Archive for January, 2010
E. Coli, Salmonella and Other Deadly Bacteria and Pathogens in Food: Factory Farms Are the Reason
After reading “Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching”, by Michael Greger, M.D., I was stunned to realize the extent to which we have endangered our health by allowing factory farms to flourish and produce 99% of the meat, dairy, and eggs we eat. Not only are dangerous flu viruses mutating because of these concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO’s), but we are also being exposed to some other very serious bacteria and pathogens. It seems that things have gotten out of hand in our food production, especially in the livestock sector. In my last blog, Dr. Greger explained the growing potential of deadly flu viruses; in Part 2 of the interview, we discuss E. coli, Salmonella and other worrisome pathogens.
Kathy Freston: Where does E. coli come from and how does it get into food? Why is it often found on vegetables?
Michael Greger: E. coli is an intestinal pathogen. It only gets in the food if fecal matter gets in the food. Since plants don’t have intestines, all E. coli infections–in fact all food poisoning–comes from animals. When’s the last time you heard of anyone getting Dutch elm disease or a really bad case of aphids? People don’t get plant diseases; they get animal diseases. The problem is that because of the number of animals raised today, a billion tons of manure are produced every year in the United States–the weight of 10,000 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Dairy cow and pig factories often dump millions of gallons of putrefying waste into massive open-air cesspits, which can leak and contaminate water used to irrigate our crops. That’s how a deadly fecal pathogen like E. coli O157:H7 can end up contaminating our spinach. So regardless of what we eat, we all need to fight against the expansion of factory farming in our communities, our nation, and around the world.
Jonathon Slack, Second Grader, Organizes Community Effort To Help Homeless
A Chicagoland second grader proved that you don’t have to be big to be a big help to the homeless, NBC reports.
After seeing a homeless woman during a holiday trip to Chicago, Jonathon Slack, a seven-year-old boy from Orland Park, led a 10-day donation drive, collecting over four truckloads of food and toys for a Chicago shelter.
The boy, after brainstorming ways to help a homeless woman he saw in front of a Macy’s store, decided to write a letter to his community asking them to pitch in. He dropped photocopies around his neighborhood and the collective response was massive: In just over a week, four truckloads of food and toys were sent to the Su Casa Catholic Worker homeless shelter in Chicago.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
Full Story Jonathon Slack, Second Grader, Organizes Community Effort To Help Homeless.
Robert Gates To Remain Defense Secretary For Another Year
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the most prominent Republican in President Barack Obama’s inner circle, plans to remain in his Cabinet post for at least another year.
Gates told Obama in December that he would stay on at least through the end of 2010, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Thursday. The White House had no immediate comment.
Gates held the top defense job for two years under President George W. Bush. Obama had asked Gates to stay on shortly after Obama won the 2008 presidential election. The move was meant to maintain stability in a time of two wars and made good on an Obama promise to include Republicans among his close advisers.
Full Story Robert Gates To Remain Defense Secretary For Another Year.
Conservative Blogger Got Threats After Breaking With Right, Relocated
Charles Johnson Got Threats After Breaking With Right, Relocated
Prominent blogger Charles Johnson announced last month on his blog, Little Green Footballs, that he had “parted ways with the right.” He gave a list of reasons, including “support for fascists … support for bigotry … hatred, and white supremacism … support for anti-science bad craziness” and “support for conspiracy theories and hate speech.
Some conservative readers were apparently not pleased with Johnson’s critique. In a profile of Johnson, the LA Times reports that the blogger moved into a gated community partly due to violent right-wing threats.
Full Story Charles Johnson Got Threats After Breaking With Right, Relocated.
Walk Away From Your Mortgage!
John Courson, president and C.E.O. of the Mortgage Bankers Association, recently told The Wall Street Journal that homeowners who default on their mortgages should think about the “message” they will send to “their family and their kids and their friends.” Courson was implying that homeowners — record numbers of whom continue to default — have a responsibility to make good. He wasn’t referring to the people who have no choice, who can’t afford their payments. He was speaking about the rising number of folks who are voluntarily choosing not to pay.
Such voluntary defaults are a new phenomenon. Time was, Americans would do anything to pay their mortgage — forgo a new car or a vacation, even put a younger family member to work. But the housing collapse left 10.7 million families owing more than their homes are worth. So some of them are making a calculated decision to hang onto their money and let their homes go. Is this irresponsible?
Businesses — in particular Wall Street banks — make such calculations routinely. Morgan Stanley recently decided to stop making payments on five San Francisco office buildings. A Morgan Stanley fund purchased the buildings at the height of the boom, and their value has plunged. Nobody has said Morgan Stanley is immoral — perhaps because no one assumed it was moral to begin with. But the average American, as if sprung from some Franklinesque mythology, is supposed to honor his debts, or so says the mortgage industry as well as government officials. Former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. declared that “any homeowner who can afford his mortgage payment but chooses to walk away from an underwater property is simply a speculator — and one who is not honoring his obligation.” (Paulson presumably was not so censorious of speculation during his 32-year career at Goldman Sachs.)
Full Story The Way We Live Now – Walk Away From Your Mortgage! – NYTimes.com.
Rudy Giuliani: ‘We Had No Domestic Attacks Under Bush; We’ve Had One Under Obama’
Rudy Giuliani has joined fellow Republicans Dana Perino and Mary Matalin in seeming to forget that the September 11th attacks happened under President Bush.
On “Good Morning America” Friday, the former New York mayor declared, “We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we've had one under Obama.”
Not only does the statement suggest Giuliani does not remember the devastating attack in his own city, it also omits the anthrax attacks and the attempted shoe bomber attack.
Watch:
Full Story Rudy Giuliani: ‘We Had No Domestic Attacks Under Bush; We’ve Had One Under Obama’.
OPS: Sociopathic? Pathological? Brain Damaged?
Move Your Money Movement Surges In Social Media
In the past week, Move Your Money evolved from a New Year’s Resolution into a national movement.
Press coverage spans the spectrum from mainstream outlets to advocacy blogs and progressive organization — from Dissident Voice and Democracy Now! to the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, CNN’s Rick Sanchez and MSNBC’s “The Ed Show”.
Press coverage hardly captures the whole movement, however. Across social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, a surge of grassroots organizing is showing how Americans are making the Move Your Money initiative their own.
Just minutes after Arianna Huffington announced the campaign, Facebook users became fans of the project — over 7,000 in seven days — and started sharing their stories through the Move Your Money fanpage as well as the Huffington Post page. Facebook user Carol Merrill commented on her experience:
Full Story Move Your Money Movement Surges In Social Media.
1 in 5 Working-Age American Men Don’t Have A Job
One in five working-age American men does not have a job, according to the latest federal employment numbers, an all-time low that illustrates the extraordinary toll this recession has taken on male-dominated professions in particular.
Men are more likely to work in sectors like manufacturing and construction that are more sensitive to economic downturns. But this downturn has been particularly brutal on those industries, leading some observers to call it a “mancession.”
Only 80.3 percent of men age 25-54 had jobs in December — the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting that data in 1948 — at which point the figure was 94.4 percent. When the recession began in December 2007, less than 13 percent of men in this age bracket were out of work.
Full Story 1 in 5 Working-Age American Men Don’t Have A Job.
OPS: Here are the Latest Unemployment figures
Genetic key to cocaine addiction: study
US scientists have found a key mechanism in the brain that helps explain why cocaine is so addictive and could pave the way towards a potential cure, a study showed Thursday.
Researchers revealed how the highly-addictive drug brings on changes in the brain through a process which influences the expression of genes without changing the brain’s gene sequence.
These changes in the brain’s pleasure circuits, which are also the first to be influenced by chronic cocaine exposure, appear to promote cravings for cocaine, said the study published in Science.
“This fundamental discovery advances our understanding of how cocaine addiction works,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
“Although more research will be required, these findings have identified a key new player in the molecular cascade triggered by repeated cocaine exposure, and thus a potential novel target for the development of addiction medications.”
Full Story Genetic key to cocaine addiction: study | Raw Story.
Drug benefit expanded to 1 million more seniors
In case the prospect of nearly $4,000 in prescription assistance isn’t enough to perk up low-income seniors, the government is using ’60s singer Chubby Checker to publicize “the twist” in the Medicare drug program.
As of Jan. 1, more than 1 million low-income seniors are newly eligible for more generous prescription drug benefits under the “extra help” program. Benefiting from a new law are those with life insurance policies and those who regularly get money from relatives to help pay household expenses but were previously disqualified because of too many assets or too much income.
“The safety net is frayed and this is a way to start stitching it back together again,” said Hilary Dalin, associate director for benefits at the National Council on Aging.
Full Story Drug benefit expanded to 1 million more seniors – Yahoo! News.
Yemen says there are limits to its military cooperation with United States
In its strongest language yet, Yemen’s government declared Thursday that there are limits to its military cooperation with the United States, warning that any direct U.S. action in this impoverished Middle Eastern nation could bolster the popularity of Islamist militants.
“If there is direct intervention by the United States, it will strengthen al-Qaeda,” warned Rashad al-Alimi, Yemen’s deputy prime minister for security and defense. “We cannot accept any foreign troops on Yemeni territory.”
The statement underscored the rising concern among Yemen’s leadership about a domestic backlash that could politically weaken the government and foment more instability. In recent days, top Yemeni officials have publicly played down their growing ties to Washington, fearing that they will be perceived by their opponents as weak and beholden to the United States.
Full Story Yemen says there are limits to its military cooperation with United States – washingtonpost.com.
St. Pete homeless angry, defiant after acid bomb attack
They thought they had seen it all here, those who live beneath the highway overpass the homeless call home.
They’ve been pelted with rotten eggs, tomatoes, firecrackers — even phone books. Every so often a passing vehicle hurls another cruelty at those who know little else.
After midnight Wednesday, a dark-colored sedan flew by on Fifth Avenue N. Three, 2-liter bottles were tossed from the passenger window onto the street.
Most were asleep, hiding from the bitter cold under piles of blankets and sweaters and jackets. Others were still awake at the corner of 15th Street. Just more empty beer bottles, they thought.
Then the first one exploded. They were acid bombs.
Full Story St. Pete homeless angry, defiant after acid bomb attack – St. Petersburg Times.
Man arrested after attacking wife with meatloaf
When Lance David Ziegler was told Wednesday by his wife that she was leaving him, he picked up a meatloaf that was on the couple’s kitchen table and smeared it into her face, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office report.
She called authorities and when deputies arrived, they found his wife’s face slightly red with a small amount of sauce on it.
Ziegler, 39, was arrested at the couple’s home in the 10300 block of Spoonbill Road West around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday and charged with domestic battery.
A web designer, he denied that he hit his wife. Bond was to be determined.
Healthcare overhaul could save money and boost jobs, researchers say
In a report to be released today, Harvard and USC economists say legislation being considered would slow cost increases and free up money for companies to raise wages and hire more workers.
National healthcare legislation in Congress could slow the growth of medical costs, allowing employers to create 250,000 to 400,000 new jobs a year over the next decade, economists from Harvard University and USC are predicting.
Wading into the hotly debated issue of whether the legislation is a job creator or a job killer, researchers from the two universities say that the reforms under consideration would slow the rate of cost increases and free up money for companies to raise wages and hire more workers.
Specifically, healthcare savings could be achieved through proposals for greater competition in insurance markets, better coordination of care and shrinking administrative expenses, they said in a report to be released today. With those changes, employers could then reallocate money now spent on ever-growing premiums to other business priorities.
Full Story Healthcare overhaul could save money and boost jobs, researchers say – latimes.com.
GOP aides tell RNC chairman’s staff: ‘You really have to get him to stop’
Top Republican congressional aides are fed up with RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
Aides to Republican congressional leaders confronted the Republican Party chairman's staff on a conference call Wednesday, an exchange revealed late Thursday in The Washington Post and earlier in the afternoon on Hotline. The aides contend that Steele — the face of the Republican Party — is creating a bad brand with off-the-cuff remarks.
“You really just have to get him to stop. It's too much,” a top congressional aide purportedly said on the call.
Hotline, an insider Capitol Hill publication, reported:
“Steele is setting us far back with his comments and it needs to stop,” an aide said, according to 2 sources who were on the call.
Full Story GOP aides tell RNC chairman’s staff: ‘You really have to get him to stop’ | Raw Story.
Second Consecutive Year for Record Foreclosure Filings
Last year marked the second consecutive year in which foreclosure filings reached a record number, according to data compiled by RealtyTrac Inc.
