Archive for March, 2010
Dodd’s Chief Counsel Bought Financial Stocks During 2008 Crisis
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s chief counsel in 2008 traded stock in Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co., American International Group Inc. and other rescued companies as the panel considered legislation to address the credit crisis, according to her financial disclosure form filed with the Senate.
Amy Friend, 51, who is now leading the panel’s effort to write a bill overhauling Wall Street regulations, bought $1,000- to-$15,000 stakes in four banks, weeks after Dodd hired her in January 2008, the form shows. She also owned shares of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and other insurance firms, according to the disclosure document, which she signed on June 5, 2009.
The transactions, permissible under Senate rules, included buying $1,000 to $15,000 of Federal Home Loan Bank bonds and Fannie Mae debt in June and July, 2008. On July 30 of that year, then-President George W. Bush signed into law a Dodd-sponsored bill setting out new regulations for the housing finance agencies and allowing the Treasury Department to give them cash injections.
Full Story: Dodd’s Chief Counsel Bought Financial Stocks During 2008 Crisis | MichaelMoore.com.
EXCLUSIVE…Indonesian Forces Tapped by Obama for Renewed US Aid Implicated in New Assassinations
Democracy NOW! -
In a Democracy Now! exclusive, investigative journalist and activist Allan Nairn reveals US-backed Indonesian armed forces carried out a series of assassinations of civilian activists in late 2009. The news comes as the White House moves towards increasing aid to the Indonesian military and lifting a twelve-year ban on the training of the notorious Indonesian military unit known as Kopassus. A US-trained Kopassus general who coordinated the assassinations confirmed to Nairn an Indonesian army role in the killings.
Free Audio, Video, MP3 download, transcript at link
Full Story: EXCLUSIVE…Indonesian Forces Tapped by Obama for Renewed US Aid Implicated in New Assassinations.
Obama, Lehman and ‘The Dragon Tattoo’
Frank Rich - What these voters crave are leaders unambiguously on the side of true fairness and accountability, not apologists for “those traitors”…
THE same week that Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, a Swedish crime novel titled “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was published in America. The book didn’t receive a ton of hype, not least because the author, a journalist named Stieg Larsson, was unavailable for interviews; he had died in 2004 of a heart attack at the age of 50. The mixed Times review appeared in the back pages of the Sunday Book Review. Many more readers were riveted instead by the Lehman article on that morning’s front page: “A Wall Street Goliath Teeters Amid Fears of a Widening Crisis.”
Larsson’s novel, the first of a “Millennium” trilogy he left behind, would nonetheless soar onto best-seller lists in America, as it has in much of the world. It remains a best seller 18 months later, even as the first of what may be two movie adaptations opens this weekend. In the many dissections of this literary phenomenon, much has been said about Larsson’s striking title character, a brilliant, if antisocial, 24-year-old female computer hacker who bonds with a middle-age male journalist to crack a chain of horrific crimes against Swedish women. Strangely, far less attention has been paid to the equally prominent villains in this novel — whether they literally commit murder or not. They are, without exception, bankers and industrialists. At the time of its American release, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was far more topical than most anyone could imagine.
Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Obama, Lehman and ‘The Dragon Tattoo’ – NYTimes.com.
U.S. Turns a Blind Eye to Opium in Afghan Town
KABUL, Afghanistan — The effort to win over Afghans on former Taliban turf in Marja has put American and NATO commanders in the unusual position of arguing against opium eradication, pitting them against some Afghan officials who are pushing to destroy the harvest.
From Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal on down, the military’s position is clear: “U.S. forces no longer eradicate,” as one NATO official put it. Opium is the main livelihood of 60 to 70 percent of the farmers in Marja, which was seized from Taliban rebels in a major offensive last month. American Marines occupying the area are under orders to leave the farmers’ fields alone.
“Marja is a special case right now,” said Cmdr. Jeffrey Eggers, a member of the general’s Strategic Advisory Group, his top advisory body. “We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”
Full Story: U.S. Turns a Blind Eye to Opium in Afghan Town – NYTimes.com.
