to appear at ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against. Now I say all this not to re-litigate past, but it’s simply to state that the component parts of the stimulus are consistent with what many of you say are important things to do — rebuilding our infrastructure, tax cuts for families and businesses, and making sure that we were providing states and individuals some support when the roof was caving in.
Watch it:
Obama Reprimands GOP: Stop Saying ‘This Guy’s Doing All Kinds Of Crazy Stuff…To Destroy America’
This afternoon, during a conciliatory visit with the House Republicans, President Obama suggested that the party’s bitter political attacks prevented any possibility of negotiation or compromise on health care reform. “If you were to listen to the debate, and frankly how some of you went after this bill, you’d think that this was some Bolshevik plot,” Obama said. He added:
If the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don’t have a lot of room to negotiate with me. I mean, the fact of the matter is that many of you — if you voted with the administration on something — are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own Party. You’ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion. Because, what you’ve been telling your constituents is: this guy’s doing all kinds of crazy stuff that is going to destroy America.
Watch it:
Republicans dismayed by Obama’s strong performance, say it was a ‘mistake’ to let cameras roll.
House Republicans were fired up and ready to go for their conversation with President Obama at their annual retreat today. According to the New York Times, members of the conservative Republican House Conference said they were “itching to quiz the president and present their policy ideas rather than listen to another lofty presidential address.” Although such sessions generally occur behind closed doors, Republicans agreed to open it up after the White House said it was willing to do so. However, after Obama’s strong performance, some Republicans are now regretting that decision. As Luke Russert reported on MSNBC:
RUSSERT: Tom Cole — former head of the NRCC, congressman from Oklahoma — said, “He scored many points. He did really well.” Barack Obama, for an hour and a half, was able to refute every single Republican talking point used against him on the major issues of the day. In essence, it was almost like a debate where he was front and center for the majority of it. … One Republican said to me, off the record, behind closed doors: “It was a mistake that we allowed the cameras to roll like that. We should not have done that.”
Watch it:
Former McCain adviser Mark Zandi: The ‘stimulus was key’ to the strong 4th quarter growth of U.S. economy.
Today, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew at 5.7 percent from October through December, a “better-than-expected gain.” The expansion was the fastest in six years. White House economic adviser Christina Romer said the report is “the most positive news to date” on the economy. Speaking on Bloomberg television today, Mark Zandi — who was an adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign — heralded the positive numbers as a result of the stimulus passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by President Obama last February:
I think stimulus was key to the 4th quarter. It was really critical to business fixed investment because there was a tax bonus depreciation in the stimulus that expired in December and juiced up fixed investment. And also, it was very critical to housing and residential investment because of the housing tax credit. And the decline in government spending would have been measurably greater without the money from the stimulus. So the stimulus was very, very important in the 4th quarter.
Watch it:
OPS: Not sure if hes’ still there but Zandi was also Chief Economist for Moody’s
Cornyn Hypocritically Accuses Democrats Of ‘Hysterical’ Reaction To Right-Wing Judicial Activism
Last week, the Supreme Court’s five conservative justices joined together to invalidate a 63-year-old ban on corporate money in federal elections and in the process overruled a 20-year-old precedent permitting such bans on corporate electioneering. “There were principled, narrower paths that a court that was serious about judicial restraint could have taken,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in dissent, essentially “accusing his colleagues of judicial activism,” in the words of the New York Times’ Adam Liptak.
Indeed, though “judicial activism” is a common scare phrase invoked by conservatives, the Roberts Court has “demonstrated that decades of conservative criticism of judicial activism was nonsense” because “conservative justices are happy to be activists when it serves their ideological agenda.” Politico reports that Democratic senators are saying that Justices “Roberts and Alito misled them during their confirmation hearings when they represented themselves as jurists who would respect precedent”:
Referring to the memorable analogy in which Roberts compared himself to a baseball umpire, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told POLITICO this week, “He’s not somebody who just measures balls and strikes. It’s been the most activist court that I’ve seen in my 17 years in the committee.” [...]
CBS Allows Focus On The Family Advocacy Ad During Super Bowl, But Bans Gay Dating Site Ad
In recent weeks, CBS has been taking heat over its decision to allow Focus on the Family’s pro-life ad, featuring Heisman winner Tim Tebow, to air during the Super Bowl. The right wing quickly rushed to the defense of Focus on the Family. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin urged CBS to “just do the right thing. Don’t cave. Have the backbone to run the ad.” This week, the far-right American Family Association (AFA) launched an action alert asking people to let CBS know they support the ad.
