Archive for March, 2010

House Members Working to Repeal NAFTA

Legislation introduced in the House that would compel the president to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement within six months is causing some consternation among Canadian officials who are worried that it may be a sign of a coming wave of protectionism ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.

“We are closely following this bill, of course,” Canadian International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan said, according to The Vancouver Sun. “Our evaluation is that this is certainly inconsistent with the direction that the Barack Obama administration has chosen.”

The effort, led by Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi, would require providing Canada and Mexico with a six-month notification of America’s intent to drop out of the trade pact. After that, the U.S. would be free to leave the tri-lateral agreement.

Full Story: House Members Working to Repeal NAFTA | Economy In Crisis.

Where Have All the Whistleblowers Gone?

By sending UBS informant Bradley Birkenfeld to prison, did the Obama Justice Department discourage more financial insiders from exposing malfeasance?

When President Barack Obama’s jobs bill passed the House in early March, it contained a little-noticed provision to recover part of its $35 billion price tag by cracking down on offshore tax evasion, which costs the US some $100 billion a year in lost revenue. The provision, which requires foreign financial institutions to report more data to the Internal Revenue Service, was likely prompted by a 2008 Senate investigation that revealed the systemic efforts made by Swiss bank UBS to help moneyed Americans hide massive sums from the IRS.

The insider information that formed the backbone of the investigation—insight that eventually helped the feds recover billions in unpaid taxes—was provided by a former midlevel executive at UBS, American-born Bradley Birkenfeld. Birkenfeld is the only international banker who has ever blown the whistle to the US government on Switzerland’s legendarily secretive banking practices. He is also the only person connected to UBS’ massive tax evasion scheme to have been sent to prison: Birkenfeld is currently serving a four-year sentence for fraud. Whistleblower advocacy groups warn that this punishment could have a “chilling effect,” discouraging other financial whistleblowers from coming forward. Did Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) exact retribution that could cost US taxpayers billions?

Full Story: Where Have All the Whistleblowers Gone? | Mother Jones.

Health Care Reform Could Reshape Tax System

The latest health care proposal, according to Kaiser Health News, could impose Medicare taxes on something other than just earned income while at the same time raising the nominal Medicare payroll tax rate for the richest of Americans.

Just one week away from the White House’s self-imposed deadline for the House to pass the Senate’s version of health care reform, President Obama has taken the show on the road to drum up support for the plan. One group he could have a difficult time convincing is the wealthiest of Americans who could see a hefty tax increase if the plan is passed.

The latest health care proposal, according to Kaiser Health News, could for the first time impose Medicare taxes on something other than just earned income while at the same time raising the nominal Medicare payroll tax rate for the richest of Americans.

Historically, employees have been taxed at a 1.45 percent rate for Medicare benefits, regardless of income. The Obama plan, however, would increase the nominal rate for those earning over $200,000 per year from 1.45 percent to 2.35 percent.

Full Story: Health Care Reform Could Reshape Tax System | Economy In Crisis.

Health Insurance Industry Spin: Funding Attack Ads And Newt Gingrich Is Consistent With Supporting Reform

In September, ThinkProgress reported that, despite its public support for health care reform, the insurance industry was engaged in a “duplicitous” campaign to undermine the effort. Recently, the National Journal confirmed our reporting by revealing that six of the top health insurance corporations had secretly pumped up to $20 million dollars into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for a $100-million-dollar attack ad campaign against health reform last year. This week, insurers purchased a new round of attack ads, again with millions laundered through the Chamber.

It’s not just the Chamber. As we have detailed, the health insurance industry also funds Newt Gingrich’s lobbying firm, which has helped to draft health legislation for Republican lawmakers — including bills aimed at deregulating the health insurance market — and advises GOP leaders on ways to kill reform.

Yesterday at the annual conference for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the lobbying juggernaut for the health insurance industry, the industry again falsely claimed that it is fully behind health reform. ThinkProgress spoke to industry spokesman Robert Zirkelbach, who refused to acknowledge any other attack groups the industry may be funding. He also oddly claimed that funding attack ads and Gingrich is somehow consistent with the industry’s promise “to play, to contribute and to help pass health-care reform”:

Full Story: Think Progress » Health Insurance Industry Spin: Funding Attack Ads And Newt Gingrich Is Consistent With Supporting Reform.

Skater Johnny Weir not invited to participate in Stars on Ice because he is ‘not family friendly.’

Glaad reports that sponsors have “refused to allow” American figure skater Johnny Weir to join the Stars on Ice Tour because they deemed him “not family friendly.” While Weir — a three-time national champion — has never “officially announced his sexual orientation, he has garnered a significant amount of LGBT fans” and is also known for his flashy costumes. Weir won an online poll that asked fans who they wanted to see in the tour, but Stars on Ice seems to have barred him because of his “perceived sexual orientation”:

To say that Weir is “not family friendly” would be a clear jab at his perceived sexual orientation. Weir is extremely involved with his family. He is putting his younger brother through college, and supports the family financially because his father’s disability prohibits him from working. Weir’s dedication to his family can be clearly documented in the Sundance series, Be Good Johnny Weir, which follows him and his family and friends through his life and career as a championship skater.

Full Story: Think Progress » Skater Johnny Weir not invited to participate in Stars on Ice because he is ‘not family friendly.’.

Robert Rubin: Why Won’t He Go Away?

Chief Architect of the Financial Crash Is Still Treated as a Credible Economic Expert. Robert Rubin put in place all the pieces that set up the economy for the disaster that we are now living through. Why can’t he get off the stage?

As Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin put in place all the pieces that set up the economy for the disaster that we are now living through. He pushed legislation that weakened regulation of the financial sector; he cheered on a stock bubble that eventually grew to $10 trillion and he established an over-valued dollar as a matter of official policy.

He then left to take a top job at Citigroup where he was able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He earned well over $100 million in the decade after he left the Clinton administration. In the fall of 2008, when Citigroup was saved from bankruptcy with a taxpayer bailout, Rubin quietly slipped out the back door (with his money), resigning from his position at Citigroup.

It may not seem just that someone like Rubin would be allowed to live out his life in luxury after the policies that he promoted and personally profited from led to so much suffering for so many people. But that is the way things work in the United States these days. However, what is even more infuriating is that he doesn’t seem to have any intention of going away. He is still pontificating on the economy and desperately trying to rewrite history to exonerate himself.

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Robert Rubin: Why Won’t He Go Away?.

When Are You Dead? Science Just Made the Work of Religion a Bit More Difficult

A recent study of brain activity in those thought to be in a “vegetative” state blurs the line between life and death.

When are you dead?

This is a tricky question, where science and religion often hide, or collide. It’s answered in a diversity of ways by different cultures at different times, by different physicians in different hospitals, different shamans in different tribes. Is it when your heart stops working (as in Japan and Shintoism)? When your soul leaves your body (as in Tibet and Buddhism)? When your brain stops working? When a certain part of your brain stops working? Who decides when you’re dead?

Can you be dead in body, but not in mind? Vice versa?

Cogito ergo sum?

A new study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine adds intriguing neuroscientific fuel to the fires already ablaze around these questions.

Full Story: When Are You Dead? Science Just Made the Work of Religion a Bit More Difficult | Belief | AlterNet.

Pentagon Advisers Rake In Billions Off Their Own Advice

The same people who sell the Pentagon billions of dollars in technology are advising the Pentagon on what scientific and technical matters to focus on in the years to come.

On January 5, 2010 the U.S. Department of Defense announced the appointment of 39 new members, and 12 senior fellows, to the Defense Science Board (DSB) — a federal panel that provides “independent, informed advice and opinion on scientific, technical, manufacturing, acquisition process, and other matters of special interest to the Department of Defense.”

In a handout accompanying the Pentagon’s press release, new members — who serve one- to four-year terms — were identified mostly by their former government jobs and past employers, with only a few current affiliations given.

At a quick glance, the new roster of Defense Science Board consultants looks to be a select group of eminent former federal officials, top academics and a handful of industry executives. On further investigation, a more troubling picture emerges. While it often isn’t apparent in their short biographies, the people overseeing top defense contractors that sell the Pentagon billions of dollars in scientific and technical innovations each year, are, in fact, the very people advising the Pentagon on what scientific and technical matters to focus on in the years ahead.

Full Story: Pentagon Advisers Rake In Billions Off Their Own Advice | World | AlterNet.

Why a Big Mac Costs Less Than a Salad

We’ve got a lot of problems when it comes to our food system, but one of them was clearly articulated with a simple graphic.

We’ve got a lot of problems when it comes to our food system, but one of them was clearly articulated with a simple graphic. How do food subsidies affect what we’re eating? Check this out

This graphic was recently published by the Consumerist, with the few words, “This is why you’re fat.”

The New York Times had a little bit more to say about the graphic, which by the way was put together by Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The Times says:

Full Story: Why a Big Mac Costs Less Than a Salad | Food | AlterNet.

The Business Roundtable: The Most Powerful Corporate Business Club Most Americans Have Never Heard of

The Business Roundtable, an organization representing Fortune 500 CEOs, is at the heart of the Economic Elite’s power center.

DeGraw writes in the introduction to his report:

“It has now become evident to a critical mass that the Republican and Democratic parties, along with all three branches of our government, have been bought off by a well-organized Economic Elite who are tactically destroying our way of life. The harsh truth is that 99% of the US population no longer has political representation. The US economy, government and tax system is now blatantly rigged against us.Current statistical societal indicators clearly demonstrate that a strategic attack has been launched and an analysis of current governmental policies prove that conditions for 99% of Americans will continue to deteriorate. The Economic Elite have engineered a financial coup and have brought war to our doorstep. . . and make no mistake, they have launched a war to eliminate the US middle class.”

***

Part III: Exposing Our Enemy: Meet the Economic Elite

I don’t view the Economic Elite as a small group of men who meet in secrecy to control the world. They do feature elements of conspiracy and are clearly composed of secretive organizations like the Bilderberg Group — this is not a conspiracy theory, this is a conspiracy fact – but as a whole the Economic Elite are primarily united by ideology. They’re made up of thousands of individuals who subscribe to an ideology of exploitation and the belief that wealth and resources need to be concentrated into the fewest hands possible (theirs), at the expense of the many.

That being said, there are some definite lead players in this group and it is important that we are not too vague and expose the individuals who publicly lead them. Focusing on the fundamental structure of the US economy, we have people like Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Alan Greenspan, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, John Mack, Vikram Pandit,and  John Thain.

