Archive for March, 2010

iPhone Turns Users Into Junkies, Study Finds

According to a new Stanford University study, iPhone users are becoming so reliant on their iPhones that they are actually reporting being addicted to their Apple smartphones.

Almost half of the respondents in the 200 person study acknowledged an iPhone addiction.

Students were asked to rate their addiction to their iPhones on a scale of one to five, from ‘not at all addicted’ to ‘fully addicted.’ Forty-four percent answered with a four or above.

Here are some highlights from the Stanford study:

Only six percent of students said they weren’t at all addicted to the device, whereas a full 10 percent said they were fully addicted, and 34 percent gave themselves a ‘four’ on the five-point scale.

Thirty-two percent of respondents who didn’t report feeling completely addicted did worry that they would eventually become addicted.

Full Story: iPhone Turns Users Into Junkies, Study Finds.

Chase Refunds $6,200 To Complaining Customer

Ernest Nitzberg says he immediately felt cheated when he received a statement from Chase in January that showed he owed $6,200 on a debit card — a card he said he’d signed up for but had not yet received. When Chase refused to refund his money, he sought publicity for his gripe by submitting a blog entry to HuffPost.

“Someone at Chase or a friend of someone at Chase — there’s no other way to explain it — had gotten hold of my never-received debit card and all my personal information including my PIN number and went on a spree, racking up $6200 in cash advances and credit card charges,” wrote Nitzberg, a 78-year-old resident of the Bronx. “Fourteen transactions were made on the same day that included three trips to an ATM to remove cash and 11 to such places as Juicy Couture, Shalom Dresses, Toys R Us [3x] and to be a bit more upscale, Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.”

Nitzberg and Chase viewed each other with mutual suspicion.

Full Story: Chase Refunds $6,200 To Complaining Customer.

Hank Paulson’s Memoir: The Inside Job

a masterpiece of misdirection and disinformation.

If you’ve read, are reading, or plan to read Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big To Fail, you also need to pick up a copy of Hank Paulson’s memoir, On The Brink. Sorkin has the bankers’ story, in sordid yet compelling detail, of how they received the most generous bailout in the world financial history during fall 2008 — and set us up for great problems to come. Paulson tells us why, when, and how exactly he let them get away with this.

Hank Paulson does not, of course, intend to be candid. As I review in detail on The New Republic’s The Book site this morning, On The Brink is actually a masterpiece of misdirection and disinformation.

But still, he gives it all away — and if any details remain obscure, check them in Sorkin. Paulson honestly believes that the financial sector as constructed is productive, makes sense, and should continue to operate in roughly its current form.

Full Story: Simon Johnson: Hank Paulson’s Memoir: The Inside Job.

Cisco’s Next Generation Internet Means High Speed for ISPs

Cisco’s announces a really, really fast router to beef up the Internet.

Cisco Systems has announced the launch of a super-fast and efficiency-focused technology which will be at the heart of “the next generation of internet.” A key impetus for its development is keeping pace with the growing demand for video, which Cisco calls today’s “killer app.”

To put the power of this router (which will be used by service providers as part of the internet backbone) in perspective, it delivers 333 Tbps. This speed translates into the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress being downloaded in a second. It enables every single person in China to make a simultaneous video call and can deliver every movie ever made in 4 minutes (storage is another matter).

Full Story: Business Technology Solutions | PCMag.com.

Exclusive: Websites like Drudge can spread viruses, ‘non-partisan’ techie warned Senate | Raw Story

The Senate’s environment committee has warned Capitol Hill staffers to avoid the Drudge Report and some other sites over suspicions of viruses, a spokesperson for the committee confirmed to Raw Story Tuesday.

The Drudge Report denied the allegations and mocked the committee in a prominently-featured story, but a CNET report on Tuesday notes that readers have complained about suspicious malware on the site today.

According to Drudge, “The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is ‘responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.’” The article said, “The committee ordered hill staff: ‘Try to avoid’ the DRUDGE REPORT ‘for now’.”

Full Story: Exclusive: Websites like Drudge can spread viruses, ‘non-partisan’ techie warned Senate | Raw Story.

Belgian newspaper issues 3D edition, complete with glasses

A Belgian daily newspaper offered its readers a new perspective on the world Tuesday with a 3D edition complete with special glasses.

All the photos and adverts in La Derniere Heure’s special edition were treated to give them the three-dimensional effect when viewed through the different lenses of the kind well-known to 3D filmgoers.

“The goal was to make the whole paper 3D,” said the French-language paper’s chief editor Hubert Leclercq, who said it took two months to prepare the special edition, which had a higher than normal print run of 115,000 copies, for the newstands.

Full Story: Belgian newspaper issues 3D edition, complete with glasses | Raw Story.

IBM invents Earth-friendly plastic made from plants

IBM researchers on Tuesday said they have discovered a way to make Earth-friendly plastic from plants that could replace petroleum-based products tough on the environment.

The breakthrough promises biodegradable plastics made in a way that saves on energy, according to Chandrasekhar “Spike” Narayan, a manager of science and technology at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in Northern California.

Almaden and Stanford University researchers said the discovery could herald an era of sustainability for a plastics industry rife with seemingly eternal products notorious for cramming landfills and littering the planet.

Full Story: IBM invents Earth-friendly plastic made from plants | Raw Story.

America Passively Succumbing to Takeover

The United States has been defeated in an economic war and the consequences are comparable to losing a military war. Strangely, Americans do not feel the pain and economic destruction to the same extent as a perilous military defeat. Many still do not realize that our lifestyle is being temporarily supported by debt and imports. When the money stops, so will the imports, then we may realize we are an bankrupt nation.

• We have sold 16,613 of our best companies in just 30 years
• We are borrowing more and more money from the same foreign countries we are getting our imports from
• We are making almost nothing in America anymore, we are literally outsourcing whole industries
• We are encouraging outsourcing at almost every level, not just manufacturing – we are outsourcing our phone support, customer service, R&D, and more
• With agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and our treaty with the World Trade Organization our domestic companies do not stand a chance
• Without a reform to our tax structure we can’t compete with the foreign value-added tax (VAT) we must get our own and lower the income tax if we do not or can not offset it domestically

Full Story: America Passively Succumbing to Takeover | Economy In Crisis.

“Today is a Big Day in America” Real Unemployment Rate Over 21%

“Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gleefully proclaims on the Senate floor.

Harry Reid is not really happy with the loss of 36,000 jobs. He is just happy if the American people are silly enough to accept this as really good news.

Come on folks. Is it really good news to keep losing tens of thousands of jobs each month (the number is likely higher than whatever they are telling us).

Full Story: OpEdNews – Article: “Today is a Big Day in America” Real Unemployment Rate Over 21%.

Americans Unprepared for Retirement

Retirement looks years away and grim for many Americans who are not properly saving for their golden years and working much longer to compensate, according to a report released Tuesday.

The survey, the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey, found that Americans have been saving less and less for retirement for the third consecutive year.

“Americans’ attitudes toward retirement have clearly tracked the economy the last couple of years, and that seems to be the case in 2010,” said Jack VanDerhei, EBRI’s research director and co-author of the survey, in a statement.

Full Story: Americans Unprepared for Retirement | Economy In Crisis.

America’s Outsourcing Epidemic

Outsourcing is a huge problem for the United States economy. Allowing companies to shift jobs across national boundaries in a search for cheaper labor, and wider profit margins, has been at the vanguard of economic reform for more than a decade. Unfortunately, the U.S. has yet to take a tough stance on companies that move jobs overseas, and it has never officially discouraged the practice as many other nations have.

According to AmericanEconomicAlert.org, not only is the U.S. not taking a stance against outsourcers, in some cases we are actually encouraging them. Alan Tonelson believes that President Obama’s decision to put the chairperson of an outsourcing giant on a bipartisan debt/deficit commission is a clear signal that we are not nearly tough enough on companies that take jobs away from the U.S.

Tonelson, a Research Fellow at the USBIC and former Associate Editor of Foreign Policy, has long been a proponent of discouraging outsourcing. During the presidential campaign, then Senator Barack Obama talked about putting penalties on outsourcing and doing all it could to bring jobs back. Now, after having been smothered by the health care debate, the administration has taken no steps to stop the job losses.

Full Story: America’s Outsourcing Epidemic | Economy In Crisis.

U.S. Productivity Gains Misleading

While data shows that American productivity has increased exponentially in the past three decades, that is nothing more than a façade given that most of those production gains are driven by offshoring, according to two fair trade advocates.

Writing in The New York Times, Alan Tonelson and Kevin Kearns, members of the U.S. Business and Industry Council, claim that for years the U.S. Labor Department has been leading the American people to believe that the productivity of its workers has been skyrocketing.

The problem is, the Labor Department fails to differentiate between American and foreign workers when calculating productivity.

Full Story: U.S. Productivity Gains Misleading | Economy In Crisis.

Beck: The Census Is The Government’s Attempt To ‘Increase Slavery’

The Census is a popular topic of right-wing conspiracy theories and Fox News host Glenn Beck spent a good portion of his radio show today fear-mongering about it. Going through the form, he determined that the government doesn’t have the right to ask any of the questions — except for the first one inquiring about many people live in your home.

He took particular issue with a question asking for the respondent’s race. But after Beck’s co-host pointed out that the question has been part of the Census since the Founding Fathers’ time, Beck twisted the three-fifths law to claim that the Census is now breeding slavery:

BECK: Why were they asking the race question, you said when, in 1790? … Right, they want to know, do you count as three-fifths? Do you count at all? So, you have to know how many slaves did you have? People find that offensive today because the idea was, if we’re going to count, we want to know how many are here for services etc. etc. and slaves would get less. Well that’s not right. One. One. ‘I’m not three-fifths, I’m one. Whites are not worth than me.’ Now reverse it, why are they asking this question today?

Full Story: Think Progress » Beck: The Census Is The Government’s Attempt To ‘Increase Slavery’.

Who Runs America?

The Power of Private Monopolies

Why Teabaggers should be protesting Corporate Offices

Although some Americans worry about the growing power of the government, few understand the real power that controls their everyday lives.