CBS revealed that it is open to accepting other “responsibly produced” advocacy ads, besides the Focus on the Family spot. “We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms,” spokesman Dana McClintock said.
However, yesterday CBS announced that it had rejected a commercial for a gay dating site called ManCrunch.com:
“After reviewing the ad, which is entirely commercial in nature, our standards and practices department decided not to accept this particular spot,” said CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs. “We are always open to working with a client on alternative submissions.”
Full Story Think Progress » CBS Allows Focus On The Family Advocacy Ad During Super Bowl, But Bans Gay Dating Site Ad.
JPMorgan vs. Goldman Sachs: Why the Market Was Down for 7 Days in a Row
Ellen Brown: -
We are witnessing an epic battle between two banking giants, JPMorgan Chase (Paul Volcker) and Goldman Sachs (Geithner/Summers/Rubin). Left strewn on the battleground could be your pension fund and 401K.
The late Libertarian economist, Murray Rothbard, wrote that U.S. politics since 1900, when William Jennings Bryan narrowly lost the presidency, has been a struggle between two competing banking giants, the Morgans and the Rockefellers. The parties would sometimes change hands, but the puppeteers pulling the strings were always one of these two big-money players. No popular third party candidate had a real chance at winning, because the bankers had the exclusive power to create the national money supply and therefore held the winning cards.
In 2000, the Rockefellers and the Morgans joined forces, when JPMorgan and Chase Manhattan merged to become JPMorgan Chase Co. Today the battling banking titans are JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, an investment bank that gained notoriety for its speculative practices in the 1920s. In 1928, it launched the Goldman Sachs Trading Corp., a closed-end fund similar to a Ponzi scheme. The fund failed in the stock market crash of 1929, marring the firm's reputation for years afterwards. Former Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, and Larry Summers all came from Goldman, and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rose through the ranks of government as a Summers/Rubin protégé. One commentator called the U.S. Treasury “Goldman Sachs South.”
Full Story Ellen Brown: JPMorgan vs. Goldman Sachs: Why the Market Was Down for 7 Days in a Row.
Anti-Israelism: Why Zionism Doesn’t and Can’t Get It
There is no doubt it. More and more people all over the world, and probably many of their governments behind closed doors, are beginning to see the Zionist state of Israel for what it really is – not only the obstacle to peace but a monster1 apparently beyond control; and they, more and more so-called ordinary folk everywhere, are beginning to turn against it.
That explains why Prime Minister Netanyahu is leading Zionism’s hysterical call for the world to stop demonizing Israel.
At the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem on 25 January, he said: “There is evil in the world, and it doesn’t stop, it spreads. There is a new call to destroy the Jewish state. It’s our problem but not only our problem. This (the re-emergence and growth of anti-Semitism according to Netanyahu) is a crime against the Jews, and a crime against humanity, and it is a test of humanity.”
Full Story Dissident Voice : Anti-Israelism: Why Zionism Doesn’t and Can’t Get It.
Social Security Blunder in State of the Union
Now repeat after me, Social Security does not add to the budget deficit..if anything, it helps finance the deficit.
Here is what President Obama said in the State of the Union:
“Now, even after paying for what we spent on my watch, we’ll still face the massive deficit we had when I took office. More importantly, the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That’s why I’ve called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. (Applause.) This can’t be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline.”
This misinformation, echoed by the president, is constantly repeated by the punditocracy. And it’s wrong,
Aside from the $11 billion that will be spent on administration in 2010, which is less than one percent of the $650 billion Social Security pays out in benefits, the cost of Social Security will not skyrocket. It is not a drag on the budget. It is self sustaining and even earns nearly $1 billion a year in interest. In 2009 it ran $180 million in the black. It has nearly $3 trillion in its trust fund.
Now repeat after me, Social Security does not add to the budget deficit..if anything, it helps finance the deficit.
Full Story Saul Friedman: Gray Matters: Social Security Blunder in State of the Union.
#1 Mike5000 @ BF:
Don’t you know that the purpose of Obama’s commission is to trim Social Security payments so that the Treasury doesn’t have to repay what it borrowed from our Social Security accounts? The more money – our retirement savings – left in the Treasury, the more that can be doled out to campaign bribers. Social Security recipients don’t pay campaign bribes, so why should they get their money back?
Why Obama’s Plans for NY Terror Trials Appear to Be Unraveling
For anyone wondering how one of President Obama’s signature pledges seemed to unravel between Monday and Friday, here’s a look at the week that was.