Full Story: The Business Roundtable: The Most Powerful Corporate Business Club Most Americans Have Never Heard of | Economy | AlterNet.

Study Debunks Insurers’ Explanation for Exorbitant Rate Hikes

The pro-health care reform group Health Care for America Now has released a study (pdf) that contradicts insurance companies’ claims that their recent, exorbitant rate hikes were driven by increases in the cost of medical care. The study shows that over the last eight years premiums have almost doubled, while medical inflation only increased by 40 percent. HCAN found that insurance companies are raising their rates more than 20 percent faster than the amount they are paying out to doctors, and twice as fast as their underlying costs of medical care are rising. In short, insurance companies are hiking premium prices much more quickly than their costs are increasing. HCAN also found that insurance companies are spending the extra money on perks. For example, Anthem spent $27 million on 103 executive retreats to locations like Hawaii in 2007 and 2008 alone. From 2000 to 2008, insurance companies spent $716.4 billion of their premium dollars on administrative costs, salaries for their CEOs, and investor profit — practically enough to fund the entire health reform bill.

Study in pdf

Full Story: Study Debunks Insurers’ Explanation for Exorbitant Rate Hikes | Center for Media and Democracy.

GE’s Dirty Green Jobs

In 2005 General Electric launched their “EcoMagination” campaign, a marketing effort built around selling products that help solve environmental problems and create green jobs.

According to GE’s CEO Jeffery Immelt “Our Ecomagination initiative has created tens of thousands of jobs at GE and in our supply chain.” And if the U.S. steps up and takes the lead on climate mitigation, Immelt promises to “create 250,000 green jobs in the economy.”

So what are GE’s new green jobs of the future going to look like? According to one group of GE “green” workers who have filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in Alabama (complaint below), GE’s vision for a green future looks more like a nightmare.

Full Story: GE’s Dirty Green Jobs | CommonDreams.org.

Dubai Investigation Exposes Israeli Ops in USA

An ongoing investigation by the Dubai Police force into the assassination of a high-level Hamas official in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January has drawn back the curtains of secrecy and deception to reveal yet again the contours of Israel’s massive and ever-expanding espionage operations in the United States.

The murder of Mahmoud Al Mabhouh in his room at the Al Bustan Rotana, a 275-room five-star luxury hotel, in Dubai on January 19 has been widely perceived to be a Mossad operation involving, by the most recent count, 27 suspects traveling on fraudulently obtained and falsified European or Australian passports. In late February and early March, the plot thickened suddenly and significantly when major US media outlet reports connected the crime and many of those involved in it to the USA and to corporations based in the USA and Israel and revealed that some of the suspected assassins, apparently members of a Mossad kidon team, had entered the USA after leaving Dubai.

ABC News reported on February 24 that Dubai police had identified 15 new suspects as part of a ring that killed Al Mabhouh.

Full Story: Dubai Investigation Exposes Israeli Ops in USA | Dissident Voice.

U.S. judge rules for Chevron in Ecuador case

Chevron Corp may pursue an international arbitration claim over environmental pollution allegations in Ecuador, a judge ruled on Thursday, part of a long-running case that carries a potential $27 billion liability for the second-largest U.S. oil company.

U.S. | Green Business

The government of Ecuador had asked Manhattan federal court Judge Leonard Sand to prevent Chevron from taking the 17-year-old case to arbitration under the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty.

U.S. courts had previously sent the litigation to be heard in Ecuador, where Chevron said last year that it had uncovered a $3 million bribery plot linked to the case. A lawyer for the government said Thursday's ruling does not halt the litigation in the South American country, where a court has yet to render a judgment.

Chevron has complained of government interference in the case, in which indigenous communities accused Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, of damaging their health and the Amazon rain forest and causing river pollution while operating petroleum facilities in the region.

Full Story: U.S. judge rules for Chevron in Ecuador case | Reuters.

Dennis Kucinich : War & Health

Democracy NOW!

Part 2

Part 3

Health Reform Myths

Paul Krugman

Health reform is back from the dead. Many Democrats have realized that their electoral prospects will be better if they can point to a real accomplishment. Polling on reform — which was never as negative as portrayed — shows signs of improving. And I’ve been really impressed by the passion and energy of this guy Barack Obama. Where was he last year?

But reform still has to run a gantlet of misinformation and outright lies. So let me address three big myths about the proposed reform, myths that are believed by many people who consider themselves well-informed, but who have actually fallen for deceptive spin.

The first of these myths, which has been all over the airwaves lately, is the claim that President Obama is proposing a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy, the share of G.D.P. currently spent on health.

Well, if having the government regulate and subsidize health insurance is a “takeover,” that takeover happened long ago. Medicare, Medicaid, and other government programs already pay for almost half of American health care, while private insurance pays for barely more than a third (the rest is mostly out-of-pocket expenses). And the great bulk of that private insurance is provided via employee plans, which are both subsidized with tax exemptions and tightly regulated.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Health Reform Myths – NYTimes.com.

Lehman Brothers Hid Borrowing, Examiner Says

It is the Wall Street equivalent of a coroner’s report — a 2,200-page document that lays out, in new and startling detail, how Lehman Brothers used accounting sleight of hand to conceal the bad investments that led to its undoing.

Every member of congress when they are elected, puts their hand on the bible and swears to uphold the constitution of the United States.

Bart Stupak has violated his oath of office and the Conference of Catholic Bishops violated their tax exempt status regarding the Stupak amendment in the healthcare bill and both should be punished appropriately. The question is will anyone have the guts to do it?

Stupak's arrogance in inviting representatives of the Conference of Catholic Bishops to write legislation regarding the abortion amendment, violates the first amendment to the constitution.

Full Story: Lehman Brothers Hid Borrowing, Examiner Says – NYTimes.com.

Why the Stupak amendment should be striken and Bart Stupak censured

Every member of congress when they are elected, puts their hand on the bible and swears to uphold the constitution of the United States.

Bart Stupak has violated his oath of office and the Conference of Catholic Bishops violated their tax exempt status regarding the Stupak amendment in the healthcare bill and both should be punished appropriately. The question is will anyone have the guts to do it?

Stupak’s arrogance in inviting representatives of the Conference of Catholic Bishops to write legislation regarding the abortion amendment, violates the first amendment to the constitution.

Full Story: Why the Stupak amendment should be striken and Bart Stupak censured.

Nobel Prize-Winning Scientists and Economists Call On Senate to Address Climate Change Now

: Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Lisa Nurnberger, 202-331-6959

March 11 – Nobel Prize-winning economists and scientists will deliver a letter to the U.S. Senate today, urging lawmakers to require immediate cuts in global warming emissions. The letter was signed by more than 2,000 prominent U.S. economists and climate scientists, including eight Nobel laureates, 32 National Academy of Sciences members, 11 MacArthur “genius award” winners, and three National Medal of Science recipients.

“The nation’s leading scientists and economists have joined together to tell policymakers that we agree about the urgency of addressing climate change now,” said James McCarthy, one of the letter’s organizers and a biological oceanography professor at Harvard University. “The bad news is the science of climate change is indisputable. The good news is we can cost-effectively cut the emissions that are causing it.”

McCarthy is a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) board, and a leader of the Nobel Peace Prize winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Full Story: Nobel Prize-Winning Scientists and Economists Call On Senate to Address Climate Change Now | CommonDreams.org.

Is the FOX Host Trying to Create a Church of Glenn Beck

After having already tried to influence his fans to abandon broad Christian humanitarian efforts, Beck hardly waited long to show how he might fill the void those Christians otherwise filled with their churches — he appears to be creating a faith all his own.

For a guy unwilling to even accept the label of “journalist” for fear of being found obviously lacking the moral integrity to live up to the title, Beck’s attempts to act as some kind of spiritual guide to his viewers seems altogether disturbing. On his radio program, he told his listeners and presumed acolytes of the Church of Beck, “You’ve got to be an evangelist for this message.” The message, of course, hearkens to a conservative ideal, but more specifically, to the one Beck propagates. As a mere radio and TV host with no college degree, Beck could hardly have referred to himself more clearly when he said, “The answer is not going to come from the elite in Washington. It’s not going to come from the elite in the schools.” He goes on to say the answer would come in the form of “you,” his listeners, but he follows with his own instructions on how to make it so, such as telling each to be “an evangelist” for his cause twice within a few minutes.

At the same time Beck calls for evangelism of his own cause, he continued his derision of the widespread Christian call for social justice. To Beck, social justice is nothing more than “a perversion of the Gospel” because “nowhere does Jesus say, ‘Hey, if somebody asks for your shirt, give your coat to the government and have the government give them a pair of slacks… You want to help out, you help out. It changes you. That’s what the Gospel is all about.”

Full Story: Is the FOX Host Trying to Create a Church of Glenn Beck | BuzzFlash.org.

The 9/11 hijackers are alive

According to the chief of Japans Democratic Party who says that the 9/11 hijackers are alive and that 9/11 was a complete hoax. Dr. David Ray Griffin is a professor and author who wrote The New Pearl Harbor Revisited and he says that he agrees; the World Trade Center was a hoax.

Powering Up Electronics With Cotton Fabric? It’s Happening

Cornell University is about to have a fashion show. And at that fashion show will be clothing made of fabric that is simply electrifying. No, really. Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, has developed cotton threads that, while remaining flexible and comfortable to wear, can conduct electric current as well as a metal wire. Simply knotting the threads is enough to create a complete circuit. A solar-powered dress with this technology literally woven into its fabric will be featured at the upcoming fashion show. But how it works sounds a little familiar.

According to the press release, “Using multidisciplinary nanotechnology developed at Cornell in collaboration with the universities at Bologna and Cagliari, Italy, Hinestroza and his colleagues developed a technique to permanently coat cotton fibers with electrically conductive nanoparticles. “We can definitively have sections of a traditional cotton fabric becoming conductive, hence a great myriad of applications can be achieved,” Hinestroza said.”

This sounds familiar. If you recall, in January we wrote about scientists at Stanford who are able to coat cotton and fabric in an “ink” of nanoparticles that could effectively turn it into a battery. So it sounds like this is a concept of growing interest across the science community, and perhaps we can expect some real progress in the idea of wearable electronics, especially as researchers make the fabric of ever higher quality:

Full Story: Powering Up Electronics With Cotton Fabric? It’s Happening. : TreeHugger.

Underwater Skyscraper is a Self-Sufficient City at Sea

Ocean levels are rising around the globe, so rather than tethering our buildings to the sinking shoreline why not suit them for a life at sea? That’s the approach behind the Water-Scraper, a futuristic self-sufficient floating city. A special mention in this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Competition, the design expands the concept of a floating island into a full-fledged underwater skyscraper that harvests renewable energy and grows its own food.

