Archive for January, 2010
Did Commercialization Kill the Bees?
Last Chance to Save Wild Bumble Bees
In the early 1990s, the USDA conducted risk assessments of the interstate transport of bumble bees for commercial greenhouse pollination, particularly tomatoes. Because of the risk of introducing non-native pests and diseases into new areas, they concluded that commercially reared bumble bees should not be shipped beyond their native range (They also prohibited the importation of bumble bees from outside the country, with the exception of Canada). At the time, it seemed a simple solution to growing concerns that the fledgling industry had taken off before adequate regulatory measures were put in place.
There was already some concern that the genie had gotten out of the bottle. Between 1992 and 1994, queens of two North American species—Bombus impatiens and Bombus occidentalis—were sent to Europe where they were reared in facilities along side European bumble bees. The colonies were then shipped back to the United States and distributed for crop pollination.
Fast forward to 1997. The commercial bumble bee rearing industry in North America suffers such catastrophic losses of Bombus occidentalis, a western bumble bee that it wipes out nearly its entire stock. In the following years, scientists begin to observe the precipitous decline of several North American bumble bee species, all belonging to the same subgenus. Dr. Robbin Thorp, a bee researcher and Professor Emeritus at UC Davis, upon learning of the commercial declines wonders if there is some connection. Could the wild bees be dying of the same disease that swept through commercial facilities?
Full Story Adam Federman: Did Commercialization Kill the Bees?.
‘Hardball’ & Dumbed-Down US Politics
By Robert Parry -
This past week, grappling with the twin top stories of Haiti’s earthquake tragedy and the Massachusetts Senate race, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews personified the strange mix of puffed-up self-importance and total lack of self-awareness that has come to define America’s media punditocracy.
During “Hardball” programs of recent days, Matthews has veered from pontificating about how the killer earthquake in Haiti might finally cause its people to get “serious” about their politics to explaining how Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley deserves to lose, in part, because she called ex-Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling “a Yankees fan.”
Not only did Matthews’s remarks about Haitian politics reflect a profound ignorance about that country and its history, but he seemed blissfully clueless about his own role as a purveyor of political trivia over substance in his dozen years as a TV talk-show host in the United States, as demonstrated in his poll-and-gaffe-obsessed coverage of the important Massachusetts Senate race.
Indeed, Matthews may be the archetype of what’s wrong with the U.S. news media, a devotee of conventional wisdom who splashes in the shallowest baby pool of American politics while pretending to be the big boy who’s diving into the deep end.
Full Story Consortiumnews.com.
Obama Adopts Volcker’s Solution: If Banks Want Govt. Guarantees, They Have to Close Their Casino Operations
Obama’s endorsement of Volcker’s plan is truly an extraordinary step forward for economic policy, but there’s a long way to go.
The news that President Barack Obama is finally listening to Paul Volcker is welcome, but the specifics of Obama’s big bank crackdown are not as positive as initial reports had indicated.
For more than a year now, Volcker has been urging policymakers to deliver strong regulatory medicine to revive the weak U.S. financial system. But Obama and other top advisers like Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner have resisted the former Federal Reserve Chairman’s overtures, instead opting for a set of small-bore, technocratic tweaks to a system that is fundamentally broken. (There’s one major exception to this pattern—Obama’s proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency is a dramatic and critical step for salvaging the American economy, and the President has advocated for it over Geithner’s objections.) Volcker has repeatedly suggested that banks that are too-big-to-fail are simply too-big-to-exist, and has consistently and correctly urged that banks be banned from participating in risky, high-flying securities trading. Today, Obama acknowledged these were good ideas.
Commercial banks are the backbone of the U.S. financial system. They accept deposits from consumers—your paychecks—and they make loans that keep businesses humming. Commercial banking is the way people and companies pay each other for goods and services. Without commercial banks, there is literally no economy and all hell breaks loose. To help protect against this economic Armageddon, the U.S. government guarantees bank deposits to ensure that our paychecks won’t simply disappear if a bank fails. But since the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, banks have increasingly become involved in risky gambling activities in the capital markets, and they’ve made their bets with the deposits the government guarantees.
Oil Is Too Important To Burn In Cars
Megatrends 2020
If there is one lesson to be learned from the designers, thinkers and curators presenting at Conversations in Design: A World Without Oil, it is the fact that we need the stuff for a lot of uses far more important than pushing boxes of steel around on roads.
When one realizes that we are using a cubic mile of the stuff every year (that is the Eiffel Tower on the right for scale), it becomes pretty obvious that this isn’t going to continue forever, and we have to begin to think about what we are going to use it for.
When you realize what we would have to build to replace the energy from all that oil, like building four dams the size of the Three Gorges Dam, 52 nuclear power plants or 104 coal fired power plants every year it becomes obvious that switching to Tesla Roadsters and plug-in hybrids is not going to make very much of a difference.
Full Story Oil Is Too Important To Burn In Cars : TreeHugger.
Bernanke Wants Even More God-Like Powers for the Federal Reserve
Jim Hightower -
Our financial rulers were so intoxicated with the fumes of their own omnipotence that they failed abjectly as regulators, as public servants and, most certainly, as gods.
Editor’s Note: It’s now come out that Ben Bernanke’s future at the helm of the Federal Reserve is in question. “Bernanke’s confirmation vote by the Senate for a second four-year term has been delayed, pending receipt by the committee of documents concerning the Fed’s role in the massive bailouts of the U.S. financial industry in 2008 during the economic meltdown.” The Huffington Post reported that on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Bernanke opponent, said that opposition was growing against his re-confirmation. And on Thursday Jim Manley, senior communications adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said that the vote had not been firmly locked in and won’t take place this week. A spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve referred questions to the Senate.”
Here’s a story that reads like the script of an old B-grade monster movie — and it would be comic, were it not so serious. The monster is named “The Fed,” a hydra-headed creature with enormous and destructive power, which it exercises from within the misty confines of a marble cavern that is unapproachable by commoners.
In real life, the Fed is the Federal Reserve — a private, for-profit bank that is run by and mostly for other big bankers. But it’s also its own, secretive branch of our national government. The Fed creates its own money (check your bills — they’re called Federal Reserve notes), it sets our interest rates, it regulates Wall Street and (as we’ve recently learned the hard way) it has sweeping power to bail out Wall Street.
The Fed operates largely beyond the purview of Congress or even the White House, and both the media and the public are essentially shut out from scrutinizing its financial machinations. The banking gods who dwell within the Fed’s temple are said to have knowledge, even wisdom, that the rest of us cannot fathom, so the Powers That Be tell us that these deities must be left alone to make their decisions and work their wonders.
Full Story Hightower: Bernanke Wants Even More God-Like Powers for the Federal Reserve | Politics | AlterNet.
The Bush-Packed Supreme Court Thinks Corporations Are People Too
This week’s Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case removes all limits on large corporations to finance and influence federal elections. In its ruling the court reverses a decades-old ruling barring companies from using their general funds to fund political campaigns, and guts pieces of the popular McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation. In so doing the Court implicitly embraces a 125 year-old precedent in the case of Santa Clara v. Santa Fe, where the Court first developed the legal doctrine of corporate personhood, explicitly granting corporations the same political and civil rights granted to human beings (historian Thom Hartmann discovered that the principle originated with a corrupt court clerk who added it to the case summary, rather than with the court itself).
But what if we accept corporate personhood as the current reality and instead focus on changing the rules so that corporations would also have to be bound by other limitations of humanity? How would corporations be different if they were indeed human-like?
If corporations were human, they would pause for sleep and recreation. When human families vacation, they frequently go to parks or natural places which they inherently recognize as part of the commons set apart from the marketplace. Many corporations know no such bounds; if resources are available, even in the nation’s National Parks, they will seek to develop them. Today’s modern corporations are 24/7 affairs that are always charging forward. The press for continuous growth and the need to deliver the next quarter’s earnings, make corporation’s urgency and intensity toward time a threat to many communities, which have other priorities like caring for children and elders, not the tireless quest to produce more profit.
Full Story The Bush-Packed Supreme Court Thinks Corporations Are People Too | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet.
OPS: The Same group that successfully executed a coup d’état against democracy in 2001, provided the coup de grâce to democracy yesterday – January 22, 2010.
Nation-Building Should Begin At Home
Richard C. Cook »
I have been writing for the last two years or so that the strategy of the Federal Reserve has been to engineer a “soft landing” from the horrendous financial bubbles that were created during the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush. Since President Obama came to power in January 2009, his administration has been partners with the Federal Reserve in trying to do this.
It’s nonsense for anyone to say that the crash of 2008 had not been foreseen. A number of analysts, myself included, were predicting a crash by mid-2007. Actually, it was apparent that a serious decline would take place by the end of 2005 when the U.S. economy was still dependent on housing for half its growth over a year after the Federal Reserve had begun to raise interest rates. By early 2008 the economy was officially in a recession, though I actually dated it to December 2006 when the money supply measured by M1 became stagnant. That meant that consumer spending wasn’t even keeping up with inflation.
Now, over the last year, the recession has begun to bottom out due to the huge quantities of credit injected by the Federal Reserve into the failed banking system and by the relatively undersized economic stimulus asked for by President Obama and approved by Congress. A “recovery” has been declared, with stock prices making up for about half their previous losses, even though the official (and understated) unemployment rate is not likely to fall below 9.5-10 percent for the foreseeable future.
Full Story Richard C. Cook » Blog Archive » Nation-Building Should Begin At Home.
Obama shifts to populist tone after Massachusetts
President turns on banking industry in hope of harnessing anger that helped Republicans to Senate election victory
Barack Obama adopted a strongly populist tone today when he announced new curbs on the banking industry, a direct response to the Republicans’ stunning election win in Massachusetts.
The move had been planned for a month but the timing and language were a direct result of Massachusetts. Obama, who as president has prided himself on cool, moderate language, spoke about the banks who “took huge, reckless risks in pursuit of quick profits and massive bonuses” and promised to “rein in the excess and abuse”.
The Republicans immediately responded by saying that Obama was making the banks the whipping boy for the Democratic party’s election defeat.