Savvy readers of The New York Times may have noticed a letter to the editor in Tuesday’s edition, co-signed by three city council members including the speaker, the chairman of the Public Safety Committee and the chairwoman of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee. One month after the Christmas Day terror plot aboard a Detroit-bound flight, all three city officials came out against trials for five alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in Manhattan. The officials’ letter was in response to a speculative article, which ran a week earlier, about possibilities for moving the trial 800 yards out of Manhattan, to nearby Governors Island.
On Wednesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg publicly reversed his earlier support for the administration’s trial plan and — backing the city council members — also called for the trials to be moved out of Manhattan. It’s hard to overstate the damage that Bloomberg’s position has inflicted on the White House’s efforts to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on trial in New York, as the Justice Department announced last November that it planned to do.
Full Story On The Hill: Why Obama’s Plans for NY Terror Trials Appear to Be Unraveling.
Obama Speech a Kick in the Gut to Environmentalists
Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica had the following response to the State of the Union Address:
“While we welcome President Obama's call for comprehensive climate and energy reform — as well as his focus on job-creating high-speed rail and solar power — it was alarming to hear him refer last night to a variety of dirty energy sources, including nuclear, coal, offshore oil drilling and biofuels, as clean.
“President Obama's support for all these dirty energy sources was a big win for corporate polluters and their Washington lobbyists, but it was a kick in the gut to environmentalists across the country. The President was essentially telling these Americans that their voices don't matter.
“It's a shame that while in so many other areas President Obama is calling for an end to the influence of corporate special interests and lobbyists, when it comes to energy policy, his approach seems to be 'the door's wide open.'
“We elected him to make tough decisions, and 'all of the above' as an energy strategy is no decision. Letting special interests write energy policy is not changing the ways of Washington.
Full Story Obama Speech a Kick in the Gut to Environmentalists | Friends of the Earth.
Bases, Missiles, Wars: U.S. Consolidates Global Military Network
Afghanistan is occupying center stage at the moment, but in the wings are complementary maneuvers to expand a string of new military bases and missile shield facilities throughout Eurasia and the Middle East.
The advanced Patriot theater anti-ballistic missile batteries in place or soon to be in Egypt, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates describe an arc stretching from the Baltic Sea through Southeast Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Caucasus and beyond to East Asia. A semicircle that begins on Russia’s northwest and ends on China’s northeast.
Over the past decade the United States has steadily (though to much of the world imperceptibly) extended its military reach to most all parts of the world. From subordinating almost all of Europe to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization through the latter’s expansion into Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union, to arbitrarily setting up a regional command that takes in the African continent (and all but one of its 53 nations). From invading and establishing military bases in the Middle East and Central and South Asia to operating a satellite surveillance base in Australia and taking charge of seven military installations in South America. In the vacuum left in much of the world by the demise of the Cold War and the former bipolar world, the U.S. rushed in to insert its military in various parts of the world that had been off limits to it before.
And this while Washington cannot even credibly pretend that it is threatened by any other nation on earth.
It has employed a series of tactics to accomplish its objective of unchallenged international armed superiority, using an expanding NATO to build military partnerships not only throughout Europe but in the Caucasus, the Middle East, North and West Africa, Asia and Oceania as well as employing numerous bilateral and regional arrangements.
Full Story Bases, Missiles, Wars: U.S. Consolidates Global Military Network.
Lobbyist charges $30,400 to ‘raise a glass’ with Pelosi
If you want to spend a couple hours hobnobbing with House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, be prepared to pay up — way up.
Tony and Heather Podesta, two of Washington’s most prominent lobbyists, are inviting the Washington elite to a dinner party on Feb. 9 that will feature Pelosi, as well as a host of other Washington Democrats, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Chris Van Hollen.
The price of admission? $5,000 for an individual, $15,000 for a representative of a political action committee, and $30,400 — the maximum allowable donation — for the privilege of being a co-host.
Read the admission form here.
Full Story Lobbyist charges $30,400 to ‘raise a glass’ with Pelosi | Raw Story.
Jim Cramer says on TV that the illuminati is not all bad & more!
“Bernanke should be revered”
“Bernanke Saved Western world Capitalism”
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Full Story EclippTV :: Video :: Jim Cramer says on TV that the illuminati is not all bad & more!.