Touted as a self-sufficent floating city, Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum’s Water-Scraper utilizes a variety of green technologies. It generates its own electricity using wave, wind, and solar power and it produces its own food through farming, aquaculture, and hydroponic techniques. The surface of the submerged skyscraper sustains a small forest, while the lower levels contain spaces for its inhabitants to live and work. The building is kept upright using a system of ballasts aided by a set of squid-like tentacles that generate kinetic energy.

The architects “envision a future where land as a resource will be scarce; it is only natural progression that we create our own. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, even more if climate change has its way, hence it is only natural progression that we will populate the seas someday.” As anyone who has seen Waterworld will attest, it’s a grim future indeed — which is why it’s essential that we do what we can to stem the course of the world’s rising tides.

Full Story: Underwater Skyscraper is a Self-Sufficient City at Sea | Inhabitat.

The dangers of deficit reduction

Joseph E. Stiglitz:  -

A wave of fiscal austerity is rushing over Europe and America. The magnitude of budget deficits — like the magnitude of the downturn — has taken many by surprise. But despite protests by yesterday’s proponents of deregulation, who would like the government to remain passive, most economists believe that government spending has made a difference, helping to avert another Great Depression.

Most economists also agree that it is a mistake to look at only one side of a balance sheet (whether for the public or private sector). One has to look not only at what a country or firm owes, but also at its assets. This should help answer those financial-sector hawks who are raising alarms about government spending. After all, even deficit hawks acknowledge that we should be focusing not on today’s deficit, but on the long-term national debt. Spending, especially on investments in education, technology and infrastructure, can actually lead to lower long-term deficits.

Faster growth and returns on public investment yield higher tax revenues, and a 5 to 6 percent return is more than enough to offset temporary increases in the national debt. A social cost-benefit analysis (taking into account impacts other than on the budget) makes such expenditures, even when debt-financed, even more attractive.

Full Story: Joseph E. Stiglitz: The dangers of deficit reduction.

The U.S. will no longer turn a blind eye to Israeli settlements

Even Mahmoud Abbas would have been hard put to dream up a greater victory for Palestinian diplomacy than the one handed to him Tuesday on a silver platter by the Israeli Interior Ministry. The condemnations have been pouring in since the plan to build 1,600 homes in Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood was announced. Not only from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, but from the United Nations, the European Union and world leaders, all of them slamming the decision.

While government officials were busy yesterday blaming each other for the bad timing, it seems they were missing the bigger picture: Washington and the international community will no longer accept, even by looking the other way, Israeli construction in East Jerusalem. The capital is now the focus of the cold (but slowly warming) war between Israel and the Palestinians.

Full Story: The U.S. will no longer turn a blind eye to Israeli settlements – Haaretz – Israel News.

EU Parliament backs Goldstone Report

In a move likely to worsen EU ties with Israel, the European Parliament urged its 27-member states Wednesday to monitor the Israeli and Palestinian probes into alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The parliament also called on Israel to immediately open border crossings with the Gaza Strip, saying the blockade was worsening the humanitarian crisis there.

The resolution backed the findings of a UN-appointed expert panel chaired by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, which concluded that both sides committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity throughout the IDF operation that began in December 2008 and ended in January 2009.

Full Story: EU Parliament backs Goldstone Report.

Senate-passed health care bill would cut deficit

Congressional budget referees say Senate legislation that’s now the foundation for President Barack Obama’s health care plan would cut the federal deficit by $118 billion over 10 years.

Full Story: Senate-passed health care bill would cut deficit.

Ensign sex scandal widens as new emails emerge

The scandal that erupted last year when it was revealed that Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) had not only had an affair with the wife of one of his top aides but may have violated Senate ethics rules in an attempt to hush the matter up expanded this week with the release of emails further documenting Ensign’s efforts on behalf of his former aide.

The New York Times reported in October that when Douglas Hampton confronted Ensign about the affair, Ensign arranged for him to take a job as a lobbyist with a Nevada consulting firm, an apparent violation of Senate restrictions on lobbying by former aides. Ensign then steered some of his own corporate donors to Hampton as clients on whose behalf Hampton lobbied his former boss.

The Times has now obtained emails which appear to show Ensign also trying to arrange for Hampton to be hired by a small Las Vegas energy investment firm which was seeking Ensign’s help on several projects. The firm’s co-owner, Greg Paulk, had previously donated to Ensign’s campaign.

Full Story: Ensign sex scandal widens as new emails emerge | Raw Story.

Atheist Undercover in an Evangelical Church

I know what it’s like to be a Jew jonesing for Jesus — at least for the purposes of a memoir. I spent a year going to 52 different churches each Sunday. So I was quite happy to find out I was not alone. Gina Welch’s new book, In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church, takes the reader into the heart of the religious right as Welch goes undercover at the megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia founded by Jerry Falwell (and now run by his son.)

In the end, she came out — as we all should — more understanding of our religious neighbors. Her book is a great example of how those on any side of the religious, political, or cultural divide can retire our preconceived notions by walking a mile in someone else’s shoes and come out a more tolerant and well-rounded individual because of it. In that sense, we should all try to emulate Welch’s open-mindedness.

Full Story: Benyamin Cohen: 6 Questions for an Atheist Undercover in an Evangelical Church.

GOP Gameplan Is To Sow Doubt On Reconciliation

Hoping to trip up health care reform as it enters its final procedural stages, leading Republicans are trying to sow doubts in the minds of House Democrats that the Senate will end up fixing the legislation in ways that they like.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) admitted, during a press conference organized by health policy journal Health Affairs on Thursday, that his role now is to make skeptical House Democrats even more doubtful that the Senate can change the bill it passes using reconciliation. He insisted that tough votes on non-health care related topics are bound to come up, raised the specter that the reconciliation process will shut the Senate down, and even questioned whether the president can use reconciliation in the first place.

Asked by the Huffington Post if he was trying to stir uncertainty among Democrats, the New Hampshire Republican replied: “Absolutely. We are trying to open the eyes of our colleagues on the Democratic side who are being solicited with goodies that the boat into which all these goodies are being put may not ever come to dock.”

Full Story: Gregg: GOP Gameplan Is To Sow Doubt On Reconciliation.

Bill to Include Agency That Tracks Financial Risk

Senate Banking Committee members from both parties said on Wednesday that they had agreed to include in their regulatory overhaul bill a new Office of Research and Analysis that would provide early warnings of possible systemic collapses.

The proposed agency, which has sometimes been referred to as the National Institute of Finance, is intended to give federal regulators daily updates on the stability of individual firms as well as that of their trading partners, including hedge funds.

By standardizing financial instruments and reporting mechanisms, the agency would give regulators a broader view of the health of participants in the financial markets and the potential for problems to spread. The idea’s supporters say that kind of information was lacking in recent years as the housing bubble burst and troubles spread from firm to firm.

Full Story: Bill to Include Agency That Tracks Financial Risk – NYTimes.com.

French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment

A 50-year mystery over the ‘cursed bread’ of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.

The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.

Full Story: French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment – Telegraph.

UN expert slams US for not looking into torture claims

The UN’s independent expert on torture on Wednesday criticised the Obama administration for not investigating allegations of torture made when president George W. Bush was in power.

“This is my criticism of the Obama administration: There is not enough done to remedy what has been done in the past,” Manfred Nowak, UN special rapporteur on torture, told journalists.

“I think it’s a legal question,” he said.

“The US are a part of the UN Convention against Torture, but there are very clear legal obligations — wherever you have indications, complaints about torture, then you have to investigate them independently and effectively.”

Full Story: UN expert slams US for not looking into torture claims | Raw Story.

Two million need food aid in Zimbabwe: Red Cross

The Red Cross on Thursday said at least 2.17 million Zimbabweans need food aid and the figures are set to rise because of an expected poor harvest this year.

“In some parts of the country, the food situation is as bad as many of our volunteers and staff have ever seen it,” said Emma Kundishora, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society.

“In Masvingo, for example, the rains didn’t come in time and the crops have already died.”

A report by aid agencies last month said at least 11 percent of the staple maize crop planted in the 2009/2010 season had been declared “a complete write-off” because of poor rains.

Full Story: Two million need food aid in Zimbabwe: Red Cross – Yahoo! News.

Poll: Only 4% don’t want any health care reform

Americans and their lawmakers are dramatically out of sync on health care, with large majorities of people looking for bipartisan cooperation that’s nowhere in sight.

A new Associated Press-GfK Poll finds a widespread hunger for improvements to the health care system, which suggests President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies have a political opening to push their plan. Half of all Americans say health care should be changed a lot or “a great deal,” and only 4 percent say it shouldn’t be changed at all.

But they don’t like the way the debate is playing out in Washington, where GOP lawmakers unanimously oppose the Obama-backed legislation and Democrats are struggling to pass it by themselves with narrow House and Senate majorities.

Full Story: Poll: Only four percent don’t want any health care reform | Raw Story.

Maher: Obama’s ‘mistake’ was not telling Republicans to ’suck on it’

On health care, Democrats ‘should have started with single payer,’ he alleges

Maher: Obamas mistake was not telling Republicans to suck on it

Comedian and political commentator Bill Maher said Wednesday that President Obama’s insistence on courting Republican votes on his legislative priorities has weakened his presidency and the outcome of health care reform.

“I think the biggest mistake that he has made in his first year was to put bipartisanship ahead of fixing the country,” Maher declared Wednesday on MSNBC’s Countdown With Keith Olbermann

Full Story: Maher: Obama’s ‘mistake’ was not telling Republicans to ’suck on it’ | Raw Story.

Socially conscious Christians take the fight to Glenn Beck

Talk show host Glenn Beck has made some enemies in a corner of American society where most Fox News pundits would prefer to have friends: The Christian community.

Beck has upset the socially-conscious, activist side of the Christian movement with comments last week that listeners should “run” from churches that talk about “social justice” because they are espousing ideas that came from communists and Nazis.

On his radio show last week, Beck told his audience that churches which use the expression “social justice” are following an extremist agenda.

Full Story: Socially conscious Christians take the fight to Glenn Beck | Raw Story.

TurboTax drops Glenn Beck, whose show has gone without ads for more than a month in the UK.

Yesterday, StopBeck.com announced that TurboTax has become the 120th advertiser to drop Fox News host Glenn Beck. In an announcement on Twitter, TurboTax stated:

Thanks everyone for your feedback, & for reminding us of what we value. We’ve pulled advertising from the Glenn Beck show.