Full Story Obama shifts to populist tone after Massachusetts | Business | The Guardian.
OPS: We’ll see.
Keith Olbermann Special Comment On Supreme Court Ruling
This is not a left vs right issue. We will all be controlled by the big corporations now.
Part 1
Part 2
GRAYSON CONDEMNS COURT RULING
In a 5-to-4 decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations have the “right” to spend an unlimited amount of money to influence and manipulate federal elections. The decision overturns more than a century of law and precedent. Rep. Alan Grayson (FL-8) immediately condemned the decision. “This is the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case,” Grayson said. “It leads us all down the road to serfdom.”
The court decision completely ignores the likelihood that corporations will spend money to elect officials who will do their bidding, and punish those who won’t. It allows unlimited election spending by all corporations, even foreign ones. “The Supreme Court has decided to protect the rights of GE, Volkswagen, Lukoil and Aramco, at the expense of our right to good government,” Grayson added.
Congressman Grayson was in the courtroom when the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision. Grayson circulated a petition yesterday, saying: “Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the government is up for sale, and that the law itself will be bought and sold.” Within hours, more than 10,000 people had signed the petition. Rep. Grayson delivered those petitions to the Court this morning.
Full Story GRAYSON CONDEMNS COURT RULING | Congressman Alan Grayson, Representing the 8th District of Florida.
FreeSpeechforPeople.org kickoff video
Congresswoman Donna Edwards and constitutional law professor Jamie Raskin speak out against the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC and call for a mass movement of people to support a constitutional amendment. Visit FreeSpeechforPeople.org to learn more and get involved!
Hartmann: Corps Can Now Drop Money Bombs to BUY, BLACKMAIL OR DESTROY POLITICIANS
January 21, 2020 – David Cobb with Thom Hartmann
Discussion about Supreme Court decision Thursday that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress.
yes it’s okay to walk away from your mortgage
As many Americans begin to realize that it will be many years (if not decades) before their houses are worth what they owe on them, the idea of walking away from your mortgage is going mainstream.
Not surprisingly, the mortgage industry is doing everything it can to prevent this, including telling homeowners that they have a “moral obligation” to pay.
But do they?
Is it okay to walk away from your mortgage for no other reason that it doesn’t make financial sense to keep throwing your hard-earned money away?
There’s no universal answer here, but in most cases, the answer is “Yes, it’s okay to walk away.” Importantly, the reason is not that “Wall Street deserves it” or “We’ve got to teach the banks a lesson” or any of the other retribution logic being thrown around these days. The reason is that you and your lender engaged in an arms-length transaction in which both parties balanced competing interests and spelled out their obligations in a clear, signed contract. And unless that contract states that you have a “moral obligation to pay,” you don’t have a moral obligation to pay.
Full Story yes it’s okay to walk away from your mortgage: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance.
The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
Haiti has a longstanding history of US military intervention and occupation going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. US interventionism has contributed to the destruction of Haiti’s national economy and the impoverishment of its population.
The devastating earthquake is presented to World public opinion as the sole cause of the country’s predicament.
A country has been destroyed, its infrastructure demolished. Its people precipitated into abysmal poverty and despair.
Haiti’s history, its colonial past have been erased.
The US military has come to the rescue of an impoverished Nation. What is its Mandate?
Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?
The main actors in America’s “humanitarian operation” are the Department of Defense, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (See USAID Speeches: On-The-Record Briefing on the Situation in Haiti, 01/13/10). USAID has also been entrusted in channelling food aid to Haiti, which is distributed by the World Food Program. (See USAID Press Release: USAID to Provide Emergency Food Aid for Haiti Earthquake Victims, January 13, 2010)
Full Story The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?.
Paul Krugman: Do the Right Thing
A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.
Tuesday’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election means that Democrats can’t send a modified health care bill back to the Senate. That’s a shame because the bill that would have emerged from House-Senate negotiations would have been better than the bill the Senate has already passed. But the Senate bill is much, much better than nothing. And all that has to happen to make it law is for the House to pass the same bill, and send it to President Obama’s desk.
Right now, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, says that she doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate bill. But there is no good alternative.
Full Story Op-Ed Columnist – Do the Right Thing – NYTimes.com.
FDIC Chief Got Bank of America Loans While Working On Its Rescue
Agency Grants Sheila Bair Retroactive Ethics Waiver on Mortgages
Sheila Bair, one of the chief regulators overseeing Bank of America’s federal rescue, took out two mortgages worth more than $1 million from the banking giant last summer during ongoing negotiations about the bank’s bailout and its repayment.
In the weeks between the closings on her two mortgage loans, Bair met with Bank of America’s chief negotiator in the bailout talks.
To avoid conflicts of interest, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which Bair heads, prohibits employees from participating in “any particular matter” involving a bank from which they are seeking a loan.
Full Story FDIC Chief Got Bank of America Loans While Working On Its Rescue | The Huffington Post Investigative Fund.
Blanche Lincoln Cosponsors Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) announced today she is co-sponsoring Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) resolution of disapproval to block regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act:
I am very concerned about the burden that EPA regulation of carbon emissions could put on our economy and have questions about the actual benefit EPA regulations would have on the environment. Heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap and trade bills in Congress, will cost us jobs and put us at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others.
Like Murkowski and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln is demonstrating a shocking disregard for her state’s interests, the health of her constituents, and a misunderstanding of why America has been losing jobs to China and India. Her support for the Dirty Air Act is an act of allegiance to polluters.
Full Story Wonk Room » Blanche Lincoln Cosponsors Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act.
Air America Bankruptcy: Live Programming OVER As Company Files Chapter 7
Air America Media is ending its live programming operations and the company will file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the company announced Thursday:
It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.
The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year has seen a 'perfect storm' in the media industry generally. National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry's long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times.
Full Story Air America Bankruptcy: Live Programming OVER As Company Files Chapter 7.
GOP Is Overjoyed At The Unprecedented Influence Corporations Will Now Have In Federal Campaigns
During the 2008 presidential campaign, the conservative group Citizens United made a movie critical of Hillary Clinton but was barred from distributing it on local cable systems because federal courts said it “looked and sounded like a long campaign ad, and therefore should be regulated like one.” The Supreme Court then took up the case and in its much-anticipated decision, today ruled 5-4 to allow corporations and unions to spend unlimited funds in support for, or opposition of, federal candidates. The monumental ruling throws out a “a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections.
One Republican attorney said that the new ruling basically turns the political landscape into the “Wild Wild West.” Another GOP election lawyer said that the ruling represents “a huge sea-change in campaign finance law. The Court went all the way. It really relieves any restrictions on corporate spending on independent advertising.”
As Common Cause noted, the ruling “will enhance the ability of the deepest-pocketed special interests to influence elections and the U.S. Congress.” U.S. PIRG called it a “shocking burst of judicial activism” that treats corporations “in the same manner as ordinary citizens.” Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 said the ruling will “create unprecedented opportunities for corporate ‘influence-buying‘ corruption.”
It’s Reconciliation –
A well-informed source tells The Mouth Nancy Pelosi is set to announce the House will go the reconciliation route on health care reform.
Of course, that means using a budgetary procedure that requires a simple majority to pass.
It’s still unclear to us precisely what that means would be passed, but possibilities would be creating a national health care exchange and expanding Medicare or Medicaid coverage.
Democrats are caucusing now, so stay tuned.
Update: A second source confirms that Pelosi is presenting a reconciliation plan to the caucus, and making sure they go with something that can actually pass.
Separately, she is meeting with Harry Reid today.
Full Story Mouth Of The Potomac – NY Daily News.
Top Defense Contractors Spent $27 Million Lobbying At Time Of Afghan Surge Announcement
The ten largest defense contractors in the nation spent more than $27 million lobbying the federal government in the last quarter of 2009, according to a review of recently-filed lobbying records.
The massive amount of money used to influence the legislative process came as the White House announced it would ramp up military activity in Afghanistan and Congress considered appropriations bills to pay for that buildup. All told, these ten companies, the largest revenue earners in the industry, spent roughly $7.2 million more lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2009 (October through December) than in the three months prior.
Such an increase in lobbying expenditures is partly a reflection of just how profitable the business of waging war can be. Each of these companies earned billions of dollars in defense contracts this past year. As the U.S. ramps up its military activities overseas, and the army is stretched thin by other ventures, it stands to reason that the contracts won’t dry up any time soon.
Full Story Top Defense Contractors Spent $27 Million Lobbying At Time Of Afghan Surge Announcement.
Condoms can prevent prostate cancer
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital found a high correlation between the common sexually transmitted infection, Trichomonas vaginalis, and the risk of advanced and lethal prostate cancer.
Trichomonas vaginalis may be the source of prostate inflammation that plays a major role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. Trichomonas vaginalis is non viral, infects 174 million people a year, and produces no symptoms in men.
The study compares 673 blood samples of men who developed prostate cancer with 673 blood samples of men who did not develop prostate cancer. The samples were taken ten years prior to development of prostate cancer in any of the participants.
Full Story Condoms can prevent prostate cancer.
Fed acts Sunday to prevent global bank run Monday
Acting quickly to prevent a run on major global financial firms, the Federal Reserve cut its discount rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25% and offered to lend money to a longer list of firms than ever before.
The extraordinary weekend moves came as J.P. Morgan Chase /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 41.29, -2.11, -4.86%) sealed a deal to buy Bear Stearns Cos. /quotes/comstock/13*!bsc/quotes/nls/bsc (BSC 10.88, +0.02, +0.18%) for just $2 a share backed by up to $30 billion borrowed from the Fed. The Fed board gave its approval to that unique funding arrangement, which guarantees JP Morgan against losses from buying Bear. See full story.
The Fed board also approved the creation of a special lending facility through the New York Fed that would be available to members of its primary dealers list, which includes both commercial banks and investment banks. Investment banks, such as Bear Stearns, have not been allowed to borrow directly from the Fed.
JP Morgan has access to the discount window through its Chase Bank subsidiary, but Bear Stearns does not have direct access.
