Archive for February, 2010
White House Health Proposal May Blow Up PhRMA Deal
The Sunlight Foundation –
This morning the White House released a new health care proposal that may be used as a blueprint for a compromise between House and Senate versions of reform. This new proposal will likely not find a receptive audience at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)–the chief lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry.
Throughout 2009, PhRMA and major pharmaceutical companies crafted a deal with the White House to limit cost cutting by the industry in exchange for the industry’s support, through over $100 million in television advertising, for health care reform. (The entire story behind the crafting of the deal can be read here.) The White House’s new proposal contains deeper cost cuts than previously agreed to and contains regulations on the relationship between brand-name and generic drug companies that the industry opposes.
The deeper cost cuts come from an attempt to further close the “donut hole” in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. The “donut hole” refers to the gap in coverage that occurs within Medicare Part D. For those purchasing prescription drugs through the program coverage cuts off at $2,700 spent and does not pick back up again until $6,154 is spent by the participant. The current language that was struck in the deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry maintains that drug companies would cover 50 percent of the cost for brand-name drugs for participants falling in the “donut hole.” This change would be implemented within the year. The White House’s new proposal would eliminate the “donut hole” by 2020 by making participants pay only 25 percent coinsurance with Medicare covering the other 75 percent. The White House also takes a page from the House health reform bill by providing a $250 rebate to Part D participants who fall into the “donut hole.” (The House bill provides for a $500 reduction in costs for participants who fall into the “donut hole.”)
Nearly 20 percent of U.S. workers underemployed
Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. workforce lacked adequate employment in January and struggled to make ends meet with reduced resources and bleak job prospects, according to a Gallup poll released on Tuesday.
In findings that appear to paint a darker employment picture than official U.S. data, Gallup estimated that about 30 million Americans are underemployed, meaning either jobless or able to find only part-time work.
Underemployed people spent 36 percent less on household purchases than their fully employed neighbors in January, while six out of 10 were not hopeful about their chances of finding adequate work in the coming month, the poll said.
Gallup surveyed more than 20,000 U.S. adults from January 2 to 31. The results have a 1 percentage point margin of error.
Full Story: Nearly 20 percent of U.S. workers underemployed – Yahoo! News.
Wall Street Bonuses Up 17%, Profits Could Hit ‘Unprecedented’ Level, Says NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli
Wall Street bonuses were up 17 percent to over $20 billion in 2009, the year taxpayers bailed out the financial sector after its meltdown, New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Tuesday.
Total compensation at the largest securities firms grew beyond that figure and profits could surpass what he calls an unprecedented $55 billion last year, DiNapoli said. That’s nearly three times Wall Street’s record increase, a rate of growth that is boosted in part by the record losses in 2008 of nearly $43 billion, the Democrat said.
“Wall Street is vital to New York’s economy, and the dollars generated by the industry help the state’s bottom line,” said DiNapoli. “But for most Americans, these huge bonuses are a bitter pill and hard to comprehend. … Taxpayers bailed them out, and now they’re back making money while many New York families are still struggling to make ends meet.”
Full Story: Wall Street Bonuses Up 17%, Profits Could Hit ‘Unprecedented’ Level, Says NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Secret AIG Document Shows Goldman Sachs Minted Most Toxic CDOs
When a congressional panel convened a hearing on the government rescue of American International Group Inc. in January, the public scolding of Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner got the most attention.
Lawmakers said the former head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank had presided over a backdoor bailout of Wall Street firms and a coverup. Geithner countered that he had acted properly to avert the collapse of the financial system.
A potentially more important development slipped by with less notice, Bloomberg Markets reports in its April issue. Representative Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, placed into the hearing record a five-page document itemizing the mortgage securities on which banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA had bought $62.1 billion in credit-default swaps from AIG.
Full Story: Secret AIG Document Shows Goldman Sachs Minted Most Toxic CDOs – Bloomberg.com.
OPS: SO, now lets put all of the GS Execs in jail – right?
McChrystal Apologizes On TV To Afghans (VIDEO)
We are blogging the latest news about America’s war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Email us at AfPak [at] huffingtonpost.com. Follow Nico on Twitter; follow Nicholas on Twitter. See archives of ‘At War’ here.
9:05 AM ET — McChrystal apologizes for civilian deaths. Following yesterday’s reports that 27 Afghan civilians were killed in a NATO airstrike, Gen. Stanley McChrystal went on television to apologize directly for the loss of life. The AP described McChrystal’s response as “an extraordinary attempt to regain Afghans’ trust.”
Sunday’s attack by NATO jets on a convoy of cars was the deadliest attack on civilians in six months and prompted a sharp rebuke from the Afghan government. McChrystal apologized directly to President Hamid Karzai shortly after the incident. The video is another sign of the military coalition’s intense campaign to win public backing for the Marjah offensive with a strategy that involves taking all precautions possible to protect civilians.
Here is the video of McChrystal’s apology, which was translated into Dari and Pashto and broadcast on Afghan TV.
Full Story: AT WAR: McChrystal Apologizes On TV To Afghans (VIDEO).
OPS: Oh that’ll help 
Banks Pressure Customers on Overdraft Fees
For many households trying to improve their finances, tossing out pitches from the bank has become almost automatic. But in recent weeks, Chase has been fanning special letters out to consumers with an offer that it urges them not to refuse.
“Your debit card may not work the same way anymore, even if you just made a deposit. Unless we hear from you,” the message, emblazoned in large red type, warns. “If you don’t contact us, your everyday debit card transactions that overdraw your account will not be authorized after August 15, 2010 — even in an emergency,” with “even in an emergency” underlined for emphasis.
As the government cracks down on the way banks charge fees for overspending on debit cards, the industry is mounting an aggressive campaign aimed at keeping billions of dollars in penalty income flowing into its coffers. Chase and other banks are preparing a full-court marketing blitz, which is likely to include filling mailboxes with various aggressive and persuasive letters, calling account holders directly, and sending a steady stream of e-mail to urge consumers to keep their overdraft service turned on.
Full Story: Banks Pressure Customers on Overdraft Fees – NYTimes.com.
New Evidence of Toyota Acceleration Problems May Help Imprisoned Minnesota Toyota Camry Owner
Jury Did Not Believe Driver Who Claimed He Could Not Stop Car That Killed Three
Emerging evidence of flaws in Toyotas could help free a Minnesota man who was convicted of vehicular homicide despite his claims the brakes did not work as his Camry suddenly accelerated and slammed into another car, killing three members of one family.
“There is a terrible wrong here, and there is an innocent man in prison,” said Brent Schafer, the lawyer for 32-year of Koua Fong Lee, a Hmong refugee from Laos serving an eight-year sentence in a Minnesota state prison.
The county prosecutor, Susan Gaertner, said she welcomed an inspection of the Toyota “to see if there is any possibility that this particular car had mechanical difficulties that would lead to sudden acceleration syndrome.”
Full Story: New Evidence of Toyota Acceleration Problems May Help Imprisoned Minnesota Toyota Camry Owner – ABC News.
When Sea Levels Attack
What does a metre sea level rise actually mean? This is how we visualised some of the data confusion
Another day, another set of bewildering climate figures. Today, key climate scientists withdrew their predictions. of a metre sea-level rise by 2100. Other scientists meanwhile claimed the 1m figure was way too conservative anyway. They predict anything up to 2m sea level rises over the next century.
It’s difficult to keep track of all this shifting research. And, in the midst of this reporting, there is one consistent but bewildering assumption made of us: that we understand what a one metre sea level rise means in reality.
A “1 metre sea level rise” is in the same domain as “1 ton of carbon” or “£1 billion”. That is, it’s meaningless without context or some link to our everyday lives.
Full Story: Information is Beautiful: When Sea Levels Attack | News | guardian.co.uk.
Home prices fall another 2.5%
Home prices fell just 2.5% during the last three months of 2009 compared with the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a closely watched gauge of home price movement. That was a big improvement over the past three years.
National prices peaked during the second quarter of 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, then dropped a total of 32% before bottoming out during the first quarter of 2009.
Since then, price declines have eased.
Full Story: Home prices fall another 2.5% – Feb. 23, 2010.
Boy who wouldn’t say ‘Amen’ starved to Death
Baltimore prosecutors: Cult leader, followers watched as 1-year-old boy ‘wasted away’
The leader of a religious cult was “outraged” when a 1-year-old boy did not say “Amen” before a meal and ordered her followers to deprive him of food and water until he died, a Baltimore prosecutor told jurors Monday.
Three members of the now-defunct cult known as 1 Mind Ministries are on trial for murder in the death of Javon Thompson, who was around 16 months old when he died of starvation and dehydration in either December 2006 or January 2007, according to authorities.
After the boy died, the cult members prayed for his resurrection, then destroyed all evidence of his death and stuffed his body in a suitcase, which they hid in a shed behind a home in Philadelphia, Assistant State’s Attorney Julie Drake told jurors.
Full Story: Prosecutors: Boy Starved to Death at Cult’s Hands – ABC News.
At Inquiries Start, Lawmakers’ Ties to Toyota Are Questioned
As Congress prepares to open hearings on Tuesday into Toyota’s rash of safety problems, government watchdog groups are questioning whether the deep financial and personal connections between lawmakers and the carmaker could taint the inquiries.
Toyota, as both a major employer in the United States and a major lobbying force in Washington, has staked out a position in the capital unlike almost any other foreign corporation, with close ties to a number of the lawmakers who will lead inquiries into the safety defects that have led to the recall of more than eight million vehicles.
Federal disclosure records show that Toyota, with 31 lobbyists in Washington last year, has spent nearly $25 million on federal regulatory and legislative lobbying matters in the last five years, far more than any other foreign automaker. That amount is certain to grow this year, with Toyota in full damage-control mode in the face of myriad federal investigations.
Full Story: At Inquiries Start, Lawmakers’ Ties to Toyota Are Questioned – NYTimes.com.
Eight die in Afghan bombing as US loses 1,000th soldier
A bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded near a busy bus terminal in Afghanistan, killing eight people Tuesday as the death toll of US troops in the Afghan war surpassed the grim milestone of 1,000.