A total of 3.9 million notices were sent to homeowners in default, topping 2008’s previous record total of 3.2 million filings.
While many experts are proclaiming the recession is over and are predicting a near-term economic recovery this year, it is not readily apparent from the view of the housing market that continues to deteriorate.
Home prices have fallen drastically since the crisis began in December 2007. Many believe that the economic crisis started in the housing market, which has suffered accordingly. Since the recession began, home values have plummeted by almost one-third of their value from their 2006 high. This has sapped the wealth of millions of Americans, many of whom have relied on home equity as a source of credit.
Not only that, falling home prices are leading to more and more foreclosures, creating a vicious cycle that has yet to be broken. As prices fall, many homeowners find that their homes are now valued at less than they owe on their mortgages, leading many to simply walk away. Empty homes bring down surrounding property values, leading to more and more foreclosures as other homeowners suddenly find themselves “underwater” on their mortgages.
Full Story Second Consecutive Year for Record Foreclosure Filings | Economy In Crisis.
Creative Exercises to Burn off the Holiday Excess
The holidays are behind us, and that means one thing – dreams of sugarplums dancing in our heads have turned to nightmares of cellulite chasing our posteriors. Because even the best eater is going to sample a homemade white chocolate chip mocha cookie when it’s offered piping hot from the stove, right? (This is me, raising my hand.) And the best eater might even have another cookie – or six. Who’s to say?
And besides all the awesome baked goods we may or may not have consumed over the holidays, there are also the quick dinners we might have grabbed between shopping and wrapping and generally trying not to go insane. And maybe, just maybe, this food arrived to you through a drive through window with grease seeping through its paper bag – a paper bag you later threw away in an anonymous dumpster on the side of the road. Perhaps?
But not to worry! We’ve got a quick guide to a quick way to burn off the bad stuff. Every wonder how many crunches it takes to burn off a Big Mac from McDonald’s? Or how many miles you have to run to burn off a large French fries from Wendy’s?
Full Story Creative Exercises to Burn off the Holiday Excess | EcoSalon.
Geithner and the AIG Emails: Tip of the Iceberg
Now we learn that Geithner told AIG to withhold details from the public about the billions it handed to banks during the crisis. by Eliot Spitzer, William Black, and Frank Partnoy -
In a December New York Times op-ed, we called for the full public release of AIG email messages, internal accounting documents and financial models generated in the last decade. Today, a Bloomberg story revealed that under Timothy Geithner’s leadership, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York told AIG to withhold details from the public about its payments to banks during the crisis. This information was discovered when emails between the company and the Fed were requested by representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The emails requested by Issa span five months beginning in November 2008. If five months of emails reveal information key to our understanding of the aftermath of the crisis, imagine what 10 years of emails could contribute to our understanding of its causes. We believe the AIG emails and other internal company documents are the ‘black box’ of the financial crisis. If we understand the failure of AIG, we will more fully understand the crisis – what caused it and more importantly how to prevent it from happening again.
The emails today detail the efforts of the Fed to suppress the disclosure of payments made to banks such as Goldman, Sachs Group for reimbursement of their credit-default swap exposure. When the Treasury Department stepped in, AIG had at least $440 billion in credit-default swaps outstanding. The Fed, led by Tim Geithner, paid Goldman, Sachs Group and other banks 100 cents on the dollar for these instruments rather than negotiating a lower rate closer to the actual value, (estimated by some to have been as little as 20 cents). In testimony to the Congressional Oversight Panel, Tim Geithner insisted it was necessary to make these payments in full, arguing that even a small downward negotiation would prove catastrophic to the financial sector. Elizabeth Warren, head of the oversight panel has repeatedly challenged repeatedly this assertion.
Full Story Tip of the Iceberg » New Deal 2.0.
Why Just About Everything You Hear About California’s Water Crisis Is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
The media and the governor are warning of the “worst drought in history” in California We’re being lied to.
We’ve been lied to for years now about the severity of California’s water shortage. The media and state officials have been ringing the alarm, warning that the state was in the grips of the quite possibly the “worst California drought in modern history,” when in fact the state nearly pulled in its average rainfall in 2009. The fearmongering is about to go into overdrive, as powerful interests start whipping up fears of drought to push through a $11 billion bond measure on the upcoming November elections, setting up the Golden State for a corporate water grab.
One of the big boosters promoting the drought scare is Gov. Schwarzenegger, who declared a state of emergency in early 2009, and promised to reduce water deliveries across the state by a whopping 80 percent.
Such a huge cutback is alarming for a state in which most of the population lives hundreds of miles away from water sources and is dependent on a gargantuan aqueduct system for basic survival. Journalists in a wide range of publications have recently seized on this juicy disaster-in-progress story, hitting their readers with heavy-handed images of drought and suffering that seemed more in line with something filed on a UN humanitarian mission in Somalia than news from the heart of California.
Full Story Why Just About Everything You Hear About California’s Water Crisis Is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong | Water | AlterNet.
Japanese Whalers Ram Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil
In an unprovoked attack captured on film, the Japanese security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 deliberately rammed and caused catastrophic damage to the Sea Shepherd trimaran Ady Gil.
Six crew crewmembers, four from New Zealand, one from Australia, and one from the Netherlands were immediately rescued by the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker. None of the crew Ady Gil crew were injured.
The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim.
According to eyewitness Captain Chuck Swift on the Bob Barker, the attack happened while the vessels were dead in the water. The Shonan Maru No. 2 suddenly started up and deliberately rammed the Ady Gil ripping eight feet of the bow of the vessel completely off. According to Captain Swift, the vessel does not look like it will be saved.
Full Story Scoop: Japanese Whalers Ram Sea Shepherd Ship Ady Gil.
Bubbles and the Banks
Health care reform is almost (knock on wood) a done deal. Next up: fixing the financial system. I’ll be writing a lot about financial reform in the weeks ahead. Let me begin by asking a basic question: What should reformers try to accomplish?
A lot of the public debate has been about protecting borrowers. Indeed, a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to help stop deceptive lending practices is a very good idea. And better consumer protection might have limited the overall size of the housing bubble.
But consumer protection, while it might have blocked many subprime loans, wouldn’t have prevented the sharply rising rate of delinquency on conventional, plain-vanilla mortgages. And it certainly wouldn’t have prevented the monstrous boom and bust in commercial real estate.
Reform, in other words, probably can’t prevent either bad loans or bubbles. But it can do a great deal to ensure that bubbles don’t collapse the financial system when they burst.
Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – Bubbles and the Banks – NYTimes.com.
Public Spending Still Key to Economic Recovery
There are right-wing voices claiming that the government is an obstacle to economic recovery in the United States, irresponsibly piling up debt, burdening future generations, and ruining the investment climate. For them, we only need to rely on the private sector to get us out of our worst slump since the Great Depression.
It should be recalled that it was the excesses of the private sector, and especially the financial sector, that caused this economic collapse. To the extent that the government is responsible, it is that it failed to contain these excesses, and allowed an $8 trillion housing bubble to accumulate without so much as a simple warning to the public. This made a serious recession inevitable.
For conservatives to insist that we now rely only on the private sector for economic recovery is a bit like Bernie Madoff starting a new mutual fund from prison with the slogan, “trust me.”
Full Story t r u t h o u t | Mark Weisbrot | Public Spending Still Key to Economic Recovery.
Tech Worker Shortage, H-1B System Challenged
An ALF-CIO report pokes holes in U.S. guest worker programs and sheds light on the core issue of wage reduction for technical professionals in the United States and expanded entry of guest workers into newer fields such as health care and education. The report touches on the oft-cited abuse and mistreatment of guest workers from foreign countries, as well as closely examining near-stagnant wages for U.S. workers and H-1B visa holders.
Based on the research of the National Research Council, the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Education, the Computing Research Association, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the RAND Corporation and a host of other university research sources, the AFL-CIO labor organization published a report in December refuting the claim that there is a shortage of engineering, technology and scientific talent in the United States. This report comes from the Department of Professional Employees, which is an amalgamation of four AFL-CIO unions, including those representing IT workers, engineers, scientists, professors and other educators.
The report, entitled “Gaming the System: Guest Worker Visa Programs and Professional and Technical Workers in the U.S.,” pokes holes in guest worker programs and sheds light on the core issue of wage reduction for technical professionals in the United States and expansion of guest workers into newer fields such as health care and education. The report touches on the oft-cited abuse and mistreatment of guest workers from foreign countries, as well as closely examining near-stagnant wages for U.S. workers and H-1B visa holders
Full Story Tech Worker Shortage, H-1B System Challenged – IT Management from eWeek.
Walgreens, Genpact ink 10-year outsourcing deal
US’s largest drugstore chain Walgreens on Thursday announced a 10-year outsourcing deal with India’s BPO provider Genpact.
As part of the contract, Walgreens will shift its accounting processes and jobs to Genpact, a move that will involve transfer of at least 500 jobs.
This is Genpact’s fourth-large deal in past three months, signaling a gradual bounce back in the global BPO business market.
“We are definitely seeing a comeback with lot many deals in the pipeline of large value. This is also a large contract considering the number of people involved. We will also keep many jobs onshore and still be able to maintain margins,” Genpact president and CEO Pramod Bhasin told ET. He denied to disclose the exact size of the deal, citing non-disclosure agreement.
Full Story Walgreens, Genpact ink 10-year outsourcing deal- ITeS-Infotech-The Economic Times.
OPS: Something to think about when you get your prescriptions filled
Is the Government In Charge, Or Is It The Shadow Elite?
Click image to buy it now
Janine R. Wedel -
How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market
Arriving at my home airport after the holidays, I noticed that the zipper on the side of my bulging luggage had broken, and boxes of decorated cookies had fallen out. I enlisted the help of an employee who promised to check whether baggage handlers had found stray belongings on the conveyor belt. It would take her some time, but she vowed to call later that evening. There would be no way to reach her (only a maddening 800 number). Yet I felt sure she’d contact me, whatever the outcome.
The cookies were never found. But she did call, thus confirming my instinctive trust.
Can we have the same faith in public experts to speak and operate in our interest as I had in the airline employee? There was a time when Americans could have more confidence in the objectivity of the experts who advised government and pronounced on issues of vital importance. Roles of influencers and powerbrokers were better defined and more stable, not unlike the airline employee whose unambiguous job, as part of a well-organized structure, was to help me and other passengers.
Full Story Janine R. Wedel: Is the Government In Charge, Or Is It The Shadow Elite?.
Simon Johnson: We’re Setting Ourselves Up For A Big Catastrophe, ‘Crisis Is Just Beginning’ (VIDEO)
Simon Johnson, the MIT professor and economist who’s long been a strident critic of “too big to fail” institutions, appeared on CNBC this morning and predicted that the next phase of the financial crisis could be precipitated by banks exploiting emerging markets like China.
“We now have a financial system that is completely based on moral hazard,” Johnson said. “Crazy things happen when you have a financial system like that.”
Johnson rebutted the recent sunny predictions of new Bank Of America CEO Brian Moniyhan, who said the bank’s economists are predicting U.S. GDP will grow at a 3 percent pace next year.
Here’s Johnson:
Full Story Simon Johnson: We’re Setting Ourselves Up For A Big Catastrophe, ‘Crisis Is Just Beginning’ (VIDEO).
Roy Sekoff On AIG-Fed Emails: This Has Got To Be The End Of Tim Geithner (VIDEO)
HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff appeared on The Ed Show Thursday to weigh in on news that Tim Geithner and the New York Fed actively worked to keep details of bailed out insurer AIG’s payments to Wll Street banks hidden from the public–even though it was taxpayer money that was being used.
Sekoff contends that this is just more evidence that the government has become “Of the bankers, for the bankers, and by the bankers.”
“The fix is in,” he said.
WATCH
Full Story Huff TV: Roy Sekoff On AIG-Fed Emails: This Has Got To Be The End Of Tim Geithner (VIDEO).
Obama To Meet With Union Leaders To Discuss Cadillac Tax
President Barack Obama is planning to meet with union leaders in the next few days in order to address their opposition to a proposed tax on high-cost health care plans, multiple sources tell the Huffington Post.
The administration recently indicated that it supports including a tax on so-called Cadillac health care insurance plans as part of final health care negotiations between the House and the Senate. The proposal, while believed to be extremely important in getting health care costs under control, is deeply unpopular in the labor community. Many union members are enrolled under those plans — having given up salary increases to get the additional health care benefits. Now, they stand to have those benefits taxed.
Hoping to get the excise tax dropped in negotiations, several unions launched a public campaign against the proposal. Included in the effort were implicit vows to not support (though also not oppose) the final bill if the tax is included.