TurboTax’s decision to pull out of Beck’s show came just two days after the company began running ads, according to StopBeck.com. Additionally, “the broadcast of Glenn Beck’s show in the U.K. has been running without any advertisers for over a month now.” TurboTax’s announcement comes as Beck has begun endorsing Tax Resolution

Services, the latest in his line-up of questionable endorsement deals.

Full Story: Think Progress » TurboTax drops Glenn Beck, whose show has gone without ads for more than a month in the UK..

170 House Republicans rebuff Steele by voting to ban RNC’s ‘Census’ mailer.

Under Chairman Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee has been using controversial mailers posing as official Census documents to raise money. “Calling itself the ‘Congressional District Census,’ the letter comes in an envelope starkly printed with the words, ‘DO NOT DESTROY OFFICIAL DOCUMENT’ and describes itself, on the outside of the envelope, as a ‘census document,’” notes Politico. Although the mailers have been used before, they were heavily criticized this year because they coincide with the actual Census; many observers worried that people would confuse the two. Yesterday, the House voted 416-0 to ban “misleading mailings designed to appear they’re from the Census Bureau”:

The legislation passed 416-0, after two Republicans who sit on the House panel overseeing the census, Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Jason Chaffetz of Utah, agreed to co-sponsor the measure. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., has said he intends to move forward with legislation in the Senate.

Full Story: Think Progress » 170 House Republicans rebuff Steele by voting to ban RNC’s ‘Census’ mailer..

Business regulation – EU hits back at Geithner on regulation

Hedge fund rules ‘in line’ with G20 push on transparency

Top European Union officials hit back on Thursday at criticism from Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, who has accused Brussels of pushing ahead with rules to regulate managers of hedge funds and other alternative investment funds that could be protectionist.

A spokesman for Michel Barnier, the new EU internal market commissioner who is responsible for financial services regulation and to whom Mr Geithner addressed his concerns, said that the EU decision to act on hedge funds was in line with a G20 decision to reinforce transparency in the financial system.

Full Story: FT.com / Brussels / Business regulation – EU hits back at Geithner on regulation.

Inside Alan Greenspan’s nightmare

Mark Weisbrot

News that wages are rising in China is greeted with dread by those who share Greenspan’s unwarranted fear of rising inflation

Alan Greenspan had a dream, or rather a nightmare. Greenspan seems to have woken up in a cold sweat one morning in fear that the period of “disinflationary pressures” that had kept inflation low since the 1990s was about to end. This was 2007, when he published his autobiographical economic treatise, The Age of Turbulence. Despite his well-known love for economic data, and poring over the latest reports from every statistical agency, he did not realise that he was sitting on a housing bubble of epic proportions. Not seeing the bubble (he also missed the prior stock market bubble that accumulated and burst on his watch, causing the 2001 downturn), he could not know that it would soon collapse and cause a very ugly recession, in which inflation would be irrelevant.

This by itself should be enough to question the wisdom of central bankers, since the evidence for both of these world-historic asset bubbles was blindingly obvious once they had reached a certain size. But Greenspan’s nightmare is scary for other reasons, some of which will become increasingly relevant as the world economy recovers.

As Greenspan details in his book, the reason for his nightmare is that the world was depleting its stock of hundreds of millions of unemployed people, including those of the former Soviet Union and also in rural China. In other words, “too many” of them had become employed, and this was allowing for wages of factory workers in China to rise. So long as China had a huge mass of unemployed, wages were held in check, and – according to Greenspan – competition from low-wage production there held down wages in the rest of the world, including even rich countries like the United States. All good! Until the nightmare started.

Full Story: Inside Alan Greenspan’s nightmare | Mark Weisbrot | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Breaking the Silence on War

By the Editors of Rethinking Schools -

When the World Trade Center was attacked, the international crisis reverberated in schools all over the United States. In kindergarten through high school classrooms, teachers struggled to figure out age-appropriate ways to talk about the violence.

In that endless month leading up to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and then during the contentious months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the worldwide debate about the war was echoed in classrooms. Teachers searched for curriculum, children expressed fears for relatives in the military, and youth showed anxiety about the possibility of a renewed draft. A month before the invasion of Iraq, the New York Times declared that global antiwar protests were “a new power in the streets.” After the invasion, at first there were demonstrations every day in major cities, then every month, then once a year. There was a flurry of political activity as the first high school alumni were killed, as military recruiters swarmed onto high school campuses.

Today in classrooms, as in the streets, there is too much silence.

Full Story: Editorial – Volume 24 No. 2 – Winter 2010 – Rethinking Schools Online.

Sanders: Obama Has Tragically Lost The Youth, Antagonized Unions

A trio of the Senate’s leading progressives expressed concern on Wednesday that President Obama has squandered the transformational political coalition that propelled him into office, concluding that he will pay a price for it.

Speaking at a progressive media summit, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called it a “tragic mistake” that the White House fruitlessly chased Republican votes on health care rather than take advantage of the ripe environment to pass legislation.

“What is very sad is we had hopes that [the] election was transformational in the sense of bringing people into the political process who have never been in it before,” Sanders said. “I tried very hard in Vermont to bring young people into the political process. It is very hard to do. Obama did it. But you know where those young people are now? They are not in the political process. They really aren’t. We have lost them. We have antagonized trade unionists. We have not done well with seniors. I don’t think we have done well with women. And I think that was a tragic mistake.”

Full Story: Sanders: Obama Has Tragically Lost The Youth, Antagonized Unions.

Private Firms Line Up as Haiti Opens for Business

Haiti’s road to recovery took a new twist Wednesday as a trade group representing private security contractors wrapped up a conference on reconstruction in the earthquake-battered nation.

“You don’t want to look like you’re profiteering off situations like these,” Derrell Griffith, project director at Sabre International, said. “But there is a need and the people need it quick.”

The conference was organized by the Association of the Stability Operations Industry, also known as IPOA, representing some 60 companies working in logistics and security, many of them active in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Full Story: Private Firms Line Up as Haiti Opens for Business | CommonDreams.org.

Greece hit by another strike over spending cuts

Greece ground to a virtual halt today as workers held yet another general strike in protest at painful spending cuts.

Public transport was halted, flights grounded and state hospitals left with emergency staff only in the latest show of discontent since the government’s harsh new austerity plan was introduced last week in an effort to trim its ballooning deficit.

Under intense pressure from the European Union to quickly show fiscal improvement, the government announced an additional £4.4 billion in savings through public sector salary cuts, hiring and pension freezes and consumer tax hikes.

Full Story: Greece hit by another strike over spending cuts – Europe, World – The Independent.

And For What! Congressman Grayson

Grayson on the Floor attacks the Military Industrial Complex

Max Keiser Report №24:

This time Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandals behind psychic scams, money heaven and credit default swap bans. Keiser talks to Business Insider’s Joe Wiesenthal about derivatives, hedge funds, the economy and day trading politicians.

Obama’s liberal base ‘disengaged’

Is President Obama losing his base?

Liberal and progressive organizations that helped propel him to the White House are turning on him now, little more than a year after he took office. Their collective discontent, on issues from health care to nuclear energy to the handling of terrorism suspects, could mean bad news for Democrats during this fall’s congressional elections.

Polls show that liberals and blacks still approve of the job Obama’s doing. That approval, however, doesn’t necessarily mean they will make the effort to vote, and many of the activists and groups that worked to get people to the polls in 2008 say they’re not inclined right now to help Democrats in the fall.

“The energized base which transformed the nation and elected our first black president (is) now disengaged,” Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile says. “If this was September, I would hit the panic button.”

Full Story: Obama’s liberal base ‘disengaged’ – USATODAY.com.

From the Huffington Post to Rethink Afghanistan

According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, U.S. and Allied forces have killed and injured more civilians than have the insurgents during Operation Moshtarak. Incredibly, the Pentagon continues to insist that this operation “protects the people.” AIHRC’s

Feb. 23 press release reports:

“AIHRC is concerned at the loss of life and civilian harm already caused by this operation. AIHRC found that in the first 12 days of Operation Mushtarak 28 civilians, including 13 children, were killed and approximately 70 civilians, including 30 children, were injured. “Witnesses suggested the majority of the casualties were caused by PGF artillery and rocket-fire.”

Full Story: From the Huffington Post to Rethink Afghanistan.

Kansas City School Board Closes Almost Half Of City’s Schools In Face Of Bankruptcy

Kansas City School Superintendent John Covington says the decision to close almost half the district’s schools was difficult and painful but “unquestionably the right thing to do.”

The Kansas City school board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to close 29 of the district’s 61 schools in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. The schools will close at the end of the school year.

During a news conference Thursday, Covington thanked the board for its vote. He said the district was spreading itself too thin by educating less than 18,000 students in 61 schools.

Full Story: Kansas City School Board Closes Almost Half Of City’s Schools In Face Of Bankruptcy.

12 Industries That Will Be Adding Jobs Very Soon

Are we nearing a rebound in hiring? If the anecdotal evidence is any indication, we certainly are. According to Manpower’s quarterly Employment Outlook Survey, hiring in almost every sector is about to get better.

The staffing company’s assessment, which surveys employers in thirteen industries, found that twelve of the thirteen have net positive employment outlooks for the second quarter of this year. Even in the lone sector with a net negative outlook — government — 10 percent of employers said they expected to hire more people next quarter.

Here’s Manpower:

Of the more than 18,000 employers surveyed across the nation, 16% anticipate an increase in staff levels during Quarter 2 2010, while 8% expect a decrease in payrolls, resulting in a Net Employment Outlook of +8%. When seasonally adjusted, the Net Employment Outlook becomes +5%…

Full Story: 12 Industries That Will Be Adding Jobs Very Soon (PHOTOS).

GMAC Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $6.3 Billion, Says Watchdog

The Treasury Department sank billions into auto finance giant GMAC Inc. without an exit strategy or proof the company was viable – a decision that could cost taxpayers $6.3 billion, a new watchdog report says.

The government said the $17.2 billion bailout was a necessary step to save troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler. GMAC provides critical financing to auto dealers, who borrow to finance their fleets until the cars can be sold to consumers.

Yet GMAC faced far fewer conditions than the bailed-out automakers, the report says. When the automakers were rescued, they were forced into bankruptcy. Shareholders lost their investments, creditors took a hit and executives were forced to detail plans for making the companies viable.

Full Story: GMAC Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $6.3 Billion, Says Watchdog.