Drones may be sent soon to help with border security, Napolitano says
The federal government may soon send unmanned aircraft to scour West Texas and the state's coastal waters in an effort to boost border security, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a letter to the governor sent Friday.
Perry had formally requested the assistance a week ago. The need also was underscored in a phone call that Democratic nominee Bill White had with Napolitano on Thursday.
Homeland Security has six drones and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to get the necessary clearance to begin flying over Texas, Napolitano wrote.
The Rest of the Story: Man with Parkinson’s jeered by health-care bill opponents is a former nuclear engineer
A demonstrator at a Columbus health-care rally who was chided for looking for a handout “on the wrong end of town” actually is a former nuclear engineer with a doctorate from Cornell University.
Robert A. Letcher, 60, had no way of knowing that attending the rally would make him a flashpoint in the raging national health-care debate.
But the treatment of Letcher, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, by two opponents of health-care legislation instantly became the topic of Internet chatter and bloggers and was given a prime spot on cable-news programs in the past two days.
A Dispatch video, widely circulated on the Internet, depicted the angry protestors berating Letcher as he sat on the ground holding a sign explaining his condition.
Invisibility Cloak Closer Than Ever To Becoming A Reality
From Grimm’s fairy tales to Harry Potter, the cloak of invisibility has played a major role in fiction. Now scientists have taken a small but important new step toward making it reality.
Researchers at Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology report they were able to cloak a tiny bump in a layer of gold, preventing its detection at nearly visible infrared frequencies.
Their cloaking device also worked in three dimensions, while previously developed cloaks worked in two dimensions, lead researcher Tolga Ergin said.
Full Story: Invisibility Cloak Closer Than Ever To Becoming A Reality.
When drug makers’ profits outweigh penalties
Prosecutor Michael Loucks remembers clearly when attorneys for Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, looked across the table and promised it wouldn’t break the law again. ¶ It was January 2004, and the lawyers were negotiating in a conference room on the ninth floor of the federal courthouse in Boston, where Loucks was head of the health-care fraud unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. One of Pfizer’s units had been pushing doctors to prescribe an epilepsy drug called Neurontin for uses the Food and Drug Administration had never approved. ¶ In the agreement the lawyers eventually hammered out, the Pfizer unit, Warner-Lambert, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of marketing a drug for unapproved uses. New York-based Pfizer agreed to pay $430 million in criminal fines and civil penalties, and the company’s lawyers assured Loucks and three other prosecutors that Pfizer and its units would stop promoting drugs for unauthorized purposes. ¶ What Loucks, who was acting U.S. attorney in Boston until November, didn’t know until years later was that Pfizer managers were breaking that pledge not to practice off-label marketing even before the ink was dry on their plea.
On the morning of Sept. 2, 2009, another Pfizer unit, Pharmacia & Upjohn, agreed to plead guilty to the same crime. This time, Pfizer executives had been instructing more than 100 salespeople to promote Bextra — a drug approved only for the relief of arthritis and menstrual discomfort — for treatment of acute pain of all kinds.
For this new felony, Pfizer paid the largest criminal fine in U.S. history: $1.19 billion. On the same day, it paid $1 billion to settle civil cases involving the off-label promotion of Bextra and three other drugs with the United States and 49 states.
Full Story: When drug makers’ profits outweigh penalties – washingtonpost.com.
Pope Slams Irish Church Over Sex Abuse Scandal, But No Mention of Vatican Responsibility
Pope Benedict XVI rebuked Irish bishops Saturday for “grave errors of judgment” in handling clerical sex abuse cases and ordered an investigation into the Irish church. But he laid no blame for the problem on the Vatican’s policies of keeping such cases secret.
In a letter to the Irish faithful read across Europe amid a growing, multination abuse scandal, the pope apologized to victims but doled out no specific punishments to bishops blamed by Irish government-ordered investigations for having covered up abuse of thousands of Irish children from the 1930s to the 1990s.