The attack took place in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province where a massive US-led military offensive against the Taliban entered a tenth day and US defence chiefs said progress was slower than expected.
Sixteen people were also injured in the blast, the interior ministry said.
The Helmand assault by 15,000 US troops, dubbed Operation Mushtarak — meaning “together” in the Dari Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan — aims to push the Taliban out of the Marjah and Nad Ali areas under their control.
Full Story: Eight die in Afghan bombing as US loses 1,000th soldier – Yahoo! News.
Schwarzenegger calls GOP approach to health care ‘bogus’
Breaking with the national Republican Party for the second time this week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) told reporters Monday that GOP attempts to stall health care reform were out of line.
“I think any Republican that says you should start from scratch,” with health care, “I think that’s bogus talk, and that’s partisan talk,” the governor told reporters.
He also said Obama’s approach to health care reform is appropriate — hosting a forum that includes Republicans.
Full Story: Schwarzenegger calls GOP approach to health care ‘bogus’ | Raw Story.
Reviving the American Economy
The following is part nine of a 30 minute interview with Eamonn Fingleton.
Award winning author and economist Eamonn Fingleton discusses why drastic measures are needed to mend the U.S. economy.
Full Story: Reviving the American Economy | Economy In Crisis.
Whirlpool Moving Jobs to Mexico
Appliance manufacturing giant Whirlpool plans to relocate an Indiana refrigerator factory to Mexico this summer, costing thousands of American jobs.
Unless labor leaders can produce a miracle, it appears that the failed North American Free Trade Agreement is set to claim another victim. Appliance manufacturing giant Whirlpool plans to relocate an Indiana refrigerator factory to Mexico this summer, costing thousands of American jobs.
“Whirlpool’s decision to shut down and move our work to Mexico is greed-driven and an atrocity,” IUE-CWA President James Clark said in a statement. “We know companies need to make money, but moving jobs out of the country during this economic crisis is shameful.”
The factory in Evansville, Indiana, is set to close by the end of June, according to the company. In all, the closure will cost some 1,100 jobs in the community.
Full Story: Whirlpool Moving Jobs to Mexico | Economy In Crisis.
After Decades-Long Wait, US Navy to Study Health Effects of Water Contamination at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina.
After Decades-Long Wait, US Navy to Study Health Effects of Water Contamination at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina.
We turn now to a story of environmental contamination that has been brewing for decades. Last week, the US Navy finally agreed to pay over $1.5 million to fund a study looking into the health effects of water contamination at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina. The study could show a link between toxic water at the base and the illnesses and deaths of Marines and their family members over a thirty-year period from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. Thousands of Marines and their families who were stationed at Camp Lejeune have long complained of illnesses and deaths linked to exposure to toxic water. Health officials estimate that one million people were exposed to contaminated well water at the base before the main well was shut down in 1984.
Free: Audio, Video, Transcript, MP3 download
Who’s Really In Control of the White House? Maybe Not Obama
David Sirota -
Going rogue by people like General McCrystal undermines the chain of command and challenges the constitution.
I am in control here in the White House.” — Secretary of State Alexander Haig, 1981
Ah, the good old days when even a big shot like Gen. Al Haig, who died early Saturday, could get in trouble for such mavericky declarations that defy basic constitutional precedents.
In the 21st century, that’s ancient history. We’ve so idealized cowboy-style rebellion in matters of war and law enforcement that “going Haig” is today honored as “going rogue.” Defiance, irreverence, contempt — these are the moment’s most venerated postures, no matter how destructive or lawless.
The Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping and torture sessions were the most obvious examples of the rogue sensibility on steroids. But then came McCain-Palin, a presidential ticket predicated almost singularly on the rogue brand. And now, even in the Obama era, that brand pervades.
It began reemerging in September with Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Afghan escalation plan. McChrystal didn’t just ask President Obama for more troops — protocol-wise, that would have been completely appropriate. No, McChrystal went rogue, preemptively leaking his request to the media, then delivering a public address telling Obama to immediately follow his orders.
Full Story: Who’s Really In Control of the White House? Maybe Not Obama | News & Politics | AlterNet.
WH and Dems Should Send the Message: Health Means Life; Health Means Freedom
GEORGE LAKOFF -
Life and Freedom are moral issues. It is time for Democrats to talk about health in those terms, beyond just policy terms like health insurance reform, bending the cost curve, types of exchanges, etc.
Health means life. If you get a major illness or injury and cannot get it treated adequately, you could die. And tens of thousands do.
Health means freedom. If you have a serious illness or injury and cannot get it treated, your freedom will be limited in many ways. Your physical freedom: you may no longer have the freedom to move around. Your economic freedom: you may not be able to work or your medical bills may impoverish you. Your emotional freedom: you will not be free to live a happy life.
Health is therefore a moral issue of the highest order. And it is a patriotic issue. Health security is a problem for far more Americans than military security. Your security is far more likely to be threatened by the lack of treatment for illness and injury than by any likely terrorist attack.
Full Story: George Lakoff, WH and Dems Should Send the Message: Health Means Life; Health Means Freedom | BuzzFlash.org.
“The President’s Plan”: No Public Option, Lots of Compromise
John Nicoles, The Nation: Despite urging from House leaders and a growing number of senators, “The President’s Plan” does not include a public option.
For more than a year, President Obama remained on the sidelines of the health care debate — chiming in now and again with sometimes-inspired, sometimes-disappointing rhetoric about broad values while members of Congress did the heavy lifting.
Now, the president has finally weighed it with “a plan.”
But it is not enough.
The White House is making a big deal about what’s being labeled “The President’s Proposal,” which the administration announced with much fanfare Monday.
According to the White House, the Obama plan does a lot:
Full Story: “The President’s Plan”: No Public Option, Lots of Compromise.
Obscure Law Could Cost Hillary Clinton Her Cabinet Post
Conspiracy theorists who previously started the ‘birther’ lie, are now targeting Clinton’s eligibility for office over an obscure provision in the Constitution related to salary.
Ever since Barack Obama started running for the White House, he’s been plagued by lawsuits from detractors who claim that he is not a natural-born citizen, and thus is ineligible to serve as president. Now the devoted conspiracy theorists of the so-called “eligibility movement” have a fresh target: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And there’s a chance that the Supreme Court might hear their challenge.
In January 2009, a longtime foreign service officer named David C. Rodearmel sued Hillary Clinton in federal court in DC arguing that an obscure provision of the Constitution blocks her from serving in Obama’s Cabinet because of her previous stint in the U.S. Senate. This argument isn’t as nutty as those used in the numerous lawsuits disputing Obama’s citizenship — in fact, it previously prevented Orrin Hatch from becoming a Supreme Court justice.
Rodearmel is relying on what’s known as the Emoluments Clause, which bars members of Congress from taking a federal civil job if Congress raised the salary for that job while they were still in office. The secretary of state’s salary went up in 2008, while Clinton was still in the Senate. The provision, which was designed to combat corruption, has long been a headache for presidents seeking to tap members of Congress for their Cabinets. They’ve typically solved the problem by resorting to what’s known as the “Saxbe fix” — a move named after William Saxbe, a Republican Ohio senator Richard Nixon installed as attorney general during the Watergate scandal.
Full Story: Obscure Law Could Cost Hillary Clinton Her Cabinet Post | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.
Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure
Like many people, Terry Hoskins has had troubles with his bank. But his solution to foreclosure might be unique.
Hoskins said he’s been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming to an end as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his $350,000 home.
“When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn’t going to stand for that, so I took it down,” Hoskins said.
Full Story: Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure – Cincinnati News Story – WLWT Cincinnati.
Wake Up, Progressives: The Right Is Ready to Rumble (Our Side, Not So Much)
We need to think differently — to plan for victories that we may not live to see. And we need somebody to buy us a television network — and a commercial publishing house.
It’s easy to miss the threat of someone who’s misinformed, paranoid and more than a little crazy. But when that someone has oodles and oodles of dollars, organizing prowess, and private ownership of a significant book-publishing company and a television network, you’d better watch out.
The fodder for ridicule provided by the weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference gave progressive journalists, including me, the opportunity to have lots of gleeful word fun examining the internecine battles over gay rights and torture, Ron Paul’s victory in the presidential straw poll, Ann Coulter’s tired act, Glenn Beck’s medicine show — and a host of other madness.
But ridicule is not activism. It makes us feel better, assuring us of our superiority while the other side gathers steam for the fight ahead.
Full Story: Wake Up, Progressives: The Right Is Ready to Rumble (Our Side, Not So Much) | News & Politics | AlterNet.
Cities Shortening Yellow Traffic Lights for Deadly Profit
Some cities have been shortening yellow lights to nab drivers with a ticket. But studies show that they’re raking in the bucks at the expense of public safety.
Reeling through a 21st century addicted to technology and surveillance, citizens may be too overwhelmed to complain of increasing cameras popping up atop red lights at intersections across the nation, most of which are designed to catch them breaking traffic laws. That is, until they’re caught in those intersections as the yellow lights unexpectedly change, and cars in front and back of them hit the brakes or punch the gas to avoid tickets. And when they find out those cameras and lights are being gamed, sometimes lethally, in the pursuit of quick profit? Then they get mad, and maybe even, for being used as motorized money pits.
“With all of the stories we hear on a daily basis, there is little doubt that the desire for ticket revenue trumps safety concerns,” Gary Biller, executive director of the National Motorists Association told AlterNet. “A quick current example is California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who a few weeks ago proposed state budget including a proposal to add speed sensors to 500 existing red-light cameras. The reason? Safety wasn’t mentioned, but an expected additional annual revenue of $338 million was.”
Full Story: Cities Shortening Yellow Traffic Lights for Deadly Profit | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.
Does It Really Matter Whether Your Food Was Produced Locally?
Counting food miles can lead to wrong turns: Instead of worrying about how far our food has traveled we should look at the way it’s produced and hauled.
The local wits in Salina, Kansas, like to say the easiest way to for us “eat locally” around here is to heat up a Tony’s® frozen pizza. It’s not just that Tony’s has a large plant on the west side of town. Salina is also surrounded by wheat fields and is home to a large flour mill. Our local pizza, at least theoretically, could be assembled on a local crust.