OPS: New Rule – The Sr Management and Board of Directors of any Corporations that requires a government bailout receives an automatic 10 year jail sentence (no parole, no pardons)

Church Abuse Scandals ‘Creeping Ever Closer’ To The Pope

Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself.

While there has been no suggestion of wrongdoing by Benedict, the launch of an inquiry by German Catholic officials after his brother admitted he slapped children years ago is stirring Vatican fears of a major crisis for the papacy.

Benedict, 82, was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982 when he was brought to the Vatican to head the body responsible for investigating abuse cases. During that time, he came under criticism for decreeing that even the most serious abuse cases must first be investigated internally.

Full Story: Church Abuse Scandals ‘Creeping Ever Closer’ To The Pope.

Senators Target Wall Street, With Goldman Sachs In Mind

A quintet of Democratic senators introduced legislation Wednesday to specifically prohibit investment maneuvers that have been likened to “selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars”.

Senators Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Ted Kaufman (Del.) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) are pushing the Obama administration’s proposal to rein in banks’ Wall Street-like practices, such as trading securities for their own profit, while they enjoy the protections afforded by U.S. taxpayers through deposit insurance and access to cheap funds courtesy of short-term loans from the Federal Reserve. Their legislation also attempts to sever the ties between banks and largely unregulated hedge funds and private equity funds — firms that invest and bet for the benefit of their investors.

Those two proposals try to resurrect the wall between Main Street banking and Wall Street trading, a Depression-era reform that was torn down during the Clinton administration. After excessive risk-taking by Wall Street culminated in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, necessitating hundreds of billions of dollars in a taxpayer-funded bailout, top economists and Wall Street veterans have come out in favor of at least partially restoring that divide.

Full Story: Senators Target Wall Street, With Goldman Sachs In Mind.

The Speech For Which We Have Been Waiting

For nearly two years now we have waited for a speech. We need a simple speech and a direct speech – most of all a political speech – about what exactly happened to our financial system, and therefore to our economy, and what we must do to make sure it can never happen again.

…snip…

On Thursday, Senator Ted Kaufman (D., DE) is due to deliver a strong blow to the overly powerful and unproductively mighty within our financial sector. He will say, according to what is now on his website,

1. Excessive deregulation allowed big finance to get out of control from the 1980s – but particularly during and after the 1990s. This led directly to the economic catastrophe in 2007-08.
2. We need to modernize and apply the same general principles that were behind the Glass-Steagall, i.e., separating “boring” but essential commercial banking (running payments, offering deposits-with-insurance, etc) from “risky” other forms of financial activity
3. We need size caps on the biggest banks in our financial system, preferably as a percent of GDP.
4. We should tighten capital requirements substantially.
5. And we must regulate derivatives more tightly – on this issue, he likes at least some of the steps being pushed by Gary Gensler at the CFTC.

Full Story: Simon Johnson: The Speech For Which We Have Been Waiting.

Unemployment insurance continuing claims spike

The number of Americans filing continuing claims for unemployment insurance spiked last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, as sluggish hiring continues to drag on the labor market’s recovery.

The number of people filing continuing claims jumped to 4,558,000 in the week ended Feb. 27, the most recent data available. That was up 37,000 from the preceding week’s upwardly revised 4,521,000 claims.

Economists were expecting continuing claims to remain unchanged at 4,500,000.

Full Story: Unemployment insurance continuing claims spike – Mar. 11, 2010.

Sanders: ‘One year later, the White House gets it’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday assailed the White House for purportedly wasting a year vying for Republican votes on health care reform, alleging that the protracted debate weakened the bill and damaged the party’s standing among progressives.

“We have wasted month after month negotiating with people who do not support serious reform,” he said at a progressive media summit on Capitol Hill. “It’s been a year now and I think the White House finally got that message.”

President Obama advocated for a bipartisan bill last year and worked extensively to court Republican votes, offering major concessions in the process. But only one Republican – Rep. Joseph Cao (LA) – in Congress wound up voting for it, and even he has since backed out.

Full Story: Sanders: ‘One year later, the White House gets it’ | Raw Story.

GOP CA Gov Hopeful Meg Whitman Holds Press Event, Refuses to Answer Questions –

Reporters Shooed Out As Security Blocks Cameras

Meg Whitman, the billionaire former EBay executive who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor of California, has fumbled again — this time by badly abusing the trust of some of the state’s top political reporters.

Here’s how Carla Marinucci, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, described it:

Press shy GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman found herself challenged by reporters today after she announced an “open press” stop in Oakland, then refused to take questions the press — which was also barred from covering her tour of the port’s Union Pacific facility.

Reporters from Bay Area media outlets — TV, print and radio — turned up for Whitman’s advertised campaign stop in Oakland, where the former eBay CEO had announced a campaign stop and press event.

But once at the Union Pacific Railroad site, the assembled reporters were not allowed to view her tour — and herded into a holding room instead.

Full Story: Pensito Review.

When Jesus Attacks! Why don’t we care that the Catholic Church is officially whipping Congress?

It’s Time to Separate Church and State, Once and for All

If you recall, anti-Catholic prejudice was once a problem for Catholic politicians in the US. John F. Kennedy went so far as to address the issue head-on in his 1960 campaign – probably because he didn’t feel he had much choice. Here’s what he told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12 of that year:

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.

He went on to assert his respect for the separation of church and state and vowed that Catholic officials would not dictate policy to him. As noted in part 1, the times, they have a-changed.

In 1960 it was “anti-Catholic prejudice.” In 2010 it’s “empirical evidence of improper behavior by the Roman Catholic Church.” And it’s time it stopped. Cold.

Full Story: Scholars and Rogues » When Jesus Attacks! Why don’t we care that the Catholic Church is officially whipping Congress?.

Why are we the only stupid industrialized country in the world?

Thom Hartmann -

if we had Medicare for All, the postal service would be profitable.

The postal service this week announced it would be cutting as many as 30,000 jobs through attrition – using hiring freezes as workers retire or quit.

According to American Postal Workers Union president William Burrus, cutting the U.S. Postal Service delivery to five days a week would be the beginning of the demise of the Post office. Burrus says it’s not true that the postal service has to initiate major changes to survive a grave crisis.

Burrus says a little-known requirement by Congress for the postal service to pre-pay retiree health care obligations is the central cause of financial problems at the postal service. Absent that burden, the union president says, there would be a surplus of $3.7 billion over the last three fiscal years. In other words, if we had Medicare for All, the postal service would be profitable. Probably forever. Why are we the only stupid industrialized country in the world?

Full Story: OpEdNews – Article: Why are we the only stupid industrialized country in the world?.

Time for the U.S. to Join the Value-Added Tax Bandwagon

The value-added tax allows nations to build revenue through taxation, and thus guarantees their financial stability, but it builds revenue on foreigners as well as domestic residents. In the U.S. we tax our own citizens and then ask foreign countries to loan us the difference.

The value-added tax, or VAT, is the most widespread and successful taxation scheme in use around the world today. More than 140 nations utilize the value-added tax system as a means of building government revenue.

Unfortunately, the VAT also acts as a means of unofficially blockading imported goods. The value-added tax is plugged on to every good and service inside the economy. In so doing it makes domestic alternatives more fiscally or economically responsible as consumer items.

Every time a nation joins the World Trade Organization, or signs into a new free trade agreement, it almost always replaces the now illegal “import tariffs” with a completely legal national consumption tax – almost always in the form of a VAT. The new national consumption tax acts just like a tariff, but it does so within the legal confines of the WTO and other international accords.

Full Story: Time for the U.S. to Join the Value-Added Tax Bandwagon | Economy In Crisis.

China’s Exports Surge 46%

Since 2005, Americans have spent $1.1 trillion on Chinese products; Chinese consumers have bought just $272 billion worth of goods over that same time.

For the third consecutive month, China’s exports rose, suggesting demand may be picking up in the U.S. and Europe, and leading some to believe that China may soon face increasing pressure to let its currency appreciate against the dollar.

China’s February exports rose nearly 46 percent compared with the same period last year, to $94.5 billion, beating most expectations, officials announced Wednesday. China’s export figures last month are all the more impressive given the fact that many businesses shut down for a week for the nation’s Lunar New Year.

Overall for the month, China held a $7.6 billion trade surplus with the rest of the world, much of which was driven by the Asian nation’s trade surplus with the U.S.

The better than expected export report, however, could cause other nation’s to demand that China allows its currency, the yuan, which has been pegged to the dollar for 18 months, to appreciate to appropriate levels.

Full Story: China’s Exports Surge 46% | Economy In Crisis.

How to provide relief to rural Americans, create jobs, and lower emissions … all at once!

Most homeowners in the U.S. would come out ahead if they invested in energy efficiency improvements — new insulation, sealed windows, more efficient boilers, and the like. So why don’t they do it? Simple: the upfront costs are steep and the paybacks can take a long time. Many homeowners don’t have access to the capital to cover the costs, or they worry that they will move before the the costs are repaid, thus leaving subsequent owners to reap gains they didn’t pay for.

Given the substantial public good served by having these retrofits done — they save consumers money, create jobs, and reduce carbon pollution — how can public policy encourage them?

If you can come up with half the upfront cost, you can use the “Cash for Caulkers” (i.e., Home Star) program that’s going to be passed into law soon. Or if you live in a town or city that can afford one, you can take advantage of a PACE program, which offers loans that cover the initial costs and are paid back over time from energy savings.

Who does that leave out? Who doesn’t have upfront capital and doesn’t live in a city with money to spend on PACE? You guessed it: rural homeowners.

Full Story: How to provide relief to rural Americans, create jobs, and lower emissions … all at once! | Grist.

Water and the War on Terror

Why Availability of Freshwater Is a Huge Factor in the ‘War on Terror’

While leaders in Washington have been war-gaming the national security risks of climate change, they’ve only started to connect the dots to the closely related threats emanating from the growing crisis of global freshwater scarcity. At first blush, water and national security may not seem to be interlinked. But the reality, as narrated in my new book WATER: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization, is that the unfolding global water crisis increasingly influences the outcome of America’s two wars, homeland defense against international terrorism, and other key U.S. national-security interests, including the transforming planetary environment and world geopolitical order.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali famously predicted 25 years ago that the “next war in the Middle East will be fought over water.” While that has yet to come to pass, the greatest present danger stems from failing nation-states — and not just in the bone-dry Middle East. With world water use growing at twice the rate of human population over the last century, many of the Earth’s vital freshwater ecosystems are already critically depleted and being used unsustainably to support our global population of 6.5 billion, according the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the situation can only be expected to get worse as the population pushes toward 9 billion by 2050. As great rivers run dry before reaching the sea, groundwater is mined deeper and deeper beyond replenishment levels, and water quality erodes with growing pollution, an explosive fault line is cleaving between freshwater Haves and Have-Nots across the political, economic, and social landscapes of the 21st century.