Private monopolies determine the brand of breakfast cereal we eat, the type of car we drive, where we bank, the medical treatment we receive, the fashion of our clothes, and the kind of toothbrush we use, in addition to the beer we drink, the health insurance we buy, and what we feed our pets.

Under the guise of “the free market,” conglomerates merged and bought up smaller companies, until, today, they dominate their respective markets in every commodity offered for sale in the U.S.

In this race to consolidate, companies “rationalized” their offerings, in many cases dropping up to 40 percent of what they formerly produced. They buy from the same suppliers, use interchangeable parts and common ingredients, and re-name similar brands, essentially placing the same product in different packages. For example, one company produces all of the pet food under 150 different brands.

Full Story: Don Monkerud: Who Runs America?.

Marjah: The Non-Existent City the Military Said We Conquered in Afghanistan

Marjah isn’t even a town, but rather one of the clearest and most dramatic examples of a war of perception as outlined in the US's counter-insurgency doctrine.

For weeks, the United States public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan war against what it was told was a “city of 80,000 people” as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marjah was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centers in Helmand.

It turns out, however, that the picture of Marjah presented by military officials and reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as an historic turning point in the conflict.

Marjah is not a city or even a real town, but a few clusters of farmers’ homes amid a large agricultural area that covers much of the southern Helmand River Valley.

“It’s not urban at all,” an official of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who asked not to be identified, admitted to Inter Press Service (IPS) on Sunday. He called Marjah a “rural community”.

Full Story: Marjah: The Non-Existent City the Military Said We Conquered in Afghanistan | | AlterNet.

Is There Really a Backlash Against Casual Sex?

According to a spate of recent articles, a new sexual conservatism is on the rise. But is it really that simple?

Sexual pleasure without shame is one of the defining characteristics of third-wave feminism. But some avidly pro-sex feminists are increasingly pointing out that casual hookups may not be the best way to achieve it. Slate’s Jessica Grose reports on the trend in “The Shame Cycle: The new backlash against casual sex.”

Grose points to Julie Klausner’s new collection of essays, I Don’t Care About Your Band, in which Klausner says even though she doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with casual sex, the encounters make her feel bad. “When you cry about things not working out, you’re crying not only because a guy you slept with now doesn’t seem to care you’re alive, but also because you’re ashamed of yourself for crying.”

Then there’s Hephzibah Anderson, who chronicles her self-imposed year-long celibacy in Chastened, inspired by her growing discomfort over her urge to round down the number of partners in sex surveys.

Full Story: Is There Really a Backlash Against Casual Sex? | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet.

DHS: United States and Israel Announce Agreement to Enhance Joint Aviation Security

For Immediate Release

Office of the Press Secretary

Contact: 202-282-8010

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and Israeli Transport and Road Safety Minister Israel Katz today announced a new agreement to enhance information sharing about civil aviation security incidents and ensure efficient and effective coordination in response to potential acts of terrorism and other aviation-related public safety emergencies.

“The real-time exchange of information with our international partners is critical to our efforts to enhance overall global aviation security,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This agreement will allow the United States and Israel to better coordinate on and respond to potential aviation security incidents to strengthen our mutual safety.”

“MOU implementation will further improve the effectiveness of the cooperation between the respective civil aviation security authorities,” said Minister Katz. “Such International collaboration is of particular importance to ensure effective response to the evolving threat to international aviation.”

Full Story: DHS: United States and Israel Announce Agreement to Enhance Joint Aviation Security.

Proof that 9/11 Truthers Are Dangerous

Most Americans don’t know what kind of people 9/11 truthers really are. So they can’t figure out whether or not they are dangerous.

Below is a list of people who question what our Government has said about 9/11.

The list proves – once and for all – that people who question 9/11 are dangerous.

Email this list to everyone you know, to prove to them that 9/11 truthers are all dangerous nut cases.

Senior intelligence officers:

Former military analyst and famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg said that the case of a certain 9/11 whistleblower is “far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers”. He also said that the government is ordering the media to cover up her allegations about 9/11. And he said that some of the claims concerning government involvement in 9/11 are credible, that “very serious questions have been raised about what they [U.S. government officials] knew beforehand and how much involvement there might have been”, that engineering 9/11 would not be humanly or psychologically beyond the scope of the current administration, and that there’s enough evidence to justify a new, “hard-hitting” investigation into 9/11 with subpoenas and testimony taken under oath (see this and this).

A 27-year CIA veteran, who chaired National Intelligence Estimates and personally delivered intelligence briefings to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, their Vice Presidents, Secretaries of State, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many other senior government officials (Raymond McGovern) said “I think at simplest terms, there’s a cover-up. The 9/11 Report is a joke”, and is open to the possibility that 9/11 was an inside job.

A 29-year CIA veteran, former National Intelligence Officer (NIO) and former Director of the CIA’s Office of Regional and Political Analysis (William Bill Christison) said “I now think there is persuasive evidence that the events of September did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission would have us believe. … All three [buildings that were destroyed in the World Trade Center] were most probably destroyed by controlled demolition charges placed in the buildings before 9/11.” (and seethis).
Full Story: Proof that 9/11 Truthers Are Dangerous.

5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted

So, the headlines say somebody else has died due to video game addiction. Yes, it’s Korea again.

What the hell? Look, I’m not saying video games are heroin. I totally get that the victims had other shit going on in their lives. But, half of you reading this know a World of Warcraft addict and experts say video game addiction is a thing. So here’s the big question: Are some games intentionally designed to keep you compulsively playing, even when you’re not enjoying it?

Oh, hell yes. And their methods are downright creepy.

Full Story: 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted | Cracked.com.

Bank Of America Overdraft Fees Dropped: Bank Will End Fees By Summer 2010

Bank of America customers will soon be unable to spend more than they have in the accounts linked to their debit cards. It’s a step that may become a common move ahead of new regulations limiting overdraft fees.

Rules set by the Federal Reserve that will ban banks from charging such fees, without first getting permission from the customer, are set to take effect July 1.

But Bank of America is going a step further than the regulations require. It will simply no longer allow debit card purchases to go through if there isn’t enough money in the account.

Full Story: Bank Of America Overdraft Fees Dropped: Bank Will End Fees By Summer 2010.

Shorting America Rocks

! – Matt Taibbi -

Lower credit risk means a lower price for protection. Zero implies zero risk. The higher the basis points, the higher the implied risk. When U.S. credit default swaps were first introduced, the price of protection was around two basis points. According to Bloomberg, the price for five-year protection was around 38 basis points (per annum) on Friday. But the price in the over-the-counter market — where this stuff actually trades — was almost double or around 75 basis points.

Since most traders in U.S. credit default swaps don’t think the U.S. will default any time soon, why are they trading U.S. credit default swaps? They are speculating on price movements the way a day trader buys and sells stocks to speculate on stock price movements.

via Janet Tavakoli: Washington Must Ban U.S. Credit Derivatives as Traders Demand Gold.

Another Janet Tavakoli piece, this one about the market for CDS on the United States.

Full Story: Shorting America Rocks! – Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – True/Slant.

Senators Move To Make ALL U.S. Workers Carry Microchipped ID!

Video

Bipartisan Fascism. Police State

Ronnie Walker, 14, Can’t Get A Transplant, Is ‘Virtually Homeless’

Ronnie Walker and her mother Kimberly Covington have been virtually homeless for months. They’re moving from place to place — a lifestyle that’s even more taxing given Ronnie’s condition. She’s 14 and has a rare pulmonary disease. She desperately needs a lung transplant, or she’ll probably die.

Right now, she can’t get on the organ transplant list, as it’s critical that she has a stable home after the surgery to recover. Without this environment, doctors won’t give her the transplant. It’s medication that currently keeps her alive.

As Change.org points out, families like Ronnie and her mother are a segment of the homeless population that are difficult to quantify. They don’t live in shelters and have subsisted on the generosity of friends and neighbors.

Full Story: Ronnie Walker, 14, Can’t Get A Transplant, Is ‘Virtually Homeless’.

Malignant Melanoma: How To Avoid A Lethal Cancer

On February 23 and 24, the New York Times published two full page articles on experimental drug trials on malignant melanoma, respectively titled “After Long Fight, Drug Gives Sudden Reprieve” and “A Drug Trial Cycle: Recovery, Relapse, Reinvention.”

As stated in the February 24 article, at an international oncology meeting, Dr. Keith Flaherty described “the extraordinary recovery of the melanoma patients in the experimental drug trials he was leading.” However, he frankly admitted “The drug's ability to stop the melanoma, on average appears to be approximately six months.”

Malignant melanoma is the fastest rising cancer in the world. Since 1975, its incidence in white men and women has increased by about 240 percent and 170 percent, respectively, while its mortality has increased by 55 percent and 24 percent, respectively. In sharp contrast, malignant melanoma is virtually unknown in black men and women.

Full Story: Samuel S. Epstein: Malignant Melanoma: How To Avoid A Lethal Cancer.

Rise Above Plastics – Plastics Kill

There’s some scary creatures in the ocean… none more scary than plastic.

Senate Drops Funding For Summer Jobs Program And Enhanced Subsidies For Poor Families With Children

Just a week after Senate Republican Jim Bunning’s infamous obstruction of an unemployment benefits extension, the GOP is taking another stand that pits deficit reduction against aid to the poor and jobless.

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans — along with some Democrats — defeated a measure to provide $1.3 billion for summer jobs for young people this year and a $1.3 billion extension of enhanced subsidies for poor families with children.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who introduced the amendment along with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), pleaded with her colleagues not to object.

Full Story: Senate Drops Funding For Summer Jobs Program And Enhanced Subsidies For Poor Families With Children.

Health Care Protesters Face Off Against Insurance Lobbyists

Hundreds if not thousands of protesters and labor activists descended upon the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington today to try to make things a little more difficult for the health insurance lobbyists and executives gathered inside.

The protest was organized by Health Care for America Now, a group that describes itself as being “fed up with skyrocketing premiums, denials of care and claims, and insurance companies spending tens of millions of dollars to kill or manipulate reform.” The lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans was holding its annual policy conference at the hotel.