Full Story Obama To Meet With Union Leaders To Discuss Cadillac Tax.
Arianna: Move Your Money And Make Too-Big-To-Fail Banks Smaller (VIDEO)
Arianna appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann Thursday to encourage Americans to fight back against Wall Street’s too-big-to-fail culture by moving their money from bailed out big banks to smaller, better-managed community banks. The effort is part of a project called Move Your Money.
Arianna argued that it’s a simple way to stand up to banks and invest in institutions that are more likely to lend to small businesses. After taking billions in public bailout money, America’s four biggest banks have cut lending by $100 billion.
Arianna also pointed out that by moving money to local banks, Americans will not be funding big banks efforts to fight financial reform “Instead of giving our money… to these big banks who are then hiring lobbyists to undermine fundamental financial reforms and also to engage again in the same derivative trading that was so risky when they did it back in 2008 and is just as risky now so the taxpayer is likely once again to bail out these too-big-to-fail banks. So, let’s make them smaller.”
Visit MoveYourMoney.info to find a community bank near you. Click here for answers to frequently asked questions about how to move your money.
WATCH:
Full Story Huff TV: Arianna: Move Your Money And Make Too-Big-To-Fail Banks Smaller (VIDEO).
Lawsuit: Goldman Sachs bonuses bigger than its earnings
A lawsuit filed against investment bank Goldman Sachs by a shareholder alleges that the company spent more money on corporate bonuses than it earned in 2008.
Shareholder Ken Brown’s lawsuit is one of two suits filed against the company this week over its controversial decision to hand out billions of dollars in bonuses even after it was accused of playing a central role in the financial collapse of 2008 and receiving $10 billion in direct aid from the US government.
In his lawsuit (PDF), Brown states that Goldman Sachs gave out $4.82 billion in bonuses in 2008, despite earnings of only $2.32 billion that year. The lawsuit alleges that the company spent 259 percent of its income in the first quarter of 2009 on compensation.
Goldman Sachs handed out $16.7 billion in compensation in the first nine months of 2009, according to Bloomberg news service, and that figure may reach $22 billion for the entire year. Brown’s suit says the company typically sets aside 44 percent of its net revenue for employees.
“Payment of this exorbitant amount of compensation, which has little to do with Goldman Sachs’s performance, and was financed in large part with government bailout and taxpayer money, is a waste of the company’s assets and a breach of duty and loyalty,” Brown asserts in the suit.
Full Story Lawsuit: Goldman Sachs bonuses bigger than its earnings | Raw Story.
Shock study: 12% of kids sexually abused in govt. custody
Some 12 percent of minors held in government custody are sexually abused, and in some facilities the rate reaches a stunning one in three children, says a report released Thursday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The first-ever National Survey of Youth in Custody found that no less than 10 percent of the 26,550 juveniles being held in detention facilities in the US are abused by staff at the facility, while another 2.6 percent report abuse at the hands of other inmates.
Among the facilities studied were six identified to have rates of sexual abuse as high as three in 10. According to the Associated Press, those six facilities are Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana; Corsicana Residential Treatment Center in Texas; Backbone Mountain Youth Center in Swanton, Maryland; Samarkand Youth Development Center in Eagle Springs, North Carolina.; Cresson Secure Treatment Unit in Pennsylvania; and the Culpeper Juvenile Correctional Center, Long Term, in Mitchells, Virginia.
“The widespread sexual abuse of children in juvenile facilities shows that public officials either aren’t paying attention or can’t be bothered to do the right thing,” said Jamie Fellner, senior counsel for Human Rights Watch. “The high rates of victimization are powerful testimony to the failure of governments to safeguard the boys and girls in their care.”
Full Story Shock study: 12% of kids sexually abused in govt. custody | Raw Story.
OPS: Bet it’s more than 12%
GOP Senate Candidate Rep. Mike Castle Takes Credit For Over $5 Million In Stimulus Funds He Voted To Kill
Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) has staggered to the right, voting against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the stimulus), financial regulation reform, the recent jobs package, and health reform. Running for the U.S. Senate this year, Castle has cast aside his image of a GOP moderate and joined his conservative colleagues in their reflexive opposition. But despite his right-wing voting record, Castle is attempting to drum up positive media coverage by claiming ownership over one of the progressive measures he voted to kill.
In the past two weeks, Castle has blasted multiple press releases publicizing stimulus funds awarded to his state. In his most recent release, he not only calls the money “imperative,” but in “announcing” the funds, he tacitly claims credit for securing them:
Washington | January 7, 2010 – Delaware Congressman Mike Castle announced today that $5,230,610 has been awarded to the State to assist families and individuals in need. [...] “As we face the coldest season of the year, it is imperative we provide those programs serving Delaware’s most disadvantaged families and individuals with the resources necessary to house, feed, and protect those in desperate need,” said Rep. Castle. “These grants, totaling more than $5 million, will help the invaluable organizations and programs which are working to help the homeless, hungry, and those facing economic hardship throughout the State.”
Nancy Pelosi Ducks The Question As Slaughter Stands By: Is This End Of Public Option?
In what might be a definitive signal to end hope that a public option may survive House-Senate negotiations over a final healthcare reform bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi essentially ducked a direct question on the fate of such federally run healthcare coverage. And this time, one of the strongest voices for inclusion of a public option was standing right at Pelosi’s side when it happened.
The future of a public option in healthcare reform has been an open question since Christmas Eve, when Senate Democrats approved their version of reform legislation without a provision for a public option while the earlier House-passed bill includes a public option.
While many on the left have been pushing to keep the public option in the final bill reconciled between the separate House and Senate versions, Pelosi’s statements had not even mentioned the words “public option.”
Pelosi refused to address the question head on again Wednesday in response to a direct question from a reporter who specifically asked about the future of the public option.
Full Story On The Hill: Nancy Pelosi Ducks The Question As Slaughter Stands By: Is This End Of Public Option?.
Anti-Terrorism Officials Are Regulating Us, Not Terrorists
by Jim Hightower -
You didn’t get a virgin when you drew me as one of your political commentators, for I’ve been through the fires of Texas politics, including having been elected state agriculture commissioner. Among other duties, this office made me the regulator of such matters as pesticide use, the accuracy of gas pump gauges and even the sizing of eggs.
I can tell you from experience that wielding regulatory authority is both a blessing and a curse for political officials. You can do some real good for the public, but your best efforts can also make fast enemies of the regulatees.
So my general instruction to the staff was that we should not regulate just for the hell of it, just because we could. Rather, any rules we imposed should respond to a real need and should actually work — work in the sense that they would deliver the protection the public needs.
We had a little internal slogan to guide us: “When in doubt, try common sense.”
China hit with $2.2 billion software piracy lawsuit
A Californian company claims that China stole its work and used it to create Green Dam, a controversial censorship program that China initially wanted to install on every new computer in the country.
China claimed that Green Dam would help protect children from pornographic and violent content on the internet, but its critics claimed that the program also blocked politically sensitive information.
After a public outcry, a plan to force computer manufacturers to put Green Dam on all computers sold in China was dropped. However, discs containing the program were shipped with computers and Green Dam was installed widely across China’s schools. As of last June, 56.5 million copies of Green Dam had been distributed across the mainland.
Full Story China hit with $2.2 billion software piracy lawsuit – Telegraph.
Why Is the Whistleblower Who Exposed the Massive UBS Tax Evasion Scheme the Only One Heading to Prison?
Democracy Now –
A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS who blew the whistle on the biggest tax-evasion scheme in US history is preparing to head to prison tomorrow to begin serving a forty-month federal sentence. Bradley Birkenfeld first came forward to US authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was helping thousands of Americans hide assets in secret Swiss accounts. We speak with his attorney, Stephen Kohn, the executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center.
includes rush transcript, MP3 Download, Video, Audio Stream
JUAN GONZALEZ: A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS who blew the whistle on the biggest tax evasion scheme in US history is preparing to head to prison tomorrow to begin serving a forty-month federal sentence.
Bradley Birkenfeld first came forward to US authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was helping thousands of Americans hide assets in secret Swiss accounts. UBS pleaded guilty last February and paid a $780 million fine. UBS has also agreed to turn over the names of the nearly 4,500 of its American clients to the Justice Department. That’s only a portion of the 19,000 it claims the secret accounts of Americans it held. Meanwhile, thousands of other Americans with unreported offshore accounts have been allowed to belatedly disclose them and pay civil penalties.
AMY GOODMAN Government prosecutors have admitted the massive fraud scheme would probably not have been discovered without Birkenfeld blowing the whistle on UBS. So why is he the only one going to jail? Prosecutors claim Birkenfeld withheld information on how he had helped his biggest US client, California billionaire Igor Olenicoff, hide hundreds of millions of dollars in assets. Birkenfeld pleaded guilty in 2008 and received a forty-month sentence. His lawyers filed a formal complaint this week with the US Attorney General’s Office of Professional Responsibility, claiming the “main allegations used to secure [Birkenfeld’s] indictment and imprisonment were not based on accurate or truthful information.”
Stephen Kohn is now Bradley Birkenfeld’s attorney. He’s the executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center. He joins us now from Washington, DC.
Stephen Kohn, welcome to Democracy Now!
Full Story Why Is the Whistleblower Who Exposed the Massive UBS Tax Evasion Scheme the Only One Heading to Prison?.
Counterterrorism in Shambles – Why?
Yesterday, a blogger with the PBS’ NewsHour asked former CIA analyst Ray McGovern to respond to three questions regarding recent events involving the CIA, FBI, and the intelligence community in general.
Two other old intelligence hands were asked the identical questions, queries that are typical of what radio/TV and blogger interviewers usually think to be the right ones. So there is merit in trying to answer them directly, such as they are, and then broadening the response to address some of the core problems confronting U.S. counter-terror strategies.
After drafting his answers, McGovern asked former FBI attorney/special agent Coleen Rowley, a colleague in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, to review his response and add her own comments at the end. The resulting Q and A is below:
Question #1 – What lapses in the American counter terrorism apparatus made the Christmas Day bombing plot possible? Is it inevitable that certain plots will succeed?
Full Story t r u t h o u t | Counterterrorism in Shambles – Why?.
OPS: 8 years of total republican control of out Nation. That’s the reason. Republicans are like sociopathic, greedy, petulant children. They destroy everything they touch….. Unless you are a multimillionaire, billionaire or large corporation
GOP congressman praises government health care system that paid for his treatement.
One of the most vociferous opponents of a government-run health insurance plan has been Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), who has in the past called the legislation that the House of Representatives passed — which would offer a public insurance plan — “a trillion dollar government takeover of health care” and indicative of a “radical liberal agenda that threatens our freedom.” After breaking his ankle Christmas morning and receiving health care, Coffman gleefully told the Denver Post that the health care system”works” — without acknowledging that he is the beneficiary of a large government-run program funded by taxpayers:
Coffman broke his ankle Christmas morning while jogging at Meadow Hills Golf Course with his dog Buckley. The congressman hit an unknown object buried under the snow and fell.
“I successfully tested our health care system,” he said, with a laugh. “It works.” Coffman said he was lucky that his house backs up to the golf course, but getting home was extremely painful. And he said he found it ironic that while limping home, a neighbor stopped to ask about the health care debate in Washington. Coffman and his wife, Cynthia, rushed to an urgent-care center in a strip mall where X-rays showed he had, for the first time in his 54 years, broken a bone. He received a temporary cast and drugs for the pain, and he ponied up his $30 co-pay.
Full Story Think Progress » GOP congressman praises government health care system that paid for his treatement..
To Justify Hypocritical Attacks, Rudy Giuliani Claims The Shoe Bomber’s Attempted Attack Happened Before 9/11
Last month, conservatives attempted to politicize the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas day by complaining that President Obama waited three days before publicly addressing it. “The President waits 72 hours before we hear from him, and it’s over 72 hours from the time of the incident to the time that the President spoke today,” said Karl Rove on Dec. 28, not noting that his old boss waited six days before commenting on the 2001 attempted shoe bombing.
But conservatives are now claiming that he waited 10 days to respond. On CNN’s Larry King Live last night, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed that Obama responded “10 days too late“:
GIULIANI: I think the president has to make a major correction in the way he is dealing with terrorism because I think he has mishandled the situation. First of all, it was 10 days too late. This is something you react to immediately, not 10 days later after your vacation. The president of the United States, when there is a potential massive attack on this country, which is what this guy was going to do, should have been on top of this immediately, not 10 days later, 11 days later, 12 days later.