Among the water Have-Nots are the 3.6 billion who will live in countries that won’t be able to feed themselves within 15 years due largely to scarcity of water — likely to include giant India. Throughout history, states that have been unable to feed themselves with homegrown or reliably imported cheap food have stagnated, declined, and often collapsed, with grievous adjustments in living standards, population levels, and regional turmoil.

Full Story: Water and the War on Terror | Grist.

SEC Drills a Peephole into Boardrooms

Imagine the Senate with no C-SPAN, no journalists, no public sessions, no transcripts, no voting records, and no accountability — that’s boardroom elections

Over half the world’s biggest economies are corporations. In America, business arguably exerts more influence over government than does government over business. Nominally, the 52 million American households that hold stocks own these firms vote for the boards of directors who are supposed to represent their interests. And now that boardroom negligence is being exposed as a major contributor to the recent economic meltdown–leading to taxpayers owning 80 percent of the shares of such bailed out companies as AIG–these directors should be more answerable both to shareholders and We the People.

If you think political democracy has its problems, wait until you see what goes on in our other elections. Imagine the Senate with no C-SPAN, no journalists, no public sessions, no transcripts, no voting records, no open nominating process, and no accountability. And all of them work for the President, who also happens to be a one-person Supreme Court. That’s about what we have in the American corporate boardroom.

Full Story: SEC Drills a Peephole into Boardrooms | Economy | AlterNet.

Enough Glowing Comparisons, Glenn Beck’s Tea Party Is Heir to John Birch Society

The Tea Party that worships Sarah Palin and screams for Barack Obama’s birth certificate doesn’t merit comparison to positive social movements of the 1960s.

There is a fresh interpretive fad in the young field of Tea Party Studies: The New Right of 2010 as the New Left of the 1960s.

According to this nascent meme, today’s conservative grassroots holds strong echoes of earlier radicalism on the left. The Tea Party movement that worships Sarah Palin and screams for Barack Obama’s birth certificate is, in this view, more than just the latest herpetic outbreak of Richard Hofstadter’s paranoid “pseudo-conservatism.” It is a reincarnation of the New Left and 1960s counterculture. The Tea Partiers, it is becoming fashionable to argue, are the heirs not just of the John Birch Society and the young Barry Goldwater, but also of Students for a Democratic Society and the young Abbie Hoffman.

If this analogy smells suspect, it’s for good reason. Yet it appears to be gaining traction, especially among a certain breed of moderate with confused understandings of Tea Party conservatism, the New Left, and ’60s counterculture. In late February, Michael Lind wrote a Salon piece in which he claimed, “The tea partiers are the hippies of our time…In Glenn Beck, the countercultural right has found its own Abbie Hoffman.”

Full Story: Enough Glowing Comparisons, Glenn Beck’s Tea Party Is Heir to John Birch Society | News & Politics | AlterNet.

Will Stupak and the Catholic Bishops Kill Health-Care Reform?

The outcome of the battle for health-care reform may rest on the say-so of one man, Rep. Bart Stupak. But he’s got an army of Catholic bishops pulling his strings.

With the congressional spring recess fast approaching, it’s crunch time, once again, for health-care reform. And once again, one Democrat, Rep. Bart Stupak, is threatening to kill the bill — with the help of 10 or so anti-choice compatriots — if the final deal does not include the draconian language on abortion contained in the health-care reform legislation passed by the House in November.

Stupak no doubt feels like the big man in this fight, the guy who can stop the clock and deprive some 30 million uninsured Americans a shot at having health-care coverage. In truth, however, the big men are the ones in mitres and vestments: the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It was they who demanded the Stupak amendment to the House bill, which bars any American who receives a government subsidy to purchase health insurance through a government-run insurance exchange from purchasing a plan that includes coverage for abortion.

Full Story: Will Stupak and the Catholic Bishops Kill Health-Care Reform? | News & Politics | AlterNet.

Meet the Man Behind Utah’s New Law Criminalizing Miscarriages

Rep. Carl Wimmer discusses his Criminal Homicide and Abortion Revisions bill and his long-term plans to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Utah Republican Rep. Carl Wimmer doesn’t hide the fact that he’s working to overturn Roe v. Wade.

As Chair of the Utah Family Action Council Team, Rep. Wimmer’s Web site says the legislation he’s introduced or sponsored over the past few years, including the Unborn Child Pain Prevention Act, which requires doctors to inform pregnant women and girls that their fetus may experience pain during abortions, “chips away at the nation’s abortion laws. We are continually working to pass pro-life legislation which will weaken Roe v. Wade.”

Rep. Wimmer’s latest piece of legislation, the Criminal Homicide and Abortion Revisions, which charges women and girls with murder for having miscarriages caused by an “intentional or knowing act,” was signed into law this week by Utah Governor Gary Herbert. The original bill would have also included “reckless” behavior, but Rep. Wimmer removed that word to guarantee the governor’s signature.

Full Story: Meet the Man Behind Utah’s New Law Criminalizing Miscarriages | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.

Lejeune water probe: Did Marine Corps hide benzene data?

Congressional investigators late Tuesday requested detailed documents from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and a private contractor that was involved in the testing and cleanup of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., over the past two decades.

More letters to the Environmental Protection Agency and a second private contractor are expected this week.

Among investigators’ questions: why a federal agency charged with understanding the health impacts of the contamination didn’t realize until recently that benzene — a fuel solvent known to cause cancer in humans — was among the substances found in drinking water at Camp Lejeune.

Full Story: Lejeune water probe: Did Marine Corps hide benzene data? | McClatchy.

Patrick Kennedy: Press Corps Is ‘Despicable’ For Not Covering Afghanistan War Resolution

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) excoriated the national press on Wednesday during a debate over the war in Afghanistan, charging reporters with shirking their duty to cover the issue and instead focusing on the peccadillos of former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.).

“There’s one, two press people in this gallery,” he thundered. “We’re talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We’re talking about war and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!”

The House is debating a resolution written by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), which would require the military to withdraw from Afghanistan within 30 days or longer if it couldn’t be done safely that quickly.

“You want to know why the American public is fit? They’re fit because they’re not seeing their Congress do the work that they’re sent to do,” railed Kennedy, who is retiring at the end of this term. “It’s because the press, the press of the United States, is not covering the most significant issue of national importance and that’s the laying of lives down in the nation for the service of our country. It’s despicable, the national press corps right now.”

Full Story: Patrick Kennedy: Press Corps Is ‘Despicable’ For Not Covering Afghanistan War Resolution.

9/11 truthers attend Treason in America

There is a growing number of Americans who believe 9/11 was an inside job. 9/11 truthers, as they are known, attended a two day conference that was called Treason in America, in the hopes of bringing awareness to their cause. Is this a signal that the movement is gaining traction?

House GOP leaders press earmark moratorium

House GOP leaders are pushing rank-and-file Republicans to break their addiction to pet projects by going cold turkey and giving up the long-cherished practice of directing federal dollars to their home districts.

The move is an election-year appeal to voters frustrated with Washington’s free-spending ways and seeks to trump new reforms announced earlier Wednesday by Democratic leaders. Democrats announced they would ban the much-criticized practice of using annual spending bills to direct pet projects to companies that often return the favor with campaign contributions. Democratic leaders considered — and dismissed — the idea of a complete earmark ban.

The competing maneuvers come as both parties are seeking every possible advantage heading into midterm elections in which Republicans stand to make major gains and possibly retake control of the House. Earmarks are but one reason Congress suffers from abysmal approval ratings, however, and lawmakers in both parties engage in the practice.

Full Story: House GOP leaders press earmark moratorium.

You’re still keeping your money in a big bank? What the hell is WRONG with you?

Excuse me, but can I have a word with the 70% of Americans who continuing keeping their money in big banks, like Bank of America, CitiBank, Wells Fargo and such? Come closer. A little closer. I want to be able to give you a well-earned dope-slap while I ask;

WHAT THE HELL’s THE MATTER WITH YOU? ARE YOU STUPID!?

Jesus H. Christ, what’s it going to take before you people stop doing business with the enemy? You’re like abused spouses who are slapped around and slapped around again and again by your big bank and keep crawling back for more. If this behavior didn’t hurt the rest of us I’d be delighted to just let you get the shit beat out of you until your big bank bleeds you white. That would be Darwinism at it’s most effective.

But, thanks to the fact that 90% of America’s household savings are deposited in these big banks means that your self-destructive banking habits are fueling the very financial services juggernauts that have repeatedly devastating the lives, homes, families and savings of average working Americans. And not just once, but time and time and time again.

Are you listening goddamnit!

Full Story: You’re still keeping your money in a big bank? What the hell is WRONG with you? | The Smirking Chimp.

Judge Strikes Down Congressional Ban on Funding ACORN

| Center for Constitutional Rights -

Today, federal judge, for the second time, granted an injunction against Congress’ unconstitutional de-funding of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to apply to federal budget provisions signed into law by President Obama in December 2009 and ordered the United State of America and several named agencies to rescind orders cutting off funding to ACORN and its affiliates and allies. A preliminary injunction was won in December 2009 in the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) case charging Congress with violating the U.S. Constitution’s protections against Bill of Attainders and the First and Fifth Amendments in several recurring resolutions. Today’s opinion extends that protection by ordering a permanent injunction and directing agency heads to disregard the provisions denying funding and to rescind the memos that implemented the Congressional action.

CCR Legal Director Bill Quigley,

Full Story: Judge Strikes Down Congressional Ban on Funding ACORN | Center for Constitutional Rights.

FDA says Basic Food Flavors knew plant was contaminated with salmonella

The company at the heart of a growing recall of processed foods knew that its plant was contaminated with salmonella but continued to make a flavoring and sell it to foodmakers around the country, according to inspectors at the Food and Drug Administration.

Managers at Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas learned on Jan. 21 that samples taken a week earlier from their Nevada facility tested positive for salmonella, a potentially deadly bacterium, but they kept shipping their product to foodmakers, according to FDA inspection records.

The company makes hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, a flavor enhancer used in a wide variety of processed foods, from potato chips to sweet and sour tofu. The additive, which comes as a powder or a paste, is mixed into foods to give them a meaty or savory flavor — similar to the use of monosodium glutamate.