Protesters first gathered in nearby Dupont Circle, where former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean told them: “We deserve a vote! Are you for the insurance companies or are you for the American people?”

Full Story: Health Care Protesters Face Off Against Insurance Lobbyists.

Romney: ‘I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh.’

Romney: ‘I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh.’

Last month, Rush Limbaugh criticized Mitt Romney for endorsing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in his campaign against J.D. Hayworth in Arizona’s GOP Senate primary. “I think he’s risking his career over a guy, endorsing McCain, who is so out of step with what’s going on right now,” Limbaugh complained. Newsmax asked Romney about Limbaugh’s criticism in a new interview. But while Romney (surprisingly) stuck to his position, he couldn’t help but seize the moment to pander to the Limbaugh crowd:

ROMNEY: Well, you know, I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh on topics but on this one I do. I know Senator McCain. [...] It may not be right for me politically but frankly, the country’s in a posture right now. We face such challenges right now. It’s time for people to do what they think is right for the country and to spend less time about what may or may not be good for them politically.

Full Story: Think Progress » Romney: ‘I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh.’.

Single payer fight moves to states

Swanson: Obama pushes out Kucinich single payer amendment that enables states single payer health care.

Health Insurance Industry Defends Massive Profits, Complains It Is Being ‘Vilified’

Insurers have responded to the administration’s campaign against recent rate hikes by blaming increasing health care costs, provider cost increases and adverse selection (healthier Americans are dropping coverage) for their premium increases. To hear them tell it, the insurance industry is a low-profit industry that spends just one cent of every premium dollar on administration and strives to reduce costs by encouraging efficiencies. Insurers “do not deserve to be vilified for political purposes,” Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) told the AP:

For every dollar spent on health care in America, less than one penny goes toward health plan profits. The focus needs to be on the other 99 cents.

But the argument that insurers run a tight ship is misleading, on several counts, not least of which is the fact that insurers are planning to spend “more than $1 million” not on health care claims — as their justification for the premium hikes would suggest — but “to run television ads on cable stations nationwide beginning in the next few days to push back on the attacks on insurers.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Health Insurance Industry Defends Massive Profits, Complains It Is Being ‘Vilified’.

OPS: If the bedpan fits…..

34 Of 41 Senate Republicans Supported Passing Major Domestic Policy Legislation Through Reconciliation

As the outlook on passage of health reform improves, Republicans have shifted to a new obstructionist strategy: attacking the process of reconciliation. Republicans claim that reconciliation was only intended to be used for bills dealing closely with the budget. In fact, when Republicans were in power, GOP lawmakers used reconciliation numerous times to pass major domestic policy legislation, including the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 and important changes to health care policy. In fact, 34 of the 41 Senate Republicans have used reconciliation in the past to pass major pieces of domestic policy.

In 2005, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) famously defended reconciliation as “majority rules.” Think Progress has compiled a video of some of these 34 senators who have, in the past, defended reconciliation and railed against the filibuster. Some highlights:

Full Story: Think Progress » 34 Of 41 Senate Republicans Supported Passing Major Domestic Policy Legislation Through Reconciliation.

OPS: To a Sociopath hypocrisy is a nit.

The Washington Post on ‘lunatic’ 9/11 ‘conspiracy theorists’

An editorial in the Washington Post yesterday slammed Japanese member of parliament Yukihisa Fujita because he “seems to think that America’s rendering of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, is a gigantic hoax.” His “ideas” about the terrorist attacks “are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion.”

Fujita, the editorial added, is a member of “the lunatic fringe” who “have spawned a thriving subculture of conspiracy theorists at home and abroad”, and “his views, rooted as they are in profound distrust of the United States, seem to reflect a strain of anti-American thought”. The piece closes by suggesting that the “fact-averse” Fujita should be removed from office.

Among Fujita’s “bizarre” views are “that shadowy forces with advance knowledge of the plot played the stock market to profit from it”, “the fantastic idea that eight of the 19 hijackers are alive and well”, and “that controlled demolition rather than fire or debris may be a more likely explanation for at least the collapse of the building at 7 World Trade Center”.

Full Story: The Washington Post on ‘lunatic’ 9/11 ‘conspiracy theorists’ | Foreign Policy Journal.

Over 1000 architects and engineers have signed petition to reinvestigate 9-11 destruction

“At some level of government, at some point in time, there was an agreement not to tell the people the truth about what happened.”
- John Farmer, Senior Counsel to the 9-11 Commission in his book The Ground Truth (Page 4)

Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth founder, Richard Gage, AIA,   began the conference quoting Mark Twain who said, “If you don’t read the newspapers you’re uninformed. If you do read them you’re misinformed.” Gage said he hoped the assembled press would help to rectify that situation. “Today I’m quite pleased to announce that now we have more than one thousand architects and engineers signed on to the A&E911Truth petition demanding of Congress a new and truly independent, unimpeachable investigation into the destruction of the three World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9-11,” Gage said to a cheering audience.

Full Story: Over 1000 architects and engineers have signed petition to reinvestigate 9-11 destruction.

The Sky is Falling — on John Bolton

John Bolton has made a cottage industry out of trying to scare people about nuclear weapons. Contrary to the subtitle of Dr. Strangelove – “how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb” – Bolton’s motto seems to be “why you need to start worrying and embrace the bomb.” He reiterates this point at every opportunity, most recently in a piece published in the Washington Examiner. But does he really believe that the Obama administration’s modest but essential first steps towards reducing global nuclear arsenals are putting us in grave danger? I seriously doubt it.

Bolton believes in maintaining the status quo, a world in which the United States and Russia possess 95% of the world’s arsenal of 20,000-plus nuclear weapons and it’s not worth even trying to use diplomacy to reduce those arsenals, much less those of other nuclear powers. In his most recent piece, he even appears to dismiss President Obama’s pledge to secure “all vulnerable nuclear materials in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.” What’s Bolton’s logic here? Do we need to leave loose nukes and unsecured bomb-making materials lying around to show we’re tough? Or is he just so intent on opposing anything that the Obama administration is for that he will oppose even the most effective policies available for reducing the nuclear danger?

What are Bolton’s alternatives to diplomacy? Bombing Iran? He has implied as much, even though the effects of such an action would most likely be to undermine the Iranian opposition, accelerate Tehran’s efforts to seek a nuclear weapon, and sow further chaos in a region that can ill afford it. Invading North Korea? Even he doesn’t seem willing to go that far over the top.

Full Story: The Sky is Falling — on John Bolton | TPMCafe.

Showdown looms for financial reform

If there were any question that the stakes are high for financial reform, consider this: Even the Defense Department is getting into the fight.

Pentagon brass want a new consumer watchdog agency to regulate auto dealers so they don’t rip off troops with predatory sales and shady financing deals. Democrats are hoping it’ll be hard for Republicans to oppose something Pentagon leaders want, at a time when troops are in harm’s way.

And there’s more: Payday lenders, check-cashing outfits and rent-to-own stores operate, for all practical purposes, free from federal regulation — and President Barack Obama wants to change that with a consumer agency that spans the world of finance from high to low.

Full Story: Showdown looms for financial reform – Victoria McGrane – POLITICO.com.

Who Broke America’s Jobs Machine?

Barry C. Lynn and Phillip Longman. -

Why creeping consolidation is crushing American livelihoods.

f any single number captures the state of the American economy over the last decade, it is zero. That was the net gain in jobs between 1999 and 2009—nada, nil, zip. By painful contrast, from the 1940s through the 1990s, recessions came and went, but no decade ended without at least a 20 percent increase in the number of jobs.

Many people blame the great real estate bubble of recent years. The idea here is that once a bubble pops it can destroy more real-world business activity—and jobs—than it creates as it expands. There is some truth to this. But it doesn’t explain why, even when the real estate bubble was at its most inflated, so few jobs were created compared to the tech-stock bubble of the late ’90s. Between 2000 and 2007 American businesses created only seven million jobs, before the great recession destroyed more than that. In the ’90s prior to the dot-com bust, they created more than twenty-two million jobs.

Others point to the diffusion of new technologies that reduce the number of workers needed to produce and sell manufactured products like cars and services like airline reservations. But throughout economic history, even as new technologies like the assembly line and the personal computer destroyed large numbers of jobs, they also empowered people to create new and different ones, often in greater numbers. Yet others blame foreign competition and offshoring, and point to all the jobs lost to China, India, or Mexico. Here, too, there is some truth. But U.S. governments have been liberalizing our trade laws for decades; although this has radically changed the type of jobs available to American workers—shifting vast chunks of the U.S. manufacturing sector overseas, for instance—there is little evidence that this has resulted in any lasting decline in the number of jobs in America.

Full Story: Who Broke America’s Jobs Machine?

BBC America: Palast Hunts the Vultures

Some vultures have feathers, but some have fancy offices and huge homes. Tonight, BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast follows the trail of one “vulture fund” chief, from a locked office door in New York to mud-brick houses in Africa.

How strange. When I arrive at the offices of Eric Hermann at hedge fund FH International, just outside New York City, the company’s corporate sign is unbolted from the wall and the suite number removed from the door.

But wait … I hear noises inside the office. Huh? I knock on the locked door and out steps the office building’s security manager.

“Guys, they don’t want to be interviewed. They don’t want to be seen. So we are going to have to ask you to leave the building.”

“And do you know why they took the sign off?”

His reply to our cameras, “I have no clue.”

But we do.

Mr. Hermann is the principle owner of a so-called “vulture fund” which attempted to seize more than $20 million from the war-wounded nation of Liberia.

Full Story: Greg Palast » BBC America: Palast Hunts the Vultures.

Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years.

By early 2011 all hard drives will use an “advanced format” that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them.

The move to the advanced format will make it easier for hard drive makers to produce bigger drives that use less power and are more reliable.

However, it might mean problems for Windows XP users who swap an old drive for one using the changed format.

Full Story: BBC News – Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users.

The Lies of “Conservatism” and the “Center” are Immoral

MARK KARLIN BUZZFLASH EDITOR’S BLOG

There once was a somewhat principled — even if selfish and objectionable — movement in America called Conservatism. But that is no more: as much a victim of the public relations-named “Reagan Revolution” as are America’s middle and working class and the once robust economy of the United States.