Homeless Often Hidden in Tennessee
“Tent City” is a place hidden out of sight and historically out of mind. It sprawls over a mud-rutted, brush-tangled acre of landscape nestled under a network of highway bridges along the Cumberland River on the outskirts of downtown Nashville, Tennessee. It is impossible to find unless one is directed or taken there. The camp is surrounded by a variety of chain-link fencing placed in different configurations that appear to have been installed in stages over many years.
This community of homeless men and women, constantly fluctuating in size, has been, to date, largely flying under the city’s municipal radar. It appears that the camp has provided an unspoken service for the city as an alternative to municipal shelters, historically catering to a population of homeless, fringe people who might be battling drug and alcohol addiction or suffering from untreated mental illness, or the occasional sex offender avoiding mainstream society.
Recently, there has been a change at Tent City; the population is growing at a staggering rate. One consequence is that more attention is being given to this group of nearly 100 residents and their makeshift dwellings by both the media and advocacy groups.
Full Story t r u t h o u t | Homeless Often Hidden in Tennessee.
Tony Blair Forced to Testify on His War Crimes
Former prime minister Tony Blair’s testimony was streamed live at 4:30 a.m. ET at the Iraq Inquiry website and on other sites, such as the UK newspaper the Telegraph which allowed viewers to rank Blair’s responses on a “Lie Meter”. Telegraph readers’ top desired questions pre-hearing were:
* What was the real motivation for invading Iraq?
* Why did you not act like a Statesman and stand up to Bush?
* Do you think the world is a safer place after our illegal Iraq crusade/mission for regime change?
* I would like Tony Blair to tell us what he knows about the death of Dr Kelly
Try to imagine a U.S. media outlet proposing such questions to Blair’s senior partner in crime! But the Inquiry itself did not put these questions to Blair in any effective way.
In the lead up to Blair’s testimony, a London protest was planned here.
Full Story Tony Blair Forced to Testify on His War Crimes | The Smirking Chimp.
Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows
The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.
Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.
We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system — apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout — deserves further congressional scrutiny.
Full Story Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows: David Reilly – Bloomberg.com.
This corruption in Washington is smothering America’s future
Johann Hari:
How do you regulate banks effectively, if the Senate is owned by Wall Street?
This week, a disaster hit the United States, and the after-shocks will be shaking and breaking global politics for years. It did not grab the same press attention as the fall of liberal Kennedy-licking Massachusetts to a pick-up truck Republican, or President Obama’s first State of the Union address, or the possible break-up of Brangelina and their United Nations of adopted infants. But it took the single biggest problem dragging American politics towards brutality and dysfunction – and made it much, much worse. Yet it also showed the only path that Obama can now take to salvage his Presidency.
For more than a century, the US has slowly put some limits – too few, too feeble – on how much corporations can bribe, bully or intimidate politicians. On Tuesday, they were burned away in one whoosh. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations can suddenly run political adverts during an election campaign – and there is absolutely no limit on how many, or how much they can spend. So if you anger the investment bankers by supporting legislation to break up the too-big-to-fail banks, you will smack into a wall of 24/7 ads exposing your every flaw. If you displease oil companies by supporting legislation to deal with global warming, you will now be hit by a tsunami of advertising saying you are opposed to jobs and the American Way. If you rile the defence contractors by opposing the gargantuan war budget, you will face a smear-campaign calling you Soft on Terror.
Representative Alan Grayson says: “It basically institutionalises and legalises bribery on the largest scale imaginable. Corporations will now be able to reward the politicians that play ball with them – and beat to death the politicians that don’t… You won’t even hear any more about the Senator from Kansas. It’ll be the Senator from General Electric or the Senator from Microsoft.”
To Curb Climate Change, We Need to Protect Water
It is widely acknowledged that greenhouse gas emission-fueled climate change is having a profound and negative impact on fresh water systems around the world. Warmer weather causes more rapid evaporation of lakes and rivers, reduced snow and ice cover on open water systems, and melting glaciers.
What is less understood is that our collective abuse and displacement of fresh water is also a serious cause of climate change and global warming. If we are to successfully address climate change, it is time to include an analysis of how our abuse of water is an additional factor in the creation of global warming as well as solutions that protect water and watersheds.
There are two major factors. The first is the actual displacement of water from where it is sustaining a healthy ecosystem as well as healthy hydrologic cycles. Because humanity has polluted so much surface water on the planet, we are now mining the groundwater far faster than it can be replaced by nature. New Scientist reports of a “little-heralded crisis” all over Asia as a result of the exponential drilling of groundwater. Water is moved from where nature has put it in watershed and aquifers (where we can access it) to other place where it is used for flood irrigation and food production – where much of it lost to evaporation – or to supply the voracious thirst of mega cities, where it is usually dumped as waste into the ocean.