But our hometown pizza can be considered local only if we ignore the many miles ingredients like tomato sauce, cheese, pork and beef travel to reach the plant. To that should be added the highway or rail miles logged by the cattle and hogs who gave their lives for the pizza; the distances that feed grains and soybean meal traveled to reach the feedlots, dairy farms and hog-confinement facilities where the animals were raised; the trips that tomatoes took to the sauce factory, and the miles that fertilizers and other inputs were hauled to reach the fields where the tomatoes were grown.
We eat lots of high-mileage meals. In 1997, the distance traveled by an average food item from its site of production to the average U.S. grocery store (counting only the delivery distance, not the transportation involved in production) was 980 miles. In the next few years, food imports shot up dramatically; as a result, by 2004, the average food item was traveling 1,230 miles.
Full Story: Does It Really Matter Whether Your Food Was Produced Locally? | Food | AlterNet.
Anthem Blue Cross: State Regulator Finds More Than 700 Violations
California’s insurance regulator said Monday his office has found more than 700 violations by the state’s largest for-profit health insurer, including late payment of claims, giving misleading information to consumers and failing to cooperate with regulators.
Anthem Blue Cross faces a maximum $10,000 penalty for each violation, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said. His office said the violations occurred between 2006 and 2009.
Kristin Binns, a spokeswoman for the insurer, said the company takes the allegations seriously, though she noted they represent a fraction of the company’s millions of claims.
Full Story: Anthem Blue Cross: State Regulator Finds More Than 700 Violations.
Citigroup Warns Customers It May Refuse To Allow Withdrawals
The image of banks locking their doors to keep customers from making withdrawals during a bank run is what immediately came to mind when we heard that Citigroup was telling customers it has the right to prevent any withdrawals from checking accounts for seven days.
“Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change,” Citigroup said on statements received by customers all over the country.
What’s going on? It seems that this is something of an error. The seven day notice policy only applies to customers in Texas, Ira Stoll reports at The Future of Capitalism. It was accidentally included on customer statements nationwide.
“Whatever the explanation, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in Citi,” Stoll writes. “But it’s hard to believe a bank would be sending out a notice like that on its statements.”
Full Story: Citigroup Warns Customers It May Refuse To Allow Withdrawals.
OPS: There will probably be other Mega-banks that will do this too. Maybe it’s time to Move Your Money, while you still can. Here are some success stories
Jobs Bill VOTE: GOP Filibuster Fails As Scott Brown And Others Break With Party
Scott Brown was in and out of the Senate chamber and had voted against his party before most of his colleagues had even arrived.
“It’s a small step, but it’s still a step,” Brown told reporters after casting a procedural vote in favor of the Democratic jobs bill, bucking his party leaders and the strategy of opposition they have carried out since President Obama took office.
For Senate Democrats, it was much bigger step. Four Republicans followed Brown’s lead, giving the jobs legislation 62 votes, two more than needed to cut off a GOP filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thanked the newly-elected Republican from Massachusetts. “I hope this is the beginning of a new day here in the Senate. Whether this new day was created by the new Senator from Massachusetts or some other reason, I’m very, very happy that we were able to get this done. But there are some winners. Not any individual Senator, not Democrats or Republicans. The winners are small business people throughout this country.”
Full Story: Jobs Bill VOTE: GOP Filibuster Fails As Scott Brown And Others Break With Party.
VIDEO: Iraq for Sale
by Robert Greenwald -
The showing of this video was banned in the US Congress
On May 10th, 2007, this video was banned in Congress. Robert Greenwald, the director of IRAQ FOR SALE, was invited to testify before Congress by Rep. Jim Moran. He prepared four minutes from the documentary to show. Republicans insisted this not be shown.
Full Story: VIDEO: Iraq for Sale.
Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason
Glenn Beck loves them. Tea Partiers court them. Congressmen listen to them. Meet the fast-growing “patriot” group that’s recruiting soldiers to resist the Obama administration.
THE .50 CALIBER Bushmaster bolt action rifle is a serious weapon. The model that Pvt. 1st Class Lee Pray is saving up for has a 2,500-yard range and comes with a Mark IV scope and an easy-load magazine. When the 25-year-old drove me to a mall in Watertown, New York, near the Fort Drum Army base, he brought me to see it in its glass case—he visits it periodically, like a kid coveting something at the toy store. It’ll take plenty of military paychecks to cover the $5,600 price tag, but he considers the Bushmaster essential in his preparations to take on the US government when it declares martial law.
His belief that that day is imminent has led Pray to a group called Oath Keepers, one of the fastest-growing “patriot” organizations on the right. Founded last April by Yale-educated lawyer and ex-Ron Paul aide Stewart Rhodes, the group has established itself as a hub in the sprawling anti-Obama movement that includes Tea Partiers, Birthers, and 912ers. Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Pat Buchanan have all sung its praises, and in December, a grassroots summit it helped organize drew such prominent guests as representatives Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun, both Georgia Republicans.
There are scores of patriot groups, but what makes Oath Keepers unique is that its core membership consists of men and women in uniform, including soldiers, police, and veterans. At regular ceremonies in every state, members reaffirm their official oaths of service, pledging to protect the Constitution—but then they go a step further, vowing to disobey “unconstitutional” orders from what they view as an increasingly tyrannical government.
Full Story: Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason | Mother Jones.
Woman With Breast Cancer Turns To Pasta Fundraisers To Finance Chemo After Insurers Deny Her Coverage
One of the worst abuses of the private insurance industry is its practice of excluding people with certain pre-existing conditions from coverage, effectively denying them the right to get adequate health care coverage because covering them is not profitable enough.
Iowan grandmother Deb Robben knows what life is like with a pre-existing condition. Four years ago, she shopped the insurance market, looking for a company that would cover her. Unfortunately, after a lengthy search, she was unable to find a single insurer that was willing to offer her coverage; the companies denied her coverage because they considered the benign cysts in her breasts to be a pre-existing condition.
Last December, Robben was diagnosed with colon cancer. Because she has been unable to obtain insurance, she has had to pay the costs for treatment out-of-pocket. For chemotherapy treatment alone, Robben expects to pay almost $2,000 a month. “She’s only two months into chemo and already she’s at $50,000. Oh my, what is another four months going to bring,” says Melissa Gradischnig Nelson, a friend of Robben.
Out-Of-Work Engineer Comes To Grips With Homeless Life
Arte Sanders lost his job of 27 years because of the recession.
Not long ago, the construction worker with a master's degree in construction engineering had a wife, an oceanfront condominium in southern California and the confidence that someone, somewhere would always need his skills, Newsok.com reports.
“I figured the type of work that I did was everlasting,” Sanders said. “Always someone has got to have a home built, a road's got to be built somewhere. I just never did think that I would end up this way.”
But in his quest to find work in other states, Sanders has gone through his savings and has been forced to take up residence in an Oklahoma City homeless shelter.
Full Story: Out-Of-Work Engineer Comes To Grips With Homeless Life.
ACORN ‘dissolved as a national structure’
The embattled liberal group ACORN is in the process of dissolving its national structure, with state and local-chapters splitting off from the underfunded, controversial national group, an official close to the group confirmed.
“ACORN has dissolved as a national structure of state organizations,” said a senior official close to the group, who declined to be identified by name because of the fierce conservative attacks on the group that began when a conservative filmmaker caught some staffers of its tax advisory arms on tape appearing to offer advice on incorporating a prostitution business.
Full Story: ACORN ‘dissolved as a national structure’ – Ben Smith – POLITICO.com.
OPS: The Fascists win another one
Chest pains send ex-VP Cheney to hospital
WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Dick Cheney was at George Washington University Hospital Monday in Washington, D.C. after experiencing chest pains.
A family member told NBC News he was resting comfortably while doctors evaluated his condition.
Two doctors at George Washington University Hospital said Cheney was stable but may have additional treatment Tuesday. “We don't know what the plan is,” one physician told NBC News.
Full Story: Chest pains send ex-VP Cheney to hospital – More politics- msnbc.com.
OPS: Think the miserable little troll wil confess to 9-11 before he kicks? Nahaaaaaaa……
America’s First Suicide Bomber
By Paul Craig Roberts
Joseph Stack, frustrated American, flew his airplane into an Austin, Texas, office building. He was one of the 79-percent of Americans who have given up on “their” government.
The latest Rasmussen Poll indicates that the vast majority of Americans are convinced that “their” government is totally unresponsive to them, their concerns, and their needs. Rasmussen found that only 21-percent of the American population agree that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed, and that 21-percent is comprised of the political class itself and liberals. Rasmussen concludes that the gap between the American population and the politicians who rule them “may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.”
Indications are that Joseph Stack was sane. Like Palestinians faced with Israeli jet fighters, helicopter gunships, tanks, missiles and poison gas, Stack realized that he was powerless. A suicide attack was the only weapon left to him.
Full Story: OpEdNews – Article: America’s First Suicide Bomber.
Feds Open Criminal Probe into Toyota
Federal Grand Jury Subpoenas Documents related to Japanese Automaker’s Safety Issues
Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Toyota’s safety problems, the company acknowledged Monday as it prepared to answer questions on Capitol Hill about its widespread vehicle recalls.
The Japanese automaker said it received a subpoena from a federal grand jury in New York seeking documents related to unintended acceleration in its vehicles and the braking system of its Prius hybrid.
Toyota also said it received a subpoena and a voluntary document request from the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is seeking documents related to unintended acceleration as well as to its disclosure policies and practices, Toyota said.
Full Story: Feds Open Criminal Probe into Toyota – CBS News.
Polls: In Key States, Public Option Far More Popular Than Senate Plan | The Plum Line
Okay, this should really give a boost to those arguing that Dems should pass the public option via reconciliation — for the specific reason that it will make the Senate health reform bill more popular.
A batch of state polls by the non-partisan Research 2000 shows that in multiple states represented by key Dem Senators who will have to decide whether to support reconciliation, the public option polls far better than the Senate bill does, often by lopsided margins.
Here’s a rundown, sent over by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which commissioned the polls:
* In Nevada, only 34% support the Senate bill, while 56% support the public option.
* In Illinois, only 37% support the Senate bill, while 68% support the public option.