The modern “conservative” movement is nothing more than a massively funded and highly effective communications strategy to shift America into an oligarchy that functions for the super wealthy through tax cuts and for corporations through the elimination of safety regulations for the public good and the privatization of government.

That’s not conservatism; that’s highway robbery. It’s a crime.

Full Story: The Lies of “Conservatism” and the “Center” are Immoral | BuzzFlash.org.

The Associated Press: Stupak: Health bill abortion fight can be resolved

Prospects are good for resolving a dispute over abortion that has led some House Democrats to threaten to withhold support of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, a key Michigan Democrat said Monday.

Rep. Bart Stupak said he expects to resume talks with House leaders this week in a quest for wording that would impose no new limits on abortion rights but also would not allow use of federal money for the procedure.

“I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago,” Stupak said in an interview between meetings with constituents in his northern Michigan district. He was hosting a town hall meeting Monday night at a local high school.

Full Story: The Associated Press: Stupak: Health bill abortion fight can be resolved.

NYPD’s quotas mean innocent people being arrested: officer

A New York City police officer is alleging that his department has arrest quotas that result in innocent people being arrested.

Officer Adil Polanco told WABC channel 7 in New York that his precinct — the 41st in the Bronx — has a “20 and one” monthly quota, meaning each officer is expected to issue at least 20 summonses per month, and carry out at least 1 arrest.

If the officer doesn’t meet the quota, the result can be denial of overtime pay, shift changes and denial of days off, Polanco said.

Full Story: NYPD’s quotas mean innocent people being arrested: officer | Raw Story.

Crist: Rubio May Wax His Back, Charge It To Florida (VIDEO)

Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos responded to Crist’s allegation that Rubio may be charging the state of Florida for back waxing sessions:

Last night, Charlie Crist gave an 11-minute nationally televised interview in which he made multiple references to back waxing, but not a single mention of fighting the liberal Obama agenda. This speaks volumes about what his priorities are.

Charlie Crist is a desperate politician whose record of supporting the failed $787 billion stimulus, bailouts and tax increases is being rejected by Floridians with every passing day. Today, Charlie Crist is the sitting governor of the fourth-largest state who has fallen so far and so fast that he’s now reduced himself to making up stories about his opponent’s grooming habits.

Full Story: Crist: Rubio May Wax His Back, Charge It To Florida (VIDEO).

Robert Mustard Jr., Dallas Shooter, Yelled ‘You’ve Taken All My Money’ Before Trying To Kill His Financial Adviser

Robert Mustard, Jr., the man accused of shooting two men at a Dallas office building on Monday morning, was apparently trying to get his revenge on a financial advisory firm that he believed had lost all his money.

According to the Fort Worth News, when Mustard approached his financial adviser, Richard Smith, 66, and his son, Chris, 39, in their office yesterday, he accused them of taking “all my money,” before opening fire with a 45-caliber weapon.

When police arrived, Mustard was still in the office, authoritiessaid.

Police shot at — but missed — Mustard, a disbarred lawyer, who then barricaded himself in an office and shot himself in the head.

Full Story: Robert Mustard Jr., Dallas Shooter, Yelled ‘You’ve Taken All My Money’ Before Trying To Kill His Financial Adviser.

Butt Implant Scandal: Caulk Injected Into Six Women’s Butts In Plastic Surgery Horror

Six women in New Jersey are recovering after they received buttocks-enhancement injections containing silicone used to caulk bathtubs.

State health officials say the women, from Essex County, apparently underwent cosmetic procedures from unlicensed providers, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported.

Investigators have not determined if the cases are related.

No arrests have been made.

Instead of medical-grade silicone, the women received a diluted version of nonmedical-grade silicone.

Full Story: Butt Implant Scandal: Caulk Injected Into Six Women’s Butts In Plastic Surgery Horror.

Another Wall Street Bonus Tax Falters In Congress

Few topics have generated as much political heat between Main Street and Wall Street as the billions of dollars in bonuses handed out at financial companies that received federal bailouts. But Washington’s efforts to claim some of that money for taxpayers continue to falter.

The latest attempt is a measure authored by Democratic Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia and Barbara Boxer of California. It would impose a one-time 50 percent tax on 2009 bonuses of more than $400,000 paid by the 13 firms receiving the most federal bailout money.

The plan appears to be crumbling amid opposition from two financial industry-lobbying powerhouses and hesitation among moderate Democrats and key New York politicians, including Sen. Charles Schumer. It has little chance of surviving a procedural vote expected late Tuesday, according to legislative aides and industry lobbyists.

Full Story: Another Wall Street Bonus Tax Falters In Congress.

Slowly, states are lessening limits on marijuana

James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot and other drug offenses. Gradually, though, he became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less.

“I ask kids all the time, and they’ll tell you it is easier to get marijuana than a six-pack of beer because that is controlled by the government,” he said, noting that drug dealers don’t ask for IDs or honor minimum age requirements.

So Gray — who spent two decades as a superior court judge in Orange County, Calif., and once ran for Congress as a Republican— switched sides in the war on drugs, becoming an advocate for legalizing marijuana

Full Story: Slowly, states are lessening limits on marijuana – USATODAY.com.

As Chamber Builds Up Political Operation, Treasury Officials Express Frustration With Group’s Distortions

The LA Times reports today on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s growing “large-scale grass-roots political operation” that is being “funded by record-setting amounts of money raised from corporations and wealthy individuals.” In 2009, the Chamber spent $144 million on lobbying and grassroots organizing, “well beyond the spending of individual labor unions or the Democratic or Republican national committees.” Some more details on its new initiative:

The chamber has signed up some 6 million individuals who are not chamber members and has begun asking them to help with lobbying and, soon, with get-out-the-vote efforts in upcoming congressional campaigns. [...]

The new grass-roots program, the brainchild of chamber political director Bill Miller, is concentrating on 22 states. Among them are Colorado, where incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet is vulnerable; Arkansas, where Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces an uphill reelection battle; and Ohio, where the chamber sees opportunities in numerous House races and an open Senate seat.

Full Story: Think Progress » As Chamber Builds Up Political Operation, Treasury Officials Express Frustration With Group’s Distortions.

Why Japan is edging closer to China

Sitting in his office in Tokyo last week, a senior official pointed to a recently published volume called “Japan Rising”. “I look at that book every now and then to cheer myself up,” he said. It is easy to understand why. Right now, Japan has got that sinking feeling.

China is about to overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy. The country’s national debt has hit an awesome 180 per cent of gross domestic product, (un)comfortably the highest in the world among rich countries – and there is no credible plan in place to hack it back. Toyota, a company that used to embody Japan’s reputation for quality, is enmeshed in a safety and public relations nightmare. Last year, the Japanese economy shrank by more than 5 per cent. And the high hopes that surrounded the reformist government of Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister who was elected last summer, have quickly dissipated. Mr Hatoyama’s approval ratings are sinking and the Japanese business and civil service establishment seem eager to dismiss him as an ineffectual clown.

How Japan reacts to this new sense of weakness – exaggerated though it may be – will matter to the whole world. The country’s size and strategic importance make it critical to America’s Pacific strategy and to China’s geopolitical calculations.

Full Story: FT.com / UK – Why Japan is edging closer to China.

Tariff move by Brazil risks US trade war

Brazil moved to raise tariffs on a wide range of US goods yesterday, potentially igniting a trade war over cotton subsidies after eight years of litigation at the World Trade Organisation.

The decision takes effect next month, starting a 30-day period during which US and Brazilian officials will attempt to negotiate a solution to the dispute.

Gary Locke, US commerce secretary, and Michael Froman, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, are due to arrive in Brazil today. The cotton dispute is expected to be raised in meetings with government officials.

Under the Brazilian plan, duties would rise most steeply on cotton products. Many that are currently taxed at between 6 per cent and 35 per cent would be taxed at 100 per cent. The tariffs on beauty products would double, from 18 per cent to 36 per cent. Duties on household goods such as cookers, refrigerators, television sets and video cameras would also double, from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. Duties on cars would rise from 35 per cent to 50 per cent.

Brazil is allowed to impose the tariff increases- worth $560m – after winning a case at the WTO last year.

Full Story: FT.com / UK – Tariff move by Brazil risks US trade war.

U.S. millionaire ranks up 16 percent last year: study

The number of U.S. households with a net worth of at least $1 million jumped 16 percent last year after dipping sharply during the financial crisis, an industry consulting group said on Tuesday.

Households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding their primary residence, totaled 7.8 million in 2009, up from 6.7 million in 2008, according to Spectrem Group.

The number of millionaire households shrank by 27 percent in 2008, it said.

The current total is still well below the record 9.2 million millionaire households reported in 2007, Spectrem said.

Last year’s spike came as U.S. stock markets rallied. The S&P 500 Index rose 28 percent, and the largest wealth management firms reported strong earnings as their clients’ accounts recovered from the 2008 meltdown.

Full Story: U.S. millionaire ranks up 16 percent last year: study | Reuters.

The World’s First Commercial Brain-Computer Interface and the history of BCI

A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a brain and an external device. BCIs are often aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. Research on BCIs began in the 1970s at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) under a grant from the National Science Foundation, followed by a contract from DARPA. The papers published after this research also mark the first appearance of the expression brain–computer interface in scientific literature.

The field of BCI has since blossomed spectacularly, mostly toward neuroprosthetics applications that aim at restoring damaged hearing, sight and movement. Thanks to the remarkable cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. Following years of animal experimentation, the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-nineties.

Full Story: Make A History.

Newsmax: Americans strongly prefer Obama — to Bush – Barack Obama

The right-wing site’s online poll may cheer the White House, a little

Online polls taken by partisan Web sites tend to be discounted — and some observers would question a Zogby online poll in particular — but when the results cut against the ideology of the sponsor, they may still be worth noting. Today’s morning lead on the ultra-conservative Newsmax site touts a Zogby online survey on presidents past and present, with findings that bolster the White House’s current occupant, who is usually the target of extremely harsh criticism from Newsmax and its columnists (one of whom seemingly advocated a military coup last year).