Full Story OnTheCommons.org » To Curb Climate Change, We Need to Protect Water.
L.I. Republican candidate for congress blew cover of bank whistle blower
Proving once again that when it comes to banks vs people, Republicans seem to be more on the side of banks, documents have emerged showing that a Long Island Republican running for the House, improperly blew the cover of a JP Morgan employee who had turned whistle blower for the government, and revealed his identity to lawyers for JP Morgan bank.
The Republican candidate, George Demos, had worked as an Enforcement Lawyer for the SEC, seeming to prove that Republican oversight of banks and brokerage houses was the proverbial fox guarding the hen house.
Documents showed that last March, the SEC’s Inspector General found that as a lawyer working for the SEC, Demos had improperly disclosed confidential information about the whistle blower and his identity to lawyers for JP Morgan Chase.
Demos’ campaign has declined to comment, an indication that they have been caught flatfooted.
Full Story L.I. Republican candidate for congress blew cover of bank whistle blower.
Pot legalization petitions filed in California
California appears headed for a rollicking November ballot fight over whether to legalize and tax marijuana cultivation and use for adults 21 years and older.
Proponents of the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010″ said Thursday that they had submitted to the state nearly 700,000 petition signatures – more than enough, if valid, to qualify the measure for the November ballot.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen has until June 24 to certify the measure, which needs 433,000 valid voter signatures to qualify.
Full Story Pot legalization petitions filed in California – Sacramento Politics – California Politics | Sacramento Bee.
The real state of the union in 2010
In his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, President Barack Obama avoided any direct and concrete presentation of the actual state of US society. Given the enormity of the economic crisis and its destructive impact on tens of millions of Americans, Obama’s recourse to evasions and platitudes was all the more extraordinary.
Obama spoke in vague generalities about the crisis, but he cited virtually no facts. He deployed a variety of rhetorical devices to make a show of sympathy for the plight of ordinary Americans, but his speech only revealed the chasm of insularity and indifference that separates not only himself, but the entire political establishment, from the broad masses of people.
He began by defending the “aggressive” measures he took to rescue the financial system, asserting that “one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.” Really? Precisely for whom has the storm passed?
Full Story The real state of the union in 2010.
Organic dairy farms being crushed by factory operations
Family farmers who produce organic milk are petitioning for the swift adoption of new strict rule-making that would rein in the abuses of a handful of factory farms, which are violating both the spirit and letter of the federal organic law.
The pending rewrite of the organic livestock standards, with an emphasis on assuring compliance with provisions that require grazing for dairy cows, is under review at the Office of Management and Budget, where the administration is being heavily lobbied by industrial farming interests to water down the rules.
To meet the explosive growth in the organic industry, over the last five years a number of large industrial dairies, milking as many as 7,200 cows, have exploited the stellar reputation that organic dairy products have earned in the eyes of consumers who are looking for safer and more nutritious food for their families.
Full Story Mark Kastel: Organic dairy farms being crushed by factory operations.
Obama Needs To Teach The Public How to Get Out Of The Mess We’re In, But He’s Not
Robert Reich: -
The President wants businesses that hire new employees this year to get $5,000 per hire, in the form of a tax credit. That will come to about $33 billion. It’s good step. He’s also supporting a cut in the capital gains tax for small businesses. That makes sense; after all, small businesses generate most jobs.
But here’s the problem. Both of these measures, and many of the other tax cuts he’s proposing, give ammunition to supply-siders who think the way out of this awful economy is simply to cut taxes on businesses. If a new jobs tax credit is a good idea, why not a cut corporate income taxes? If it’s useful to reduce capital gains taxes for small businesses, why isn’t it useful to reduce them for all businesses?
The answer, of course, is that across-the-board supply-side tax cuts for businesses don’t increase the demand for the things businesses produce. They’re useful only to the extent businesses are confident consumers are out there, able and willing to buy. Carefully targeted — as are the cuts the President is proposing — they can give businesses an extra nudge to hire. But without adequate demand, they’re useless.
Full Story Robert Reich: Obama Needs To Teach The Public How to Get Out Of The Mess We’re In, But He’s Not.
Corporate Personhood: The Floodgates were Opened Today (2/8)
Thom Hartmann:
This series is a collection of videos about ‘Corporate Personhood’. The root of Corporate power comes from ‘Corporate Personhood’. In my opinion the issue of ‘Corporate Personhood’ is as important as the issue of ‘Central Banking’. Like central banks, Corporate personhood must be abolished.