Ireland’s main group of clerical-abuse victims, One in Four, said it was deeply disappointed by the letter because it failed to place responsibility with the Vatican for what it called a “deliberate policy of the Catholic Church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders, thereby endangering children.”
Full Story: Pope Slams Irish Church Over Sex Abuse Scandal, But No Mention of Vatican Responsibility.
Cigna Gives $110.9 Million Compensation Package To Ex-CEO
The insurance giant Cigna last year gave compensation packages worth more than $120 million to two executives who left the company, according to a filing with the SEC on Friday.
The vast majority of that total went to former chairman and CEO H. Edward Hanway who left his post with a retirement package worth $110.9 million — which included $18.8 million in executive compensation for 2009, as well as a healthy pension plan, deferred compensation and stock options.
With more than $19 billion in revenues reported in 2008, Cigna remains one of the most profitable insurers in the country. Though, unlike some of its competitors, it does not appear to have raised premiums on customers in an effort to improve somewhat sagging recent profits.
Full Story: Cigna Gives $110.9 Million Compensation Package To Ex-CEO.
How to Give Yourself a Metabolic Tune-Up
Are you tired and worn out?
Do you have sore muscles, fatigue, and brain fog?
If so, you might have metabolic burnout!
Imagine if you could find a way to tune up your metabolism, increase your energy levels, think clearly, and feel less achy.
Imagine if you could prevent diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia.
Imagine if you could heal fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Imagine if you could get to the roots of aging, slow the whole process, and eliminate most age-related diseases.
These aren’t just fantasies.
All these things are possible–if you give yourself a metabolic tune-up.
Full Story: Mark Hyman, MD: How to Give Yourself a Metabolic Tune-Up.
Biofuel Tax Credit Language in Final Health Care Bill: Help Us Understand Why
Silly ProPublicans. We expected the health care reform bill to include language pertaining to health care. And most of it does, except this paragraph that appears to tackle the scourge of … ashy biofuels?
ELIMINATION OF UNINTENDED APPLICATION OF CELLULOSIC BIOFUEL PRODUCER CREDIT.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 40(b)(6)(E) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new clause:
(iii) EXCLUSION OF UNPROCESSED FUELS.—The term ‘cellulosic biofuel’ shall not include any fuel if—
“(I) more than 4 percent of such fuel (determined by weight) is any combination of water and sediment, or
“(II) the ash content of such fuel is more than 1 percent (determined by weight).”
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The Amendment made by this section shall apply to fuels sold or used on or after January 1, 2010.
Full Story: On The Hill: Biofuel Tax Credit Language in Final Health Care Bill: Help Us Understand Why.
A Ruinous Meltdown, State After State
Bob Herbert -
A story that is not getting nearly enough attention is the ruinous fiscal meltdown occurring in state after state, all across the country.
Taxes are being raised. Draconian cuts in services are being made. Public employees are being fired. The tissue-thin national economic recovery is being undermined. And in many cases, the most vulnerable populations — the sick, the elderly, the young and the poor — are getting badly hurt.
Arizona, struggling with a projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall, took the drastic step of scrapping its Children’s Health Insurance Program. That left nearly 47,000 low-income children with no coverage at all. Gov. Jan Brewer is also calling for an increase in the sales tax. She said, “Arizona is navigating its way through the largest state budget deficit in its long history.”
Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – A Ruinous Meltdown, State After State – NYTimes.com.
Fillibuster: Do We Need to Break Up California to Fix Democracy?
Many Democrats are recognizing that the federal government is broken and are lining up to “fix” the Senate filibuster. Some want to reduce the cloture requirement to 55 Senators. Others want to do away with the filibuster entirely.
There’s only one problem: many Democratic Senators are reluctant to change the rule.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), for instance, favors the filibuster, which he used to protect Oregon’s “Death With Dignity” law when it was under attack by a Republican Congress.
He is hardly alone. In 1995, 23 Democrats joined every Republican to defeat an effort (which was co-sponsored by Senator Joseph Lieberman) to scrap the filibuster. Will the Dems pick up at least 14 of those votes to eliminate the filibuster today? Very unlikely.