The headline on the Newsmax poll story — “Bill Clinton Bests Former Presidents to Handle Crisis Today” — concerns the unsurprising discovery that the American public considers the last Democratic president best qualified of all his peers (by far) to cope with the issues that America confronts today. Comissioned by Newsmax, which is run by Christopher Ruddy and owned by him and Richard Mellon Scaife, among others, the poll queried 4,000 people who participate in Zogby’s online surveys.

Among respondents asked the following question — “Of the current living former presidents, which do you think is best equipped to deal with the problems the country faces today?” — 41 percent chose Bill Clinton, trailed by George W. Bush with 15 percent, George H.W. Bush with 7 percent, and Jimmy Carter with only 5 percent, while 26 percent chose “none,” and 5 percent were “not sure.” Those choices may be partly a function of the age of the former presidents, since the elder Bush and Carter are considerably older than the younger Bush and Clinton. But Clinton finished first among all age groups, all races, all religions, and both sexes, with a significantly better showing among women (46 percent) than men (36 percent).

Full Story: Newsmax: Americans strongly prefer Obama — to Bush – Barack Obama – Salon.com.

OPS: any bets on how long it will be before they print the retraction?

Limbaugh vows to flee the country if health care passes.

Hate radio host Rush Limbaugh has been one of health care reform’s most vociferous opponents, warning that “[h]uman beings will die earlier than normal” under the “freedom killing” and “life threatening” plan, and calling for it to be “aborted.” Yesterday, Limbaugh put his money where his mouth is, saying that if health care passes and all his fears are realized, he’ll leave the country:

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...]

LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.

Listen here:

Full Story: Think Progress » Limbaugh vows to flee the country if health care passes..

OPS:  BONUS!!!!!

Scope of salmonella-tainted flavouring recall will continue to grow, CFIA warns

It could take months for some food companies to figure out whether a popular flavouring ingredient contaminated with salmonella found its way into their products, industry experts say.

In the past five days, a batch of the flavour enhancer hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) that was found last month to be contaminated with salmonella has already resulted in the recall of 94 items in the U.S. and nine in Canada, with another five items added to the list late Monday.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned people Monday not to consume Quaker Crispy Minis rice cakes in tomato and basil, Family’s Best smokey bacon potato chips, Compliments onion soup mix, and two No Name brands of soup mix — onion recipe and cream of leek.

And the CFIA warns there will be more. The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. says the contaminated HVP, manufactured by Nevada company Basic Food Flavors Inc., could balloon into one of the largest-ever food recalls in North America.

Full Story: Scope of salmonella-tainted flavouring recall will continue to grow, CFIA warns.

Joseph Stiglitz

Stiglitz: The Fed Is Corrupt And Dominated By Big Banks

The Elite vs. The American People

Mike Papantonio & David DeGraw -

Recently, Congress weighed whether or not to lower the tax rate for corporations in an attempt to leave them more money to create new jobs. This proposal would be great for businesses, but unfortunately it would do absolutely nothing to help fight unemployment. When it comes to the plight of the average American worker, Congress seems to consistently miss the mark. They cant quite wrap their heads around the fact that half of the children in this country are going to bed hungry, or that mothers and fathers working two jobs each are still having to live paycheck to paycheck. Mike Papantonio talks about the REAL America the one that those of us who arent CEOs of major corporations live in with author and blogger David DeGraw.

Full Story: YouTube – The Elite vs. The American People.

Alan Grayson Leading in the REPUBLICAN Primary

Proving that Progressive Democrats who show some guts can win over Republicans.

Green Jobs Are ‘Greatest Market Opportunity Of Our Generation,’ Senator Says

Flanked by forced-out former green jobs czar Van Jones, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said Monday that creating new jobs in green industries presents the “greatest market opportunity of our generation.”

Comparing the call to create “green jobs” to former President John F. Kennedy’s call for landing a man on the Moon, Gillibrand said at a forum that the nation needs to act in order to inspire the next generation of scientists.

“Green jobs” are those in industries that promote environmental protection and energy independence, like energy efficiency, renewable energy and smart energy. With millions of Americans unemployed and global warming threatening the globe, the burgeoning field of green technology could be the nation’s next great job creation vehicle.

Full Story: Green Jobs Are ‘Greatest Market Opportunity Of Our Generation,’ Senator Says.

Breast Milk Cheese Offered By Chef Daniel Angerer (VIDEO)

One New York chef is bringing new meaning to the term “milking” a situation.

Klee Brasserie chef Daniel Angerer has started using his wife’s breast milk to create “Mommy Milk Cheese” and is making it available to any willing patrons.

Angerer has posted a recipe for the daring dairy product on his blog so any new parents can make their own.

Full Story: Breast Milk Cheese Offered By Chef Daniel Angerer (VIDEO).

New Rocket Engine Could Reach Mars in 40 Days

Future Mars outposts or colonies may seem more distant than ever with NASA’s exploration plans in flux, but the rocket technology that could someday propel a human mission to the red planet in as little as 40 days may already exist.

A company founded by former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz has been developing a new rocket engine that draws upon electric power and magnetic fields to channel superheated plasma out the back. That stream of plasma generates steady, efficient thrust that uses low amounts of propellant and builds up speed over time.

“People have known for a long time, even back in the ’50s, that electric propulsion would be needed for serious exploration of Mars,” said Tim Glover, director of development at the Ad Astra Rocket Company.

Full Story: SPACE.com — New Rocket Engine Could Reach Mars in 40 Days.

Verizon Bills Dead, Says ‘Death Certificate’ Not Enough To Cancel Service

Don’t die without sharing your PIN numbers.

That seems to be the lesson learned from Verizon’s recent botched handling of a deceased man’s account.

Bill Young of Calvin, W.Va died in June 2009, but Verizon Wireless continued to bill him until February 2010.

Young’s daughter, Cynthia Lacy produced a death certificate for the company to certify her father’s passing, but was told by a Verizon representative that without her father’s PIN (personal identification number), she was not allowed access to the account, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Full Story: Verizon Bills Dead Man Bill Young, Says ‘Death Certificate’ Not Enough To Cancel Service.

Unemployment Insurance Extension Faces Test Vote In Senate

Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.

The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled.

The unemployment insurance alone – to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out – will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.

Full Story: Unemployment Insurance Extension Faces Test Vote In Senate.

Way Too Big to Save

Listening to US officials, talking to legal experts, and waiting for an intense Senate debate on financial reform to begin, you can easily form the impression that “too big to fail” adequately describes our most serious future systemic banking problems. It does not.

In September 2008, the large banks and quasi-banks at the heart of our financial system faced failure — and they were saved in the most immediate sense through actions taken by the Federal Reserve, but TARP (passed by Congress and run Treasury) also played a significant supporting role.

The Bush administration threw a small fiscal stimulus into the mix in early 2008, hoping to stave off recession; the Obama administration committed a much larger package at the start of 2009, aiming to prevent anything like a Second Great Depression. This fiscal policy response was in direct reaction to problems caused by the overextension and near failure of the financial system

Full Story: Simon Johnson: Way Too Big to Save.

A Generational Moment for Drug Policy Reformers

John Lennon’s voice is echoing somewhere over Texas tonight.

That’s because a moment has arrived — a very special moment, the likes of which drug policy reformers have not seen in a generation.

It all centers around a man named Henry Walter Wooten, a 54-year-old Texas resident who will likely be spending the rest of his life behind bars. That’s because a jury in Tyler sentenced him to 35 years in jail after he was caught in possession of just over a quarter pound of marijuana. The prosecutor originally sought 99 years, due to the man’s prior felony convictions in the 80s and his proximity to a day care center, deep within one of the dreaded “drug free zones” where legal penalties become much more stiff.

Thirty-five years. That’s 420 months. This jury, this court and this prosecutor are sending a message directly to marijuana consumers the nation over.

Full Story: A Generational Moment for Drug Policy Reformers – Stephen C. Webster – Brave New Hooks – True/Slant.

Former KKK leader to run for Congress in Indiana

Given today’s hysteric political climate, I suppose it was only a matter of time. Just a shame it had to come from my home state of Indiana.

As reported from Fort Wayne, former KKK leader Tom Metzger, from Warsaw, Ind., is running for Congress:

The 71-year-old former KKK Grand Dragon and founder of the White Aryan Resistance has launched a campaign as a write-in candidate. He advertised his candidacy with a small ad in the Warsaw-Times Union Newspaper. It urged people frustrated with “the Republicrats” to “send them a real message.” The seven-line ad concluded with “Write in Thomas L. Metzger for Souder’s job, 3rd District.”

“I ran the ad for a week and I might bring some hillbilly bands into town to get the campaign going,” Metzger told NewsChannel 15. “They can call me any name they want, but I’m going to tell the truth.”

via White supremacist Tom Metzger campaigns for Congress.

Full Story: Former KKK leader to run for Congress in Indiana – Austin Considine – American Crossroads – True/Slant.

New Risk in Pain-Reliever Use: Hearing Loss

Regular use of pain-relief medicine appears to increase men's risk of hearing loss, especially among middle-aged men, according to an American Journal of Medicine study. Researchers surveyed nearly 27,000 men every two years from 1986 to 2004; about one-fourth of the men said they had been diagnosed with hearing loss. Men who used pain relievers at least twice a week were more likely than non-users to be diagnosed. Aspirin users were 12% more likely, those on ibuprofen-like drugs were 21% more likely and users of acetaminophen, 22% more likely. Men from 45 to 50 years old at the start of the study faced the greatest risk—a 33% increase for aspirin, 61% for ibuprofen and 99% for acetaminophen. Previous nonhuman research has found some substances in pain-relievers can decrease blood flow to the cochlea, the part of the inner ear that converts waves sound into brain signals.

Caveat: Participants were health professionals (dentists, veterinarians, etc.) and predominantly Caucasian, so the findings may not apply to other demographics. Though the researchers controlled for a wide variety of factors, an unidentified underlying condition could be responsible for the connection.

Full Story: New Risk in Pain-Reliever Use: Hearing Loss – WSJ.com.