Full Story Fed acts Sunday to prevent global bank run Monday – MarketWatch.
Multinationals kept at bay in demanding Indian market
In India, Marks and Spencer has learned that small and easily overlooked details can determine whether sales are made. Take, for example, men’s shirts. In the UK, only a third of M&S shirts have pockets. But in sweltering India, where jackets are required only on formal occasions, most men want a pocket on their shirt for handy storage.
For its first eight years in India, M&S, the mainstay of the British high street, paid little heed to this. Operating through an Indian franchisee, Planet Retail, M&S stocked its 16 Indian stores with apparel reflecting UK consumer tastes.
That is now changing, along with M&S’s business model for the country. In 2008, M&S ended its franchise deal and took 51 per cent of a joint venture company which it set up with Reliance Retail , part of one of India’s largest conglomerates. It has started tailoring its local offerings for Indian tastes – from more brightly coloured men’s polo shirts to higher necklines and lower sleeves for women’s garments.
Full Story FT.com / UK – Multinationals kept at bay in demanding Indian market.
OPS This is the reality of ‘free trade’ . This is why America will crash. India and China are not playing by the same rules. And, they never have.
K Street Thrived In 2009: The Proof Is In The Numbers
The lobbying industry demonstrated its resilience last year in the face of the recession and is fully expected to smash previous spending records. On Wednesday, lobbyists filed their fourth-quarter reports, offering the first glimpse at their spending totals for the year.
Here’s what HuffPost has found so far by looking at some of the biggest companies in the banking, health care and energy industries: The heavy hitters indeed hit harder than ever in 2009.
To wit: The Chamber of Commerce, lobbying muscle for all manner of businesses on all manner of issues, spent an eye-popping $71 million on lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2009 alone, bringing its yearly total to $123 million, almost double the $62 million it spent in 2008 — and more than it’s ever spent.
Full Story K Street Thrived In 2009: The Proof Is In The Numbers.
Time for a Special Prosecutor
By Scott Horton, Harpers
Citing the Seton Hall report on the June 9, 2006 deaths, as well as “The Guantánamo ‘Suicides,’” the St. Louis Post Dispatch assesses the situation perfectly and draws exactly the right conclusions:
Enough is enough. Prisoner abuse and botched investigations undermine national security, handing America’s enemies a devastating recruiting tool. Mr. Obama should appoint an unrelenting career prosecutor to the case, someone of the caliber of Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, to dig deeper. He must follow where the evidence leads.
The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan noted the deafening silence from the Obama Administration about this matter:
In Iran, when prisoners are turned into corpses after interrogation, even the Khamenei junta feels it necessary to respond. In America, not so much.
Full Story Time for a Special Prosecutor—By Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine).
Keiser Report №10:
Every week Max Keiser looks at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines. On todays show Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look into the scandals of the inexplicable Timothy Geithner, the crisis levy planned by Obama, and luxury cruise liners in Haiti. Keiser also talks to Ann Minch, who started a Debtors’ Revolt in the US by refusing to pay her credit card bill unless her bank lowered their rate.
Exclusive: Kucinich shreds Democrats for betraying the promise of change
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Wednesday said the Massachusetts election was a “wake up call” for Democrats and that his party had better change course or it could suffer devastating losses come November.
“People elected Democrats in 2008 to change the direction,” he told Raw Story in a nearly hour-long interview.
“And the same entrenched interests that George Bush could not shake, this current White House is having great difficulty in shaking. One could suggest they might be more entrenched than ever.”
Kucinich staunchly defended liberalism but alleged that Democrats are not behaving like liberals.
Full Story Exclusive: Kucinich shreds Democrats for betraying the promise of change | Raw Story.
Reining in the Gods of the Fed
Jim Hightower -
Here’s a story that reads like the script of an old B-grade monster movie — and it would be comic, were it not so serious. The monster is named “The Fed,” a hydra-headed creature with enormous and destructive power, which it exercises from within the misty confines of a marble cavern that is unapproachable by commoners.
In real life, the Fed is the Federal Reserve — a private, for-profit bank that is run by and mostly for other big bankers. But it’s also its own, secretive branch of our national government. The Fed creates its own money (check your bills — they’re called Federal Reserve notes), it sets our interest rates, it regulates Wall Street and (as we’ve recently learned the hard way) it has sweeping power to bail out Wall Street.
The Fed operates largely beyond the purview of Congress or even the White House, and both the media and the public are essentially shut out from scrutinizing its financial
Full Story Reining in the Gods of the Fed by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.
Obama at One: Little Surprising in Absence of Progressive Social Movement
Howard Zinn -
Looking back at President Obama’s first year in office, The Nation asked members of its community to give their assesment of his performance. You can share your take on Obama’s highest and lowest moments in the form provided here. Here is historian Howard Zinn’s response:
I’ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama’s rhetoric; I don’t see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies.
As far as disappointments, I wasn’t terribly disappointed because I didn’t expect that much. I expected him to be a traditional Democratic president. On foreign policy, that’s hardly any different from a Republican–as nationalist, expansionist, imperial and warlike. So in that sense, there’s no expectation and no disappointment. On domestic policy, traditionally Democratic presidents are more reformist, closer to the labor movement, more willing to pass legislation on behalf of ordinary people–and that’s been true of Obama. But Democratic reforms have also been limited, cautious. Obama’s no exception. On healthcare, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now.
Full Story Obama at One: Little Surprising in Absence of Progressive Social Movement | CommonDreams.org.
Murkowski to call on Congress to block federal greenhouse gas regulation | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Alaskan senator seeking to invoke obscure measure that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from curbing greenhouse gas emissions if Congress fails to act
A Republican senator from Alaska is expected to call on Congress today to strip the Obama administration – and any future US government – of its powers to curb global warming pollution.
Lisa Murkowski, an emerging leader on energy in Republican ranks, told a press conference on Wednesday she was thinking of invoking an obscure, rarely used measure that allows Congress to roll back government regulations.
“At this point in time, my inclination is to proceed with the resolution of disapproval,” she said. “I think that is a more clear path forward.”
Full Story Murkowski to call on Congress to block federal greenhouse gas regulation | Environment | guardian.co.uk.
German dentists develop ‘painless’ plasma tooth-blaster
More news of exotic high technology benefiting the human race today, as German gnasher-boffins announce a cunning plan to replace dentists’ drills with “painless, contact-free” plasma beam devices.
Rotting teeth, one of the most painful (and expensive) medical problems faced by modern humans, are caused when mouth bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus casei build up on the teeth. The dastardly micro-organisms can erode a tooth’s tough enamel, coating and start to infect the “dentin” tissue beneath it, eventually destroying large parts of the tooth and – when they reach the living pulp at its centre – causing intense pain.
Normally a dentist will tackle such a cavity by drilling out all the infected tissue before putting in a filling. Such drilling often requires a local anaesthetic, meaning that the procedure is skilled and expensive work.
Full Story German dentists develop ‘painless’ plasma tooth-blaster • The Register.
Supreme Court rolls back campaign spending limits
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.
By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.
Full Story Supreme Court rolls back campaign spending limits – Forbes.com.
OPS: The coup de grâce. Mark your calendars democracy has officially ended. We will never see any legislation that curbs our Corporate funded slide into Fascism again. This is now a Nation officially, of by and for Corporations and the Rich.
Top Hospitals Questioned In Electronic Health Records Probe
A congressional inquiry into plans for spending billions of dollars in stimulus money on digital medical records is now questioning some of the nation’s most prestigious health care providers about possible safety flaws and other problems with the electronic systems.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has asked 31 hospitals and health systems across the country in a Jan. 19 letter to advise him of any problems with their computer systems and any “issues or concerns that have been raised by your health care providers” over the past two years.
“Hospitals are on the front lines and their perspective will be very valuable in this effort, so I look forward to hearing what they have to say about expanded use of health care information technology,” Grassley said Wednesday in a statement.
Full Story Top Hospitals Questioned In Electronic Health Records Probe.
Acoustic Levitation: Scientists Use Sound Make Objects Levitate (VIDEO)
Scientists have developed a sound generator so powerful its shock waves can stun, and even kill people.
Another group of researchers have developed another unusual application for sound: a method of “acoustic levitation” that could help maintain colonies on Mars or the moon by using high-pitched sound waves to remove alien dust.
Wired explains,
Blasting a high-pitched noise from a tweeter into a pipe that focuses the sound waves can create enough pressure to lift troublesome alien dust off surfaces, according to a study published January in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Full Story Acoustic Levitation: Scientists Use Sound Make Objects Levitate (VIDEO).
Pakistan Rejects U.S. Call To Go After Militants
The Pakistani army said Thursday during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that it can’t launch any new offensives against militants for six months to a year to give it time to stabilize existing gains.
The announcement probably comes as a disappointment to the U.S., which has pushed Pakistan to expand its military operations to target militants staging cross-border attacks against coalition troops in Afghanistan. Washington believes such action is critical to success in Afghanistan as it prepares to send an additional 30,000 troops to the country this year.
But the comments by army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas clearly indicate Pakistan will not be pressured in the near term to expand its fight beyond militants waging war against the Pakistani state. Whether it can be convinced in the long term is still an open question.
Full Story Pakistan Rejects U.S. Call To Go After Militants.
Mars Pictures: NASA’s Most Extraordinary Images EVER (PHOTOS)
From ‘trees’ on Mars to an ‘organic cemetery,’ see the ‘Red Planet’s’ craters, dunes, gullies, and even avalanches in stunning detail in the slideshow below.
Full Story Mars Pictures: NASA’s Most Extraordinary Images EVER (PHOTOS).
‘Shadow Elite’
Do You Know Whose Agenda You’re Being Sold?
In the community of fewer than 2,000 in which I grew up, the proverbial six degrees of separation melt away. You can’t help but play multiple roles in a small town: A teenager babysits for her next-door neighbor’s kids whose father is also her schoolteacher and a colleague of her father’s and whose mother is also her Sunday school teacher. Is there potential for nepotism and corruption? Yes. But at the same time, everybody knows what everybody else is doing and it’s difficult to hide agendas. In a small community, agendas, roles, relationships, and sponsors are pretty clear.