Unfortunately, this reflects an even bigger problem. The fact is the federal government isn’t “broken” because of the filibuster rules. It’s broken because of its two Senators per State structure, regardless of population, that is built into the U.S. Constitution.
Full Story: Do We Need to Break Up California to Fix Democracy? | CommonDreams.org.
Silent Spring Has Sprung
Seasons change, yet some things remain the same. Nearly half a century ago, Rachel Carson debuted the first serial installment of what would eventually become one of the landmark works of the 20th century, Silent Spring. In that book, Carson famously argued that the pesticide DDT was responsible for negative impacts on the environment, animals, and humans alike, despite disinformation spread by industry and government officials about its purported safety and utility in agribusiness. Silent Spring is often credited with starting the modern environmental movement, yet today we are facing equivalent challenges and similar campaigns to conceal the potential dangers of toxic chemicals in our midst.
In particular, the pervasive use of the herbicide atrazine raises a host of ecological and political questions that are strikingly reminiscent of those confronted by Carson. Perhaps coincidentally, the widespread use of atrazine in American agriculture dates to almost precisely the time that Silent Spring was beginning to take shape as a withering indictment of the chemical industry's blatant disregard for emerging health warnings and its concomitant influence over politicians and regulators. While DDT was eventually banned for use as a pesticide in 1972, atrazine has enjoyed decades of unfettered use as (according to its maker, Syngenta) “one of the most effective, affordable and trusted products in agriculture.” This promotional website includes personal testimonials from farmers as well as press releases intended to debunk “baseless activist claims” about atrazine’s safety.
Full Story: Silent Spring Has Sprung | CommonDreams.org.
Sanders drops push for public option
Vermont senator doesn’t want to undermine chances for overall passage
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will postpone a push for a public option in the health care overhaul bill, acknowledging such a fight “could undermine the entire process.”
The National Journal reported on its Web site Thursday that Sanders and Sen. Jeff Merkley
, D-Ore., would shelve an amendment to the bill during the reconciliation process in exchange for assurances the proposal would be resurrected later.
A statement by Will Wiquist, a Sanders spokesman, confirmed the report. “Bernie is a strong supporter of a public option and will continue to work to create a system that provides competition for private insurance companies as a way to hold down skyrocketing premiums,” Wiquist said by e-mail. “He thinks majorities in the House and Senate would support a public option.”
Full Story: Sanders drops push for public option | The Burlington Free Press | Burlington, Vermont.
Dems: Memo On Medicare Changes Isn’t Ours — It’s A GOP ‘Hoax’
Democrats today are accusing Republicans of circulating a fraudulent memo that claims to be sent to “Democratic health and communications staff” and which suggests the majority party leadership wants to make big changes to Medicare next year after health care passes.
A senior Democratic leadership aide told TPMDC in an interview the memo, obtained and printed by Politico and leading the Drudge Report this afternoon a few days ahead of the health care vote Sunday, is “a hoax.”
[READ THE MEMO HERE]
“We have checked with every Democratic office, no one has ever seen it. It did not come out of a Democratic office,” the aide said, adding that media outlets printing the memo have not checked with leadership offices if the memo is authentic. A second Democratic leadership aide confirmed the memo was not sent by the Democrats. A third Democratic aide also said the memo is fake, citing the “draft” stamp and saying no one uses such things.
Full Story: Dems: Memo On Medicare Changes Isn’t Ours — It’s A GOP ‘Hoax’ | TPMDC.
Republicans for Iraq Health Care-Not Americans
Republicans Deny American Children Health Care Coverage
The US Republican Party will force the breakdown of any health care bill which would cover over 8 million children of the United States. The number of children who are “not covered” by medical insurance increases by half a million every year. The Republican Party is set against health care reform in any form, to protect their insurance lobbyist friends.