Britain: Illegality of Iraq war dominates Chilcot inquiry
The former attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, has defended his position that the Iraq war was legal, following dissenting testimony to the Chilcot inquiry from two top government lawyers.
Goldsmith, the government’s senior legal adviser in the period leading up to the Iraq war in 2003, stated that he had believed that it would have been “safer” to get a second United Nations resolution until a month before the invasion. But he changed his mind prior to issuing his March 13, 2003, advice to the cabinet that war was justified by United Nations resolution 1441, approved in November 2002, which gave Saddam Hussein a “final opportunity” to comply with UN resolutions dating back to the first Gulf War in 1991. War began three days later.
Goldsmith expressed serious reservations about the legality of military action in a draft opinion given to then Prime Minister Tony Blair in January 2003, but he told Chilcot that he had been “overly cautious.” On February 27, he met with Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the British ambassador to the UN, and senior US lawyers. He then told Blair's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, and other government advisers that specific authorisation from the United Nations for war was not required. Iraqi non-compliance with resolution 1441 would reactivate UN resolution 678, passed in 1991, authorising “all necessary means to restore international peace and security” in the region. “That was, on past precedent, sufficient to constitute the green light,” he said.
On March 7, 2003, Lord Goldsmith presented Blair with a 13-page legal opinion in which he said a “reasonable case” could be made for launching an attack without specific Security Council approval. Ten days later he stated without reservation that resolution 1441 provided the necessary authorization for war. Asked why he left it so late to issue such a definitive statement, he said that it was because the armed forces required an “unequivocal” judgment before troops went into battle.
Full Story Britain: Illegality of Iraq war dominates Chilcot inquiry.
Papantonio: The Supreme Court’s Five Circus Midgets
Fascism is a word that is overused when one political interest group is describing the bad conduct of another opposition political interest group. The politics of fascism is not difficult to understand. But I have heard plenty of college professors complicate the definition of fascism to the point that it would be tough to recognize if it knocked on your front door. At the core of fascism, you will always find unchecked power of big money industrialists controlling the messages of mass media. You could search the history books forever and you would never find an instance where those two essential elements of fascism were not present. Typically, it occurs when a powerful political leader gains the backing of monied industrialists and together with force they silence the watchdog voice of mass media. But last week, it was the U.S. Supreme Court that laid the groundwork for a powerful political leader to join well-financed industrialists and gain control over America's airways. The Court determined that a company like Exxon could use as much of their $40 billion annual profits as they chose to wage limitless corporate media campaigns against any political opponent who opposes Exxon's gluttonous view of the world.
New EllaOne Morning-After Pill Works For Up To 5 Days
Levonorgestrel, the most widely used emergency contraceptive pill, is only effective if women take it within three days of having sex. It is sold under various brand names including Levonelle and Plan B, and is available in more than 140 countries, including the United States, Canada and many countries in western Europe. In nearly 50 of those countries women can get it without a prescription.
International researchers compared Plan B to the new drug ulipristal acetate, sold as ellaOne in Europe only with a doctor's prescription. The drug is not legally on the market elsewhere.
Experts tracked nearly 1,700 women aged 16 to 36 who received emergency contraception within three to five days of having unprotected sex. About half got Plan B while the rest got ellaOne.
Full Story New EllaOne Morning-After Pill Works For Up To 5 Days.
Labor unions mull challenging Blue Dog Dems in primaries
Union leaders in the AFL-CIO are considering supporting challengers to centrist Democrats in this year’s mid-term elections.
Disappointed with Blue Dogs who helped foil the unions’ hoped-for agenda in President Obama’s first year, leaders of unions such as the United Steelworkers and AFSCME are considering supporting more union-friendly and more progressive candidates for the 2010 mid-term elections.
According to James A. Barnes in the National Journal, AFL-CIO members brought up the names of three Democratic senators some among them would like to see defeated: Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who caucuses with the Democrats and who is credited — or faulted — with scuttling the public option in the Senate.
Of those three, only Lincoln is up for re-election in 2010.
Full Story Labor unions mull challenging Blue Dog Dems in primaries | Raw Story.
Tony Blair admits Saddam threat was overstated
Tony Blair opened himself up to a charge of misleading Parliament today when he told the Iraq inquiry that by any objective analysis the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons programme had not increased after 9/11.
That statement directly contradicted Mr Blair’s warning to MPs in September 2002 – six months before the invasion – that Saddam’s weapons programme was “active, detailed and growing”.