* In Washington State, only 38% support the Senate bill, while 65% support the public option.
* In Missouri, only 33% support the Senate bill, while 57% support the public option.
* In Virginia, only 36% support the Senate bill, while 61% support the public option.
* In Iowa, only 35% support the Senate bill, while 62% support the public option.
*In Minnesota, only 35% support the Senate bill, while 62% support the public option.
* In Colorado, only 32% support the Senate bill, while 58% support the public option.
Full Story: Polls: In Key States, Public Option Far More Popular Than Senate Plan | The Plum Line.
Bill would ban security contractors from war zones
Two congressional lawmakers have announced legislation that would effectively remove military contractors from war zones.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced the “Stop Outsourcing Security Act” on Tuesday. If passed, the act would force the United States to phase out its controversial use of private security contractors in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The legislation would restore the responsibility of the American military to train troops and police, guard convoys, repair weapons, administer military prisons, and perform military intelligence,” the lawmakers’ offices said.
“The bill also would require that all diplomatic security be undertaken by US government personnel,” they added
Full Story: Bill would ban security contractors from war zones | Raw Story.
The Bloom Box (VIDEO): An Energy Plant In A Box To Power Your Home
Two of these blocks can power an American home, while one will suffice for a European home. A stack of 64 can power a small business. What is this magical box and where can you get one?
It’s the Bloom Box, essentially a power plant in a box, and it claims to be the latest breakthrough in clean energy technology. You can’t get one yet, but K.R. Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy, says there will be one in every American home in five to 10 years.
Sridhar has been developing the technology for the past 10 years, and its all been kept relatively under wraps. The company made their first public appearance on 60 Minutes on Sunday, in an exclusive interview with Lesley Stahl preceding the company’s official launch this Wednesday.
Sridhar invented a new kind of fuel cell that is entirely self-sufficient. He feeds oxygen into one side of a cell while fuel is supplied to the other side. The two combine, forming a chemical reaction that produce electricity.
Full Story: The Bloom Box (VIDEO): An Energy Plant In A Box To Power Your Home.
New Credit Card Laws: What You Need To Know About Rates And Fees
The new credit card law is finally here. Starting Monday, banks will need to abide by new regulations on terms and disclosures. The idea behind the landmark law was to prevent banks from using practices that often dug borrowers deeper into debt.
A look at how the credit card law affects key aspects of your account.
INTEREST RATES
THEN: Banks could raise the interest rate on an account at any time, including the rate on an existing balances, even if you weren't late on payments.
Full Story: New Credit Card Laws: What You Need To Know About Rates And Fees.
Stimulus Hypocrite Rep. McMorris Rodgers Not Invited To Ceremony In Her District Heralding Stimulus Project
The official website of the House Republican Caucus — GOP.gov — features a slew of anti-stimulus criticisms. But as ThinkProgress noted last week, buried amidst these rants is a press release from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) taking credit for $35 million in stimulus money. The release is still currently featured on GOP.gov:
While many Republicans have hypocritically touted stimulus projects back home that they voted against in Washington, D.C., McMorris Rodgers was denied that opportunity by state officials. The Spokane Spokesman-Review reports that McMorris Rodgers was “noticeably absent” from a ceremony last week heralding the announcement for the North Spokane Corridor. The paper explains that the local congresswoman “was not invited to the party” by Gov. Christine Gregoire (D-WA):
Asked why McMorris Rodgers was absent from Thursday’s event, Gregoire replied, “We never thought to ask her since she voted no.”
McCain Rewrites History, Falsely Claims Bush Asked Him To Suspend His Campaign In Sept. ‘08
Facing a primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been “moving starkly — and often awkwardly — to the right,” even abandoning some his past positions like support for cap-and-trade. In an interview with the Editorial Board of the Arizona Republic on Thursday, McCain tried to distance himself from the bank bailout he supported in the fall of 2008, claiming that then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke misled him on the TARP plan.
In the same interview, McCain reportedly claimed that he suspended his campaign to return to Washington, D.C. only at the request of President Bush:
In his new book “On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System,” Paulson belittles McCain’s contribution to the response, noting that “when it came right down to it, (McCain) had little to say in the forum he himself had called.” He also called McCain’s decision to return to Washington, apparently without a plan, “impulsive and risky” and even “dangerous.”
McCain said Bush called him in off the campaign trail, saying a worldwide economic catastrophe was imminent and that he needed his help. “I don’t know of any American, when the president of the United States calls you and tells you something like that, who wouldn’t respond,” McCain said. “And I came back and tried to sit down and work with Republicans and say, ‘What can we do?’”
Full Story: Think Progress » McCain Rewrites History, Falsely Claims Bush Asked Him To Suspend His Campaign In Sept. ‘08.
Virginia lawmaker: Children with disabilities are God’s punishment to women who previously had abortions.
On Thursday, Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (R) spoke at a press conference against state funding for Planned Parenthood. He blasted the organization for supporting a women’s right to choose, saying that God punishes women who have had abortions by giving them disabled children:
“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican.
“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
OPS: Why are Republicans insane?
Chevrolet Volt’s official fuel economy: 230 mpg
Ultra-high mileage for GM’s electric-drive Volt could give it a marketing boost.
The Chevrolet Volt, GM’s electric car that’s expected to go on sale in late 2010, is projected to get an estimated 230 miles per gallon, the automaker announced Tuesday.
That exceptionally high government mileage rating could give the Volt a major boost. For the first time, car buyers will easily be able to compare electric cars with ordinary gas-powered cars.
“Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy can and will be a game changer for us,” said GM CEO Fritz Henderson.
Full Story: Chevrolet Volt’s official fuel economy: 230 mpg – Aug. 11, 2009.
Public health campaigns may need to be designed for people with lower IQs if they are to work.
Do clever people live longer?
London – Intelligence comes second only to smoking as a predictor of heart disease, scientists said on Wednesday, suggesting public health campaigns may need to be designed for people with lower IQs if they are to work.
Research by Britain’s Medical Research Council (MRC) found that lower intelligence quotient (IQ) scores were associated with higher rates of heart disease and death, and were more important indicators than any other risk factors except smoking.
Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women Europe, the United States and most industrialised countries.
According to the World Health Organisation, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes accounted for 32 percent of all deaths around the world in 2005.
Full Story: News – Science: Do clever people live longer?.
Red wine, chocolate among foods that fight cancer
CABERNET and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to new research.
Red grapes and dark chocolate join blueberries, garlic, soy, and teas as ingredients that starve cancer while feeding bodies, Angiogenesis Foundation head William Li said at the Technology Entertainment Design Conference in Long Beach, California.
“We are rating foods based on their cancer-fighting qualities,” Li said. “What we eat is really our chemotherapy three times a day.”
The Massachusetts-based foundation is identifying foods containing chemicals that evidently
Full Story: Red wine, chocolate among foods that fight cancer | The Australian.
OPS: you have to make sure that your chocolate isn’t laced with High Fructose Corn Syrup
Same Species, Polar Opposites: The Mystery of Identical Creatures Found in both Arctic and Antarctic Waters
How exactly did identical marine species come to inhabit both the north and south polar regions?
Two years ago, several research vessels shipped out to the North and the South poles to assemble a census of creatures living under the ice. One of the most surprising results was a discovery that 235 identical species lived on opposite sides of the world but were undocumented anywhere else. It’s easy to understand how massive humpbacks can swim from Arctic to Antarctic waters, but most of the miniature worms, snails and crustaceans on the researchers’ list are no bigger than grains of rice. How could tiny creatures adapted for the frigid waters travel 9,500 kilometers through warmer climes to reach the opposite pole?
Under the microscope, these invertebrates sometimes look like shredded plastic bags or shrimp with bullhorns. It’s unclear how they could cross a swimming pool, let alone the globe. So, their “bipolarity” poses a 160-year mystery of the ocean—one that has only grown with time. “If bipolar species are as common as our initial list suggests, it really means we don’t appreciate the mechanisms that are important for connectivity in the ocean as well as we thought,” says Russ Hopcroft, project leader of the Arctic portion of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership’s Census of Marine Life.
Geithner’s Defense Of AIG Bonuses: ‘This Is Not Bolivia’
During the financial crisis, as the public called for limits on the $168 million in bonuses to be paid out to AIG employees, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had one stark response, The Wall Street Journal reports this morning. “This is not Bolivia,” Geithner said.
Two new profiles of Geithner provide revealing glimpses into one of the Obama administration's most polarizing figures, and may lend ammunition to Geithner's critics, who argue that he's been far too sympathetic to bailed out institutions. Geithner, the two pieces suggest, is still quite anxious to reassure the public that he's more of a public servant than an entrenched ally to the banking sector.
The WSJ's piece emphasizes that Geithner sees himself as a “behind-the-scenes diplomat rather than a politician,” who has resisted taking actions in response to public pressure if he feels those actions won't help the economy overall. He has resisted calls for a global tax on bank trading transactions and has allowed bailed out banks to quickly repay government funds, rather than remain under the government's direct purview.
Full Story: Tim Geithner’s VOGUE Interview, WSJ Profile: Geithner Defended AIG Bonuses, Was Asked To Run Citi.
New York Times Silent On Major Carlos Slim Lawsuit
The New York Times’ lack of coverage on a major lawsuit involving its billionaire shareholder Carlos Slim has at least one writer wondering if Slim has bought the paper’s silence.
The Big Money’s James Ledbetter wrote over the weekend about “The Story The New York Times Won’t Touch.” Slim, who bought a large stake in the New York Times in 2008 and then raised his stake in early 2009, is a Mexican telecom billionaire.
Slim is involved in a lawsuit that includes both JP Morgan and his main telecom rival, as summarized by Reuters’ Felix Salmon:
Full Story: New York Times Silent On Major Carlos Slim Lawsuit.
Michael Hanley, GM Autoworker, Commutes 1,000 Miles To Keep Job
JANESVILLE, Wis. — In the early dawn, after another week building cars, Michael Hanley leaves his job in Kansas. He quickly zips into Missouri, then heads up a ribbon of highway past grain silos and grazing deer, across the frozen fields of Iowa, over the Mississippi River and into the rolling hills of Wisconsin. Finally, he pulls into his driveway – 530 miles later.