States ‘with the most to gain under health care reform are overwhelmingly represented by Republicans.’
On the Wonk Room, Igor Volsky highlights a new study in Health Affairs that shows how misguided — and political — Republican lawmakers’ opposition to health reform legislation is. “States with the most to gain under health care reform are overwhelmingly represented by Republicans, while those states likely to do worse are much more likely to have Democratic senators,” conclude the study’s authors. From their findings:
[T]he states most likely to “win” as a result of health care reform are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah. All of these states have a relatively high number of uninsured and all are in the bottom half of states in terms of cost under both financing mechanisms. … Among the states most likely to “lose” are Delaware, Nebraska, and New Hampshire as well as the District of Columbia. Each of these states has a relatively lower-than-average proportion of uninsured residents, and each would fall in the “High Cost” category under either of the financing options. There are four states — Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, and Rhode Island — that while also “Low Benefit” are “Low Cost” as well.
Ridge Defends Napolitano From Right-Wing Attacks: The Criticisms Are ‘Misplaced’
Since the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack, conservatives have been attacking the Obama administration for failing to “connect the dots,” with many calling specifically for the resignation of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. They have criticized her for initially telling CNN that “the system worked,” even though they dishonestly took her quote out of context to do so.
Appearing on Fox News Tuesday, RNC chairman Michael Steele said, “I agree with the Republican leadership that’s called for [Napolitano's] resignation.” Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted, “Secretary Janet Napolitano should resign, saying ‘the system worked,’ undermines the confidence of Americans.” And yesterday, a group of prominent conservative activists sent Napolitano a letter demanding her resignation.
Full Story Think Progress » Ridge Defends Napolitano From Right-Wing Attacks: The Criticisms Are ‘Misplaced’.
Rove Backs Off His Criticism Of Counterterrorism Center, Perhaps Remembering Chief Is A Bush Holdover
In recent days, attention has been turning toward Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), in the failed Christmas Day bombing. Politico’s Laura Rozen wrote that it appears that “knives [are] out” for Leiter. On Tuesday, former Bush White House adviser Karl Rove also jumped on the NCTC during an appearance on Fox News, saying that the agency was “where the problem probably occurred”:
VAN SUSTEREN: But somebody had the job, Karl, to coordinate all this information into one center place. I cannot believe that after 9/11, we didn’t figure out that we have to have some sort of central resource –
ROVE: Well, we did. We did. [...]
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, who’s in charge of that?
ROVE: The counterterrorism center is where the problem probably occurred because, look, there are lots of — we know that the State Department passed on the information. We know the CIA received it. We know the counterterrorism center received it.
US scientists demand government ban on mountaintop mining
Analysis of damage done leaves Obama no choice but to ban the highly destructive practice, say the authors of a new study
Mountaintop mining should be banned for causing vast and permanent destruction to US environment and exposing its people to serious health consequences such as birth defects, a new study says today.
An article in the journal Science, by a team of 12 ecologists, hydrologists, and engineers, provides the most comprehensive analysis so far of the damage done by the controversial mining practice.
The process involves shaving off up to 1,000 vertical feet of mountain peak – including ancient forests – to expose thin, but highly prized, seams of coal.
Full Story US scientists demand government ban on mountaintop mining | Environment | guardian.co.uk.
Before You Take That Antidepressant, Visit SSRIstories
With our national love of drugs, sex, celebrities and violence you’d think SSRIstories.com would be more popular.
The 12-year-old web site lists 3,500 crime related news reports linked to the use of SSRI antidepressants with celebrities like Winona Ryder, Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, Anna Nicole Smith, Heather Locklear, Glen Campbell, Carrie Fisher, Sharon Osbourne, Phil Hartman, Princess Di’s driver, Patrick Swayze’s sister, O.J. Simpson and the Crown Prince of Nepal generously sprinkled in.
You can search and sort stories by drug–Lexapro, Celexa, Luvox, Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil and the related Effexor and Cymbalta–date, location, type of violence and the articles about school shootings, famous cases and legal cases won on SSRI defenses are color coded.
You don’t even have to read the whole article.
SSRIstories founder and manager Betty Henderson pulls out and boldfaces the story’s drug-related citation like Lynyrd Skynyrd harmonicist Mike Caruso’s remark that, “the doctor put me on Cymbalta. That turned me manic,” and Oklahoma murder suspect Ronson Bush’s remark, “I killed my friend when I took these. I’m not going to take them,” when offered SSRIs at the Grady County Jail.
Full Story Dissident Voice : Before You Take That Antidepressant, Visit SSRIstories.
2 ex-Blackwater Guards Charged With Murder
Two former Blackwater contractors were arrested Thursday on murder charges in the shootings of two Afghans after a traffic accident last year, according to an indictment obtained by The Associated Press.
The indictment charges Justin Cannon, 27, and Chris Drotleff, 29, with second-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons charges. FBI agents arrested both of them without incident, said Peter Carr, a spokesman with the U.S. attorney’s office in Virginia’s eastern district.
Both men have said in recent interviews with The Associated Press that they were justified in opening fire on a car that caused an accident in front of their vehicle, then turned and sped toward them. The indictment says the shooting at a Kabul intersection killed two people. At least one other person was injured.
The military veterans worked for Paravant, a subsidiary of Xe, the company formerly known as Blackwater. Both Cannon, of Corpus Christi, Texas., and Drotleff, of Virginia Beach, Va., were fired after the shooting for failing to comply with the terms of their contract.
Full Story AP – 2 ex-Blackwater Guards Charged With Murder – NYTimes.com.
The backfiring of the surveillance state
Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com -
Every debate over expanded government surveillance power is invariably framed as one of “security v. privacy and civil liberties” — as though it’s a given that increasing the Government’s surveillance authorities will “make us safer.” But it has long been clear that the opposite is true. As numerous experts (such as Rep. Rush Holt) have attempted, with futility, to explain, expanding the scope of raw intelligence data collected by our national security agencies invariably impedes rather than bolsters efforts to detect terrorist plots. This is true for two reasons: (1) eliminating strict content limits on what can be surveilled (along with enforcement safeguards, such as judicial warrants) means that government agents spend substantial time scrutinizing and sorting through communications and other information that have nothing to do with terrorism; and (2) increasing the quantity of what is collected makes it more difficult to find information relevant to actual terrorism plots. As Rep. Holt put it when arguing against the obliteration of FISA safeguards and massive expansion of warrantless eavesdropping power which a bipartisan Congress effectuated last year:
It has been demonstrated that when officials must establish before a court that they have reason to intercept communications — that is, that they know what they are doing — we get better intelligence than through indiscriminate collection and fishing expeditions.
The failure of the U.S. Government to detect the fairly glaring Northwest Airlines Christmas plot — despite years and years of constant expansions of Surveillance State powers — illustrates this dynamic perfectly. As President Obama said yesterday, the Government — just as was true for 9/11 — had gathered more than enough information to have detected this plot, or at least to have kept Abdulmutallab off airplanes and out of the country. Yet our intelligence agencies — just as was true for 9/11 — failed to understand what they had in their possession. Why is that? Because they had too much to process, including too much data wholly unrelated to Terrorism. In other words, our panic-driven need to vest the Government with more and more surveillance power every time we get scared again by Terrorists — in the name of keeping us safe — has exactly the opposite effect. Numerous pieces of evidence prove that.
Full Story Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
Obamacare 2010 a/k/a “Penalize, Overcharge, Deprive, Let ‘em Die”: Part 1 – The Mandate Insanity
We are about to lose another freedom. The right to die uninusured. The right to die uninsured, that is, without paying a fine for being uninsured because we cannot afford the insurance that would keep us alive.
I think we can safely categorize this as an “insult to injury.” You thought you and your fellow citizens were entitled to humane universal health care, single-payer-Medicare-for-All-suckers? Think again. You can go ahead and die without insurance, but don’t think you can get away with that without having paid a fine for not having the insurance you can’t afford that might have saved you!
Am I the only one confounded and angered by this situation? Recently Jim Hightower referred to Obama as the President of Absurdistan. The “audacity of amorality”?
The new plan is being touted as a favor to us in these times that try one’s sanity as well as one’s soul. The so-called health care reform mandate rule that every citizen must be a customer of a mega-corporation-vendor or pay a fine to the IRS is actually a colossal super-gift to the medical corporate complex by the Prez and the super-majorities in the Congress. Millions of involuntary customers! Was it valiant whistleblower Wendell Potter who first called the faux reform the “Health Insurance Enrichment Act”?
Full Story Obamacare 2010 a/k/a “Penalize, Overcharge, Deprive, Let ‘em Die”: Part 1 – The Mandate Insanity | Corrente.
#2 mike500
- Health insurer stock prices have doubled, because …
- Premiums will (approximately) double.
- The poor will indeed get subsidized insurance – but they won’t get any health care because they won’t be able to afford the copays and deductibles.
- The middle class will pay up to 20% of gross income on health insurance – in many cases the new health insurance tax will be more than they pay in income tax.
- Obama-care is designed to kill union health plans.
- Obama-care takes away women’s right to choose.
NCTC director Michael Leiter remained on ski slopes after Christmas Day airline bombing attempt
The top official in charge of analyzing terror threats did not cut short his ski vacation after the underwear bomber nearly blew up an airliner on Christmas Day, the Daily News has learned.
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency’s “bat cave” nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.
“People have been grumbling that he didn’t let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation,” said one of the sources.
The NCTC, the post-9/11 clearinghouse for intelligence to detect terror plots against the U.S., is under intense scrutiny for failing to “connect the dots” on Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Full Story NCTC director Michael Leiter remained on ski slopes after Christmas Day airline bombing attempt.
FOIA Request Filed for OPR Report on Bush’s Lawyers
An organization of attorneys, journalists, and advocates today filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act requesting the long-suppressed report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) regarding the conduct of President Bush’s top lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel who authored memos purporting to authorize torture and aggressive war.
The request, reproduced below along with a transmittal letter, asks for the OPR report that has long been promised by Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as an earlier OPR report completed during the last months of the Bush administration. The request also seeks the 10 page rebuttal of the 2008 report by then- Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
Full Story FOIA Request Filed for OPR Report on Bush’s Lawyers | lawsnotmen.org.
Consumers Are Moving Their Money to Credit Unions, Rising Membership Shows
Make a New Year’s resolution to move your money out of big banks? To that I say: Right on! Without question, financial consumers are angry at — and have lost their loyalty to — big banks. Late-night comics routinely make fun of the banks; there’s even a new iPhone app in which players try to stop “cash-hungry” bankers from wheedling more bailout money from the U.S. Treasury, according to a recent report in American Banker newspaper.
But if consumers do indeed move their money out of big banks, they would be well advised to look not only at community banks, but at the nation’s credit unions. In fact, consumers are already voting with their wallets in favor of credit unions. The data collected by my organization, (the Credit Union National Association — the industry’s trade group) shows that credit unions are on pace to post 2% membership growth in 2009. This is the fastest rate we have seen since 2001 and double the rate of U.S. population growth, bringing total credit union membership to nearly 93 million Americans. We think disenchantment with banks explains at least part — and probably a large part — of that growth in new members.
For consumers, the move makes perfect sense. Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives, and they’re owned by their members. They offer the same products and services banks do, but unlike banks, credit unions exist only to serve their members — not to generate profits for outside investors. Members typically experience that difference in the form of better rates and lower fees. In 2008 (the latest data we have available), consumers saved $9.2 billion by using credit unions rather than banks, or the equivalent of $104 per member and $198 per family. And that’s just on average. Loyal members — those who use credit unions extensively — often receive total financial benefits that are much greater than the average.
Full Story Daniel Mica: Consumers Are Moving Their Money to Credit Unions, Rising Membership Shows.
Elizabeth Warren: Consumer Protection Agency Would Have Prevented Crisis (VIDEO)
Elizabeth Warren, the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee TARP bailout funds, made the case for financial reform and the creation of a consumer financial protection agency during an appearance Wednesday on The Rachel Maddow Show.
The Harvard law professor pushed back against claims by Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), that an independent consumer financial protection agency would be a bad thing for consumers.
Warren argued that if a consumer agency aimed at regulating financial products (like the one passed by the House) had existed five years ago, the financial crisis would have largely been averted:
Full Story Elizabeth Warren: Consumer Protection Agency Would Have Prevented Crisis (VIDEO).
GM: 2010 Profit Expected, May Reinstate Hundreds Of Dealers
General Motors Co.’s chairman expects the automaker will be profitable this year and says hundreds of the 1,350 GM dealers who lost their franchises last year could see them restored.
Chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre Jr. also said that new Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell is a candidate to take the CEO post permanently. And Whitacre said he’s not confident about selling the Swedish Saab brand.
In a wide-ranging talk with reporters at GM’s Detroit headquarters, Whitacre predicted that GM would be profitable this year, although he said that was dependent on the economy and other factors.
“Do we have obstacles in our way? Of course we do,” Whitacre said, adding he’s confident that GM’s management team has the company moving forward.
Full Story GM: 2010 Profit Expected, May Reinstate Hundreds Of Dealers.
Lieberman’s Approval Ratings Tank In Connecticut
Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) role in upending health care negotiations is costing him dearly at home.
A new poll by Public Policy Polling has the Independent senator losing support in his home state, not just among Democrats but among independents and even Republicans as well.
More than 80 percent (81 percent) of Democrats now say they disapprove of the job Lieberman is doing with only 14 percent approving. Among Republicans, 48 percent disapprove of the senator with just 39 approving. And among independents, 61 percent disapprove of Lieberman’s antics with just 32 percent approving.
“It all adds up to a 25% approval rating with 67% of his constituents giving him bad marks,” the study concludes. “Barack Obama’s approval rating with Connecticut Republicans is higher than Lieberman’s with the state’s Democrats.”
Full Story Lieberman’s Approval Ratings Tank In Connecticut.
Tweety has his momentsFeinberg Says Lack of Pay Authority Is Disappointment
Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. special master on executive compensation, said he’s disappointed he lacks authority to have greater influence over Wall Street pay.
“The biggest disappointment, I think, is that under the statute my jurisdiction is so narrow, and so circumscribed, that I have no real direct mandatory power over other Wall Street or other national companies,” Feinberg said today in an interview with Bloomberg special contributor Judy Woodruff. The entire interview can be seen this weekend on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff,” airing Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. New York time.
Feinberg in October ordered pay cuts averaging 50 percent for the top 25 executives at Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and five other companies that took U.S. bailout money. The two banks repaid the funds last month, enabling them to leave Feinberg’s supervision.
Full Story Feinberg Says Lack of Pay Authority Is Disappointment (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.
EPA Smog Limit: New Strict Proposal To Replace Bush-Era Rule
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed stricter health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran counter to scientific recommendations.
The new limits � which are presented as a range � will likely put hundreds more counties nationwide in violation, a designation that will require them to find additional ways to clamp down on pollution or face government sanctions, most likely the loss of federal highway dollars.
The tighter standards will cost tens of billions of dollars to implement, but will ultimately save billions in avoided emergency room visits, premature deaths, and missed work and school days, the EPA said.
Full Story EPA Smog Limit: New Strict Proposal To Replace Bush-Era Rule.
Obama Tells House Democrats He Supports Senate Tax On Cadillac Health Care Plans
Labor leaders, elected officials and progressives are urging President Barack Obama and Congress to make health insurance more affordable for low-income Americans.
In a letter Thursday, more than 750 religious leaders, elected officials and health care administrators from across the country said the House version of the health care bill covers more uninsured. They also said the bill sets premiums and out-of-pocket costs at levels that low-income families could handle.
Full Story Obama Tells House Democrats He Supports Senate Tax On Cadillac Health Care Plans.
OPS: translation – tax Union Benefits
James Jones: National Security Adviser Says Christmas Bomber Report Will ‘Shock’ (VIDEO)
While President Obama has already spoken about a number of issues that will appear in today’s report on the Christmas bomber, National Security Adviser James Jones says it will have greater shock value once people read it.
“The man on the street will be surprised that these correlations weren’t made,” he said. “There was data out there, there was a number of things that could have triggered a prevention of this individual ever getting on an airplane.”
James did an interview Wednesday with USA Today:
“That’s two strikes,” Obama’s top White House aide on defense and foreign policy issues said, referring to the foiled bombing of the Detroit-bound airliner and the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in November. In that case, too, officials failed to act when red flags were raised about an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan. He has been charged with killing 13 people.
Jones said Obama “certainly doesn’t want that third strike, and neither does anybody else.”
WATCH:
Full Story James Jones: National Security Adviser Says Christmas Bomber Report Will ‘Shock’ (VIDEO).
Geithner’s New York FED Pushed AIG to WITHOLD Information from Public
Geithner’s New York Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show.
AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. The New York Fed crossed out the reference, according to the e-mails, and AIG excluded the language when the filing was made public on Dec. 24, 2008. The e-mails were obtained by Representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The New York Fed took over negotiations between AIG and the banks in November 2008 as losses on the swaps, which were contracts tied to subprime home loans, threatened to swamp the insurer weeks after its taxpayer-funded rescue. The regulator decided that Goldman Sachs and more than a dozen banks would be fully repaid for $62.1 billion of the swaps, prompting lawmakers to call the AIG rescue a “backdoor bailout” of financial firms.
Full Story Geithner’s New York Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure – Bloomberg.com.
Microsoft shows off Windows tablets at gadget show
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off a new touch-screen, tablet-style computer from Hewlett-Packard Co., the first of several such devices expected to be unveiled this month.
The tablet — also known as a slate, a one-piece portable computer without a physical keyboard — was one of several new PCs Ballmer demonstrated Wednesday as he delivered Microsoft Corp.'s customary keynote presentation on the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
During the talk, which was shown live over the Web, Ballmer said the HP tablet will be available later this year. He also gave a glimpse of two similar devices from Archos and Pegatron Corp.
Tablet-style computers that run Windows have been available for a decade, but HP's new machine is bound to draw extra attention thanks to expectations that Apple Inc. will launch a similar device later this month.
Full Story Microsoft shows off Windows tablets at gadget show – Yahoo! News.
U.S. learned intelligence on airline attack suspect while he was en route
U.S. border enforcement officials discovered alleged extremist links in a database while the suspect was headed to Detroit on Christmas Day, new disclosures show.
Reporting from Washington – U.S. border security officials learned of the alleged extremist links of the suspect in the Christmas Day jetliner bombing attempt as he was airborne from Amsterdam to Detroit and had decided to question him when he landed, officials disclosed Wednesday.
The new information shows that border enforcement officials discovered the suspected extremist ties involving the Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in a database despite intelligence failures that have been criticized by President Obama.
“The people in Detroit were prepared to look at him in secondary inspection,” a senior law enforcement official said. “The decision had been made. The [database] had picked up the State Department concern about this guy — that this guy may have been involved with extremist elements in Yemen.”
Full Story U.S. learned intelligence on airline attack suspect while he was en route – latimes.com.
Census Bureau to Hire 1.2 Million, Boost Employment
This spring has a hot new job: census worker. The Census Bureau is looking to fill some 1.2 million part-time positions as the government gears up for its once-a-decade count of every person living in the U.S. Most of those openings are for enumerators — people who go door to door to collect information from the roughly 35 million households that won’t return their Census forms by mail. Considering the unemployment rate stands at 10% — much higher than in any other Census year since 1940 — prospective workers are turning out in droves. “The numbers who are applying are just phenomenal,” says Census director Robert Groves. (See which businesses are bucking the recession.)
For that rare bright spot on the employment front, we can thank the Constitution, which mandates that the government count its residents every 10 years. The Census Bureau isn’t allowed to use statistical estimates in its gauge of the population, so if a household doesn’t return the 10-question form that’s due to arrive in the mail in March, an enumerator will show up in May, June or July to try to get the information in person.
Across the country, local Census offices are taking applications. There’s a 28-question test involved in nabbing one of the temporary positions, which pay between $10 and $25 per hour depending on where you live and entail plenty of evening and weekend shifts, since that’s when people tend to be at home. Four days of training teach everything from interviewing and personal safety to the history and importance of the Census — it’s not only about determining seats in Congress, but also about how to allocate some $400 billion in federal funding.
Full Story Census Bureau to Hire 1.2 Million, Boost Employment – TIME.
KFC ad: Placate threatening black people with fried chicken…
It seems that old stereotype about black people liking fried chicken hasn’t reached Australia. Or maybe, down under, playing up stereotypes to sell fast food just isn’t a sin.
As part of a series of ads called “KFC’s guide to cricket survival,” the Australian branch of the US-based fried chicken chain released an ad that has some critics accusing the company of racial insensitivity.
The ad shows a worried white man in a crowd of dancing black people. “Need a tip when you’re stuck in an awkward situation?” the man asks, and then passes a bucket of KFC chicken to the black people around him. “Too easy,” the man quips.
Coverage of the controversy in Australian media suggests Australians may not be aware of the stereotype that links African-Americans to excessive consumption of fried chicken. “Australian KFC ad labeled racist by US commentators,” states a headline at Rupert Murdoch’s News.com.au Web site.
That article quotes KFC spokespeople as saying that the ad was “misinterpreted by a segment of people in the US.”
Full Story KFC ad: Placate threatening black people with fried chicken… | Raw Story.
Afghan war kills three children a day: report
Children are the biggest victims of the war in Afghanistan, with more than 1,050 people under 18 years old killed last year alone, according to an Afghan human rights watchdog.
Taliban-linked militants caused around 64 percent of all violent child deaths last year, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said in a report.
Children were also press-ganged, sexually exploited, deprived of health and education, and illegally detained by all sides in a war that is dragging into its ninth year since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime.
“At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009 and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways,” ARM director Ajmal Samadi said.
Children died in suicide attacks and roadside bombings — at the crux of the Taliban’s arsenal against US, NATO and Afghan troops fighting the increasingly virulent insurgency as it spreads across the impoverished country.
Full Story Afghan war kills three children a day: report | Raw Story.
US intervention could strengthen Qaeda: Yemen
“Any intervention or direct (military) action by the United States could strengthen the Al-Qaeda network and not weaken it,” deputy prime minister for defence and security affairs Rashed Al-Aleemi told a press conference.
“Our position is clear; we will fight and chase the Al-Qaeda group depending on Yemeni forces and security agencies (alone),” he said.
Aleemi however said that Yemen needs the United States to help in training Yemeni counter-terrorism units.
“Since Al-Qaeda is a global organisation that threatens international stability, all countries in the world, headed by the United States, must cooperate to confront them,” he said.
Full Story US intervention could strengthen Qaeda: Yemen | Raw Story.
OPS: Intervention in someones country always strengthens the local opposition
Apartheid lawsuit goes forward against Ford, GM, IBM
In a move that will serve as a warning to corporations that aid governments in flagrant abuses of human rights, a federal judge in Manhattan has allowed a lawsuit to go forward against IBM, General Motors, Ford and other corporations over their roles in South Africa's three-decade-long apartheid policy.
In an order (PDF) filed last week, US District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin denied the companies' motion to consider de-certifying the lawsuit as a class action.
Courthouse News reports:
The automakers are accused of providing armored military vehicles used to suppress marches and worker protests, and of assisting security forces tasked with identifying and torturing anti-apartheid leaders.
The judge also allowed claims against IBM to proceed, for providing the technology that allowed the South African government to carry out “geographic segregation and denationalization,” according to the plaintiffs.
Full Story Apartheid lawsuit goes forward against Ford, GM, IBM | Raw Story.
Court spectator sues judge for drug-testing him ‘on a hunch’ | Raw Story
A Tennessee judge who ordered a court spectator to submit to a drug test based “on a hunch” is being sued for infringing on the spectator’s constitutional rights.
Benjamin Marchant’s lawsuit (PDF) against Dickson County Judge Durwood Moore says Marchant was a spectator in the court in January of 2009, waiting to give a friend a ride home, when Moore ordered sheriff’s deputies to administer a urinalysis on Marchant on nothing more than a “hunch.”
Marchant says he was released when the drug test came back negative.
His lawsuit states that Judge Moore admitted that he “routinely drug-screens ‘spectators’ in his courtroom if he ‘thinks’ they may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” a policy Moore reportedly calls “routine,” according to Courthouse News.
The lawsuit says Judge Moore was publicly censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court last May over the incident, and was ordered “to never violate a person’s constitutional rights as he did to the plaintiff.”
Full Story Court spectator sues judge for drug-testing him ‘on a hunch’ | Raw Story.
The Year of China
China’s policies are costing the United States by sapping market share, employment, and profits away from America and into their artificial market.
One decade into the 21st century the world’s two largest economic actors are trending rapidly in opposite directions. As Americans look forward to the new year they can rest assured that we will likely not witness the same sort of tumult in 2010 that we suffered in 2008 and 2009.
Unfortunately, an observant American is going to see China gaining ever closer in the rear-view mirror.