The good news is: Republicans want you to pay for Iraqi citizens to have health care coverage. Over and over again for the past 8 years -the US taxpayer has paid for an “oil rich country” to have universal health care for all citizens.
Shouldn’t Republicans want the same for American children? Such a noble act on behalf of the Rush Limbaugh’s, the Sarah Palin and the religious right groups who are demonstrating with violence -against covering US children. What a farce to protect their special interest insurance companies and lobbyists who donate to Republican campaigns.
Full Story: Republicans for Iraq Health Care-Not Americans | Politicol News.
The Trillion Dollar Wealth Transfer
Health Reform 1 of 4
“Sadly, we have ended up with legislation that fails to meet the test of true healthcare reform, guaranteeing high quality, cost effective care for all Americans, and instead are further locking into place a system that entrenches the chokehold of the profit-making insurance giants on our health. If this bill passes, the industry will become more powerful and could be beyond the reach of reform for generations.” – Karen Higgins, Co-President, National Nurses United
When Americans elected Barack Obama President in 2008, along with a large majority in both the House and Senate, there was a feeling among a majority of the people that a long national nightmare of inadequate and exploitative health insurance would soon be over. Now, over a year later it is clear to a plurality of Americans that the nightmare has only just begun.
The political push for health reform quickly degenerated in to a push for insurance reform. The two are not the same, in fact they are nearly mutually exclusive. Barack Obama kicked off the process by taking any discussion of a single payer insurance system off the table. This despite the fact that a single payer system, especially a Medicare-for-all buy in, would be cheaper and more effective.
Shortly thereafter, the one and only true cost-containment mechanism proposed in any variant of reform legislation – a competitive public option – was tabled. This despite the fact that Barack Obama promised the American people any bill he signed must include a public option. Political rhetoric about the public option rose and fell over the next several months, due in large part to the fact that over seventy-five percent of Americans wanted a public option to be part of health reform.
Full Story: The Trillion Dollar Wealth Transfer (Health Reform 1 of 4) – Practical Vision.
Boy Scout Sex Abuse Files: Suit Claims Group Kept ‘Perversion Files’ As Part Of Coverup
The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years.
The “perversion files,” a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could all change in the coming weeks in an Oregon courtroom.
The lawyer for a man who was molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday. The lawyer says the files show how the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.
Full Story: Boy Scout Sex Abuse Files: Suit Claims Group Kept ‘Perversion Files’ As Part Of Coverup.
In choosing its battle names, the military must know its target audience
In the hypercharged rush of combat, the adrenaline flows and the rhetoric soars. After the “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq, many of the names the military gave early battles were pugnacious: Operation Scorpion Sting, Operation Iron Hammer, Operation Ivy Serpent.
But as the military changed tactics, trying to win over the local population with on-the-ground diplomacy, some nicknames started to soften. Hence Operation Glad Tidings of Benevolence and Operation Together Forward.
Names are important, especially in war. Like a good advertising jingle, war names must be catchy and concise. But above all else, they have to sell — all sorts of things, to all sorts of people: inspiration to the troops, righteousness to Americans at home, partnership to allied countries, peace and promise to non-combatant civilians.
And, to the enemy: We're-coming-to-kill-you aggression.
Full Story: In choosing its battle names, the military must know its target audience – washingtonpost.com.
Rethink Afghanistan
Thousands Dead, $747.3 Billion Spent And Not Any Safer
Today is the seventh anniversary of the Iraq invasion. There’s a temptation as we begin to end our combat presence in Iraq to search for a happy ending. But there has been no ‘victory’ in Iraq. We created this video as a reminder of the damage done to Iraq and to our country over the last seven years.
We also know that there will be no economic recovery here at home as long as we’re spending $100 billion a year on another war that isn’t making us any safer – the war in Afghanistan.
That’s why we’re asking you to report the Afghanistan War as an example of waste, fraud and abuse on the White House’s official economic recovery website, Recovery.gov, today. Simply scroll down to the field marked “What” and paste this message into the text box:
Full Story: Rethink Afghanistan War.