It’s one heck of a haul: more than 1,000 miles roundtrip, 16-plus hours of driving, every week.
“I like to say I gave up an eight-minute commute for an eight-hour commute,” he says wearily, running a hand though salt-and-pepper hair as he watches his two sons play basketball for the first time this season.
After the aging General Motors plant where he worked for 23 years was idled about a year ago, Hanley faced a Hobson’s choice: Stay with his family and search for an autoworker’s salary ($28 an hour) in a county where more than 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs disappeared from 2006 to 2009. Or hang on to his GM paycheck and health insurance and follow the job, no matter where it leads.
Full Story: Michael Hanley, GM Autoworker, Commutes 1,000 Miles To Keep Job.
US Federal Reserve Raises Discount Rate
: What is the Economic Significance?
In a move that took the financial markets by surprise, the US Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced that, effective Friday, it was raising its discount rate by a quarter point, from 0.50 percent to 0.75 percent.
The action marked the first interest rate increase since December 2008, when, at the height of the financial crisis, the US central bank lowered its key federal funds rate to between zero and 0.25 percent and set its discount rate a quarter point higher, at 0.50 percent.
In a statement issued Thursday shortly after the close of trading in New York, the Fed insisted that the discount rate increase did not indicate a change in its policy of extremely cheap credit, but rather reflected a “continued improvement in financial market conditions.” To underscore this claim, the statement repeated the Fed’s mantra since December of 2008 that it foresaw “exceptionally low levels” of the federal funds rate for “an extended period.”
Full Story: US Federal Reserve Raises Discount Rate: What is the Economic Significance?.
Wall Street’s War Against Main Street America
Prof. Michael Hudson -
Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wrote an op-ed in The New York Times, (Feb. 16)[1] outlining how to put the U.S. economy on rations. Not in those words, of course. Just the opposite: If the government hadn’t bailed out Wall Street’s bad loans, he claims, “unemployment could have exceeded the 25 percent level of the Great Depression.” Without wealth at the top, there would be nothing to trickle down.
The reality, of course, is that bailing out casino capitalist speculators on the winning side of A.I.G.’s debt swaps and CDO derivatives didn’t save a single job. It certainly hasn’t lowered the economy’s debt overhead. But matters will soon improve, if Congress will dispel the present cloud of “uncertainty” as to whether any agency less friendly than the Federal Reserve might regulate the banks.
Mr. Paulson spelled out in step-by-step detail the strategy of “doing God’s work,” as his Goldman Sachs colleague Larry Blankfein sanctimoniously explained Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Now that pro-financial free-market doctrine is achieving the status of religion, I wonder whether this proposal violates the separation of church and state. Neoliberal economics may be a travesty of religion, but it is the closest thing to a Church that Americans have these days, replete with its Inquisition operating out of the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Columbia.
Full Story: Wall Street’s War Against Main Street America.
VIDEO: Will US-NATO Start World War III by Attacking Iran?
A UN nuclear watchdog report suggests Iran could be developing a nuclear bomb, apparently confirming long-held suspicions in the West. But Tehran denies the claims, again insisting that its atomic intentions are peaceful.
Michel Chossudovsky, who’s from an independent Canadian policy research group, believes that what Iran says hardly matters, because the U.S. is planning for war.
Full Story: VIDEO: Will US-NATO Start World War III by Attacking Iran?.
The Power of Local
The 2009 holiday season was a tough one for retail businesses. In November, their sales increased just 1.8 percent over low 2008 numbers—failing to keep pace with inflation. December was worse, with sales actually falling three tenths of a percent from 2008.
But in more than a hundred communities across North America, independent community-based businesses had a more positive story to tell. A nationwide survey of more than 1,800 independent businesses by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) found them outperforming chain competitors. Most notably, the survey found independent retailers in communities with active “Buy Independent” or “Buy Local” campaigns reported an increase in holiday sales three times stronger (up three percent) than those in cities without such campaigns (up one percent).
Given the current inflation rate of 2.7 percent, the benefit of such campaigns could mean the difference between success and failure for many store owners. “Amid the worst downturn in more than 60 years, independent businesses are succeeding by emphasizing their community roots and local ownership,” says Stacy Mitchell, who executed the survey.
Full Story: The Power of Local by Jeff Milchen — YES! Magazine.
More than a hundred Republicans bash stimulus, then seek money
“I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn’t create any new jobs. Then, they go out and they do the photo ops and they are posing with the big check and they say, ‘Isn’t this great?’”
A quote from a high-ranking Democratic official? Nancy Pelosi? Howard Dean?
Nope: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California.
Democrats have begun to push back against GOP criticisms of their $862 billion stimulus package, noting that many of the Republicans who’ve attacked the measure have sought funds themselves. And the number of those who voted against the bill who have cashed in is growing. According to a count by Bloomberg News, more than 100 Republicans and several Democrats who voted against the bill have written to collect on the cash they didn’t want spent.
Full Story: More than a hundred Republicans bash stimulus, then seek money | Raw Story.
Coburn: ‘I love gridlock’ because it means ‘we’re not passing things.’
Yesterday, CNN released a survey showing that “Americans overwhelmingly believe that the government is broken.” In all, 86 percent of respondents said the government is broken, an increase of eight percentage points since 2006. In a town hall meeting on Friday, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said that the broken nature of Congress was a good thing, declaring, “I love gridlock”:
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) Coburn then segued into his relationship with the Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate.
“I get along well with Harry Reid,” Coburn said, saying they have a great relationship.
However, Coburn said the media never reports that because “that doesn’t sell newspapers.”
Full Story: Think Progress » Coburn: ‘I love gridlock’ because it means ‘we’re not passing things.’.
The flailing falsehoods of America’s war criminals
Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com -
I didn’t think it was possible, but former Bush officials — desperately fighting what they know will be their legacy as war criminals — have become even more dishonest propagandists out of office than they were in office. At National Review, Bill Burck and Dana Perino so thoroughly mislead their readers about the DOJ report — rejecting the findings of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) of ethical misconduct against John Yoo and Jay Bybee — that it’s hard to know where to begin. They devote paragraph after paragraph to hailing the intelligence and integrity of the report’s author, career DOJ prosecutor David Margolis, in order to pretend that he defended Yoo and Bybee’s work, claiming that Margolis “officially exonerated Bush-era lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee” and that “Margolis rejected OPR’s recommendation and most of its analysis.” Perhaps the most deceitful claim is this one:
So, in one corner we have a legal all-star team of Mukasey, Filip, Estrada, Mahoney, Goldsmith [all right-wing Bush lawyers], and Margolis. In the other corner, we have OPR operating far outside its comfort zone and area of expertise. This shouldn’t have been close — and it wasn’t, on the merits.
Full Story: Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
Unions and liberal groups blast Reid’s $15 billion jobs bill as ‘puny’
Unions and liberal groups have dismissed Sen. Harry Reid’s $15 billion jobs bill as “puny” while calling for larger stimulus measures.
More than two dozen organizations, including the AFL-CIO, National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) and National Council of La Raza, warned Democratic leaders in Congress to avoid tackling the troubled economy through incremental action.
They urged the Senate to pass the $15 billion jobs measure, which features a hiring tax cut for small businesses, but called for much more legislation to bring down an unemployment rate the White House projects to average 10 percent this year, more than 9 percent next year and over 8 percent in 2012.
“If this $15 billion was the only thing [that passed], that would be like having an amputated arm and sticking a Band-Aid on the end of it,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, on a conference call Friday.
Full Story: Unions and liberal groups blast Reid’s $15 billion jobs bill as ‘puny’ – TheHill.com.
New Grist for Hype on Iran
Ray McGovern -
Here we go again. A report issued Thursday by the new Director General of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, has injected new adrenalin into those arguing that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.
The usual suspects are hyping—and distorting—thin-gruel language in the report to “prove” that Iran is hard at work on a nuclear weapon. The New York Times’ David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, for example, highlighted a sentence about “alleged activities related to nuclear explosives,” which Amano says he wants to discuss with Iran.
Amano’s report said:
“Addressing these issues is important for clarifying the Agency’s concerns about these activities and those described above, which seem to have continued beyond 2004.”
Sanger and Broad play up the “beyond 2004” language as “contradicting the American intelligence assessment…that concluded that work on a bomb was suspended at the end of 2003.” Other media have picked that up and run with it, apparently without bothering to read the IAEA report itself.
Full Story: New Grist for Hype on Iran | CommonDreams.org.
We need jobs, not deficit cuts
James K Galbraith -
Listen to Keynes and ignore those behind all the noise about deficits, who are simply looking to profit from private debt
“Now that the immediate crisis has passed,” Policy Network asks for “long-term strategies to shape our post-recession economies” and “to promote economic growth”.
But the immediate crisis hasn’t passed. It is not over for the jobless. It is not over for those losing their homes. It is not over for Greece, Spain, Portugal, or Iceland, facing ruin in the capital markets.
Europe has no plan for jobs. In America, President Obama has recently sent a jobs programme and a call for investments in transportation, clean energy, and education to a Congress in stalemate. No country has a credible plan for effective homeowner debt relief. Central European countries appear to respond with folded arms to the plight of their near neighbours.
Full Story: We need jobs, not deficit cuts | James K Galbraith | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
Who Broke America’s Jobs Machine?
Why creeping consolidation is crushing American livelihoods.
f any single number captures the state of the American economy over the last decade, it is zero. That was the net gain in jobs between 1999 and 2009—nada, nil, zip. By painful contrast, from the 1940s through the 1990s, recessions came and went, but no decade ended without at least a 20 percent increase in the number of jobs.
Many people blame the great real estate bubble of recent years. The idea here is that once a bubble pops it can destroy more real-world business activity—and jobs—than it creates as it expands. There is some truth to this. But it doesn’t explain why, even when the real estate bubble was at its most inflated, so few jobs were created compared to the tech-stock bubble of the late ’90s. Between 2000 and 2007 American businesses created only seven million jobs, before the great recession destroyed more than that. In the ’90s prior to the dot-com bust, they created more than twenty-two million jobs.