Professor, economist, and author Paul Krugman – the 2008 Nobel Prize winner in economics – believes that 2010 will be “The Year of China.” In a recent piece written for The New York Times, he outlined how China’s manipulation of its own economy has a ripple effect around the world.
Krugman illustrates how China’s mercantilist approach to international commerce has negatively affected much of the global economy. In particular, China’s policies are costing the United States by sapping market share, employment, and profits away from America and into their artificial market.
Chinese mercantilism would seem reasonable if it were a lowly developing nation. However, China is neither lowly nor developing, it is an economic superpower. Its actions can only be seen as purely predatory.
Full Story Krugman: The Year of China | Economy In Crisis.
Dem. Candidate Giannoulias Pushing Fair Trade
Just days into the New Year and the 2010 election season, one of the most hotly contested races of the cycle, the election to replace outgoing Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) and inherit President Barack Obama‘s former seat, the leading Democratic candidate is making free trade a major issue in the campaign.
Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias last month issued a press release slamming China for its unfair trade practices and vowing to take action against the Asian nation if elected.
“We cannot sit back and allow jobs to become our country's primary export. We must level the playing field and ensure that all countries are playing by the same international trade rules,” Giannoulias said in a press release.
Illinois, being a Midwestern state located in the Rust Belt, has obviously been hit hard by the negative effects of free trade, and Giannoulias’ likely general election opponent, Rep. Mark Kirk, has a mixed record on trade issues.
“I am a strong supporter of free trade and open markets, and recognize the importance of U.S. companies' investment overseas,” Kirk wrote in response to a constituent letter expressing concern about the outsourcing of American jobs.
Full Story Dem. Candidate Giannoulias Pushing Fair Trade | Economy In Crisis.
OPS: Haven’t we EXPERIENCED enough destruction to our economy from ‘Free Trade’ already? This clown cannot possibly, actually, be a Democrat.
China Passes Germany as World’s Largest Exporter
China surpassed Germany in 2009 to become the world’s largest exporter of goods, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Through October of 2009, China exported $957 billion worth of goods, compared with $917 billion worth of goods for Germany. It would be virtually impossible for Germany to have surpassed China in the final two months of 2009, according to The Journal.
Despite Chinese exports in goods falling 20.4 percent in 2009, the Asian nation was able to surpass Germany largely due to the fact that most Chinese exports are low-cost goods. Germany, on the other hand, specializes more in high-end equipment, and with corporate investment falling farther than consumer spending, was hurt more by the global recession.
Overall, Germany’s exports in goods fell 27.4 percent during 2009. But, China’s low-cost manufacturing does not tell the full story.
Much of China’s export-driven growth is achieved through illegal, mercantilist practices detrimental to U.S. manufacturers. In fact, China has artificially propped up its export market to the point where its economy is on pace to soon outpace Japan as the world’s second largest, just behind the U.S.
Full Story China Passes Germany as World’s Largest Exporter | Economy In Crisis.
OPS: Before 30 years of Reaganomics, and ‘Free Trade’ the US was the largest exxporter
Ron Paul hits back at Cheney: ‘He’s caused a lot of trouble’ for the U.S., so it’s ‘best he not be so critical.’
Yesterday on CNN’s Larry King Live, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) sharply criticized former Vice President Cheney — a member of his own Party — for throwing stones at President Obama on national security:
KING: All right, Congressman Paul, what about — he’s in — he’s in your party. What about Dick Cheney’s complaints?
PAUL: Well, I think he had his eight years and he’s caused a lot of trouble for our country and he perpetuated a war in Iraq that was unnecessary and wrong-headed. So I would say that it would be best he not be so critical right now. But I’m still not only critical of that policy — I think the policy remains the same and we’ve hear it on the show tonight already. They — they are going to attack us and they’ve declared war against us. And it’s always they and them. But — but who are they?
You know, after 9/11, 14 or 15 of the terrorists came from Saudi Arabia. I mean we didn’t attack Saudi Arabia, we attacked Iraq. So it — it doesn’t make sense.
Watch it:
REPORT: Challenges To Constitutionality Of Health Reform Funded By Health Industry Money
Since Democrats secured 60 votes to pass health care reform legislation — and passage became inevitable — prominent conservatives relaunched an under-the-radar campaign to invalidate reform through the legal system. On the eve of the final health care vote in the Senate, Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and John Ensign (R-NV) invoked a “constitutional point of order” to allow the Senate to rule by majority vote on whether the “Democrat health care takeover bill” is unconstitutional. Legislatures in approximately 14 states — organized by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a “business-friendly conservative group that coordinates activity among statehouses — have also introduced initiatives to ratify constitutional amendments that would repeal all or parts of the pending health care reform legislation, and Attorney Generals in at least 13 states are challenging a deal secured by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) to fund Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion for perpetuity.
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the attorneys generals from South Carolina, Washington, Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Alabama, North Dakota, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Utah, Florida, Idaho and South Dakota “wrote that they consider the [Nebraska] provision ‘constitutionally flawed’ and demanded that it be stricken from the final bill.”
Full Story Think Progress » REPORT: Challenges To Constitutionality Of Health Reform Funded By Health Industry Money.
Conservatives Continue To Claim That Obama Refuses To Say The Words ‘Terror’ Or ‘Terrorism’
On Monday, ThinkProgress pointed out how conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) were complaining that President Obama and his administration are not “willing to use the word” terror — a claim that is refuted by Obama’s own statements and speeches. But the right-wing meme persists.
In response to Obama’s remarks yesterday on the Christmas Day plot, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) whined that “he still refuses to use the word ‘terrorism.’” Fox and Friends this morning featured two chyrons claiming that the administration avoids the word “terror”:
Asked on MSNBC this morning to defend the GOP’s rush to politicize the attempted terrorist attack, RNC Chairman Michael Steele said it was justified because President Obama “can’t call a thing what it is.” Steele then claimed that Obama denies that what America is dealing with “writ large is terrorism, a war on terror, and what we’re dealing with individually is a terrorist.” Watch it:
Full Story Think Progress » Conservatives Continue To Claim That Obama Refuses To Say The Words ‘Terror’ Or ‘Terrorism’.
Hate Radio Host Neal Boortz Challenges Keith Olbermann To A Health Care Debate
Yesterday, Think Progress reported that hate radio host Neal Boortz used his Twitter account to ridiculously claim that Congress’s health care legislation will end up killing more people than a terrorist attack.
Last night, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann responded to Boortz, referring to him as part of the “lunatic fringe” that is intent on portraying health care reform as lethal, despite the fact that it’s a lack of proper health care coverage that kills 45,000 Americans every year:
OLBERMANN: Each day it seems the lunatic fringe finds a new way to permit its adherents to view the rest of us as a little less than human – we don’t count as much as they do, ordinary Americans don’t matter. Newest example, hate-radio-host Neal Boortz yesterday: ‘Obamacare will do more damage’ he said, ‘ than a successful terrorist bombing of an airliner and kill more people as well.’ So, rather than count how many things are wrong with that statement, or how many times Neal Boortz must have been abused for him to wind up so dehumanized for him to say such a thing, let us answer it on his terms. What would you do, sir, if terrorists were killing 45,000 people each year in this country?
Watch it:
Full Story Think Progress » Hate Radio Host Neal Boortz Challenges Keith Olbermann To A Health Care Debate.
Steele: Bush Was ‘Right’ To Wait Six Days To Respond To Shoe Bomber, But Obama Was Still Too Slow
Continuing his book tour, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today and criticized President Obama’s remarks yesterday on the failed Christmas Day attack. He hit Obama for delivering it “two weeks after the event,” saying it should have instead happened on Christmas Day.
However, just a few moments later, Steele said that President Bush made the right move in waiting six days before commenting on shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001, because “you can’t afford to go much further without being very clear the direction the administration wants to go on this matter”:
STEELE: And that kind of approach that the administration has taken, where it was two weeks after the event before the President stands up there. If he had given that speech on Christmas Day — that he gave yesterday?
BRZEZINSKI: You know, it took six days for President Bush to respond to the Richard Reid shoe bomber. [...]
STEELE: I think the timing was right in the moment because you can’t afford to go much further without being very clear the direction the administration wants to go on this matter.
Watch it:
Dodd headed to Treasury?
This morning, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reported that retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) may be offered a job in the Obama administration. “Privately, senior White House officials have communicated to Dodd their belief that his position was untenable. A sinecure or administration position is likely,” he wrote. Roll Call further speculates that Treasury Secretary could be a possibility:
Speculation has also begun about potential employment for Dodd in the Obama administration.
For instance, several Democratic Senate aides noted that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is an extremely unpopular figure in the Senate. Geithner has also taken the brunt of the criticism for the administration’s handling of the economy and, these sources speculated, if the country’s financial picture does not brighten before Election Day, he could be the first secretary to leave the administration.
Although Dodd would appear to be well-situated to take control of Treasury if the position were to open, it may not be smooth sailing for his nomination.
Dodd’s cozy relations with Countrywide and A.I.G. could subject his nomination to a messy confirmation battle.
Full Story Think Progress » Dodd headed to Treasury?.
39 Congressional Republicans want to trample on D.C.’s right to pass same-sex marriage law.
In December, the Washington, D.C. City Council voted 11 to 2 to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. Mayor Adrien Fenty signed the legislation two days later, saying that “the District, from this day forward, will set the tone for other jurisdictions to follow in creating an open and inclusive city.” But 39 Congressional Republicans do not want D.C. to be an “open and inclusive” example. The Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), “have filed an amicus brief in D.C. Superior Court calling for a voter referendum on whether to legalize same-sex marriage in the District”:
In the filing, U.S. senators James Inhofe (Okla.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) and 37 House Republicans align with Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church, in asking the court to reverse a D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics decision prohibiting the same-sex marriage question to be put before voters.
Full Story Think Progress » 39 Congressional Republicans want to trample on D.C.’s right to pass same-sex marriage law..
Dodd’s Retirement Injects New Urgency Into Effort To Rein In Wall Street
One question bouncing around news outlets today is what Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) retirement means for the regulatory reform effort. Does it make him more or less likely to compromise on key parts of the bill, including the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA)?
It’s hard to discern whether Dodd’s retirement will lead him to give in on a host of issues (as one “gleeful” financial services lobbyist told Politico it would) or compel him to put “it all on the line to get what he wants, bipartisanship be damned.”
But one thing is for certain: Dodd’s retirement means that the regulatory reform effort needs to wrap up this year, as Dodd’s likliest successor as chairman is Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), a very bank-friendly Democrat who would almost certainly produce a worse product. And this point hasn’t escaped Republicans, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out:
At the same time, [Dodd's] decision gives Republicans the incentive to draw out the process until after next year’s elections when a more business-friendly Democrat could ascend to the banking panel’s chairmanship. Next in line on the committee is Sen. Tim Johnson (D., S.D.), generally seen as more receptive to industry concerns.
Full Story Think Progress » Dodd’s Retirement Injects New Urgency Into Effort To Rein In Wall Street.
Local Tea Party co-founder doesn’t want Steele ‘out there with the tea partiers.’
Yesterday on Fox News, RNC chair Michael Steele said that if he wasn’t currently leading the Republican Party, he’d join the ranks of the far right tea party protesters. “As I like to tell people — long before there was this big push on tea parties — if I wasn’t doing this job, I’d be out there with the tea partiers,” he said. This afternoon, Fox’s Neil Cavuto hosted Quincy, IL Tea Party co-founder Steve McQueen and asked him whether Steele would be welcome. “Not quite, Neil,” McQueen replied:
CAVUTO: Retired Army Sergeant First Class and tea party activist Steve McQueen saying, “Not so fast Mr. Steele.” He joins me right now. Steve, you would say “not quite,” right?
MCQUEEN: Not quite, Neil. Actually the Tea Party is, I liken that to an army of Davids which I am only one. I do confer with Tea Party organizations all over the country so I feel confident that I understand what the movement’s about and as I understand it right now, the GOP is currently on probation with the American people and obviously you can’t be on probation and probably be a member of the Tea Parties at the same time.
Watch it:
Full Story Think Progress » Local Tea Party co-founder doesn’t want Steele ‘out there with the tea partiers.’.
How the Military Hides Dissent in the Ranks
The military’s murky system keeps no accurate count of conscientious objectors, and likely hides the true extent of disgruntled service-members.
Ever since Major Nidal Hasan killed 13 soldiers at Fort Hood last month, the hunt has been on for a motive, preferably one the Army could have detected and thwarted and still be held harmless.