GOP: Law banning child abuse in schools will lead to ‘government takeover’

A proposed law designed to prevent child abuse in schools has been lauded by children’s protection advocates, and slammed by House Republicans as an unnecessary expansion of federal government power.

The House of Representatives last week passed the Keeping All Students Safe Act, which for the first time sets minimum national standards for practices such as the use “seclusion rooms” or forced restraint of unruly students.

The bill would ban the use of “mechanical restraints” such as tying children to furniture, and would allow seclusion and physical restraint to be used only when there is “imminent danger of injury and only when imposed by trained staff.”

Full Story: GOP: Law banning child abuse in schools will lead to ‘government takeover’ | Raw Story.

Understanding the Value of Protectionism

It is no accident that the U.S. was historically a protectionist economy. The Founding Fathers understood the value of protectionism, so they explicitly granted Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations”

Dan’s cheery (if somewhat bubble-inflated) statistics on the recent general prosperity of the U.S. are a mere distraction here, as nothing about these figures indicates whether free trade worsened or improved them. So I will not address them.

Some of Dan’s analytically-relevant assertions, however, are demonstrably false, like his claim that “trade has created better jobs for millions of Americans.” The reality is that the U.S. economy has ceased generating net new jobs in internationally-traded sectors. All our job growth is now in non-tradable sectors like waitresses and security guards.

Full Story: Understanding the Value of Protectionism | Economy In Crisis.

Washington’s Job Fraud

Former Senator Ernest F. Hollings -

Washington engages in the grandest fraud on jobs. An important part of the job fraud is to make the people feel like the loss of jobs is due to the recession, not off-shoring.

Washington engages in the grandest fraud on jobs. The people are led to believe that tax cuts stimulate growth and jobs and that borrowing and spending money stimulates jobs.

I’ll never forget as Chairman of the Budget Committee briefing Ronald Reagan with Alan Greenspan in the Blair House just before Reagan was sworn in as president. The economy was not good, and I can hear Reagan exclaiming now: “I promised to balance the budget in a year, and there’s no way to do it.” I explained it would take three years, and I would be glad to help in a bi-partisan effort to try to bring it in balance. The rest is history. President Reagan launched the policy of “growth” to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes, giving the United States its first trillion dollar debt in his first term, with another trillion dollar growth in debt in his second term. President George W. Bush, bragged that he was a Reaganite, stimulated the economy by cutting taxes, which increased the national debt $5 trillion. Instead of growth, the economy lost 673,000 private jobs in eight years under President George W. Bush.

Full Story: Washington’s Job Fraud | Economy In Crisis.

Antibiotic Use on Farms Causing “Deadly Soup” of Drug-Resistant Bacteria

up to 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in the U.S. are given to healthy farm animals, not people.

Imagine this: You’re having a normal day until you gradually notice a little sore throat and begin to feel a tad feverish. You assume you must have the flu. You go to bed and rest. The next day, you can barely breathe, and you rush to the hospital. Things go quickly downhill and soon, you’re trying to write down your last wishes – your body riddled with an aggressive infection – while the doctors put you in a coma to save your life. You may or may not make it. Sounds like something out of a made-for-TV script, right?

Now consider: The U.S death rate from the staph infection MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) surpassed the death rate from AIDS way back in 2005.

And MSRA is just one of the antibiotic resistant diseases that can infect people. Others include food-borne bacteria such as e-coli, salmonella, and still others that are associated with poverty and crowding, such as tuberculosis and typhoid.

Full Story: Antibiotic Use on Farms Causing “Deadly Soup” of Drug-Resistant Bacteria | EcoSalon.

Equality and the Good Life: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better

New research shows that, among developed countries, the healthiest and happiest aren’t those with the highest incomes but those with the most equality. Epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson discusses why.

We live in a world of deep inequality, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. We in the rich world generally agree that this is a problem we ought to help fix—but that the real beneficiaries will be the billions of people living in poverty. After all, inequality has little impact on the lives of those who find themselves on top of the pile. Right?

Not exactly, says British epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson.

For decades, Wilkinson has studied why some societies are healthier than others. He found that what the healthiest societies have in common is not that they have more—more income, more education, or more wealth—but that what they have is more equitably shared.

Full Story: Equality and the Good Life: Interview with Richard Wilkinson, author of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.

Controversial Utah Law Charges Women and Girls With Murder for Miscarriages

Critics are worried the law will open up a Pandora’s box of unintended legal consequences

On Monday afternoon, a controversial Utah bill that charges pregnant women and girls with murder for having miscarriages caused by “intentional or knowing” acts, was signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert.

Contrary to media reports last week, the “Criminal Homicide and Abortion Amendments” or HB12, which previously also applied to miscarriages caused by “reckless” acts, was never “withdrawn” by its sponsor, Republican Representative Carl Wimmer (who is crafting similar “model legislation” for other states). After the governor expressed concern over “possible unintended consequences,” of the legislation as written, Rep. Wimmer swiftly introduced a new version, titled “Criminal Homicide and Abortion Revisions” (HB462), which omitted the word “reckless.” Gov. Herbert signed the new bill and vetoed the old one.

In a letter to legislative leaders on Monday, the governor wrote: ”I appreciate the willingness of Representative Wimmer to reevaluate the impact of potential unintended consequences arising from the inclusion of ‘reckless’ behavior in HB12. HB 462 is more consistent with the true intent of the legislation and addresses those situations in which the termination of a pregnancy is intentional and is not conducted at a physician’s direction.”

Full Story: Controversial Utah Law Charges Women and Girls With Murder for Miscarriages | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.

Conservative Hall of Shame: 8 Anti-Gay Politicians and Demagogues Who Got Caught Having Gay Sex

The state senator arrested leaving a gay club joined a long and illustrious tradition of double-talking, double-living conservative figures.

“I’m gay. Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long,” said Republican Roy Ashburn, breaking the week of silence following his arrest in an interview Monday with conservative KERN (AM1180) talk radio host Inga Barks. Ashburn had hosted a talk radio show at the same station. KERN deleted his DJ page and his show’s description page from their radio station’s website immediately following Ashburn’s arrest.

At 2 AM, March 3 2010, the California state senator was arrested for DUI. Ashburn, a divorced father of four, is well known for his outspoken anti-gay politics. He issued a standard politician’s apology following his arrest:

“I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did. I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have on those who support and trust me – my family, my constituents, my friends, and my colleagues in the Senate.”

Full Story: Conservative Hall of Shame: 8 Anti-Gay Politicians and Demagogues Who Got Caught Having Gay Sex | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet.

America’s Dirty Little Secret: Who’s Really Poor in America?

Every Tuesday the Huffington Post lets me post a featured piece. Mostly I write about jobs, especially the issue of ‘real unemployment’, and trade, where I worry over the extremely adverse effects which unfair globalization is having on American workers.

Two old friends, civil rights activist David Mixner and former U.S. Senator (and my oft co-author) Don Riegle (D-MI), believe that in the economic recovery, not enough attention is being given to ‘who’s really poor’ now. David and Don have for years advised me — and others — on the issue of poverty in America, and they are worried that too many people, and especially too many people in the administration and Congress, are missing this imperative.

To help make their point, they referred me to poverty activist Marsha Timpson, who describes today’s poor as “America’s dirty little secret, hidden in the backyards of America’s shining homes, the hollows, the reservations, the border towns and the dark ghettos of the city where they are the lie of the American dream.”

I agree with my friends, and with Ms. Timpson’s view, and everyone else should as well, for right now in America:

• At least 50 million people are ill-fed — up from 37 million just a year ago — including 17 million children. Hunger in America is now at an all-time high, and there are currently entire national geographic regions — the very large 15-state ‘South’ being one of them — where more than half of all public school students are poor and ill-fed.

Full Story: Leo Hindery, Jr.: America’s Dirty Little Secret: Who’s Really Poor in America?.

Move Your Money, But Don’t Forget About Credit Unions

Banking behemoths don’t deserve your business. But your local credit union could be the right financial fit.

Horrific news surrounding the too-big-to-fail banks continues to march onward into absurdity. A rapacious Bank of America forecloses on a house that’s already paid for. Goldman Sachs hides Greece‘s hundreds of billions in debt until the entire country is a toxic asset to the global economy. Henry Paulson baldly admits that his tenure as Goldman Sachs’ CEO helped him rob American taxpayers of trillions. Media, political and financial hypocrites hilariously continue to insist that homeowners shouldn’t walk away from underwater mortgages as banks walk away with cash stuffed in their high-end underwear. The frustrated public would laugh, but it’d have to pull the financial gun out of its mouth first.

Full Story: Move Your Money, But Don’t Forget About Credit Unions | Economy | AlterNet.

Give Haiti control over its recovery

SINCE JANUARY’S devastating earthquake in Haiti, well-meaning experts have proposed an abundance of short-term and long-term recovery solutions. They ask why aid delivery has been so slow, why previous development plans for Haiti have rarely been successful, and why billions of dollars in funding over decades have not improved conditions for the most impoverished people in our hemisphere.

Some blame the government of Haiti, while others, including the organizations we represent, often point fingers at the international community. The simple answer is that those who have the greatest stake in rebuilding Haiti, Haitians themselves, don’t now and never have had a real seat at the table.

While Haitian resilience has been duly recognized around the world, few appear to be interested in talking to Haitians about how to rebuild their communities and how the billions likely to be pledged to their country will be used. And no one is talking about what recourse Haitians will have if promised projects are never completed, or worse, pledged money never arrives. Unfortunately, past failures can be found in every community across Haiti – water projects that were promised but never built, resulting in water-borne illness and death; food aid that was delivered, but spoiled or sold in markets below the prices asked by local farmers; non-government organizations that started educational programs, but then shifted priorities, leaving children without access to schools.

Full Story: Give Haiti control over its recovery – The Boston Globe.

Wall Street Journal Lies About Teen Unemployment

I want to start today by pointing to a post by Jonathan Chait at The New Republic. Chait attempts to refute the suggestion the Wall Street Journal put forth in an editorial claiming that the minimum wage increase was to blame for rising youth unemployment numbers. The chart to the left appeared in the Journal to augment the editorial board’s argument.