Others point to the diffusion of new technologies that reduce the number of workers needed to produce and sell manufactured products like cars and services like airline reservations. But throughout economic history, even as new technologies like the assembly line and the personal computer destroyed large numbers of jobs, they also empowered people to create new and different ones, often in greater numbers. Yet others blame foreign competition and offshoring, and point to all the jobs lost to China, India, or Mexico. Here, too, there is some truth. But U.S. governments have been liberalizing our trade laws for decades; although this has radically changed the type of jobs available to American workers—shifting vast chunks of the U.S. manufacturing sector overseas, for instance—there is little evidence that this has resulted in any lasting decline in the number of jobs in America.
Full Story: Who Broke America’s Jobs Machine? – Barry C. Lynn and Phillip Longman.
Rahm’s Parting Shot at Obama Insiders
Cenk Uygur: -
It looks Rahm Emanuel is done.
Dana Milbank transcribed an article written by Rahm Emanuel today in The Washington Post. Never has an article been more clearly written to support a political benefactor.
As I was reading the article lavishing praise on Rahm Emanuel and throwing dirt on everyone else inside the White House, I kept thinking two things. First, how many leaks has Rahm given Milbank over the years? How much do they love each other? Milbank gets a cherished inside source so he can seem like he’s got the scoop on what’s happening in DC and Rahm gets a hatchet man that’ll write whatever he tells him to, I mean whatever he leaks to him as “important inside information.”
My second thought was, “Wow, what a hatchet job on Jarrett, Gibbs and Axelrod!” Since Rahm is obviously feeding this to Milbank, that is very revealing. You don’t throw these kinds of bombs unless you’ve already lost. This is an act of desperation. It’s bound to make mortal enemies of these people inside Obama’s inner circle. You can’t really work with these people anymore. That means you’re already finished there.
Full Story: Cenk Uygur: Rahm’s Parting Shot at Obama Insiders.
Ephram Nehme Sues Anthem Blue Cross For Automatically Denying ‘Medically Necessary Liver Transplant’
Ephram Nehme wanted to visit a doctor. Turns out he also needed to hire a lawyer.
His trial begins today in a Los Angeles courtroom, where Nehme is alleging that the nation’s largest health insurer, WellPoint Inc., and its California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, automatically denied coverage for a liver transplant that his doctor said was medically necessary.
According to a statement issued on Nehme’s behalf, Anthem never spoke to any of the doctors nor reviewed all of the medical files related to the case. It also states that a Blue Cross transplant nurse recommended the procedure before the claim was denied. As a result of the insurer’s decision, Nehme paid over $205,000 out-of-pocket. “The transplant was necessary to save his life,” says the release from Consumer Watchdog.
The case hinges not only on when Nehme needed the surgery, but where he got it. According to a report the Los Angeles Times ran in October, “Nehme’s doctor told him he could die waiting for an organ in California and urged him to go to Indiana, where the waiting list was shorter. But Anthem Blue Cross said no. It would not pay for a transplant in Indiana.”
Full Story: Ephram Nehme Sues Anthem Blue Cross For Automatically Denying ‘Medically Necessary Liver Transplant’.
Global Warming To Bring Stronger Hurricanes, Scientists Predict
Top researchers now agree that the world is likely to get stronger but fewer hurricanes in the future because of global warming, seeming to settle a scientific debate on the subject. But they say there’s not enough evidence yet to tell whether that effect has already begun.
Since just before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, dueling scientific papers have clashed about whether global warming is worsening hurricanes and will do so in the future. The new study seems to split the difference. A special World Meteorological Organization panel of 10 experts in both hurricanes and climate change – including leading scientists from both sides – came up with a consensus, which is published online Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
“We’ve really come a long way in the last two years about our knowledge of the hurricane and climate issue,” said study co-author Chris Landsea, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration top hurricane researcher. The technical term for these storms are tropical cyclones; in the Atlantic they get called hurricanes, elsewhere typhoons.
Full Story: Global Warming To Bring Stronger Hurricanes, Scientists Predict.
Missouri SAVES Tax Loophole For Yachts, Considers Cutting School Budgets
In a time of budget cuts, yacht sales sail through untaxed in Missouri
Cash-strapped legislators have recommended spending cuts for Missouri schools and shelters for battered women, but so far the yachting class can enjoy another season of clear sailing.
Thanks to a longstanding tax exemption, Missouri’s marina set can opt to pay a small fee in lieu of sales taxes and shave as much as $30,000 off the purchase of a $500,000 boat.
That tax exemption alone is depriving state and local coffers of more than $6 million a year, according to some estimates. It’s just one of more than 130 untaxed transactions that are getting renewed attention in Jefferson City because of the state’s continuing budget crisis.
Full Story: In a time of budget cuts, yacht sales sail through untaxed in Missouri – KansasCity.com.
Greece Hires Former Goldman Banker as Debt Chief
Greece replaced its debt management chief with a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker, as declines in the country’s bonds roil European markets.
Petros Christodoulou took over from Spyros Papanicolaou as head of the Athens-based Public Debt Management Agency, the Finance Ministry said yesterday in an e-mail. Christodoulou held positions in global markets at Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co. before joining National Bank of Greece in 1998, according to a company filing.
“The incoming guy is walking into a tough mandate,” said Charles Diebel, senior interest-rate strategist at Nomura International Plc in London. “Such is the sentiment towards Greece at the moment, a new broom could be a positive.”
Full Story: Greece Hires Former Goldman Banker as Debt Chief (Update2) – BusinessWeek.
Report: Canada to approve GMO ‘enviropigs’
A Canadian government department is poised to approve genetically modified pigs for the food supply, the Canwest News Service reported Friday.
Sources told the agency Environment Canada will announce approval of the strain known as “enviropigs” Saturday.
The strain would then need approval from Health Canada before the pigs enter the food market.
Full Story: Report: Canada to approve GM ‘enviropigs’ – UPI.com.
Field commanders who tried to warn McChrystal penalized
According to sources quoted today by McClatchy newspapers, two field commanders warned Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal repeatedly about a worthless Afghanistan outpost that was too costly to defend.
The field commanders are now facing penalties after two high-level military investigations.
Once McChrystal decided to keep open an outpost at Barg-e Matal, top US commanders in eastern Afghanistan delayed plans to close another remote outpost, Combat Outpost Keating. In an assault on October 3, 2009 insurgents killed eight U.S. troops there.
A third isolated base left its command to lower-ranking officers whose “ineffective actions” led “directly” to the deaths of five American and eight Afghan soldiers in a different ambush September 8, 2009.
Full Story: Field commanders who tried to warn McChrystal penalized | Raw Story.
Fox News scrambles to discredit CPAC after Ron Paul wins presidential poll
Remember the big conservative conference Fox News has been hyping over the past 10 days?
The Conservative Political Action Conference’s presidential straw poll, a key marker of the mood among conservative voters, apparently didn’t mean anything to the network. And if it did mean something, the only real result is bragging rights for the individual candidates who were so well exposed. And hey, even Dick Cheney showed up.
Or, at least that’s how Fox News characterized the poll, after it was reported that Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) had won it by a wide margin.
CPAC participants voted for Paul as their favored candidate by some 31 percent, giving him the largest margin of victory in recent years. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has won the vote over the last three years, was the runner up with 22 percent. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was third with seven percent.
Full Story: Fox News scrambles to discredit CPAC after Ron Paul wins presidential poll | Raw Story.
Pot use among seniors rises
In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.
Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Full Story: Pot use among seniors rises | Raw Story.
Japan Now Top U.S. Debtholder
Is China diversifying its investments or dumping its dollar holdings because of concerns about exploding U.S. deficits? That is the question being asked by many after it was reported that Japan surpassed China to become the leading holder of American debt.
According to Treasury Department data released Tuesday, China sold $34 billion worth of Treasury holdings in the month of December to close out the year holding a reported $755.4 billion in U.S. debt. Japan, for the first time since August 2008, supplanted China to become the top holder of American debt with some $768.8 billion at the end of December.
Some experts fear that China is unloading its holding of American debt after warning U.S. officials last year about the size of America’s national debt. Beijing officials are worried that America will rack up so much debt that their Treasury holdings will become essentially worthless.
Full Story: Japan Now Top U.S. Debtholder | Economy In Crisis.
Legacy of Deterioration
The United States maintained a legacy of leadership on a global scale since the 1940s, but that position has been challenged over the past decade.
EconomyinCrisis.org has pointed out on many occasions the negative side effects of the United States having so much dependence on other nations. One nation in particular (China) has an inordinate impact on American policies due to the huge amount of financing it offers our Treasury Department.
The United States has maintained a legacy of leadership on a global scale since the 1940s, but that position has been challenged over the past decade. Now, instead of living a legacy of leadership, we have a legacy of deterioration. America is still, by far, the world’s foremost military power; but its unilateral economic power is gone, and its diplomatic muscle took a huge hit during the second Bush administration.
America’s deterioration on an international scale has been given little face time in the media. In particular the reasons for the deterioration have been largely ignored. Major media are quick to highlight the quagmire that has become of the United States’ wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they have never focused on the other fronts where America is still losing ground.
Full Story: Legacy of Deterioration | Economy In Crisis.
Pawlenty completes global warming flip-flop, calls cap and trade a ‘disaster.’
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), a potential candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, completed the reversal of his stance on global warming today on Meet the Press. When asked by NBC’s David Gregory if climate change is real, the former champion of strong climate action questioned “how much of it is man-made,” charging climate scientists with “data manipulation and controversy.” He then said a cap-and-trade system of market-based limits on global warming pollution would be a “disaster“:
The climate is obviously changing, David. The more interesting question is how much of it is man-made and how much is as a result of natural causes and patterns. Of course, we have seen data manipulation and controversy, or at least debate within the scientific community. . . . And the way you address it is we should all be in favor of reducing pollution. We need to do it in ways that don’t burden the economy. Cap and trade, I think, would be a disaster in that regard.
Watch it:
Full Story: Think Progress » Pawlenty completes global warming flip-flop, calls cap and trade a ‘disaster.’.
Documents: Toyota boasted saving $100M on recall
US authorities knew about Toyota acceleration problem in 2003
Toyota officials claimed they saved the company $100 million by successfully negotiating with the government on a limited recall of floor mats in some Toyota and Lexus vehicles, according to new documents shared with congressional investigators.