It’s a long list, ranging from compassion fatigue to religious militancy, ineptitude to insanity, but it is clear that Hasan was desperate to avoid becoming one of the swarm of soldiers about to be sent to Afghanistan. This includes the possibility that he explored applying for conscientious objector, or CO, status, but Army officials counter that they have no record of any such attempt.
Of course they don’t.
No reliable count exists of how many soldiers consider themselves conscientious objectors. The Army recorded 39 applications in 2007, the last year for which records are complete (and represents a five-year low). About half were approved. Nobody, however, believes Army statistics on the issue, probably not even the Army itself.
Chuck Fager, director of Quaker House in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a GI rights organization, has developed a maxim: “There are Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, And Pentagon Numbers.” Even the U.S. Government Accountability Office threw up its hands when it tried to complete an independent assessment in 2007, before resorting to quoting the Defense Department’s numbers back to it.
Full Story How the Military Hides Dissent in the Ranks | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet.
Catholic Bishops Embrace Anti-Abortion Terrorizers Missy Smith and Randall Terry
After the murder of George Tiller, Missy Smith said it was time to ‘get’ another abortion provider. At a center led by Catholic bishops, she will make her case again.
As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops renews its offensive on the anti-abortion language in the heath-care legislation soon to be finalized by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, four of those bishops appear to have given their seal of approval to a group whose leader gloated over the killing of Dr. George Tiller, a gynecologist who performed late-term abortions in Kansas, and called on anti-abortion activists to next “get” Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who performs similar services at his Nebraska clinic.
Missy Smith, a stalwart member of Insurrecta Nex — Randall Terry’s merry band of anti-choice hecklers and street clowns — announced plans yesterday to conduct a training session for her own organization, Wake Up, at Washington, D.C.’s John Paul II Cultural Center, an institution presided over by four bishops, including Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington. (The other members include John Myers, archbishop of Newark, N.J.; Bernard Harrington, bishop of Winona, Minn.; and Cardinal Adam Maida, the retired archbishop of Detroit.) Among the speakers on Smith’s program is Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who famously called Tiller “a mass murderer,” adding that Tiller, who was killed in cold blood, had “reaped what he sowed.” Susan Gibb, communications director for the archdiocese of Washington, refused comment on whether Archbishop Wuerl approved of the use of the Cultural Center by Smith and Terry, though she made the point that it was Smith, not Terry, who booked the facility.
Are Progressives Depressed or Too Privileged to Produce Social Change? Or Are We Just Failing to Organize Effectively?
Real change seems almost impossible. What are we doing wrong?
A few weeks ago Bruce Levine wrote a provocative article titled “Are Americans a Broken People? Why We’ve Stopped Fighting Back Against the Forces of Oppression.” Levine suggested that many progressives and much of the general population may be so broken by the system that they’ve given up hope and become passive. He uses the metaphor of an abusive relationship, in which lack of hope and the sense that nothing matters make people passive instead of angry.
Levine, a radical psychotherapist practicing in Cincinnati, Ohio, has carved out a popular niche with readers, writing about psychological issues related to politics and change. Two of his most-read articles are “The Case for Giving Eli Lilly the Corporate Death Penalty” and ” Has American Society Gone Insane?”
Longtime labor organizer and economic thinker Les Leopold, whose recent book The Looting of America was excerpted on AlterNet, took offense to Levine’s article and wrote a response. While calling Levine’s argument an eyeopener, Leopold wrote that he has not experienced the passivity Levine describes in labor unions and among progressives. Leopold insists that progress will come from the hard work of organizing: building infrastructure, connecting issues and thinking big. We can’t count on people like Al Gore, who was passive after the 2000 election, and Barack Obama.
Wal-Mart Destroy Unsold Clothing
Amid the recession and the cold winter months, Cynthia Magnus made a shocking discovery at the H&M in Manhattan’s Herald Square. It wasn’t a sale on the season’s hottest trends–it was garbage bags upon garbage bags of unsold merchandise, most of it slashed with razors to ensure that no one would ever wear or sell it, the New York Times reports.
“Gloves with the fingers cut off,” Ms. Magnus said, reciting the inventory of ruined items. “Warm socks. Cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor. Men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.” The jackets were tagged $59, $79 and $129.
And right around the corner from this particular H&M is a popular collection point for New York Cares’ coat drive. The organization’s spokeswoman Colleen Farrell told the Times, “We’d be glad to take unworn coats, and companies often send them to us.”
While H&M’s destroy-and-discard policy is a missed opportunity in this time of need, the fast fashion retailer isn’t the only one to practice these extreme measures. Magnus also found bags full of clothes priced with Wal-Mart tags, and each item had a hole punched through it.
Melissa Hill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart told the Times that the company typically donates its unsold pieces to charity and would investigate why those bags was discarded.
Full Story H&M, Wal-Mart Destroy Unsold Clothing.
Amy Goodman: Sick With Terror
… a killer that has stalked the U.S. public, claiming, by recent estimates, 45,000 lives annually—one dead American about every 10 minutes—goes unchecked.
The media have been swamped with reports about the attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now dubbed the “underwear bomber,” failed in his alleged attack, close to 300 people were spared what would have been, most likely, a horrible, violent end. Since that airborne incident, the debates about terrorism and how best to protect the American people have been reignited.
Meanwhile, a killer that has stalked the U.S. public, claiming, by recent estimates, 45,000 lives annually—one dead American about every 10 minutes—goes unchecked. That’s 3,750 people dead—more than the 9/11 attacks—every month who could be saved with the stroke of a pen.
This killer is the lack of adequate health care in the United States. Researchers from Harvard Medical School found in late 2009 that 45,000 people die unnecessarily every year due to lack of health insurance. Researchers also uncovered another stunning fact: In 2008, four times as many U.S. Army veterans died because they lacked health insurance than the total number of U.S. soldiers who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the same period. That’s right: 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died because they were uninsured.
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama was fiery when he made his public statement after meeting with his national security team about the airline breach: In seeking to thwart plans to kill Americans “we face a challenge of the utmost urgency,” he said. He talked about reviewing systemic failures and declared we must “save innocent lives, not just most of the time, but all of the time.”
Full Story Amy Goodman: Sick With Terror – Truthdig.
Suicide claims more US military lives than Afghan war
American military personnel are continuing to take their own lives in unprecedented numbers, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wars drag on. By late November, at least 334 members of the armed forces had committed suicide in 2009, more than the 319 who were killed in Afghanistan or the 150 who died in Iraq. While a final figure is not available, the toll of military suicides last year was the worst since records began to be kept in 1980.
The Army, National Guard and Army Reserve lost at least 211 personnel to suicide. More than half of those who took their lives had served in either Iraq or Afghanistan. The Army suicide rate of 20.2 per 100,000 personnel is higher than that registered among males aged 19 to 29, the gender age bracket with the highest rate among the general population. Before 2001, the Army rarely suffered 10 suicides per 100,000 soldiers.
The Navy lost at least 47 active duty personnel in 2009, the Air Force 34 and the Marine Corp, which has been flung into some of the bloodiest fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, 42. The Marine suicide rate has soared since 2001 from 12 to at least 19.5 per 100,000.
Full Story Suicide claims more US military lives than Afghan war.
Mystery Surrounds Contractors’ Role at CIA Base
Paresi and Wise, Killed by CIA Suicide Bomber, Worked For Company Once Known as Blackwater
Two of the seven CIA personnel killed in last week’s suicide bombing in Afghanistan worked as contractors for the company formerly known as Blackwater, but what role Dane Paresi and Jeremy Wise played at the CIA’s forward base in Khost remains unknown. The base collected intelligence used in the CIA’s drone attacks across the border in Pakistan, but CIA director Leon Panetta has said that the former Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, is no longer involved in the drone program.
Spokesman for both the CIA and Xe/Blackwater declined to comment whether Paresi and Wise were employed through Xe, but two private intelligence sources and one current government official familiar with CIA operations at the Afghanistan base confirmed to ABCNEWS.com that the two were there as Xe employees. A source familiar with Xe’s contracts said that their role was not to provide security for the base, but provided no further details.
Paresi and Wise were both former elite military commandos, and were killed when a Jordanian double agent detonated a suicide bomb at a meeting inside the CIA base near the Pakistan border. Wise was a 35-year-old former Navy SEAL from Virginia Beach, Va. A statement from the family of the 46-year-old Dane Paresi described him as having recently retired from 27 years in the Army, many in Special Operations. He was from Portland, Ore.
Full Story Mystery Surrounds Contractors’ Role at CIA Base – ABC News.
Does the Fed Want to Crash the Housing Market a Second Time?
There is a curious rule change that was made at government controlled Fannie Mae. And it was announced on one of the top news dump days of the year, December 24, Christmas eve, when you were away visiting relatives.
If you have to relase news and you don’t want anyone to see it, December 24 is one of the days you dump news. That alone should cause you to look twice at the news. And in this case, you should look real close. I think it signals that the government may be preparing to take the housing market down one more time.
Specifically, here is what happened when Santa Claus was already in his sleigh, trying to bring good cheer. Fannie Mae changed one of its policies for disposing of foreclosed homes.
Typically when a home is repossessed, the government-sponsored enterprise will put the property on the market and around the same time ask the servicer for the loan files for Fannie to review. If the review finds the mortgage was not underwritten to the GSE’s requirements, Fannie can make the lender reimburse it for any losses on the sale of the home.
In a Decmber 24 notice to servicers, Fannie said that from now on it reserves the right to accept offers for repossessed homes without notifying the servicer and regardless of whether the loan review has been completed, American Banker reports.
Full Story EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Does the Fed Want to Crash the Housing Market a Second Time?.
Declassification of secret documents to be delayed
President Obama will maintain a lid of secrecy on millions of pages of military and intelligence documents that were scheduled to be declassified by the end of the year, according to administration officials.
The missed deadline spells trouble for the White House’s promises to introduce an era of government openness, say advocates, who believe that releasing historical information enforces a key check on government behavior. They cite as an example the abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War, including domestic spying and assassinations of foreign officials, that were publicly outlined in a set of agency documents known as the “family jewels.’’
The documents in question – all more than 25 years old – were scheduled to be declassified on Dec. 31 under an order originally signed by President Bill Clinton and amended by President George W. Bush.
But now Obama finds himself in the awkward position of extending the secrecy, despite his repeated pledges of greater transparency, because his administration has been unable to prod spy agencies into conformance.
Full Story Declassification of secret documents to be delayed – The Boston Globe.
Auto Industry Anticipates Better Year Ahead
Amid the worst recession since the Great Depression, auto sales fell to 10.4 million in 2009 from a record-high of 17.4 million just nine years earlier.
After a dismal 2009 for auto sales, industry analysts expect 2010 to be a much better year to automakers as credit becomes easier to get, jobs begin to reappear and sales pick up.
“We believe the worst in terms of the economy and auto sales is behind us,” George Pipas, director of sales analysis at Ford Motor, told CNNMoney.com. “But it’s still a fragile situation and in a fragile situation like this, sales can turn on a dime.”
Amid the worst recession since the Great Depression, auto sales fell to 10.4 million in 2009 from a record-high of 17.4 million just nine years earlier. A healthy U.S. auto market is predicated on roughly 16 million sales per year.
One point of optimism for automakers is a better-than-expected month of December in terms of sales. Although the numbers will not be officially reported until Thursday afternoon, it is expected that December was the second best month of the year for auto sales, trailing only August when the “cash for clunkers” program drove sales
Full Story Auto Industry Anticipates Better Year Ahead | Economy In Crisis.
Tawain Bans U.S. Beef
Taiwan lawmakers on Tuesday voted unanimously to place restrictions on certain U.S. beef imports amid fears of food safety U.S. officials argue that American beef is perfectly safe and goes far beyond the minimum level of testing for safety.
Taiwan lawmakers on Tuesday voted unanimously to place restrictions on certain U.S. beef imports amid fears of food safety coupled with very vocal protests by some Taiwanese citizens after restrictions were eased last year.
Soon after Japan banned U.S. beef imports in late 2003, following a documented case of mad cow disease in the U.S., many other East Asian nations followed suit, including Taiwan and South Korea.
After long and tenuous negotiations, Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou lifted the ban, allowing American beef producers to once again export to Taiwan. However, widespread protests and political upheaval over the loosening of the restrictions led to the decision being reversed by the national legislature Tuesday.
Some U.S. beef imports will still be allowed into the market, but most ground beef and beef offal will be banned.
“Science and facts – not politics or hyperbole – should govern our trade and economic relations,” U.S. trade and agriculture officials said in a statement. “This is a serious matter that concerns us greatly.”