Full Story: FDA says Basic Food Flavors knew plant was contaminated with salmonella – washingtonpost.com.

Einstein Was Right: General Relativity Confirmed

Score one more for Einstein. A new study has confirmed his theory of general relativity works on extremely large scales.

The study was one of the first rigorous tests of this theory of gravity beyond our solar system. The research found that even over vast scales of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, the equations of general relativity predict the way that mass pulls on other mass in the universe.

The new work also helps rule out a competing theory of gravity that seeks to do away with the need for bizarre concepts like dark matter and dark energy that have irked some scientists. This research indicates those pesky ideas may be here to stay.

Full Story: SPACE.com — Einstein Was Right: General Relativity Confirmed.

House defeats Kucinich resolution to withdraw from Afghanistan

The result of Wednesday’s House of Representatives debate was never in doubt. Nobody expected Congress would approve Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s resolution ordering President Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by year’s end.

The point was to give members of Congress three hours to officially sound off on U.S. military involvement in the Middle East.

“Regardless of your support or opposition, this resolution is about ensuring meaningful and open debate,” the Cleveland Democrat told colleagues on the House floor. “This is going to be the first opportunity to evaluate critically where the authorization of the use of military force has taken us in the past eight and a half years.”

Full Story: House defeats Kucinich resolution to withdraw from Afghanistan | cleveland.com.

Health Insurance Lobby Leaves The Door Open To Supporting A GOP Repeal Of Health Reform

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the lobbying juggernaut for the health insurance industry, hosted its annual conference at the Ritz Carlton this week. As a vote on health legislation nears, the industry announced yesterday that it is funding a new round of national ads aimed at killing reform. The insurance industry has attacked every version of health reform thus far, from the Senate Finance bill, to the bill that passed the House already, to measures proposed by the White House. On a call with investors, Goldman Sachs detailed how health insurers would benefit the most from not passing any health reform all.

Even if reform passes, political attack groups funded by big business, like the Club for Growth, and Republicans are promising to repeal health legislation, rescinding coverage for over 30 million Americans and perpetuating widespread industry abuses. In addition to leaders like Newt Gingrich (who is funded by AHIP and other insurers), National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and dozens of GOP House and Senate leaders have pledged to repeal health reform if they are successful in the midterm elections.

ThinkProgress caught up with Robert Zirkelbach, the spokesman for AHIP, after a press briefing at the conference to ask about the GOP effort to repeal health reform. Zirkelbach carefully dodged the question directly, but left the door open to possibly supporting such an effort in the future:

Full Story: Think Progress » Health Insurance Lobby Leaves The Door Open To Supporting A GOP Repeal Of Health Reform.

Ignoring His Own Votes, Bond Claims Reconciliation ‘Cannot’ Be Used For ‘Major’ Legislation

Repeating conservative lies about reconciliation, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell today that reconciliation for health care reform “procedurally cannot be done.” Claiming it was never used for major legislation without “overwhelming bipartisan support,” Bond predicted the Senate will ultimately not be able to pass the health care bill through the reconciliation process:

BOND: Well, first of all the president shouldn’t get his allies to cram through on reconciliation, something to which the American people overwhelmingly object. They object to reconciliation. It was never meant to pass major substantive changes, whether they are trying to make a bad bill slightly less worse. No matter how much you put on the outhouse, it would still smell bad.

MITCHELL: Well, that may be a great Missouri expression but that same outhouse was used for the bush tax cuts and for other major legislation in republican years. why shouldn’t the democrats do exactly what the republicans have been doing?

BOND: Major legislation was passed on reconciliation. Everything from the civil rights to social security passed, overwhelming bipartisan support. Reconciliation was meant to deal only with revenue issues, like — dealing with taxes and spending. Not making substantive changes, which the Speaker is trying to convince the house democrats will be made. They will not be made because procedurally it cannot be done.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Ignoring His Own Votes, Bond Claims Reconciliation ‘Cannot’ Be Used For ‘Major’ Legislation.

  The Financial Crisis Changed Nothing

Principles Before Heroes

Robert Reich -

y taking steps to prevent the financial crisis of 2008 from turning into a broader financial meltdown, President Obama prevented another Great Depression. For that, we should be thankful. Yet ironically, a larger-scale economic crisis might have summoned the political will to reverse the long-term trend of increasing concentration of wealth and power, as it did in 1933. Now, with the immediate crisis contained, political support for major reform has slackened. Consequently, we find ourselves almost as far from meeting the progressive ideals of equal opportunity and robust democracy as we were before the crisis began.

If anything, the Great Recession has accelerated the trend toward greater concentration. Under its pressure, more firms have discovered how easily they can increase profits by shrinking their payrolls and laying off their workers, and how cheaply jobs can be done using computers and advanced software or using the Internet to outsource jobs to foreign workers who have become nearly as productive as Americans, but charge far less. This means many more Americans are facing the Hobson’s choice of joblessness or lower wages. At the other end of the income ladder, top corporate and Wall Street executives and traders with reputed “talent” and connections–those charged with discovering more ways to increase profits–are commanding ever higher salaries and bonuses.

Meanwhile, the political power that comes with wealth has shown no sign of abating. The Great Recession notwithstanding, Wall Street’s generous campaign donations, its ubiquitous lobbyists, and its numerous revolving doors into the Treasury and other economic posts have all but assured the Street that financial “reform” will not drastically cut into its profits or the take-home pay of its denizens. Big Pharma and Big Insurance, likewise, are running victory laps around the deal they struck on health care, which virtually guarantees them big payouts in future years. And although marginal tax rates on the very wealthy are slated to rise, they will barely nick incomes that are rising even faster.

Full Story: Robert Reich for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.

Public Option Support Now Over 40 In Senate

Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) became the 41st senator to say that he would back the public insurance option as part of a health care bill moved through reconciliation.

Nelson, asked by HuffPost if he would vote for a public option on the Senate floor, was unequivocal. “Yes,” he said firmly. “I’ve already voted for it in the committee, in the Finance Committee.”

The running tally is being kept by one of the organizations pushing for the public option, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Full Story: Public Option Support Now Over 40 In Senate.

Democrats To Upend Seniority System In Senate: Brown

Senate Democrats intend to elect the chairs of committees when the next Congress convenes, which could upend a tradition that prioritizes seniority over party loyalty, legislative effectiveness or any other merit-based criteria.

During a question-and-answer session with progressive media, video blogger Mike Stark asked lawmakers why the Democratic caucus hasn’t yanked Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee, considering her opposition to Democratic legislative efforts. In Arkansas, her gavel is a top selling point as she battles a progressive primary challenge.

“We’re going to elect committee chairs next year,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “The current chairs that are sitting there now understand that we’ll be electing chairs next year,” he added, saying the idea had been cleared with Senate leadership.

Full Story: Democrats To Upend Seniority System In Senate: Brown.

Whose Bank? Public Investment, Not Private Debt

While bank bailouts fatten Wall Street, states continue to battle the credit crisis. In the search for innovative solutions, some political candidates are proposing that states generate their own credit by setting up their own banks.

State budgets for 2010 face the largest shortfalls on record, totaling $194 billion or 28 percent of state budgets; and 2011 is expected to be worse. Unemployment has already officially hit 10 percent, and many economists expect it to rise higher. Continued high unemployment will keep state income tax receipts at low levels and increase demand for Medicaid and other essential services states provide. The existing alternatives are spending cuts or tax increases, but both will just serve to make the downturn deeper. When states cut spending, they lay off employees, cancel contracts with vendors, eliminate or lower payments to businesses and nonprofit organizations that provide direct services, and cut benefit payments to individuals. The result is a reduction in overall demand. Tax increases also remove demand, by reducing the amount of money people have to spend.

Amanda Paulson, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, quotes Arturo Pérez, fiscal analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, which released its survey of state budget situations in December: “Unless you’re North Dakota, you’re probably a state that has had some degree of difficulty or crisis involving finances. It’s the worst situation states have faced in decades, perhaps going as far back as the Great Depression in some states.”

Full Story: Whose Bank? Public Investment, Not Private Debt by Ellen Brown — YES! Magazine.

Structural Weakness of the US Dollar. The Dollar Rally will not last

Every important factor we see is working against the dollar and we believe that trend is irreversible. That means the present dollar rally probably cannot endure and it could well be the time to short the USDX.

Most observers discuss Europe’s problems and the plight of the euro, pound, and the Danish and Swedish koronas. They believe these European currencies will plunge lower versus the dollar and that the dollar will maintain, even after a dollar rally from 74 to 81 on the USDX. As we have said before the euro was unnatural creation born of a desire to usher in a world currency. As we shall see in the future the euro will fail. In spite of that the dollar is certainly no bargain, because next year America will be totally bankrupt. As a result of the terrible conditions among currencies, gold makes great gains. Last year and so far this year gold is up 10% to 24% against many major currencies. This kind of action of course proves again that gold is the world’s strongest currency. We might add here that we believe that it is only a matter of time before the LBMA, or Comex, or the ETFs, GLDs and SLVs are enveloped in scandal. As so often has happened in history fiat currencies have collapsed. Thus, it will happen again. Those of you not in gold and silver related assets will lose most of what you have worked for your entire lives.

The collapse of currencies and nations won’t happen overnight, because their demise has been planned, and a subtle collapse is in process. Our guess is that next year is when the collapse will finally take place followed by one of the greatest deflationary depressions of all time. During the last 2-1/2 years all the toxic investments have been and will continue to be transferred from the Illuminist banks, brokerage houses, insurance companies and transnational conglomerates to the public. The Federal Reserve is the repository for this junk, which includes Treasuries and Agencies. That means the public foots the bill. Every government and bank in the world will be affected. This magical game of 3-card-Monte will never work and the Illuminists know it won’t work. That is why they have war on demand to distract the public and to escape punishment for the devastating thing they have brought upon mankind. What we are facing is as bad if not worse than the collapse of the Lombard system in Venice in 1348, the year of the plague and the collapse of the Hanseanic League in the 1600s, the creation of the Medici’s. For starters we already have 19 bankrupt or near bankrupt major countries and many others that will be pulled into the vortex of financial and economic calamity. In each country we see the Illuminists doing their evil work, legends in their own minds, in a system that they know cannot survive. They are waiting for orders to pull the plug in each and every country. These masters of the universe all know that prosperity cannot be created by printing money and issuing credit indefinitely. They know full well that such a system cannot survive.

Full Story: Structural Weakness of the US Dollar. The Dollar Rally will not last.