By contrast, among today’s top power brokers–the shadow elite–agendas, roles, relationships, and sponsors are difficult, if not impossible, for the public to ascertain. We’ve looked at a number of these “flexians” and have seen that even when they’ve been sued for defrauding the government they somehow manage to take a seat back at the table. It didn’t used to be this way. Where once power brokers had fewer and more stable affiliations, the new breed of players–whose ever-fluid and greater number of involvements reflect the multiplicity of enterprises today engaged in governing–are more global in reach and difficult to track.
Overlapping roles and interconnectedness can make a community vibrant and strong–and help explain why it can be at one and the same time insular and highly engaged with the world. This structure supports mobilization, whether for a community festival or relief efforts. My home community, which is steeped in the Mennonite tradition of service, has been very quick to organize aid to Haiti. That is at least in part because first-hand information and interdependencies are mainstays of community life.
Full Story Janine R. Wedel: ‘Shadow Elite’: Do You Know Whose Agenda You’re Being Sold?.
Alan Grayson Petitioning Against Looming Supreme Court Campaign Finance Decision
In response to news that the Supreme Court will hold a special public session on Thursday, which some expect could bring a highly-anticipated campaign finance decision, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) is circulating an online petition opposing the decision, which is expected to undo limits on corporate spending in federal campaigns.
Grayson said he would personally deliver the signatures to the court in the morning.
“We’re trying something new — usually the only petitions the Supreme Court sees are petitions for writ of certiorari,” Grayson told HuffPost. Asked where he got the idea, he said, “It’s in the Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Full Story Alan Grayson Petitioning Against Looming Supreme Court Campaign Finance Decision.
Goldman Sachs Profits Hit $4.8B, Pay Up 47 Percent
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Thursday it earned $4.79 billion in the fourth quarter as the bank’s trading business again outdistanced the rest of the financial industry
The company rewarded its employees with $16.2 billion in salaries and bonuses for 2009, up 47 percent from the previous year but still lower than many had expected.
Goldman said Wednesday it earned $8.20 a share in the last three months of the year as fixed income, commodities and currency trading buoyed its profits for the third straight quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters predicted Goldman would earn $5.20 a share.
Full Story Goldman Sachs Profits Hit $4.8B, Pay Up 47 Percent.
Raising the Debt Ceiling
For the eleventh time since 2002, lawmakers are set to raise the national debt ceiling, pushing it to over a record-setting $13 trillion.
Lawmakers last raised the national debt limit on Christmas Eve. However, that was just a stop-gap measure, as they raised the ceiling by just $290 billion. This time, lawmakers will need to raise the limit by $1 trillion to $1.8 trillion to cover the rest of the year. Which is exactly what Democrats are hoping to do in order to avoid another politically perilous vote before what is already shaping up to be a brutal November midterm election season.
While raising the national debt limit is never popular, the alternatives are often impractical. Without an increase, the U.S. Treasury Department would be unable to pay the holders of securities when they come due, meaning that the U.S. would essentially default on its debt obligations. That would send the value of U.S. bonds and other assets plummeting, sending shockwaves through the world economy.
Full Story Raising the Debt Ceiling | Economy In Crisis.
Wall Street’s Revolving Door
Economist and former Vice Presidential candidate Pat Choate discusses his new book Saving Capitalism: Keeping America Strong and outlines why the intimate relationship between Wall Street and Washington needs to end
Video at link
Wall Street’s Revolving Door | Economy In Crisis.
China economy shows strong growth in 2009
China has said its economy expanded by 8.7% in 2009, exceeding even the government’s own initial expectations.
The pace of change increased as the year went on, with growth in the final quarter of 2009 increasing by 10.7% from the same period a year earlier.
China is now on course to overtake Japan and become the world’s second-biggest economy.
Full Story BBC News – China economy shows strong growth in 2009.
Democrats’ talking points: We can’t pass legislation anymore, despite majority | Raw Story
Democrats have conceded they can no longer pass healthcare on their own, ensuring that their key legislative reform either dies or accepts further compromises to gain approval from Republican members.
What’s more, they’ve decided to outline their case to the public through a set of talking points issued to Democrats after Tuesday’s election upset in Massachusetts.
Their meme? “It is mathematically impossible for Democrats to pass legislation on our own.”
Full Story Democrats’ talking points: We can’t pass legislation anymore, despite majority | Raw Story.
OPS: Stalemate? Even with a larger majority than the Republicans have had in many decades? Just what the Corporations ordered. Pelosi and Reid are incompetent and MUST GO!
House Liberals To Pelosi: “We Cannot Support The Senate Bill. Period.”
In a private meeting in the Capitol just now, a dozen or more House liberals bluntly told Nancy Pelosi that there was no chance that they would vote to pass the Senate bill in its current form — making it all but certain that House Dems won’t opt for this approach, a top House liberal tells me.
“We cannot support the Senate bill — period,” is the message that liberals delivered to the Speaker, Dem Rep Raul Grijalva told me in an interview just now.
Some had hoped Pelosi would push liberals to get in line behind this approach, in hopes of expediting reform, but that didn’t appear to happen in this meeting. Pelosi mostly listened, Grijalva said, adding: “We didn’t get any declarative statement from her.”
Full Story House Liberals To Pelosi: “We Cannot Support The Senate Bill. Period.” | The Plum Line.
Unemployment claims surge to 2-month high
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance surged to a 2-month high last week, the government said Thursday.
There were 482,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Jan. 16, up 36,000 from a revised 446,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report.
A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to fall to 440,000.
Full Story Unemployment claims surge to 2-month high – Jan. 21, 2010.
Lawsuit: NYPD routinely arrests students for non-crimes
ACLU: Racial element present in creation of ‘school-to-prison pipeline’
A lawsuit filed Wednesday by five students in the New York City school system against the NYPD paints a picture of school officers who routinely abuse students and arrest them for non-criminal activities.
The lawsuit (PDF), brought by the American and New York Civil Liberties Unions on behalf of five students aged 13 to 18, says that school safety officers “have a long-standing pattern of abuse, unlawful arrests and excessive force against minority students who commit even minor infractions like talking back, being late for class or having a cell phone in school,” Courthouse News reports.
“Aggressive policing is stripping thousands of New York City students of their dignity and disrupting their ability to learn,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU said in a statement. “Despite mounting evidence of systemic misconduct by police personnel in the schools, the NYPD refuses to even acknowledge any problems with its school policing practices. We are confident that the courts will compel much-needed reform.”
Full Story Lawsuit: NYPD routinely arrests students for non-crimes | Raw Story.
Krugman: ‘I’m pretty close to giving up on Obama’
“Health care reform — which is crucial for millions of Americans — hangs in the balance,” NYT columnist Paul Krugman opined Thursday. “Progressives are desperately in need of leadership; more specifically, House Democrats need to be told to pass the Senate bill, which isn’t what they wanted but is vastly better than nothing. And what we get from the great progressive hope, the man who was offering hope and change, is this:
I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there’s some things in there that people don’t like and legitimately don’t like.
The Times columnist, who has been an Obama supporter and an even bigger advocate of healthcare reform, tried to sum up what he thought of Obama’s remarks.
“In short,” he wrote, “‘Run away, run away!’”
Full Story Krugman: ‘I’m pretty close to giving up on Obama’ | Raw Story.
Largest US health insurer’s profits rise 30 percent
As if to mock the Democrats’ loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat and the subsequent and rapid unraveling of a healthcare bill that seemed determined to curb the excesses of the US health insurance industry, the largest US health insurer announced Thursday morning that its fourth quarter profits had climbed a whopping 30 percent.
UnitedHealth, the largest US health insurer by market capitalization, posted earnings of $944 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $726 million in 2008.
The profit totals topped analyst estimates.
And, as if to add salt to the wound, an analyst for Goldman Sachs — itself the target of post-bailout ire — added that he thought the insurer’s profits were “very solid” in a research note and said “they bode well for other managed care companies.”
Full Story Largest US health insurer’s profits rise 30 percent | Raw Story.
Sitting Deemed Dangerous for Your Health: What’s Next?
The AP is reporting about a new study that concludes that sitting, yep, just sitting, is deadly. WTF?
I’m guessing there are a lot of occupations that are dangerous — professional sports, vocations involving heavy machinery, toxic chemicals, grueling labor conditions, precarious heights. I know there are some jobs I simply could never do — repairing bridges, laying asphalt, wrestling ferocious animals to the ground .. and there’s probably a few others.
But I always thought that my job as a writer, which involves sitting in front of a computer all day, was a pretty good gig when compared to so many other people — the folks picking crops in pesticide dusted fields with little water and poor sanitation probably about 100 or so miles from my home, for starters.
Sure, I get some neck and back pain, but not to worry right? Well, apparently not. Now the AP is reporting about a new study that concludes that sitting, yep, just sitting, is deadly.
Full Story Sitting Deemed Dangerous for Your Health: What’s Next? | PEEK | AlterNet.
Progressives Issue “Warning” On Debt Commission
Two senators want to blackmail the rest by saddling a spending bill with a “debt commission.” Progressive leaders are crying foul.
Earlier today, progressive leaders representing more than 50 organizations declared their opposition to the Conrad-Gregg debt commission proposal, which is expected to be introduced on the Senate floor soon as part of the bill to allow our federal government to meet its obligations by raising the debt ceiling.
The commission as originally envisioned — with the power to prevent any amendments to its recommendations on the House and Senate floors — is expected to be defeated by the full Senate. But the minority of pro-austerity, anti-Social Security/Medicare senators has threatened to force the entire US government into default if a compromise isn't reached that satisfies them.
At today’s press conference, Campaign for America’s Future Co-director Roger Hickey said the united progressive front “can been taken as a warning” for any proposal that undemocratically subverts the normal legislative process and recklessly targets Social Security and Medicare.
Full Story Progressives Issue “Warning” On Debt Commission | OurFuture.org.
How Western Domination Has Undermined Haiti’s Ability to Recover from Natural Devastation
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW!