The former Prime Minister was making his long-awaited appearance as the star witness before Sir John Chilcot’s panel of inquiry, where, despite a nervous start, he delivered a typically unrepentant account of the decision to commit British forces to the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Full Story Tony Blair admits Saddam threat was overstated – Times Online.
This Just In: Government Spent More Than $1B To Support The News Industry Last Year
The two normally are seen as antagonists, but in reality the news business very much as relied financially on government support. Government at all levels — federal, state and local — spent more than $1 billion last to support commercial news publishers, according to a new report the University of Southern California’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy.
Public support for journalism is fading fast, however, and that drop-off has strong implications for a business already weakened by technology changes and the economic downturn, the report says.
The report, Public Policy and Funding the News, analyzes some of the financial tools that government has used to support the press over the years — from postal rate discounts and tax breaks to public notices and government advertising. The report documents cutbacks across a range of sectors and presents a framework for the consideration of policy options to place the industry on more secure financial footing.
Full Story On The Hill: This Just In: Government Spent More Than $1B To Support The News Industry Last Year.
Obama Said to Seek $54 Billion in Nuclear-Power Loans
President Barack Obama, acting on a pledge to support nuclear power, will propose tripling loan guarantees for new reactors to more than $54 billion, two people familiar with the plan said.
The additional loan guarantees in Obama’s budget, which will be released Feb. 1, are part of an effort to bolster nuclear-power production after the president called for doing so in his State of the Union address Jan. 27. Today, the Energy Department plans to announce creation of a panel to find a solution to storing the waste generated by nuclear plants.
“To create more of these clean-energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives,” Obama said in his speech. “That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear-power plants in this country.”
Full Story Obama Said to Seek $54 Billion in Nuclear-Power Loans (Update1) – BusinessWeek.
OPS: Stupid and suicidal
Sanders Speech Before Bernanke Confirmation Vote
Sen. Bernie Sanders went to the Senate floor to explain why he opposed the nomination of Ben Bernanke for a second term as Fed chairman. While Bernanke was confirmed later in the day, 30 senators opposed him, far more “no” votes than the previous most for a Fed nominee (16 against Paul Volcker)
OPS: Well, he tried!
Illinois Campaigns Could Be Bigger Headache For Obama Than Massachusetts
If the Massachusetts special election was a kick in the shins for President Barack Obama, the political turmoil in Illinois, his home state, is a pain in the neck that never seems to go away.
His former Senate seat, already stained by an ethics scandal, is a major takeover target for Republicans. So is the governor’s office.
Going into Tuesday’s Illinois primary, the first of the 2010 campaign season, Democrats are in disarray, with no political heavyweights in their lineup for the Senate seat that Obama gave up for the White House.
Full Story Illinois Campaigns Could Be Bigger Headache For Obama Than Massachusetts.
Maya Tomb Find Could Help Explain Collapse
Mexican archaeologists have found an 1,100-year-old tomb from the twilight of the Maya civilization that they hope may shed light on what happened to the once-glorious culture.
Archaeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Maya site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture’s Classic period began fading.
Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmental degradation, as possible causes of the Maya’s downfall starting around A.D. 820.
Full Story Maya Tomb Find Could Help Explain Collapse.
Dinosaur True Colors Revealed for First Time by Feather Study
“Dino fuzz” pigment discovery in feathers may strengthen dinosaur-bird link.
Pigments have been found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time, a new study says.
The discovery may prove once and for all that dinosaurs‘ hairlike filaments—sometimes called dino fuzz—are related to bird feathers, paleontologists announced today. (Pictures: Dinosaur True Colors Revealed by Feather Find.)
The finding may also open up a new world of prehistoric color, illuminating the role of color in dinosaur behavior and allowing the first accurately colored dinosaur re-creations, according to the study team, led by Fucheng Zhang of China’s Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology.
The team identified fossilized melanosomes—pigment-bearing organelles—in the feathers and filament-like “protofeathers” of fossil birds and dinosaurs from northeastern China.
Full Story Dinosaur True Colors Revealed for First Time by Feather Study.
AT&T Admits Wireless Service In New York, San Francisco ‘Below Target’
Stung by complaints about dropped calls and slow wireless downloads, AT&T Inc. is going to spend an additional $2 billion to improve its network this year.
The country’s largest telecommunications company has faced an aggressive ad campaign from Verizon Wireless that attacks the quality and range of AT&T’s network.