Chait draws on analysis from University of Michigan political scientist Brendan Nyhan explaining that the unemployment increase in ALL age demographics undoes the Journal’s argument. The Journal can’t seem to distinguish between correlation and causation, Nyhan writes.

Full Story: Wall Street Journal Lies About Teen Unemployment | Future Majority.

Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads

Not many companies could get away with defending controversial data retention practices by saying that the data is needed to “learn from good guys, fight off bad guys, [and] invent the future.” But that’s how Google sees itself and its practices—not surprising from a company that would give itself an unofficial motto like “don’t be evil.”

I had the chance recently to sit down with two of Google’s top privacy people: deputy general counsel Nicole Wong and security/privacy engineer Alma Whitten. While the “good guy/bad guy” and “don’t be evil” quotes may seem too cute by half to some, Wong and Whitten made a strong pitch for the truth of both slogans. In their view, Google really is fighting the good fight when it comes to your online privacy.

Full Story: Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads.

Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say

U.S. researchers estimate that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda can push down U.S. adults’ calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year.

The researchers, writing in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, suggested taxing could be used as a weapon in the fight against obesity, which costs the United States an estimated $147 billion a year in health costs.

“While such policies will not solve the obesity epidemic in its entirety and may face considerable opposition from food manufacturers and sellers, they could prove an important strategy to address overconsumption, help reduce energy intake and potentially aid in weight loss and reduced rates of diabetes among U.S. adults,” wrote the team led by Kiyah Duffey of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Story: Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say – Yahoo! News.

FDIC wants pension funds to prop up failed banks

Over 140 U.S. lenders folded in 2009 alone. To remedy the financial void left in their wake, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation wants public pension funds, which safeguard the retirement funds of millions, to buy in part or in whole the banks that couldn’t manage to keep their depositors’ funds.

“Direct investments may allow funds such as those in Oregon, New Jersey and California to cut fees for private-equity managers, and the agency to get better prices for distressed assets,” anonymous sources reportedly told Bloomberg News.

In a speech to the National Association for Business Economics Washington Policy Conference, FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair outlined what she called “a pre-funded resolution mechanism,” but did not specify what exactly that is. She instead said it would be “similar to the FDIC’s receivership authority for failed banks,” exposing only shareholders to risk, as opposed to the bank bailouts that saw billions of taxpayer dollars funneled into a near-crippled financial system.
Full Story: FDIC wants pension funds to prop up failed banks | Raw Story.

Tobacco lobby underwriting part of the conservative anti-tax rally tomorrow in Georgia.

Tomorrow, conservative groups Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Americans for Tax Reform are organizing a rally at the Georgia State Capitol to protest the state’s upcoming budget. The protest, like many recent anti-tax protests, is cloaked in an ideological veneer of fiscal conservatism and limited government. The invitation presents the rally, where Grover Norquist is speaking, as an opportunity to “cut spending and encourage economic growth.” But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jim Galloway notes that the fine print at the bottom of the invitation e-mail says the list serv was paid for “by Altria Clint Services on behalf of Philip Morris USA”:

Full Story: Think Progress » Tobacco lobby underwriting part of the conservative anti-tax rally tomorrow in Georgia..

Democratic congresswoman proposes pay cut for members of Congress.

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) introduced a bill last week to cut pay for members of Congress by $8,700 a year — or five percent — and freeze their automatic cost-of-living increase. With Congress’ approval ratings “spiraling downward,” the cost-of-living pay increase “has become largely unpopular.” “Families across the country are getting by on lower wages…so why shouldn’t senators and representatives have to feel the same pinch?” Kirkpatrick said. The cut would be the first since the Great Depression:

The first-term congresswoman said she’s hopeful, given the enormous fiscal challenges facing the country, the measure can pass. She said she’s already started handing over 5 percent of her pay every month — or $870 — to help chisel away at the national debt. The monthly payment would have been less, but Kirkpatrick is, according to her office, paying extra to make up for the two months of 2010 she missed.

“I’m putting my money where my mouth is. I’m leading by example and I hope my colleagues will join me,” she said. [...]

“The last time Congress took a cut in pay was 77 years ago. I don’t know anyone who has not had a pay cut in 77 years.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Democratic congresswoman proposes pay cut for members of Congress..

16 Cities Sue Manufacturer Of Atrazine Weed-Killer For Contaminating Drinking Water

A coalition of communities in six Midwestern states filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to force the manufacturer of a widely-used herbicide to pay for its removal from drinking water.

Atrazine, a weed-killer sprayed primarily on cornfields, can run off into rivers and streams that supply municipal water systems. As the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reported in a series of articles last fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to notify the public that atrazine had been found at levels above the federal safety limit in drinking water in at least four states.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois by 16 cities in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Iowa. The communities allege that Swiss corporation Syngenta AG and its Delaware counterpart Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. reaped billions of dollars from the sale of atrazine while local taxpayers were left with the financial burden of filtering the chemical from drinking water.

Full Story: 16 Cities Sue Manufacturer Of Atrazine Weed-Killer For Contaminating Drinking Water.

Fed Audit Bitterly Opposed By Treasury

The Treasury Department is vigorously opposed to a House-passed measure that would open the Federal Reserve to an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a senior Treasury official said Monday. Instead, the official said, the Treasury prefers a substitute offered by Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), and would like to see it enacted as part of the Senate bill.

The Watt measure, however, while claiming to increase transparency, actually puts new restrictions on the GAO's ability to perform an audit.

Secretary Tim Geithner, Assistant Treasury Secretary Alan Krueger and Gene Sperling, a counselor to the secretary, held a briefing Monday with new media reporters and financial bloggers during which they discussed the Fed audit and other topics. Under the briefing's ground rules, the officials could be paraphrased but not quoted, and the paraphrase could not be connected to a specific official.

Full Story: Fed Audit Bitterly Opposed By Treasury.

Goldman Sachs sued by big pension fund over pay

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) was sued on Monday by a large union pension fund that accused the Wall Street investment bank of overpaying its executives.

The International Brotherhood of Electric Workers fund filed the lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court, seeking to recover money for the company on behalf of other shareholders.

It seeks to stop Goldman from allocating roughly 47 percent of 2009 net revenue as compensation, saying such allocations “vastly overcompensate management and constitute corporate waste.”

The lawsuit also wants Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein and others in management, rather than shareholders, to be responsible for charitable contributions that Goldman is making as a an apology for its activities.

Full Story: Goldman Sachs sued by big pension fund over pay | Reuters.

Earmark Ban Being Debated By Democratic Leaders

“As they try to reclaim the ethical high ground during a difficult stretch, House Democratic leaders are considering a dramatic move: declaring a party-wide ban on earmarks this year,” the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported on Monday.

The idea, floated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a leadership huddle Tuesday, is for House Democrats to outflank their Republican counterparts, who have mulled and rejected such a moratorium in recent years.

The discussion was brief and inconclusive, sources with knowledge of the session said. Leaders decided they needed to explore it further with Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.). But if top Democratic brass decides to embrace the ban, it would likely have far-reaching consequences — and meet stiff resistance from some corners of the Democratic Caucus that cherish earmarks as a constitutionally protected legislative prerogative and a political necessity in an increasingly hostile environment for incumbents.

Within hours, senators from both parties were already trying to advance the idea. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) announced he “would try to force a Senate vote on a one-year earmark ban.”

Full Story: Earmark Ban Being Debated By Democratic Leaders.

Supreme Court Puts High-Emotion Funeral Protest Case on Docket

Few recent confrontations have stirred as much emotion and debate as the spate of funeral protests conducted at funerals for U.S. soldiers killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, the Supreme Court agreed to take up one of the cases stemming from those protests, a hot-button First Amendment dispute that will be argued in the fall.

Members of the Topeka, Kan., Westboro Baptist Church, seeking to spread the word that God is punishing America for its acceptance of homosexuality, have shown up at funerals with anti-gay and anti-war protest signs carrying messages such as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” and “God Hates You.” The protests have triggered lawsuits and legislation nationwide, posing a dilemma for those seeking to stifle the protests without suppressing First Amendment rights.

Full Story: Supreme Court Puts High-Emotion Funeral Protest Case on Docket – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.

Bail Out Our Schools

Robert Reich -

Any day now, the Obama administration will announce $4.35 billion in extra federal funds for under-performing public schools. That’s fine, but relative to the financial squeeze all the nation’s public schools now face it’s a cruel joke.

The recession has ravaged state and local budgets, most of which aren’t allowed to run deficits. That’s meant major cuts in public schools and universities, and a giant future deficit in the education of our people.

Across America, schools are laying off thousands of teachers. Classrooms that had contained 20 to 25 students are now crammed with 30 or more. School years have been shortened. Some school districts are moving to four-day school weeks. After-school programs have been cancelled; music and art classes, terminated. Even history is being chucked.

Full Story: Robert Reich (Bail Out Our Schools).

Attack on 911 Truth repelled: Alex Jones Destroys the Faux News Duo

Attack on 911 Truth repelled: Alex Jones Destroys the Faux News Duo – Video

ATTACK ON 911 TRUTH REPELLED

I have to hand it to Alex Jones – he did a great job asking the real question: Why are they so afraid of 911 truth?

Since when has asking questions become such a dangerous practice in a supposedly free country? Why so many clueless talking heads on TV who lack the ability to see that which is right before their eyes? Why so many omissions, selective reporting of facts, scapegoating and name-calling directed at those examining the evidence- always with one intention – to silence those who have, not theories about 911, but questions based on hard facts?

Methinks they protest too much.

Why do the talking heads continue to call those calling for 911 Truth “conspiracy theorists” – when their only “crime” has been an examination of evidence the U.S. Government has done backflips to pretend doesn’t exist? Like any proper crime investigation the 911 Truth movement withholds judgement until all the evidence is in – while the U.S. Government has published a book with the most unlikely “conspiracy theory” of them all? (19 hijackers means they must have talked)

Full Story: American’s Journey: Attack on 911 Truth repelled: Alex Jones Destroys the Faux News Duo.