Shortly after Haiti was hit by a 6.1 aftershock earlier today, Amy Goodman and Kim Ives of Haiti Liberté report from the Port-au-Prince airport. Amy and Kim discuss how centuries of Western domination of Haiti has worsened the impact of the devastating earthquake, from the harsh reaction to Haiti’s independence as a republic of free slaves in 1804 to the US-backed overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Ives says, “This quake was precipitated by a political earthquake—with an epicenter in Washington, DC.”
ANJALI KAMAT: We’re going to go back to Amy Goodman in Port-au-Prince. We reached her just before the broadcast. She was in an open field right next to the airport, where hundreds of relief and rescue workers have set up camp.
AMY GOODMAN: I’m standing here near the airport in Port-au-Prince. I can’t exactly say my feet are firmly planted on the ground, because this morning, just about 6:00, here in Port-au-Prince, we were in our room and just getting ready to leave for this broadcast, and the earth started to tremble. The floor, the walls, you feel the shake. It is that moment of just extreme panic when everyone in the house, everyone, starts running for their lives out of the house, making their way through rooms, jumping over—holding whatever it was you were holding at that moment. Outside, people hold each other, they weep, or they just breathe a sigh of relief. Although, not really, because you never know when the next aftershock will happen.
Coakley’s Loss: Pie in the President’s Face
William Greider, The Nation
Barack Obama went to Boston to rally voters and got a pie in the face. He lost his innocence as the valiant young president and also lost his sixty-vote majority in the Senate. Now we will find out what the man is made of–either a true political leader or just another show horse. Dozens of explanations are being offered for why the Dems were humiliated in Massachusetts. Democrats incline to grab easy answers. The president, if he is tough enough, will instead face the hard message of this political fiasco.
The special election displayed monumental miscalculations by which Obama has governed, both in priorities and political-legislative strategies. It may seem perverse and unfair, but the president’s various actions for reform generated a vaguely poisonous identity. Amid the general suffering, Obama is widely seen as collaborating with two popular villains–the me-first bankers and over-educated policy technocrats of the permanent governing elite. Obama made nice with the bankers and loaded up his administration with Harvard policy wonks who really don’t know the country. These malignant associations gain traction because people see there are grains of truth in observable reality.
On Sunday, I listened on the radio to Obama’s soaring speech at Northeastern University and remembered again why his oratory first took the nation to the mountaintop. His attack lines lashing bankers and insurance companies were fluid and tough, shouted repetitively over the rising cheers. His diction was loosely colloquial. He dropped the hard g’s to get down with the folks. Too little, too late, I figured. He is still masterful, but this is performance, not substance. People grasp the difference between the two. This gulf will imprison Obama as a stereotype for weakness, a joke on late-night TV, if he doesn’t change.
Full Story Coakley’s Loss: Pie in the President’s Face.
Warmest decade yet – despite extremes of snow, floods
The 2000-2009 decade was the warmest on record, easily surpassing the previous hottest decade – the 1990s – United States researchers said yesterday.
In 2009, global surface temperatures were 0.56C above average, which tied the year for the fifth warmest year on record, the National Climatic Data Centre said. And that helped push the 2000-2009 decade to 0.54C above normal, which the agency said “shattered” the 1990s record value of 0.36 C above normal. The warmest year on record was 2005 at 0.62 C above normal.
Last year’s milestones included:
* Worst deluge in decades in northern Brazil, affecting 186,000 people.
* Rain in Argentina, causing a landslide affecting 20,000 people.
* Floods in Central Europe.
* Britain’s heaviest snowstorm since 1991.
* Heaviest snowfall in northern China in 55 years.
* Typhoons in the Philippines.
* Deadliest typhoon to hit Taiwan in five decades, killing 600 people.
Full Story Warmest decade yet – despite extremes of snow, floods – World – NZ Herald News.
White House, Democratic lawmakers cut deal on deficit commission
Faced with growing alarm over the nation’s soaring debt, the White House and congressional Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday to create an independent budget commission and to put its recommendations for fiscal solvency to a vote in Congress by the end of this year.
Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel that would be granted broad authority to propose changes in the tax code and in the massive federal entitlement programs — including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that threaten to drive the nation’s debt to levels not seen since World War II.
The accord comes a week before Obama is scheduled to deliver his first State of the Union address to a nation increasingly concerned about his stewardship of the economy and the federal budget. After a year in which he advocated spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a huge economic stimulus package and a far-reaching overhaul of the health-care system, Obama has pledged to redouble his effort to rein in record budget deficits even as he has come under withering Republican attack.
Full Story White House, Democratic lawmakers cut deal on deficit commission – washingtonpost.com.
OPS: Another assault on the Poor and Middle-class by the Corporations and Financial elite.
Obama to Propose New Limits on Banks
President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to propose new limits on the size and risk taken by the country’s biggest banks, marking the administration’s latest assault on Wall Street in what could mark a return, at least in spirit, to some of the curbs on finance put in place during the Great Depression, according to congressional sources and administration officials.
The past decade saw widespread consolidation among large financial institutions to create huge banking titans. If Congress approves the proposal, the White House plan could permanently impose government constraints on the size and nature of banking.
Mr. Obama’s proposal is expected to include new scale restrictions on the size of the country’s largest financial institutions. The goal would be to deter banks from becoming so large they put the broader economy at risk and to also prevent banks from becoming so large they distort normal competitive forces. It couldn’t be learned what precise limits the White House will endorse, or whether Mr. Obama will spell out the exact limits on Thursday.
Full Story Obama to Propose New Limits on Banks – WSJ.com.
OPS: well, we’ll see if Obama is already a Lame Duck
Errors Of Commission
- Paul Krugman Blog -
I am not happy about plans to create an independent deficit-reduction commission. I’ll have more to say later on, but right now let me just remind you about what happened with the last serious effort to do this kind of independent-commission stuff, the Greenspan commission on Social Security. It was a game of three-card monte:
1. The Greenspan commission recommends tax increases on working-class Americans, plus some benefit cuts, even as Reagan is cutting taxes on the rich. But these tax increases, you see, are dedicated to Social Security.
2. In 2001, with the US budget in surplus — almost entirely because of the surplus in Social Security — Greenspan warns that we’re paying off our debt too fast, and calls for tax cuts (which mainly favor the rich, of course)
Full Story Errors Of Commission – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.
Sen. Sanders: Mass. ‘Wake Up Call’ Election Should Derail Bernanke Reappointment
The Senate’s main opponent of Ben Bernanke continuing in his job sees fodder in Tuesday’s stunning election of a Republican from Massachusetts to bolster his case to defeat Bernanke’s reappointment at the head of the Federal Reserve.
“I sense that many Democrats see the Massachusetts election as a wake-up call,” says Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “There is a growing understanding that our economy is in severe distress, a greater appreciation that people are disgusted with the never-ending greed on Wall Street, and a better recognition that we need a new direction at the Fed.
“People do not want another term for the man whose major job as Fed chairman was to protect the safety and soundness of our financial system but instead was asleep at the switch,” adds Sanders, an avowed Socialist who caucuses with the Democrats. “I am confident that more and more senators understand that we need a new Fed and a new Wall Street and will oppose Bernanke’s confirmation.”
Full Story On The Hill: Sen. Sanders: Mass. ‘Wake Up Call’ Election Should Derail Bernanke Reappointment.
AIG 100-Cents Fed Deal Driven by France Belied by French Banks
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York paid French banks 100 cents on the dollar to settle trades with American International Group Inc. in November 2008, the same month an AIG competitor negotiated payments of less than a third of that to retire similar bets.
The decision to pay in full came after France’s bank regulator insisted that Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA’s Calyon unit would be violating French law if they accepted less than they were owed, the New York Fed told a special inspector general. The Fed, which had rescued the insurer two months earlier after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., paid face value to all 16 of AIG’s counterparties, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a move that may have cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $43.5 billion.
French law didn’t stop Societe Generale and BNP Paribas SA from taking $1 billion to settle $3.5 billion of trades the same month with New York-based bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc., according to three people familiar with the matter. Ambac’s ability to negotiate a discount while the central bank of the world’s biggest economy didn’t adds another question for lawmakers as they examine the most contentious transaction of the government’s bailout of the U.S. banking system.
Full Story AIG 100-Cents Fed Deal Driven by France Belied by French Banks – Bloomberg.com.
WATCH: Members Of Congress Talk About Moving Their Money To Small Banks
Members of Congress considering moving their money from major financial institutions to community banks have some of the same concerns ordinary customers do, according to interviews progressive video blogger Mike Stark conducted this week on Capitol Hill.
The Huffington Post searched financial disclosure forms filed by members of Congress and found that at least 53 senators use one of the nation’s biggest six banks for their personal accounts. Information wasn’t available for another 17. In the House, at least 104 members use big banks; at least 119 already use only small banks or credit unions. Information wasn’t available for the rest. [Scroll down to find out where your senators and representative bank.]
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) told Stark that she began looking into moving her money from big banks to small ones when she heard about the campaign and thought it was a “great idea,” but wanted to look into it.
Full Story WATCH: Members Of Congress Talk About Moving Their Money To Small Banks.
Senator Of Katrina-Ravaged Louisiana Collaborates To Block Climate Action
Today, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) announced that she is the previously unnamed Democrat joining Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in her campaign to prevent Clean Air Act regulation of greenhouse gas pollution. Because she “believes the Clean Air Act is not meant to be applied to carbon dioxide emissions,” Landrieu is collaborating to craft what environmentalists are calling the Dirty Air Act:
“I am considering that right now,” Landrieu said when asked whether she backed Murkowski’s plan. “I have been working with her on it.”
Landrieu, like Louisiana’s Republican governor Bobby Jindal and Senator David Vitter, has pledged allegiance to the pollution interests who have given her over $1.5 million instead of her own people. Last month, Jindal “filed objections with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson” over the proposed climate rules, claiming the standards would have “profound negative economic impacts on the state of Louisiana.” In September, Vitter submitted an amendment to block funding for centers that study and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Full Story Think Progress » Senator Of Katrina-Ravaged Louisiana Collaborates To Block Climate Action.