On Thursday, AT&T executives spent an unprecedented amount of time on their fourth-quarter earnings conference call to defend the wireless network and detail how they plan to make it better.
Full Story AT&T Admits Wireless Service In New York, San Francisco ‘Below Target’.
Obama Sets Emissions Target For Greenhouse Gases
President Obama announced Friday morning a pledge to reduce the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions by 28% by 2020.
[This] will ensure that the Federal Government leads by example in building the clean energy economy. Actions taken under this Executive Order will spur clean energy investments that create new private-sector jobs, drive long-term savings, build local market capacity, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in clean energy industries.
President Obama went on to say:
“As the largest energy consumer in the United States, we have a responsibility to American citizens to reduce our energy use and become more efficient,” said President Obama. “Our goal is to lower costs, reduce pollution, and shift Federal energy expenses away from oil and towards local, clean energy.”
Full Story Obama Sets Emissions Target For Greenhouse Gases.
Scott Roeder GUILTY: Killer Of Kansas Abortion Provider Convicted
A man who said he killed prominent Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in order to save the lives of unborn children was convicted Friday of murder.
The jury deliberated for just 37 minutes before finding Scott Roeder, 51, of Kansas City, Mo., guilty of premeditated, first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting death.
He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years when he is sentenced March 9. Prosecutor Nola Foulston said she would pursue a so-called “Hard 50″ sentence, which would require Roeder to serve at least 50 years before he can be considered for parole.
Full Story Scott Roeder GUILTY: Killer Of Kansas Abortion Provider Convicted.
Supreme Court Gets a Rare Rebuke, in Front of a Nation
It is not unusual for presidents to disagree publicly with Supreme Court decisions. But they tend to do so at news conferences and in written statements, not to the justices’ faces.
President George W. Bush, for instance, did not hesitate to criticize a 2008 ruling recognizing the rights of prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — but he did it at a news conference in Rome. President Richard M. Nixon said he was disappointed with a 1974 decision ordering him to turn over the tapes that would help end his presidency — in a statement read by his lawyer.
President Obama’s approach at the State of the Union address Wednesday night was more personal, and he seemed a little self-conscious about it.
Full Story Washington Memo – Supreme Court Gets a Rare Rebuke, in Front of a Nation – NYTimes.com.
Swiss halt deal with U.S. that IDs Americans with secret UBS bank accounts
Americans who hid money from the Internal Revenue Service in secret Swiss bank accounts may escape exposure, at least for now.
An agreement between the U.S. and Swiss governments that was supposed to blow the cover on 4,450 accounts at Switzerland’s largest bank is in danger of collapse.
The Swiss government said Wednesday that it has suspended the disclosure of information to the United States under the agreement and may seek to renegotiate the deal.
The announcement came days after a Swiss court ruled that it would be illegal for Switzerland to comply with the August accord. The court essentially declared that long-standing secrecy protections trumped the agreement. The decision came in a test case involving a UBS account holder who was fighting to stay in the shadows.
Full Story Swiss halt deal with U.S. that IDs Americans with secret UBS bank accounts – washingtonpost.com.
Foreclosure plague: Where it’s spreading
The new wave of foreclosure filings is tied more to the economy than bad mortgages. That means its spreading beyond the bubble markets such as Las Vegas and Southern California. Here are 10 cities where defaults grew the fastest in 2009.
Boise’s population has more than doubled since 1980, and its economy has diversified over the past half century. Tech industries have come into the mix, and Micron Technology is now the city’s largest employer.
As in many Western cities, the real estate market here was quite volatile during the boom. The median home price jumped from about $150,000 during 2003 to $260,000 at its peak in 2006, according to the Wells Fargo-National Association of Home Builders housing opportunity index. Since then prices have dropped more than 32%.
Christine Loucks, an economics professor for Boise State University, attributes the foreclosure runup in town to two main causes: A small speculative bubble that has burst and the economic slowdown.
Full Story Foreclosure plague: Where it’s spreading – Boise, Idaho (1) – CNNMoney.com.
Cyber spies and thugs attacking power-water plants
Power plants, oil refineries and water supplies increasingly dependent on the Internet are under relentless attack by cyber spies and thugs, according to a McAfee report.
The “Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyber-War” analysis by the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the price of “downtime” from major attacks exceeds six million dollars a day.
“If cyberspace is the Wild West, the sheriff needs to get to Dodge City,” concluded the study commissioned by McAfee, which sells computer security software.
Full Story Cyber spies and thugs attacking power-water plants – Yahoo! News.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