Senators Plan To Flood Financial Reform Bill With Nearly 400 Amendments
Senators plan to offer nearly 400 amendments to the financial reform bill the Senate Banking Committee will take up on Monday — ranging from Democratic provisions to strengthen the proposed consumer protection agency to Republican amendments calling for new rules potentially compromising the independence of the board that sets financial accounting standards.
Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the committee whose bipartisan negotiations with committee Chairman Christopher Dodd broke down last month, is responsible for 109 amendments alone. Earlier this week, Shelby, of Alabama, told the Huffington Post that “probably not a lot” will happen in the committee, indicating that the real battle will come on the Senate floor.
The document outlining the amendments, obtained by HuffPost, doesn't include the actual language of the provisions, but it does give a sense of what the senators plan to push for.
Full Story: Senators Plan To Flood Financial Reform Bill With Nearly 400 Amendments.
FDIC Closes Seven Banks, 2010 Total Climbs To 37
Regulators on Friday shut down seven banks in five states, bringing to 37 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year.
The closings follow the 140 that succumbed in 2009 to mounting loan defaults and the recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over First Lowndes Bank, in Fort Deposit, Ala.; Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga.; Bank of Hiawassee, in Hiawassee, Ga.; and Century Security Bank in Duluth, Ga.
The agency also closed down State Bank of Aurora, in Aurora, Minn.; Advanta Bank Corp., based in Draper, Utah; and American National Bank of Parma, Ohio.
Full Story: FDIC Closes Seven Banks, 2010 Total Climbs To 37.
Afghan Cops: A $6 Billion Fiasco
Six billion dollars later, the Afghan National Police can’t begin to do their jobs right—never mind relieve American forces.
Mohammad Moqim watches in despair as his men struggle with their AK-47 automatic rifles, doing their best to hit man-size targets 50 meters away. A few of the police trainees lying prone in the mud are decent shots, but the rest shoot clumsily, and fumble as they try to reload their weapons. The Afghan National Police (ANP) captain sighs as he dismisses one group of trainees and orders 25 more to take their places on the firing line. “We are still at zero,” says Captain Moqim, 35, an eight-year veteran of the force. “They don’t listen, are undisciplined, and will never be real policemen.”
Poor marksmanship is the least of it. Worse, crooked Afghan cops supply much of the ammunition used by the Taliban, according to Saleh Mohammed, an insurgent commander in Helmand province. The bullets and rocket-propelled grenades sold by the cops are cheaper and of better quality than the ammo at local markets, he says. It’s easy for local cops to concoct credible excuses for using so much ammunition, especially because their supervisors try to avoid areas where the Taliban are active. Mohammed says local police sometimes even stage fake firefights so that if higher-ups question their outsize orders for ammo, villagers will say they’ve heard fighting.
Full Story: Afghan Cops: A $6 Billion Fiasco – Newsweek.com.
Dodd wants criminal probe of Lehman ‘manipulation’
A senior US senator urged Attorney General Eric Holder Friday to create a task force to investigate possible criminal conduct behind the collapse of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers.
“I am deeply concerned about the facts that have come to light regarding the demise of Lehman Brothers and the accounting manipulation that contributed to it,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd wrote in a letter to Holder.
“I respectfully ask you to commission a task force to investigate the Lehman situation as well as other companies that may have engaged in similar accounting manipulation with a view to prosecution of employees or agents who contributed to any violations of the law.”
Full Story: Dodd wants criminal probe of Lehman ‘manipulation’ | Raw Story.
Obama urges new powers for the Fed
US President Barack Obama on Saturday urged senators to grant the Federal Reserve a dramatic expansion of its’ regulatory powers and to establish a new consumer protection committee to help safeguard Americans from Wall Street’s excesses.
“These reforms are essential,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.
“As I’ve urged over the past year, we need common-sense rules that will allow our markets to function fairly and freely while reining in the worst practices of the financial industry.”
On Monday, the Senate banking committee will debate a proposal by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd that is designed to halt what he sees as abuse and excess by financial firms.