OPS: Republicans pretending to be Democrats
After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’
Ron Paul:
US House Rep. Ron Paul says the CIA has has in effect carried out a “coup” against the US government, and the intelligence agency needs to be “taken out.”
Speaking to an audience of like-minded libertarians at a Campaign for Liberty regional conference in Atlanta this past weekend, the Texas Republican said:
There’s been a coup, have you heard? It’s the CIA coup. The CIA runs everything, they run the military. They’re the ones who are over there lobbing missiles and bombs on countries. … And of course the CIA is every bit as secretive as the Federal Reserve. … And yet think of the harm they have done since they were established [after] World War II. They are a government unto themselves. They’re in businesses, in drug businesses, they take out dictators … We need to take out the CIA.
Paul’s comments, made last weekend, were met with a loud round of applause, but they didn’t gather attention until bloggers noticed a clip of the event at YouTube.
Full Story Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’ | Raw Story.
What Scott Brown’s Victory Really Means
Robert Reich –
Get ready for the bromides.
From the right: Just goes to show the country is against Democratic tax-and-spend. Obama’s agenda is in ruins, heath-care is over, the GOP has a good chance of taking back Congress next November. Now, even congessional Democrats will move to the right.
From the left: Just goes to show Obama should never have cozied up to Wall Street, Big Pharma, and Big Insurance. He compromised too much. The Democratic base lost faith in him. The only answer is for Obama and congressional Dems to turn left.
Don’t believe any of it. Here’s what’s really going on. In Massachusetts, in New Jersey, all over the nation, voters are petrified of losing their jobs, their homes, and what’s left of their savings. Nothing counts more than the economy. Rightly or wrongly, presidents and the party in power are blamed when the economy is lousy. Voters fired Jimmy Carter in 1980 because the economy went south. They fired George Bush the first in 1992 because the economy was awful. They fired congressional Democrats in 1994 because the economy was still awful. And they’re in the process of firing Obama and the Democrats — unless or until the economy turns around.
Full Story Robert Reich (What Scott Brown’s Victory Really Means).
Morrell will close Sioux City plant in April
Smithfield Foods told meatpacking workers and local leaders late Tuesday that it plans to close its John Morrell & Co. pork plant in Sioux City later this spring
The decision would deal a major blow to metro Sioux City’s economy. Morrell’s slaughter and processing plant at 1200 Bluff Road is one of the city’s largest employers, with nearly 1,500 workers.
Dozens of additional jobs, from trucking to cold storage to box making, also could be in jeopardy. In addition, Morrell is a major buyer of hogs from tri-state region pork producers.
Full Story Morrell will close Sioux City plant in April.
Exit Survey Of Massachusetts Voters Confirms Lack Of Enthusiasm Among Progressives Hurt Coakley
An exit survey of Massachusetts voters confirms that “decreased turnout among constituencies that historically have voted for progressive candidates,” combined with a strong Republican performance among independents, delivered Scott Brown the margins he needed to win.
The poll, which was commissioned by “Women’s Voices, Women Vote” and conducted by Lake Research Partners (a firm headed by Martha Coakley’s pollster Celinda Lake), found that key demographic supporters of Obama (unmarried women, people of color, and younger voters) did not turn out in large numbers for Democrats. The Massachusetts turnout reflects recent trends in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections.
Martha Coakley reportedly did “no outreach” to communities of color and neglected to do any advertising in the African-American or Hispanic media. Voters under age of 40 went to Brown by a margin of 52% to 46%. But younger voters in general turned out at lower rates than in the past. The percentage of unmarried women who comprised the percentage of all voters fell 5 points from 2008. And, self-identified independents flocked to Brown in droves — 76% to 21%.
OPS: “Dont’ worry about the Progressives” ??? How’s that working for you Rahm – you piece of shit?!
Glenn Beck welcomes Scott Brown to Washington: ‘This one could end with a dead intern.’
On his radio show today, Fox News host Glenn Beck praised the victory of Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-MA), complaining that the media called the race too early because he wanted to better “savor” the moment. But Beck quickly pivoted to attacking Brown for an awkward joke he made during his acceptance speech last night. After introducing his daughters to the crowd, Brown said “just in case anybody throughout the country” was wondering, “yes, they’re both available.” Beck was outraged by Brown’s comments, implying that the new Republican senator may be a sexual predator capable of killing young women:
BECK: I want a chastity belt on this man, I want his every move watched in Washington. I don’t trust this guy. No, I’m just telling you. … This one could end with a dead intern. This one could end with a dead intern.
COHOST: Dead intern? I’m not sure I’d go that far.
BECK: I’m just saying it could end with a dead intern. … I’m just saying: Congratulations, now let’s monitor him. Let’s put an ankle bracelet on him. Let’s just know where he is at all times.
Full Story Think Progress » Glenn Beck welcomes Scott Brown to Washington: ‘This one could end with a dead intern.’.
CBS Approves Focus On The Family’s Super Bowl Ad, Despite Its Policy Against Advocacy Spots
Last week, conservative organization Focus on the Family announced that it planned to air a 30-second “life- and family-affirming” television ad during the Super Bowl on Feb. 7. The ad will feature 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam, who will “share one of their many positive personal stories.” Specific details about the ad haven’t been released, but the AP notes that it is “likely to be an anti-abortion message chronicling Pam Tebow’s 1987 pregnancy. After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim.”
MediaDailyNews reports that CBS yesterday approved the Focus on the Family script:
CBS executives approved a script for a Super Bowl spot from evangelical group Focus on the Family, which suggests the ad will not carry a pro-life message — at least an overt one.
The network has a policy of prohibiting advocacy ads, even ones that carry an “implicit” endorsement for a side in a public debate. A CBS spokesman did say the network will review the video version of the spot before giving it the final green light, but does not anticipate any hurdles.
Full Story Think Progress » CBS Approves Focus On The Family’s Super Bowl Ad, Despite Its Policy Against Advocacy Spots.
Democrats propose $1.9T increase in debt limit
Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.
The unpopular legislation is needed to allow the federal government to issue bonds to fund programs and prevent a first-time default on obligations. It promises to be a challenging debate for Democrats, who, as the party in power, hold the responsibility for passing the legislation.
It’s hardly the debate Democrats want or need in the wake of Sen.-elect Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts. Arguing over the debt limit provides a forum for Republicans to blame Democrats for rising deficits and spiraling debt, even though responsibility for the government’s financial straits can be shared by both political parties.
The measure came to the floor under rules requiring 60 votes to pass. That’s an unprecedented step that could mean that every Democrat, no matter how politically endangered, may have to vote for it next week before Brown takes office and Democrats lose their 60-vote majority.
Full Story Democrats propose $1.9T increase in debt limit.
The real Massachusetts message on healthcare: It wasn’t liberal enough
When politicians start talking about getting a message from the voters almost invariably they miss it. And health care is the perfect example.
Pundits and politicians are trying to pull the message from the Massachusetts election and it hasn’t taken them long to do what they do best — get it wrong.
Naturally Senator Lieberman and Sen Bayh has talked about the message being that the healthcare plan in congress was too liberal. But that is just self serving nonsense from a senator who is in the pocket of the insurance companies, most of which have their headquarters in Connecticut.
Full Story The real Massachusetts message on healthcare: It wasn’t liberal enough.
The Economy Is a Disaster: We Should Fix It
Dean Baker -
The unemployment rate is 10 percent and almost certain to rise further in the months ahead. This is truly a disaster. If anyone questions whether 10 percent unemployment is a big deal, consider that the first stimulus to boost the economy was passed in February of 2008 when the unemployment rate was 4.8 percent. We are now looking at an unemployment rate that is more than twice the level that was high enough to prompt George W. Bush to sign a stimulus package.
There is an incredible complacency about this unemployment rate around Washington even though all the official projections show it remaining high years into the future. For example, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the unemployment rate will not fall below 7.0 percent until well into 2012 and will not return to normal levels until 2014. Perhaps, if more of the people in policymaking positions faced unemployment they would be more concerned about the problem.
The especially disturbing part of the story is that we do know how to get the unemployment rate down. In principle, we could create demand through another stimulus package, with the government directly or indirectly creating the demand needed to employ many of the 15 million unemployed workers. For political and superstitious reasons, a stimulus package large enough to substantially boost demand does not seem feasible.
Full Story t r u t h o u t | The Economy Is a Disaster: We Should Fix It.
The Rule of Law Has Been Lost
Paul Craig Roberts -
What is the greatest human achievement? Many would answer in terms of some architectural or engineering feat: The Great Pyramids, skyscrapers, a bridge span, or sending men to the moon. Others might say the subduing of some deadly disease or Einstein’s theory of relativity.
The greatest human achievement is the subordination of government to law. This was an English achievement that required eight centuries of struggle, beginning in the ninth century when King Alfred the Great codified the common law, moving forward with the Magna Carta in the thirteenth century and culminating with the Glorious Revolution in the late seventeenth century.
The success of this long struggle made law a shield of the people. As an English colony, America inherited this unique achievement that made English speaking peoples the most free in the world.
Full Story The Rule of Law Has Been Lost | Foreign Policy Journal.
Poll Shouts The Message Massachusetts Voters Were Sending
The numbers in the Research 2000 exit poll released Wednesday by MoveOn.org and Democracy for America speak for themselves: The Massachusetts election was not a call to go back to conservatism. It was, as Robert Borosage on our site said earlier today and as such commentators as Katrina vanden Heuvel are saying, a call for Democrats to be bolder, more audacious and unapologetic in pursuing the populist reforms the public thought it was going to get after the 2008 elections.
The poll focused on Massachusetts residents who voted for President Obama in 2008 but who either voted for Senate republican candidate Scott Brown or did not vote at all. These responses from Brown voters should stand out:
* Generally speaking do you think Barack Obama and Democrats in Washington, DC are delivering enough on the change Obama promised to bring to America during the campaign?
Yes 31%
No 57%
Not sure 12%
* Do you think Democrats in Washington, D.C. are fighting hard enough to challenge the Republican policies of the Bush years, aren’t fighting hard enough to change those policies, or are fighting about right?