Newsom orders layoffs for 15,000 S.F. workers but plans to hire back most on part-time basis

Action is part of ongoing effort to trim city’s $522-million budget deficit

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom cut the workweek for 15,000 full-time city employees to 37.5 hours Friday as a cost-cutting measure.

The mayor’s office also clarified that approximately 15,000 of the city’s 26,000 workers were to start receiving layoff notices Friday and over the weekend, and not 20,000 as it said earlier.

Newsom said the plan will save the city $50 million from its general fund, and $100 million from the entire city budget.

The city has an estimated budget deficit of $522 million for the coming fiscal year.

“This is a very defensible thing, in a very difficult time,” Newsom insisted.

Newsom said the layoff notices are a “technical” measure, and that the “overwhelming majority” of the noticed workers will be rehired immediately, should they so choose, but at a part-time status, working a half-hour less each day. That would amount to an approximately 6.25-percent pay cut, he said.

Full Story: Pleasanton Weekly : Newsom orders layoffs for 15,000 S.F. workers but plans to hire back most on part-time basis.

DOJ TO REQUIRE ES&S TO SELL OFF ASSETS FROM DIEBOLD MERGER CITING ANTI-TRUST CONCERNS

The Department of Justice’s Anti-trust division has determined that the purchase of Premier Election Solutions, Diebold Inc.’s recently renamed e-voting division, by Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) has resulted in a voting machine monopoly. The DoJ and nine states who have joined in a lawsuit, are suing to require ES&S to divest of the assets gained in the bargain-basement priced purchase of Diebold’s e-voting outfit last September.

The merger with their second largest competitor Diebold/Premier, had given ES&S, a private corporation which had already controlled some 50% of U.S. elections their electronic voting systems, a full 70% control of the votes cast in this country. The acquisition had been opposed by election integrity organizations, Hart Intercivic (a much smaller Austin-based competitor), the New York Times editorial board, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and was being investigated by 14 different states along with the DoJ’s anti-trust division.

A settlement has been struck, pending approval by a federal judge, between the DOJ, nine states and ES&S requiring that the private company find a DoJ-approved purchaser of the Diebold/Premier assets. Prior to the $5 million sale to ES&S, Diebold had been searching for a buyer for a number of years, even as they faced investigations by the SEC and the DoJ, share-holder class action suits, and a number of legal battles with states and country jurisdictions around the country after voting systems were found to have failed or in violation of federal and state standards. Diebold purchased the election division from Global Election Systems in 2002 for the price of $25 million.

Full Story: The BRAD BLOG : DOJ TO REQUIRE ES&S TO SELL OFF ASSETS FROM DIEBOLD MERGER CITING ANTI-TRUST CONCERNS.

Calling All Rebels

Chris Hedges

There are no constraints left to halt America’s slide into a totalitarian capitalism.

There are no constraints left to halt America’s slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working class has been impoverished and is now being plunged into profound despair. The legal system has been corrupted to serve corporate interests. Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have been destroyed or emasculated by corporate power. And any form of protest, no matter how tepid, is blocked by an internal security apparatus that is starting to rival that of the East German secret police. The mounting anger and hatred, coursing through the bloodstream of the body politic, make violence and counter-violence inevitable. Brace yourself. The American empire is over. And the descent is going to be horrifying.

Those singled out as internal enemies will include people of color, immigrants, gays, intellectuals, feminists, Jews, Muslims, union leaders and those defined as “liberals.” They will be condemned as anti-American and blamed for our decline. The economic collapse, which remains mysterious and enigmatic to most Americans, will be pinned by demagogues and hatemongers on these hapless scapegoats. And the random acts of violence, which are already leaping up around the fringes of American society, will justify harsh measures of internal control that will snuff out the final vestiges of our democracy. The corporate forces that destroyed the country will use the information systems they control to mask their culpability. The old game of blaming the weak and the marginal, a staple of despotic regimes, will empower the dark undercurrents of sadism and violence within American society and deflect attention from the corporate vampires that have drained the blood of the country.

“We are going to be poorer,” David Cay Johnston told me. Johnston was the tax reporter of The New York Times for 13 years and has written on how the corporate state rigged the system against us. He is the author of “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With the Bill,” a book about hidden subsidies

Full Story: Chris Hedges: Calling All Rebels – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.

Blame it on the bubble

| Dean Baker -

The financial crisis is just a sideshow – the real reason for the economic downturn is the rise and demise of the housing bubble

Politicians and the media continue to refer to the economic downturn as being the result of a financial crisis. This is wrong. We have 15 million people out of work because the housing bubble that drove the economy since the last recession finally burst. The financial crisis may have been good entertainment for those who like to see huge banks collapse, but it was a sidebar. The real story was the rise and demise of the housing bubble.

Those who claim that the real problem was the financial system and its faulty regulation can be disproved with a single word: Spain.

Spain is noteworthy because it now has an unemployment rate of more than 19%, the highest rate in any of the wealthy countries. Spain did not have a financial crisis. In fact, its well-regulated financial system is often held up as model for the United States.

Full Story: Blame it on the bubble | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Challenging conventional wisdom on renewable energy’s limits

In making the case for a rapid conversion away from heavily polluting energy sources like coal and nuclear power to cleaner generation, renewable energy advocates often confront the argument that their scheme is impossible due to the intermittent nature of sun and wind.

But a groundbreaking study out of North Carolina challenges that conventional wisdom: It suggests that backup generation requirements would be modest for a system based largely on solar and wind power, combined with efficiency, hydroelectric power, and other renewable sources like landfill gas.

“Even though the wind does not blow nor the sun shine all the time, careful management, readily available storage and other renewable sources can produce nearly all the electricity North Carolinians consume,” said author John Blackburn, professor emeritus of economics and former chancellor at Duke University in Durham, N.C.. He’s also the author of the books “The Renewable Energy Alternative” and “Solar in Florida.”

Full Story: ISS – Challenging conventional wisdom on renewable energy’s limits.

Pennsylvania helps jobless residents pay their mortgages

The jobless may not be getting much help from President Obama’s loan modification program, but those in Pennsylvania have another place to turn.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency offers the jobless and those suffering financial hardship loans of up to $60,000 for as long as three years to cover their monthly payments or take care of their arrears. Created in 1983, the program boasts an 80% success rate in preventing foreclosures.

“If you allow people some time to find a job, they can keep their home, which saves their family, their neighborhood and their communities,” said Brian Hudson, the agency’s executive director.

Full Story: Pennsylvania helps jobless residents pay their mortgages – Yahoo! Finance.

The Fight to Save Public Education in America

March 4 was historic. It will be remembered as the day that people began to fight back against the destruction of public education. The student and teacher led offensive took place in cities across the country; teachers, students and school workers demonstrated and marched, showcasing the aggressive methods of the struggle. San Francisco led the way with the biggest numbers. As many as 15,000 people, mostly students, teachers and social service workers attended a Civic Center rally organized by the three teachers unions and the San Francisco Labor Council.

This can only be the beginning. The war on public education has been carefully planned for years, orchestrated by corporate interests and implemented by Republicans and Democrats alike.

The first battle tactic against public education was to starve it. Politicians have consistently lowered taxes on corporations and the rich for the past three decades, thereby lowering state revenues that have created the budget crises in nearly every state. Consequently, public education is in a state of shell shock.

Full Story: The Fight to Save Public Education in America.

The Imperial Origins of Feudal America

Len Hart,

The economic decline of America is behind and the result of U.S. imperialism,

Any politician can cook up a run o’ the mill recession, but it requires the GOP to revert an entire people to feudalism. Our status as vassal of China is the evidence and result of our feudal status. GOP policies from which a ruling elite of just one percent benefit are responsible; the results may be seen at the CIA’s ‘World Fact Book’ which lists China at the very top with the World’s largest positive Current Account Balance and the U.S. on bottom with the world’s largest negative Current Account Balance. Related to this is China’s support for the U.S. dollar, a situation that China tolerates so that American consumers can buy Chinese product at Wal-Mart. If China should find this arrangement inconvenient, as many have said it is becoming, then China may ‘pull the plug’ and the dollar will collapse.

The economic decline of America is behind and the result of U.S. imperialism, a path about which we were well warned by a man that I have called the ‘last honest Republican’ —Dwight David Eisenhower.

The way chosen by the United States was plainly marked by a few clear precepts, which govern its conduct in world affairs.

First: No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: The Imperial Origins of Feudal America.

Marylanders joining Move Your Money campaign

A nationwide campaign to stick it to the big banks seems to have caught on with consumers who are withdrawing their money and moving on.

Huffington Post’s Move Your Money campaign has urged consumers for weeks to abandon banking giants that benefited from taxpayer bailouts but remain reluctant to lend. The campaign tells depositors to switch to small banks or credit unions that weren’t involved in the risky practices that caused the financial crisis.

Not only do some Marylanders appear to be heeding that call, but now some bigger customers are looking to make a break with the megabanks.

Full Story: Marylanders joining Move Your Money campaign – baltimoresun.com.

Republican Senator Roy Ashburn: ‘I’m Gay’

State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Calif.), the fierce opponent of gay rights who was arrested last week for drunk driving after leaving a gay nightclub, confirmed in a radio interview Monday that he is gay.

“I’m gay,” Ashburn told local radio host Inga Barks before returning to the Senate for the first time since his arrest. “Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.”

Ashburn, who is divorced, claimed his crusade against proposed gay-rights laws in the California statehouse stemmed from his desire to vote the way his constituents wanted.

Full Story: Roy Ashburn: ‘I’m Gay’.

Glenn Beck Urges Listeners to Leave Churches That Preach Social Justice

On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that “social justice,” the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a “code word” for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.

“I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!”

Later, Beck held up cards, one with a hammer and sickle and other with a swastika. “Communists are on the left, and the Nazis are on the right. That’s what people say. But they both subscribe to one philosophy, and they flew one banner. . . . But on each banner, read the words, here in America: ‘social justice.’ They talked about economic justice, rights of the workers, redistribution of wealth, and surprisingly, democracy.”

Full Story: Glenn Beck Urges Listeners to Leave Churches That Preach Social Justice — Politics Daily.