Toyota, in an internal presentation in July 2009 at its Washington office, said it saved $100 million or more by negotiating an “equipment recall” of floor mats involving 55,000 Toyota Camry and Lexus ES350 vehicles in September 2007.
The savings are listed under the title, “Wins for Toyota – Safety Group.” The document cites millions of dollars in other savings by delaying safety regulations, avoiding defect investigations and slowing down other industry requirements.
The documents were turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday. The presentation was first reported by The Detroit News.
Full Story: Excite News – Documents: Toyota boasted saving $100M on recall.
OPS: Mr. President, are you going to fire these people?
A Snitch in Your Pocket
Michael Isikoff -
Law enforcement is tracking Americans’ cell phones in real time — without the benefit of a warrant.
Amid all the furor over the bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program a few years ago, a mini-revolt was brewing over another type of federal snooping that was getting no public attention at all. Federal prosecutors were seeking what seemed to be unusually sensitive records: internal data from telecommunications companies that showed the locations of their customers’ cell phones — sometimes in real time, sometimes after the fact. The prosecutors said they needed the records to trace the movements of suspected drug traffickers, human smugglers, even corrupt public officials. But many federal magistrates — whose job is to sign off on search warrants and handle other routine court duties — were spooked by the requests. Some in New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas balked. Prosecutors “were using the cell phone as a surreptitious tracking device,” said Stephen W. Smith, a federal magistrate in Houston. “And I started asking the U.S. Attorney’s Office, ‘What is the legal authority for this? What is the legal standard for getting this information?’ ”
Those questions are now at the core of a constitutional clash between President Obama’s Justice Department and civil libertarians alarmed by what they see as the government’s relentless intrusion into the private lives of citizens. There are numerous other fronts in the privacy wars — about the content of e-mails, for instance, and access to bank records and credit-card transactions. The Feds now can quietly get all that information. But cell-phone tracking is among the more unsettling forms of government surveillance, conjuring up Orwellian images of Big Brother secretly following your movements through the small device in your pocket.
Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Michael Isikoff | A Snitch in Your Pocket.
Obama to Urge Oversight of Insurers’ Rate Increases
President Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he rolls out comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation’s health care system, White House officials said Sunday.
The president’s legislation aims to bridge differences between the bills adopted by the House and Senate late last year, and to frame his debate with Republicans over health policy at a televised meeting on Thursday.
By focusing on the effort to tighten regulation of insurance costs, a new element not included in either the House or Senate bills, Mr. Obama is seizing on outrage over recent premium increases of up to 39 percent announced by Anthem Blue Cross of California and moving to portray the Democrats’ health overhaul as a way to protect Americans from profiteering insurers.
Full Story: Obama to Urge Oversight of Insurers’ Rate Increases – NYTimes.com.
The Bankruptcy Boys
Paul Krugman -
O.K., the beast is starving. Now what? That’s the question confronting Republicans. But they’re refusing to answer, or even to engage in any serious discussion about what to do.
For readers who don’t know what I’m talking about: ever since Reagan, the G.O.P. has been run by people who want a much smaller government. In the famous words of the activist Grover Norquist, conservatives want to get the government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
But there has always been a political problem with this agenda. Voters may say that they oppose big government, but the programs that actually dominate federal spending — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — are very popular. So how can the public be persuaded to accept large spending cuts?
Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – The Bankruptcy Boys – NYTimes.com.
OPS: For Krugman to ask “O.K., the beast is starving. Now what? ” is missing a crucial piece of the issue: The Two Santa Clauses Theory.
Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years
This weekend, House Republican leader John Boehner played out the role of Jude Wanniski on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
Odds are you’ve never heard of Jude, but without him Reagan never would have become a “successful” president, Republicans never would have taken control of the House or Senate, Bill Clinton never would have been impeached, and neither George Bush would have been president.
When Barry Goldwater went down to ignominious defeat in 1964, most Republicans felt doomed (among them the then-28-year-old Wanniski). Goldwater himself, although uncomfortable with the rising religious right within his own party and the calls for more intrusion in people’s bedrooms, was a diehard fan of Herbert Hoover’s economic worldview.
In Hoover’s world (and virtually all the Republicans since reconstruction with the exception of Teddy Roosevelt), market fundamentalism was a virtual religion. Economists from Ludwig von Mises to Friedrich Hayek to Milton Friedman had preached that government could only make a mess of things economic, and the world of finance should be left to the Big Boys – the Masters of the Universe, as they sometimes called themselves – who ruled Wall Street and international finance.
Full Story: Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years | CommonDreams.org.
Asia to reverse IT outsource trend
Spending on IT outsourcing will grow faster among Asian companies than their western counterparts in 2010, Dell Services estimates, reversing the trend of recent years that has seen more western groups buying services from India and China.
Jim Champy, chairman of Dell Services’ consulting practice, says IT outsourcing is set to rise in Asian markets as the region’s companies begin to modernise their business processes and technology systems in a build-out that could last decades.
“We see, as most providers do, the Asian markets growing faster – clearly more than Europe, and certainly faster than the US,” Mr Champy told the Financial Times.
Full Story: FT.com / Technology – Asia to reverse IT outsource trend.
On healthcare reform, Obama is the problem not the solution
Barrack Obama,from the beginning of the healthcare debate has proved that far from being ready to president from day one, he has been not just politically inept, but has shown that he really had no committment to the kind of reform most Democrats and most people in the country were looking for.
The reason is its hard to have the courage of your convictions when you have no courage and no convictions. And Obama has displayed all through the debate that he has neither.
With the public option, what most acknowledge is the centerpeice of healthcare reform, and the one component that polls better than anything else, Obama threw in the towel to the town hall crazies and congressional Republicans who lied through their teeth about it, to get away from the political heat..
Full Story: On healthcare reform, Obama is the problem not the solution.
Niger: The Uranium Coup
In yet another odd coincidence, Alan Grayson led a Congressional delegation that just happened to be in Niger at the time of the recent military coup last Thursday that deposed the legitimate elected government of the Uranium-rich nation.
The official story is that the members of Congress were focused on science, technology and humanitarian relief – at the very same time that the military coup was unfolding on the streets of the capital, Niamey.
This intriguing “coincidence” raises the question: Was this Congressional presence during a military coup another instance of a massive intelligence failure or something entirely different?
Full Story: Movements at The Moving Planet Blog – The Uranium Coup by Michael Carmichael.
Biotech Battle Escalates; India Prepares to Sue GMO Giants
India’s battles over genetically modified organisms (GMO) intensified this month as both sides maneuvered to promote or resist their proliferation. Mediating the debate, at least for now, is India’s Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh.
On February 10, Ramesh ordered a moratorium on the cultivation of genetically modified brinjal (Bt-brinjal), a ubiquitous eggplant with 2,500 natural varieties. The Ministry seeks long term safety studies before lifting the ban.
Expressing concern for food sovereignty, Ramesh noted in his Decision on Commercialisation of Bt-Brinjal:
“Very serious fears have been raised in many quarters on the possibility of Monsanto controlling our food chain if Bt-brinjal is approved.
Full Story: Biotech Battle Escalates; India Prepares to Sue GMO Giants « Food Freedom.
Climate sceptics are recycled critics of controls on tobacco and acid rain
We must not be distracted from science’s urgent message: we are fueling dangerous changes in Earth’s climate
In the weeks before and after the Copenhagen climate change conference last December, the science of climate change came under harsh attack by critics who contend that climate scientists have deliberately suppressed evidence — and that the science itself is severely flawed. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global group of experts charged with assessing the state of climate science, has been accused of bias.
The global public is disconcerted by these attacks. If experts cannot agree that there is a climate crisis, why should governments spend billions of dollars to address it?
The fact is that the critics — who are few in number but aggressive in their attacks — are deploying tactics that they have honed for more than 25 years. During their long campaign, they have greatly exaggerated scientific disagreements in order to stop action on climate change, with special interests like Exxon Mobil footing the bill.
Dutch Troops To Pull Out Of Afghanistan This Year, Following Government Collapse, Says Prime Minister
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Sunday Dutch troops will begin leaving southern Afghanistan in August, since his caretaker government has no authority to accept a NATO request to stay on.
Speaking a day after his coalition government collapsed over the issue, Balkenende said the Netherlands will end its role in Uruzgan province, where 21 Dutch soldiers have been killed since the mission was first deployed in 2006.
“Our task as the lead nation ends in August this year,” he said on Dutch television.
Full Story: Dutch Troops To Pull Out Of Afghanistan This Year, Following Government Collapse, Says Prime Minister.
It’s Time To Enact Health Care With 51 Senate Votes
Robert Reich -
This week the President is hosting a bipartisan gab-fest at the White House to try to tease out some Republican votes for health care. It’s a total waste of time. If Obama thinks he’s going to get a single Republican vote at this stage of the game, he’s fooling himself (or the American people). Many months ago, you may recall, the White House and Dem leaders in the Senate threatened to pass health care with 51 votes – using a process called “reconciliation” that allows tax and spending bills to be enacted without filibuster – unless Republicans came on board. It’s time to pull the trigger.
Why haven’t the President and Senate Dems pulled the reconciliation trigger before now? I haven’t spoken directly with the President or with Harry Reid but I’ve spent the last several weeks sounding out contacts on the Hill and in the White House to find an answer. Here are the theories. None of them justifies waiting any longer.
1. Reconciliation is too extreme a measure to use on a piece of legislation so important. I hear this a lot but it’s bunk. George W. Bush used reconciliation to enact his giant tax cut bill in 2003 (he garnered only 50 votes for it in the Senate, forcing Vice President Cheney to cast the deciding vote). Six years before that, Bill Clinton rounded up 51 votes to enact the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded health insurance coverage for children in the U.S. since Medicaid began in the 1960s. Through reconciliation, we also got Medicare Advantage. Also through reconciliation came the COBRA act, which gives Americans a bit of healthcare protection after they lose a job (“reconciliaton is the “R” in the COBRA acronym.) These were all big, important pieces of legislation, and all were enacted by 51 votes in the Senate.
Full Story: Robert Reich (It’s Time To Enact Health Care With 51 Senate Votes).