Not Enough 37%
About Right 21%
Too Hard 15%
Not Sure 27%
more…..
Full Story Poll Shouts The Message Massachusetts Voters Were Sending | OurFuture.org.
The Official Response Begins
—By Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine) -
When a cover-up is exposed, nothing is more telling than the first reactions from those who are involved. Do they maintain their stories and face potentially aggravated consequences? Or do they simply remain silent? In making this choice, they often telegraph the depth of their anxiety and concern.
Last night on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, I focused on the first responses to “The Guantánamo ‘Suicides.’” Colonel Michael Bumgarner, the former commander at Camp America, had sent an email to the Associated Press, the text of which AP confirmed to me, in which he said he would have to get clearance from the Defense Department to speak, but then stated:
This blatant misrepresentation of the truth infuriates me. I don’t know who Sgt. Hickman is, but he is only trying to be a spotlight ranger. He knows nothing about what transpired in Camp 1, or our medical facility. I do, I was there.
Full Story The Official Response Begins—By Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine).
Obama: Senate Will Not Vote On Health Care Before Brown Is Seated | TPM LiveWire
President Obama told ABC News today that the Senate will not attempt to pass health care reform before Sen.-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) is sworn in.
“Here’s one thing I know and I just want to make sure that this is off the table. The Senate certainly shouldn’t try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated,” Obama said. “People in Massachusetts spoke. He’s got to be part of that process.”
He also urged people to look at the “substance” of the health care bill.
Full Story Obama: Senate Will Not Vote On Health Care Before Brown Is Seated | TPM LiveWire.
OPS: Obviously he wants HCR to die.
Conrad opens door to reconciliation for healthcare – TheHill.com
The Senate Budget Committee Chairman said Wednesday he’s willing to use special rules to force a final healthcare bill through with a simple majority vote.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) made clear his openness to applying budget reconciliation to healthcare, a position he opposed prior to this week’s special election in Massachusetts, is contingent on the content of the bill.
His comments lend weight to speculation that congressional Democratic leaders plan to have the House pass the Senate healthcare reform without changes, then pass a second bill with changes hashed out between the two chambers’ leaders and the White House.
Full Story Conrad opens door to reconciliation for healthcare – TheHill.com.
Swiss Banker Blows Whistle on Tax Evasion
From his home in the quiet village of Rorbas, outside Zurich, Rudolf M. Elmer is chipping away at the centuries-old traditions of Swiss banking secrecy.
Mr. Elmer, who ran the Caribbean operations of the Swiss bank Julius Baer for eight years until he was dismissed in 2002, moved to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and began parceling out to global tax authorities what he said were the secrets of his former employer.
Now back in his native country, he continues to disclose the inner workings of Julius Baer — one of many Swiss institutions that investigators say help clients evade billions of dollars in taxes by routing money through offshore havens in the Caribbean and Switzerland.
Full Story Swiss Banker Blows Whistle on Tax Evasion – NYTimes.com.
Liberal Bloggers to Obama and Dems: We Told You So
It took more than half a decade, countless American and Iraqi deaths in a war based on lies, a sinking economy and the drowning of an American city to finally kill Bush-Cheney-Rove’s dream of a conservative realignment.
Democrats, controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, have managed to kill their own dream of dominance in 12 months.
How did it happen?
Theories abound, but two diametrically opposed narratives have taken hold:
Full Story Peter Daou: Liberal Bloggers to Obama and Dems: We Told You So.
ICC Complaint Filed Against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice, Gonzales
David Swanson
INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANTS REQUESTED
Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C.
The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of I.C.C. statutory crimes within the respective territories of many I.C.C. member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the I.C.C. has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their I.C.C. statutory crimes under Rome Statute article 12(2)(a) that affords the I.C.C. jurisdiction to prosecute for I.C.C. statutory crimes committed in I.C.C. member states.
The Complaint requests (1) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor open an investigation of the Accused on his own accord under Rome Statute article 15(1); and (2) that the I.C.C. Prosecutor also formally “submit to the Pre-Trial Chamber a request for authorization of an investigation” of the Accused under Rome Statute article 15(3).
Full Story ICC Complaint Filed Against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Rice, Gonzales – Democratic Underground.
Obama’s Choice Back Off New Dem Corporatist Agenda OR SUPPORT PROGRESSIVE AGENDA
Thom Hartmann
January 20, 2010 Thom Hartmann on MAS race results Scott Brown
Dem Senator Jim Webb Trying To Block Regulation Of Greenhouse Gases
It appears that one Republican female politician from Alaska has managed to drum up some Democratic support in the Senate. In a move that the New York Times editorial page called “mischievous,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) wants to block the EPA for one year from regulating greenhouse gases as a pollutant from stationary sources like factories. This would also derail the finalization of standards on car emissions. Murkowski has proposed this amendment to an unrelated bill dealing with the national debt ceiling, which will be voted on this week.
Kate Sheppard from Mother Jones reported that late Friday night she got confirmation from Murkowski’s office that the bill will have a Democratic co-sponsor, although no one has been able to definitively confirm who.
However, Sheppard has her suspicions that it’s Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (D):
Full Story Lisa Murkowski Wants To Block The EPA From Regulating Greenhouse Gases, Has Democratic Co-Sponsor.
White House, Democratic lawmakers cut deal on deficit commission – washingtonpost.com
Faced with growing alarm over the nation’s soaring debt, the White House and congressional Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday to create an independent budget commission and to put its recommendations for fiscal solvency to a vote in Congress by the end of this year.
Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel that would be granted broad authority to propose changes in the tax code and in the massive federal entitlement programs — including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that threaten to drive the nation’s debt to levels not seen since World War II.
The accord comes a week before Obama is scheduled to deliver his first State of the Union address to a nation increasingly concerned about his stewardship of the economy and the federal budget. After a year in which he advocated spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a huge economic stimulus package and a far-reaching overhaul of the health-care system, Obama has pledged to redouble his effort to rein in record budget deficits even as he has come under withering Republican attack.
Full Story White House, Democratic lawmakers cut deal on deficit commission – washingtonpost.com.
Weiner On Health Care’s Demise: We Lacked Leadership From Obama
At least one leading House progressive is blaming the White House for the likely death of health care legislation, arguing that President Obama never forcefully made the case for reform.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) told the Huffington Post on Tuesday evening that, with some difficulty, he believed that passing a bill in the immediate future was not likely to happen. Part of the problem, the New York Democrat insisted, was that House Democrats no longer believed that the rest of their agenda was contingent on health care’s passage.
“I don’t think people are buying it as much as they were,” said Weiner. “We have been asked to accept as an article of faith that success on health care was a building block for anything else we do all year. And I think increasingly my colleagues are saying: ‘Really? I think we can bounce back OK if we move on from it for now.’”
Full Story Weiner On Health Care’s Demise: We Lacked Leadership From Obama.
HuffPost Interviews Joseph Stiglitz: ‘We’re More Strict With Our Poor Than With Our Banks’
During the economic turmoil of the last few years, Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz has been one of the most strident and incisive critics of the historic bailout of the banking sector.
Never one to mince words, Stiglitz, who served as the Chief Economist at the World Bank and on President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, has said the meltdown has resulted in a kind of “ersatz capitalism” in America. He has also repeatedly called for a second round of fiscal stimulus to support struggling Americans.
We recently sat down with Professor Stiglitz to discuss his new book “Freefall: America, Free Markets And The Sinking of The World Economy”, and how the Obama administration should go about reshaping our economy.
With so much talk of a recovery, where is our economy right now?
Full Story HuffPost Interviews Joseph Stiglitz: ‘We’re More Strict With Our Poor Than With Our Banks’.
India outsourcers hiring staff as US demand grows
India’s top three outsourcing companies are ramping up hiring and increasing pay as global corporations, mainly from the U.S., send more work offshore to cut costs as they emerge from the downturn.
Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Wipro expanded their global workforces by an average of 5.1 percent last quarter, together adding 16,701 employees, company documents show — an early sign that the Great Recession may ultimately benefit India as cost-conscious companies outsource more work, just as they did after the dot-com bust.
“Our expectations are for flat to marginally stronger IT budgets with a greater share of offshore spend,” Wipro chairman Azim Premji said in a conference call Wednesday. “Our customers remain focused on cost reduction.”
Full Story India outsourcers hiring staff as US demand grows | Raw Story.
Exxon Hid Radiation Risk to Workers for Decades, Witness Says
Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. energy company, “knew or should have known” that drilling pipes it sent to a Louisiana pipe yard were contaminated with dangerous radioactive material, a witness testified today.
Paul Templet, a former secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality, told jurors in a civil trial in state court in Gretna, Louisiana, that internal Exxon memos showed the company had information beginning in the 1930s about cancer- causing radium in the residue, or “scale,” that built up inside its pipes.
Templet testified as the first witness for 19 former pipe workers who are suing Exxon, claiming they were exposed to radiation and now fear they may get cancer. Templet said Exxon failed to report the contamination to his former agency until as late as 1988, endangering workers who cleaned the pipes at a Louisiana work site.
Full Story Exxon Hid Radiation Risk to Workers for Decades, Witness Says – BusinessWeek.
Shh: Politico poll predicting Coakley demise conducted by ex-Gingrich aide
The “exclusive” poll conducted for Politico which predicted the demise of Massachusetts Democrat Martha Coakley was conducted by a former staffer for ex-Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich — a fact they seem to have buried in their story.
“No bias there,” noted John Aravosis, the prominent liberal blogger who highlighted the detail late Monday.
“Nice of Politico to let us know, in the [seventh] paragraph of the story, that a pollster who is claiming that Coakley is in a “free fall” just happens to have worked for Newt Gingrich,” Aravosis wrote. “Mind you, we’re not talking just that he’s a Republican. We’re talking he worked for a rabid, no holds barred, take no prisoners Republican who would do pretty much anything to win.”