Until the ban was put in place, the U.S. was the largest supplier of beef to Taiwan. Even with severe restrictions for most of the year, U.S. beef producers have exported $114 million worth of product to Taiwan through October.
Full Story Tawain Bans U.S. Beef | Economy In Crisis.
The Jobs Crisis Creating an Education Crisis
According to Economic Policy Institute research associate Richard Rothstein, the high unemployment rate caused by the recession has only exacerbated the nation’s education crisis to the point where the Obama administration‘s education reform efforts may be futile.
While the short-term effects of the economic crisis are plain to see, it is the long-term consequences of the Great Recession that will have the biggest impact on the nation’s future. And one of the most overlooked aspects of the economic crisis is its effect on the nation’s already fragile education system.
According to Economic Policy Institute research associate Richard Rothstein, the high unemployment rate caused by the recession has only exacerbated the nation’s education crisis to the point where the Obama administration‘s education reform efforts may be futile.
“Unemployment at the levels we are now experiencing is not only an inconvenience,” he writes. “It is a tragedy. Its academic effects will likely overwhelm any school reform efforts.”
The current unemployment rate has likely pushed the child poverty rate well past 20 percent, Rothstein says. And for black children, the poverty rate could easily be over 50 percent at this point. Children living in poverty are much more likely to go through the school day hungry, and children that are not properly fed tend to do poorly in school.
“Poverty directly depresses student achievement, as more children come to school hungry, homeless, and from households under severe stress,” he writes.
Beyond increased child poverty, the Great Recession is taking its toll on education at all levels in a myriad of other ways.
Full Story The Jobs Crisis Creating an Education Crisis | Economy In Crisis.
Flu Season: Factory Farming Could Cause a Pandemic
The chicken and pork industries have wrought unprecedented changes in bird and swine flu. Billions could die in a new pandemic.
I was intrigued (and disturbed) by a book I just read online — www.BirdFluBook.org — by Michael Greger, M.D. about the potential of a deadly flu pandemic, the likes of which we have never seen. Greger very clearly delineates how a virus begins, mutates, and becomes dangerous. As with so many problems we are seeing lately — environmental or health — factory farmed meat seems to be a big part of the cause. A graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine, Michael Greger, M.D., serves as Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. An internationally recognized lecturer, he has presented at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, testified before Congress, and was an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous “meat defamation” trial. His recent scientific publications in American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, and the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition, and Public Health explore the public health implications of industrialized animal agriculture.
Kathy Freston: How likely are we to have a bird or swine flu that turns into something really deadly and widespread?
Michael Greger: Unfortunately we don’t know enough about the biology of these viruses to make accurate predictions, but influenza is definitely the disease to keep an eye on. AIDS has killed millions but is only fluid-borne. Malaria has killed millions but is relatively restricted to equatorial regions. Flu viruses are the only known pathogen capable of infecting literally billions of people in a matter of months. Right now we are in the midst of a flu pandemic caused by the swine-origin influenza virus H1N1. Millions of people have become infected and thousands have died, but H1N1 is not particularly virulent. There are other flu viruses that have emerged in recent decades such as the highly “pathogenic” (disease-causing) bird flu H5N1 that may have the potential to cause much greater human harm.
Full Story Flu Season: Factory Farming Could Cause a Pandemic | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
The Airport Scanner Scam: Who’s Getting Rich?
James Ridgeway, Mother Jones -
Scan, baby, scan. That’s the mantra among politicians at all levels in the wake of the thwarted terrorist attack aboard a Detroit-bound passenger jet. According to conventional wisdom, the would-be “underwear bomber” could have been stopped by airport security if he’d been put through a full-body scanner, which would have revealed the cache of explosives attached to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s groin.
Within days or even hours of the bombing attempt, everyone was talking about so-called whole-body imaging as the magic bullet that could stop this type of attack. In announcing hearings by the Senate Homeland Security Commitee, Joe Lieberman approached the use of scanners as a foregone conclusion, saying one of the “big, urgent questions that we are holding this hearing to answer” was “Why isn’t whole-body-scanning technology that can detect explosives in wider use?” Former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told the Washington Post, “You’ve got to find some way of detecting things in parts of the body that aren’t easy to get at. It’s either pat downs or imaging, or otherwise hoping that bad guys haven’t figured it out, and I guess bad guys have figured it out.”
Since the alternative is being groped by airport screeners, the scanners might sound pretty good. The Transportation Security Administration has claimed that the images “are friendly enough to post in a preschool,” though the pictures themselves tell another story, and numerous organizations have opposed them as a gross invasion of privacy. Beyond privacy issues, however, are questions about whether these machines really work—and about who stands to benefit most from their use. When it comes to high-tech screening methods, the TSA has a dismal record of enriching private corporations with failed technologies, and there are signs that the latest miracle device may just bring more of the same.
Full Story The Airport Scanner Scam | Mother Jones.
U.S. Government : Six Decades of Spying on its Citizens
It’s a national tradition: Spying on Americans
[This is the first installment of Sherman DeBrosse's series about the U.S. government's extensive and inglorious history of spying on its own people.]
Difficult as it is to understand, our government now has a number of detention facilities that could house hundreds of thousands of people. Some say they are to house undocumented immigrants, but one wonders. In recent years, government has also acquired the capability to monitor and store information about millions of telephone calls, faxes, and e-mails made by American citizens.
When we reflect that government has a history of spying on and harassing progressives and people who object to some of our wars, we cannot be blamed for wondering if the detention facilities and electronic surveillance capabilities are not there to be used on progressives.
Operation Chaos
In October, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson established “Operation Chaos” in the CIA. Its role largely was to spy on American citizens who objected to the war in Vietnam. Of course, to one extent or another, the CIA has been spying on domestic dissidents since 1959. Chaos relied largely upon people from the Domestic Operations Division, and others were borrowed from European assignments.
The Domestic Operations Division was created sometime between 1962 and 1965, and its first head was Charles Tracy Barnes, a CIA veteran who had coordinated the agency’s activities duiring the 1954 Guatemalan coup and 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. It was located at 1750 Pennsylvania Avenue, not in Langley, VA.
Full Story The Rag Blog: U.S. Government : Six Decades of Spying on its Citizens.
Why It’s Bad News That the Health Care Conference Committee Will Be Held In Secret
David Sirota -
To follow on Chris’s post yesterday, I want to point out that a lot of activists have been insisting that there’s a Nixon-esque “secret plan” in the works – only not to end the Vietnam War, but to make the health care bill radically better than the gutted carcass that passed the U.S. Senate in December. In general, I don’t believe in the Secret Pony Plan Theory (ie. the theory that says that when any politician we’re supposed to love does something awful, it’s actually part of a secret 15-dimensional plan to do something awesome) – never have, never will. Politicians do things because they are forced to do things, not out of the goodness of their own hearts, and if there ever is a secret plan, it’s usually to pull one over on the public.
As it relates specifically to health care, I especially don’t believe there’s a secret plan to make the bill better in conference committee for two reasons.
First and foremost, it’s a good rule of thumb that from a progressive perspective, most bills get worse – not better – in conference committee. These negotiations are where lobbyists have their most influence, because much of the wheeling and dealing is done through winks and nods, and because everyone knows the final product is an inexorably moving train that both chambers will likely pass. I defy you to name more than a few bills that have gotten markedly better – rather than markedly worse – in a conference committee.
Full Story Why It’s Bad News That the Health Care Conference Committee Will Be Held In Secret | The Smirking Chimp.
Federal Prosecutors: Kentucky Officials Manipulated Clay County Elections for Decades
The BRAD BLOG has long endeavored to fight back against the disinformation being put forward by the GOP “voter fraud” charlatans and fraudsters contending that massive fraud is being carried out by voters at the polls, requiring the institution of disenfranchising Photo ID restrictions at the polling place which would result in some 21 million Americans being unable to cast their legal vote, according to the League of Women Voters and most other serious experts on these matters.
Once again, a story out of Kentucky helps us highlight that it’s election insiders, not voters themselves, who are, by far, the greatest threat to the integrity of elections.
We reported early last year on the passel of election officials in Clay County, KY arrested for buying and selling votes, manipulating ES&S electronic voting machines without the knowledge of voters, and otherwise fixing elections from 2002 to 2006.
As their January 19 trial date nears, more motions are being filed by federal prosecutors. The latest, filed last week, alleges that two of the top officials charged — one, a circuit court judge and the other, the county school Superintendent — had been fixing elections for decades before their recent indictments…
Bill Estep (the reporter who has owned this story locally since it broke last year) at Lexington’s Herald-Leader reported on New Years Day:
Full Story The BRAD BLOG : Federal Prosecutors: Kentucky Officials Manipulated Clay County Elections for Decades.
Look Who’s Indoctrinating Kids: Bill Bennett
Obama can’t urge kids to excel or make Christmas ornaments for the White House tree. THAT would be brainwashing.
But wingnuts can write textbooks. Cripes. Don’t expect nary a hue nor a cry over this from the bleating teabaggers.
Salem Radio Network host and former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett’s three-volume textbook series, America: The Last Best Hope, is available now for grades 8-12 through an exclusive deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The series also includes an interactive website, “The Roadmap,” covering U.S. history. The books are available in text and e-reader editions, and curriculum applications have been developed by educators and history experts.
“History is our nation’s schoolchildren’s worst subject,” Bennett said. “And yet the history of America is the greatest story of the modern era. It should not be boring, it should not be dumbed-down, and it should not be politicized. It is the story of a great experiment — what Abraham Lincoln called a ‘proposition.’ It is the story of many noble efforts to live up to that proposition, sometimes failing, more often, succeeding. This great adventure is told the best way I know how, chronologically, excitingly, honestly. ‘Once Upon A Time’ can still be an invitation to our youth and there is no greater ‘Once Upon A Time’ than ours.”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt EVP Bethlam Forsa said, “Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is excited to partner with Secretary Bennett and benefit from his unique experiences with education by distributing this ground-breaking new series.”
Full Story Hoffmania!: Look Who’s Indoctrinating Kids: Bill Bennett.
Iraq to sue Israel over destroyed reactor
An Iraqi parliament member said Tuesday that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki plans to sue Israel for damages done to his country following its destruction of the Tammuz nuclear reactor.
The Air Force bombed the site in 1981. Now, 29 years later, al-Maliki has instructed the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad to clarify with the UN whether it would be possible to extract compensation from Israel.
An Iraqi source told the German DPA that MP Mohammad Naji said UN Resolution 487, approved after the strike, allowed his country to sue Israel.
“Al-Maliki’s appeal follows an answer received from the UN Secretariat by the government of Iraq on November 25, which says Iraq has a right to demand compensation for the damage Israel did to it with the attack on the reactor, through a neutral committee which will assess the extent of the damage,” the report says.
Full Story Iraq to sue Israel over destroyed reactor – Israel News, Ynetnews.
‘Flaws’ in key Lockerbie evidence
An investigation by BBC's Newsnight has cast doubts on the key piece of evidence which convicted the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.
Tests aimed at reproducing the blast appear to undermine the case's central forensic link, based on a tiny fragment identified as part of a bomb timer.
The tests suggest the fragment, which linked the attack to Megrahi, would not have survived the mid-air explosion.
Two hundred and seventy people died in the 1988 attack on Pan Am flight 103.
Megrahi was jailed for the attack in 2001, but he was controversially released from prison in Scotland by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill in August 2009 on compassionate grounds.
Full Story BBC News – ‘Flaws’ in key Lockerbie evidence.
Why everyone misuses “not connecting the dots”
If there is one thing you can count of from the press and politicians its to use overworn phrases like they are trained parrots repeating what they heard without ever really understanding what they mean.. How many times have we heard politicians and hack journalists use the phrase, “Sooner rather than later” and “at the end of the day”.
But ever since Condoleeza’s Rice use of the term ” we couldn’t connect the dots” in response to why she and Bush didn’t prevent 911, the press and politicians have made that the cliche used the most while not one journalist or politician including the most recent user, President Obama, has ever understood for a minute what it really meant.
They use it as if its a term of art used to describe some kind breakdown in a complicated system of far flung and disparate pieces of information that prevented someone from taking action when in truth it means exactly the opposite.
All of the irrefutable evidence ( and it IS irrefutable) is that Bush, Rice and Cheney had more than enough information to have made decisions and taken action that would have easily prevented 911. In fact its safe to say that had anyone other than Bush been president, Democrat or Republican — Gore, Clinton, Powell, McCain — anyone — 911 would have been stopped in its tracks.
Full Story Why everyone misuses “not connecting the dots”.
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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. 