Salt Ban For Restaurants? Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Kill Salt

One Brooklyn lawmaker wants to take some flavor out of your food.

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) has proposed a bill that “prohibits the use of salt by restaurants in the preparation of food by restaurants.”

Bill A10129 calls for fining a-salters $1000 for flouting the law.

New York has already successfully banned trans fats from restaurants and local politicians are weighing a tax on soda, so shaking the salt out of kitchens may not be such a far-fetched idea.

Full Story: Salt Ban For Restaurants? Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Kill Salt.

Salty, sweet: study says fat is the sixth “taste”

People sensitive to the taste of fat tend to eat less of it and are less likely to be overweight, according to Australian research that found human tongues can detect fatty tastes.

Researchers at Deakin University, working with colleagues at the University of Adelaide among others, found that fat was the sixth taste people can identify in addition to the five others — sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein-rich.

In a statement, Deakin researcher Russell Keast said the findings built on previous research in the United States that used animal models to discover the taste for fat.

Full Story: Salty, sweet: study says fat is the sixth “taste” – Yahoo! News.

Unemployment Rises In 30 States In January

Unemployment rose in 30 states in January, the Labor Department said Wednesday, evidence that jobs remain scarce in most regions of the country.

The data is somewhat better than December, when 43 states reported higher unemployment rates, but worse than November, when rates fell in most states.

Still, five states reported record-high joblessness in January: California, at 12.5 percent; South Carolina, 12.6 percent; Florida, 11.9 percent; North Carolina, 11.1 percent; and Georgia, 10.4 percent.

Full Story: Unemployment Rises In 30 States In January.

China’s Exports Jump 45.7 Percent

China’s exports grew strongly in February in a new sign of a rebound in global demand, government figures showed Wednesday.

Exports were up 45.7 percent in February over a year earlier, the Chinese customs agency reported, beating forecasts by private sector analysts of 35 to 40 percent growth.

Imports also were up strongly, rising by 44.7 percent in February from a year earlier, the agency said, reflecting China’s revival from the global economic crisis.

China’s trade figures can be distorted by the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, which falls at varying times in January and February.

Full Story: China’s Exports Jump 45.7 Percent – NYTimes.com.

Creationists: Museum ‘makes up’ facts about evolution

They plan to become doctors, researchers and professors, but these students from Liberty University, an evangelical school, also believe God created the Earth in a week, some 6,000 years ago.

Each year, a group of biology students at the Christian university based in Lynchburg, Virginia, travels to the Natural History Museum in Washington to learn about a theory they dismiss as incorrect — Darwin’s theory of evolution.

The young “creationists” examined a model of the Morganucodon rat, believed to be the first and common ancestor of mammals that appeared some 210 million years ago.

Full Story: Creationists: Museum ‘makes up’ facts about evolution | Raw Story.

Mukasey calls Liz Cheney’s ‘Al-Qaeda 7′ ad ‘shoddy and dangerous.’

Yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined a growing chorus of conservatives condemning the McCarthy-like tactics of Keep America Safe, the new group led by Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney, which recently released an ad questioning the loyalties of Justice Department lawyers who were once involved in representing al-Qaeda terror suspects. Today in the Wall Street Journal — without mentioning Cheney, Kristol, their group, or the ad — former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey denounced their campaign:

Most recently, lawyers now employed at the Justice Department who, while in private practice, volunteered to represent suspected terrorist detainees, or argued legal positions supporting various rights of such detainees, have been portrayed as in-house counsel to al Qaeda.

This is all of a piece, and what it is a piece of is something both shoddy and dangerous. A lawyer who represents a party in a contested matter has an ethical obligation to make any and all tenable legal arguments that will help that party.

Full Story: Think Progress » Mukasey calls Liz Cheney’s ‘Al-Qaeda 7′ ad ‘shoddy and dangerous.’.

OPS: All of the Reichwingers trashing Liz Cheney aren’t’ doing it because of their love of Democracy, The Rule of Law, or the Constitution. There has to be some other reason that involves their own fear of something

Higher Corporate Spending on Election Ads Could Be All but Invisible

The Supreme Court recently freed corporations to spend more money on aggressive election ads. But if businesses take advantage of this new freedom, the public probably won’t know it, because it’s easy for them to legally hide their political spending.

Under current disclosure laws for federal elections, it’s virtually impossible for the public to track how much a business spends, what it’s spending on, or who ultimately benefits. Experts say the transparency problem extends to state and local races as well.

“There is no good way to gauge” how much any given company spends on elections, said Karl Sandstrom, a former vice chairman of the Federal Election Commission and counsel to the Center for Political Accountability. “There’s no central collection of the information, no monitoring.”

Full Story: On The Hill: Higher Corporate Spending on Election Ads Could Be All but Invisible.

Porn: Good for us?

Scientific examination of the subject has found that as the use of porn increases, the rate of sex crimes goes down.

Pornography. Most people have seen it, and have a strong opinion about it. Many of those opinions are negative—some people argue that ready access to pornography disrupts social order, encouraging people to commit rape, sexual assault, and other sex-related crimes. And even if pornography doesn’t trigger a crime, they say, it contributes to the degradation of women. It harms the women who are depicted by pornography, and harms those who do not participate but are encouraged to perform the acts depicted in it by men who are acculturated by it. Many even adamantly believe that pornography should become illegal.

Alternatively, others argue that pornography is an expression of fantasies that can actually inhibit sexual activity, and act as a positive displacement for sexual aggression. Pornography offers a readily available means of satisfying sexual arousal (masturbation), they say, which serves as a substitute for dangerous, harmful, and illegal activities.

Some feminists even claim that pornography can empower women by loosening them from the shackles of social prudery and restrictions.

Full Story: Porn: Good for us? – The Scientist – Magazine of the Life Sciences.

Dennis Kucinich To Force Debate On Afghanistan War Tomorrow

Kucinich, consistently correct

Papantonio: Goldman Sachs Caused Greek Economic Collapse

The GOP is deathly afraid that the United States could soon be facing a problem like the one in Greece, where the country is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. They’re actually correct – only because nothing has been done to reign in banks like Goldman Sachs who actually caused the meltdown in Greece. Mike Papantonio appears on Fox Business’s Bulls and Bears to set the record straight.

OPS:  Ours too.

Grayson Introduces Bill to Allow Anyone to Buy Into Medicare at Cost

GRAYSON INTRODUCES PUBLIC OPTION ACT

Bill Opens Up Medicare To Anyone Who Can Pay For It

Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Fla., today introduced a bill (H.R. 4789) which would give the option to buy into Medicare to every citizen of the United States. The Public Option Act, also known as the Medicare You Can Buy Into Act, would open up the Medicare network to anyone who can pay for it.

Congressman Grayson said, Obviously, America wants and needs more competition in health coverage, and a public option offers that. But its just as important that we offer people not just another choice, but another kind of choice. A lot of people dont want to be at the mercy of greedy insurance companies that will make money by denying them the care that they need to stay healthy, or to stay alive. We deserve to have a real alternative.

The bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish enrollment periods, coverage guidelines, and premiums for the program. Because premiums would be equal to cost, the program would pay for itself.

The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. Thats like saying, Only people 65 and over can use federal highways. It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote, Congressman Grayson said.

Stiffening the Backbones of Democrats

by Jim Hightower -

You know what we need to juice up the performance of our weak economy? Viagra.

Yes, America needs a new Viagra, specifically targeted to stiffen backbones — in particular, the limp backbones of Barack Obama’s team, as well as the flaccid spines of Democratic congressional leaders. Where’s the drug industry when we really need it?

The Obama-ites seem incapable of firm stands. They excite us by boldly addressing our economic woes, then they seduce us by proposing stout actions. But when it comes time to follow through — it’s droopsville.

Full Story: Stiffening the Backbones of Democrats by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

A Consumer Bill Gives Exemption on Payday Loans

Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who is playing a crucial role in bipartisan negotiations over financial regulation, pressed to remove a provision from draft legislation that would have empowered federal authorities to crack down on payday lenders, people involved in the talks said. The industry is politically influential in his home state and a significant contributor to his campaigns, records show.

The Senate Banking Committee’s chairman, Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, proposed legislation in November that would give a new consumer protection agency the power to write and enforce rules governing payday lenders, debt collectors and other financial companies that are not part of banks.

Late last month, Mr. Corker pressed Mr. Dodd to scale back substantially the power that the consumer protection agency would have over such companies, according to three people involved in the talks.

Full Story: Draft on Payday Rules Loses a Provision – NYTimes.com.

Rep. Alan Grayson: Vote Now on the Public Option

This is Rep. Alan Grayson arguing for a vote for HR 4789, a bill to allow anyone to buy into Medicare.

The Age of the ‘Unperson’

Len Hart -

Thanks to the increasingly absurd, bought-and-paid for Supreme Court, corporations are now people but real people can be declared Orwellian ‘un-persons’ with but a stroke of a pen. This is an unconstitutional power given POTUS by SCROTUS* but has no basis in law.

Everything you were told in school with respect to the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus, the rule of law, the right to trial, the right to be confronted by your accusers –all of that is by the boards, ‘repealed’, rendered moot, defunct with yet another idiotic, stupid and dead wrong decision by the most subversive, traitorous ‘Supreme Court’ in history.

Moreover, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that government officials are immune from lawsuits because –at the time –it was unclear whether abusing prisoners at Guantanamo was illegal. Let me help them out on this one: every ‘prisoner’ held in Guantanomo is held in violation of every treaty and international principle to which the U.S. is obliged by its agreement.

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: The Age of the ‘Unperson’.

OPS:  *SCROTUS = Supreme Court Republicans Of The United States.

Obama Foreclosure-Prevention Plan Lagging, New Data Shows (EXCLUSIVE)

Only about a third of the homeowners who have successfully completed the trial period of the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program have been offered permanent relief, according to new federal data obtained by the Huffington Post.

The conversion rate — about 33 percent — is woefully short of what the Treasury Department had forecast. Treasury thought the rate would be “ranging up to 75 percent,” Herbert M. Allison Jr., assistant secretary for financial stability, told the Congressional Oversight Panel in October.

The other two-thirds of homeowners who have gone through the trial program and made the necessary payments remain in limbo. Some of those homeowners — more than 350,000 of them — will ultimately lose out on the kind of relief the administration has repeatedly promised: averting foreclosure through lower monthly payments.

Full Story: Obama Foreclosure-Prevention Plan Lagging, New Data Shows (EXCLUSIVE).