Politico’s David Catanese, who reported the story, called Towery’s firm “nonpartisan” in the second sentence but mentioned he was an aide to Gingrich only as an aside in the seventh paragraph. The story alleged that Republican Scott Brown had a nine-point lead on Coakley, and became a major meme in media talking points Tuesday morning.
Full Story Shh: Politico poll predicting Coakley demise conducted by ex-Gingrich aide | Raw Story.
OPS: Dems ‘Leadership’ – did you know this and do nothing? Is this a surprise to you? Either way you’re too incompetent to be in the game.
Air Force official: Bible code on rifle scopes just like ‘God’ on US money
A Pentagon spokesman says there is nothing wrong or illegal with the armed forces using rifle sights inscribed with references to biblical passages.
Air Force Maj. John Redfield, a spokesman for US Central Command, said the sights from Michigan-based Trijicon — which are now the target of controversy following news reports earlier this week — “don’t violate the [military] ban on proselytizing because there’s no effort to distribute the equipment beyond the US troops who use them,” the Associated Press reports.
“This situation is not unlike the situation with US currency,” Maj. Redfield said. “Are we going to stop using money because the bills have ‘In God We Trust’ on them? As long as the sights meet the combat needs of troops, they’ll continue to be used.”
Full Story Air Force official: Bible code on rifle scopes just like ‘God’ on US money | Raw Story.
The Loss of American Democracy
Len Hart -
Today, in the United States, as in Mexico 100 years ago, just one percent of the entire population owns more than about 95 percent of the rest of us combined.
A primary focus of the Mexican revolution of 1910 was the thirty-one year Presidency of Porfirio Diaz. It was during Diaz’s presidency, that power and wealth concentrated in the hands of a ruling elite just as power and wealth was concentrated in the hands of a ruling elite in the U.S. with the ascension of Ronald Reagan. In Mexico, some 100 years ago, the ‘common people’ were effectively disenfranchised, suffering injustices and deprivation throughout the countryside and in the cities.
Today, in the United States, as in Mexico 100 years ago, just one percent of the entire population owns more than about 95 percent of the rest of us combined. This ‘ruling elite’ is the result and sole beneficiary of Ronald Reagan’s infamous tax cut of 1982. The upward flow of wealth was reversed briefly in Clinton’s second term but resumed with additional tax cuts under Bush. It is believed wrongly that tax cuts stimulate investment and thus employment. In fact, investment in American enterprise always declines following every GOP tax cuts and, as a result employment declines proportionately.
Reagan’s tax cut of 1982, for example, was followed by a depression of some two years in which residents in ‘boomtown’ Houston were forced to live in tent cities when their homes were foreclosed upon. Other lived under bridges within view of the gleaming skyscrapers of glittering, corporate Houston. The official stats at the Bureau of Labor Statistics will reveal Reagan to have been among the very worst post World War II Presidents in terms of GDP and job growth. Jimmy Carter, reviled by Reagan-heads, is, in fact, among the best US Presidents, second in terms of both GDP and job growth. In those categories, Carter outperforms all GOP Presidents since World War II.
Full Story The Existentialist Cowboy: The Loss of American Democracy.
Open Letter to Obama: One Year later, Progressives Losing Hope
Dear Mr. President,
Your administration and your party are in trouble. That is clear from the elections in Massachusetts and Virginia, from the drop in your approval rating, from the rise of conservative opposition groups.
This is a time when progressive forces in this country need to mobilize to prevent a backlash that will take this country further to the right. But progressives are disappointed and demoralized. Look at me.
In 2008, I was one of millions united for hope and change. As 2010 dawns, “change” looks to me like more of the same. Instead of peace, we got more war. Instead of healthcare reform, we have an industry win that requires Americans to buy health insurance without any real cost controls. On the environment, one of your top priorities, you came back from Copenhagen with yet another non-binding resolution and more clean coal, to boot. Instead of helping struggling homeowners and small businesses during the financial crisis, bank executives were rewarded and we have yet to see reform. Wall Street firms ended 2009 with record bonus and profits while unemployment remains in double digits.
Full Story Open Letter to Obama: One Year later, Progressives Losing Hope | CommonDreams.org.
OPS: Lets not forget what Rahm said: “don’t worry about the Progressives….” re: the Coakley loss….. How’s that workin’ for ya?
’6.5 level quake’ shakes Mexico-Guatemala border
An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale shook the border of Guatemala and Mexico, seismologists in Nicaragua said Wednesday, saying that there was no immediate word of damage or injuries.
Full Story ’6.5 level quake’ shakes Mexico-Guatemala border – Yahoo! News.
OPS: Is it just me or has there been an unusual number of earthquakes lately?
Bank of America posts loss on public aid repayment
Bank of America said Wednesday it posted a loss of 194 million dollars in the fourth quarter of 2009, and that repayments of government aid boosted the loss for shareholders to 5.2 billion dollars.
For all of 2009, the largest US bank by assets had a profit of 6.3 billion dollars, but for shareholders the results were a loss of 2.2 billion following payments to the US Treasury stemming from bailout aid.
The last quarter’s results were affected by a charge of 4.0 billion dollars to repay the US government for its capital aid under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a massive effort to stabilize the banking system, Bank of America said.
Full Story Bank of America posts loss on public aid repayment – Yahoo! News.
Whisteblower reveals how health insurers can game new insurance bill
The Democrats’ healthcare overhaul, billed as a monumental game-changer for Americans’ health insurance coverage, provides numerous loopholes for health insurance companies which will allow them to raise rates to protect profit margins, a health insurance whistleblower says.
Wendell Potter, a twenty-year veteran of the insurance industry and former vice president of communications for Cigna, warns that current healthcare legislation does nothing to prevent the insurance industry from continuing its ongoing practice of increasingly shifting healthcare costs to consumers.
Full Story Whisteblower reveals how health insurers can game new insurance bill | Raw Story.
OPS: In addition to the outright giveaway that the current bill is – they can all SCAM the new system.
Conservatives using sketchy videos to suggest Dems guilty of voter fraud
Election watchdog site (ElectionJournal.org) claiming to “transcend party lines” run by former GOP operative
As Massachusetts voters cast their ballots for the important Coakley-Brown election, conservatives and Republicans insinuate that Democrats are engaging in voter fraud despite offering little evidence to make their case.
Many are jumping on videos uploaded by the independent blog ElectionJournal.org that insinuate fraud. One video uploaded to YouTube, titled “More Coakley Electioneering In Boston,” is ostensibly filmed outside the Boston polling center, “Robert and Theresa Parks Community Building,” and shows a Coakley sign not far from the entrance.
“There is campaign signage clearly violating the 150-foot rule,” says a voice in the video. “It is placed 10 feet from the door to the polling plac
Full Story Conservatives using sketchy videos to suggest Dems guilty of voter fraud | Raw Story.
American’s Deceived – Now Suffering Outrage Fatigue
Every American citizen should be outraged at what is happening to our country.
“It is outrage fatigue, and it is epidemic. It’s a feeling that we are being hammered unlike any time in recent history with so many appalling and disgusting and violently un-American incidents and scandals and manipulations that our b.s.-detectors are smoking like an old V-8 engine on a hot summer’s day and it’s all we can do to get up every day without screaming.” -Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle
Every American citizen should be outraged at what is happening to our country:
* 3 million manufacturing jobs lost in the last 5 years. How are we going to dig our way out of our tremendous national debt when we can’t produce anything to sell abroad?
* Middle-class wages are stagnating, oil is skyrocketing- average consumer savings rates are some of the lowest rate since The Great Depression.
* Entire industries sold overseas- jettisoning jobs, technology and putting our country’s future well-being in jeopardy.
Full Story American’s Deceived – Now Suffering Outrage Fatigue | Economy In Crisis.
New World Trade Center Glass to be Imported
Much of the glass that will go into the yet-to-be rebuilt One World Trade Center building, a symbol of America’s resiliency, strength and determination, will be made by a Chinese company.
[World Trade Center construction] Much like their brethren in the tubular steel and tire manufacturing industry, some U.S. glassmakers are pushing the Obama administration to levy tariffs against Chinese imports due to what they claim is unfair competition from government subsidized products, according to The New York Times.
The U.S. glassmaking industry, like nearly every other industry in the nation, has been hit very hard by the recession. But, with the massive influx of Chinese imports of glass over the past decade, the industry has been hurting since well before the recession began. Employment in the industry has declined some 30 percent over the past nine years.
Full Story New World Trade Center Glass to be Imported | Economy In Crisis.
OPS: Corporate TREASON. They should have their Charter revoked.
Flooding the Economy With Excess Cash
Right now inflation is being overlooked, but it cannot remain overlooked forever
The United States is currently fighting one of the worst economic downturns in its history. Even after more than two years of gradually building up its fiscal response the U.S. has yet to recover, or for that matter stabilize, its economy.
The primary mode of fighting this downturn has been “printing” money, and flooding the American economy with excess cash. This has built upon an already sizable federal debt, and pushed the budget into unprecedented deficits. Pumping money into the economy has also effectively inflated the dollar, raising prices and devaluing the currency.
The question that remains is whether or not this budget runaway, and compounding inflation, will lead to another economic catastrophe. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke chose to ride inflation in order to combat the economic crisis. Now, inflation itself may be the problem.
Full Story Flooding the Economy With Excess Cash | Economy In Crisis.
Patriot Employers Act Could Provide Economic Boost
With one in ten Americans currently unemployed, the nation’s economy is badly in need of a jump start, which is exactly what one very overlooked piece of legislation could provide were it to gain momentum in Congress.
The Patriot Employers Act, introduced in April but stalled in the Senate Finance Committee, could provide just the boost the economy needs by providing tax incentives for companies that maintain employment in the U.S.
“Americans have had enough with a corporate culture that rewards bad behavior and ignores the average worker. While some companies look for ways to avoid their responsibility to employees, others stand out for how they treat their workforce. It is time for Patriot Employers to be recognized for doing right by their workers, customers and shareholders,” The bill’s sponsor Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said in the statement at the time the legislation was introduced.
Full Story Patriot Employers Act Could Provide Economic Boost | Economy In Crisis.
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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. 