Airport Security: Welcome to Scannergate
Terror Scares A Boon for Security Grifters
Call them what you will: bottom feeders, corporate con-men, flim-flam artists, peddlers of crisis, you name it.
You can’t help but marvel how enterprising security firms have the uncanny ability to sniff-out new opportunities wherever they can find, or manufacture, them.
After all, nothing sells like fear and in “new normal” America fear is an industry with a limitless growth potential.
While Republicans and Democrats squabble over who’s “tougher” when it comes to invading and pillaging other nations (in the interest of “spreading democracy” mind you), a planetary grift dubbed the “War on Terror,” waiting in the wings are America’s new snake-oil salesmen.
Welcome to Scannergate!
With airport security all the rage, companies that manufacture whole body imaging technologies and body-scanners stand to make a bundle as a result of last December’s aborted attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
Like their kissin’ cousins at the Pentagon, poised to bag a $708 billion dollar windfall in the 2011 budget, securocrats over at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stand to vacuum-up some $56.3 billion next year, a $6 billion increase.
Full Story: Airport Security: Welcome to Scannergate.
Obama’s ‘Chicago mafia’ blamed for paralysis at the top
WHEN President Barack Obama’s secret service codename was revealed as Renegade and his wife Michelle’s as Renaissance, the names seemed perfect for a first couple who had come to Washington to shake things up.
More than a year into the Obama administration, with healthcare yet to be reformed, Wall Street banks continuing to pay huge bonuses and Guantanamo Bay prison still open, that mood of hope has turned to disillusion. Obama’s policy of engagement has yielded no progress in the Middle East or Iran; the war in Afghanistan continues to exact a big toll in lives and dollars; while the heaviest snow in Washington for 90 years seems to have stymied any hope of climate change legislation.
The president and his team now find themselves under fire for mishandling Congress from everyone from senior Democrats to social columnists. Critics say that by failing to move on from the “us versus them” feeling of the Obama election campaign, they have united an opposition that was in disarray. The result is legislative paralysis despite the biggest Democratic majority in 30 years.
Full Story: Obama’s ‘Chicago mafia’ blamed for paralysis at the top – Times Online.
Obama Pressed to Release Identity of Telecom Lobbyists
Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge in the State of the Union address to “require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my administration or Congress,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says the Obama administration has been “fighting hard to stop the release of the names of these representatives.”
EFF urged, “While it’s great to see Obama reverse his position in the State of the Union and acknowledge the strong public interest in disclosure of lobbying records, the administration must do more than give speeches in order to fulfill its commitment to transparency.”
It said President Obama “must apply this policy to pending litigation, and release the identities of telecommunications representatives who lobbied for immunity for their telecommunications carrier clients.”
Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Obama Pressed to Release Identity of Telecom Lobbyists.
OPS: There should be a publicly available list of all lobbyists, who they represent, who they have contacted and how much they have spent, and who received it.
White House adjusts strategy on Republicans
The Obama administration aims to put members of the GOP on the spot, forcing them to compromise on issues or be portrayed as obstructionists.
Reporting from Washington – As voters lose patience with political gridlock, the Obama administration is embarking on a strategy aimed at putting Republicans on the spot: Either participate in bipartisan exchanges initiated by the president, or be portrayed as the party of obstruction.
The new approach is part of a series of adjustments the White House is making as it deals with the aftermath of Republican Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts, which cost Democrats their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
Right now, it’s not clear voters blame one party more than the other for paralysis in Washington. A recent poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal showed that voters are as apt to blame congressional Republicans as Democrats for the standoff. Virtually everyone surveyed agreed there is too much infighting in the capital.
Full Story: White House adjusts strategy on Republicans – latimes.com.
Feds outline plan to nurse Great Lakes to health
The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat and invasive species.
The plan envisions spending more than $2.2 billion for long-awaited repairs after a century of damage to the lakes, which hold 20% of the world's fresh water. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the document, which Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was releasing at a news conference Sunday in Washington.
WILDLIFE OFFICIALS: Invasive carp threatens Great Lakes
ASIAN CARP ADVANCE: Feds pass on surest battle solution
“We’re committed to creating a new standard of care that will leave the Great Lakes better for the next generation,” Jackson said in a statement.
Full Story: Feds outline plan to nurse Great Lakes to health – USATODAY.com.
Probes overlook McChrystal’s role in costly Afghan battles
Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, kept a remote U.S. base in the country manned last year at the local governor’s request despite warnings from his field commanders that it should be closed because it was vulnerable and had no tactical or strategic value.
McChrystal’s decision to maintain the outpost at Barg-e Matal prompted the top American commanders in eastern Afghanistan to delay plans to close a second remote U.S. outpost, Combat Outpost Keating, where insurgents killed eight U.S. troops in an assault Oct. 3, a McClatchy investigation has found.
Keeping Barg-e-Matal open also deprived a third isolated base of the officer who would have been its acting commander and left its command to lower-ranking officers whose “ineffective actions” led “directly” to the deaths of five American and eight Afghan soldiers in an ambush Sept. 8, according to a high-level military investigation.
Full Story: Probes overlook McChrystal’s role in costly Afghan battles | McClatchy.
AIDS Research: Scientists Report On Way To Derail Spread Of AIDS
A successful AIDS vaccine remains elusive, but researchers say aggressive, early anti-viral therapy might provide a way to derail the spread of disease.
The goal is to catch new AIDS cases early and administer therapy to reduce the amount of virus in the patient’s system.
Anti-retroviral therapy has increased in the past five years. But it’s been given too late in the course of infection.
Full Story: AIDS Research: Scientists Report On Way To Derail Spread Of AIDS.
More Palin Hypocrisy: Tripp Has Government Provided Health Insurance
The dangers of “death panels” were explained to Americans on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page. Oh, sweet Lord, she must not sleep at night…her grandson could be the next victim of “socialized medicine”.
Recently released documents from the custody battle show clearly Tripp Palin Johnston has socialized health care through Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center.
Palin’s family has federally funded health care afforded to them…but if you had it Barack Obama might kill you. Put this on the list of Palin’s Greatest Hypocritical Hits…volume 97.
Full Story: Shannyn Moore: More Palin Hypocrisy: Tripp Has Government Provided Health Insurance.
We Can All Fight Cancer Better
At age 31, my life took a sudden turn. I was an ambitious physician and neuroscience researcher who reveled in discovery and glittering science projects. Then, slipping into a brain scanner one evening in place of a subject who hadn’t shown up, I was suddenly stripped of my white-coat status and thrown into the gray world of patients: That evening, I discovered that I had brain cancer.
Being a physician and scientist is no protection from getting cancer. But it allowed me to dig deeply into the medical and scientific literature to find out everything I could do to help my body resist the disease most efficiently and try to beat the median survival of a few years.
The first thing I learned is that we all carry cancer cells in us. But I also learned we all have natural defenses that generally prevent these cells from turning into an aggressive disease. These include our immune system, the part of our biology that controls and reduces inflammation, and the foods that reduce the growth of new blood vessels needed by developing tumors.
Full Story: David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.: We Can All Fight Cancer Better.
The New Poor – Despite Signs of Recovery, Long-Term Unemployment Rises
Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.
Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.
Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.
Full Story: The New Poor – Despite Signs of Recovery, Long-Term Unemployment Rises – Series – NYTimes.com.
Russia stands by S-300 delivery to Iran
The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister says his country has every intention of delivering the advanced S-300 air defense missile systems to the Islamic Republic.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Russia on Tuesday, has been assured that the sale of the S-300 anti-aircraft system to Iran “will be held off” by the Kremlin.
However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov commented on the report, saying that the deal is still in motion
Full Story: Russia stands by S-300 delivery to Iran.
Reid: Dems will use 50-vote tactic to finish healthcare in 60 days
Democrats will finish their health reform efforts within the next two months by using a majority-vote maneuver in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said.
Reid said that congressional Democrats would likely opt for a procedural tactic in the Senate allowing the upper chamber to make final changes to its healthcare bill with only a simple majority of senators, instead of the 60 it takes to normally end a filibuster.
“I’ve had many conversations this week with the president, his chief of staff, and Speaker Pelosi,” Reid said during an appearance Friday evening on “Face to Face with Jon Ralston” in Nevada. “And we’re really trying to move forward on this.”
Full Story: Reid: Dems will use 50-vote tactic to finish healthcare in 60 days – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.
Internet-charged hybrid vehicle tech croudsources electricity generation
Owners could actually get paid $30 an hour when contributing power to the grid
US researchers unveiled a vehicle Thursday that earns money for its driver instead of guzzling it up in gasoline and maintenance costs.
The converted Toyota Scion xB, shown at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science here, is the first electric car to be linked to a power grid and serve as a cash cow.
“This is the first vehicle that’s ever been paid to participate in the grid — the first proof of concept vehicle,” Ken Huber, who oversees technological development at wholesale electricity coordinator PJM Interconnection, told AFP.
The presentation of the box-like, unassuming looking Scion was the researchers’ way of introducing the “vehicle-to-grid” (V2G) concept as it begins to gain momentum in the United States and around the world.
Full Story: Internet-charged hybrid vehicle tech croudsources electricity generation | Raw Story.
Bolton Admits That ‘Things Could Go Wrong’ After Military Strike On Iran
Earlier this month, John Bolton claimed that “Iran simply has no intention of being talked out of its nuclear weapons program” and that “very severe sanctions” will not work. “There are two outcomes,” Bolton concluded, “one is Iran getting its nuclear weapons, the other is Israel or somebody uses military force to stop it.”
Back in December, Bolton argued that a simple “campaign of public diplomacy” would prevent Iranian civilians from rallying around the regime after a military strike on the country’s nuclear facilities. Yesterday at CPAC, ThinkProgress asked Bolton if this strategy would work if civilians are killed in a military campaign against Iran’s nuclear program. “I don’t accept that” civilians would be killed, Bolton replied. However, he later admitted that he’s unsure if civilians would die, but even then, his “campaign of public diplomacy” would still work:
Full Story: Think Progress » Bolton Admits That ‘Things Could Go Wrong’ After Military Strike On Iran.
OPS: No Shit Buckwheat
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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. 