Full Story: Obama urges Senate action on controversial finance reforms | Raw Story.
What the U.S. can Learn From Germany
Award winning author and economist Eamonn Fingleton discusses how the German economy operates in comparison to the U.S
The following is part eight of a 30 minute interview with Eamonn Fingleton.
Award winning author and economist Eamonn Fingleton discusses how the German economy operates in comparison to the U.S.
Video at link
Full Story: What the U.S. can Learn From Germany | Economy In Crisis.
Reclaiming America’s Place as the Greatest Nation
Perhaps now is the time, in light of all that has happened to this so-called “great” nation, for us to start acting like a superpower once again
Americans commonly refer to their homeland as the “best,” “greatest,” or “strongest” nation in the world. President Barack Obama used these terminologies throughout his inaugural address and has constantly referred back to these talking points in all of his public addresses. Congressmen do it. Business leaders do it. People on the street do it as readily as they can.
Perhaps now is the time, in light of all that has happened to this so-called “great” nation, for us to start acting like a superpower once again.
The United States has just about all the natural resources any nation could ever want or need. Save for our overwhelming addiction to petroleum, the U.S. has enough domestic stores of most resources to flourish. The U.S. also has a very large population of relatively skilled and well-educated workers. Our students are falling behind their counterparts around the globe, but with a little effort we can reverse that trend and invigorate generations of young people to build a stronger nation than the deteriorating mess they are currently encumbered with.
Full Story: Reclaiming America’s Place as the Greatest Nation | Economy In Crisis.
What to Expect from Jobs Bill
President Barack Obama signed into law a $38 billion piece of legislation on Thursday designed to spur job growth through tax cuts and infrastructure spending, although many economists dispute just how effective the bill will actually be.
The bill passed the Senate Wednesday in a rare bipartisan vote. The final tally was 68-29, with nearly a dozen Republicans joining Democrats in sending the bill to the president’s desk for his signature.
“I hope it is a prelude to further cooperation in the days and months to come, as we continue the work of digging out of this recession and rebuilding our economy in a way that works for all Americans,” Obama said in a nod to Republicans, which has been labeled as “the party of no“ by some.
Full Story: What to Expect from Jobs Bill | Economy In Crisis.
Rob Portman Gets Blasted for Free Trade Record
The Ohio Conference on Fair Trade said that during the Portman-era as U.S. Trade Rep., 17,000 Ohio jobs were outsourced while the trade deficit rose 6.5 percent. Portman also allowed the U.S. trade deficit with China to swell to over $200 billion for the first time in history.
The Ohio Democratic Party, with an assist from labor leaders and fair trade advocates, began their assault Wednesday on Rob Portman, the leading U.S. Senate candidate in the Republican primary, highlighting his past support for job-killing free trade agreements, according to The Youngstown Business Journal Daily.
On a conference call derisively said to be a “celebration” of the five-year anniversary of Portman’s nomination to become George W. Bush’s U.S. Trade Representative, participants laid out the case against Portman, who will likely face off against Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher in the general election in November.
The Ohio Conference on Fair Trade said that during the Portman-era as U.S. Trade Rep., 17,000 Ohio jobs were outsourced while the trade deficit rose 6.5 percent. Portman also allowed the U.S. trade deficit with China to swell to over $200 billion for the first time in history.
Full Story: Rob Portman Gets Blasted for Free Trade Record | Economy In Crisis.
Seven years of war in Iraq.
Seven years ago today, President Bush launched the Iraq war. In a televised address to the nation, Bush told the American people “at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.” Over the last several years, ThinkProgress has been keeping a Timeline of the Iraq War, marking the key events in the U.S. invasion, occupation, and now ongoing withdrawal from the country. Among the most significant events of the last year were:
Full Story: Think Progress » Seven years of war in Iraq..
GOP To Kill Health Bill For Nonexistent Abortion Coverage, But Provide Abortion Coverage To GOP Staff
Republican lawmakers, as well as Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), have falsely claimed that the health reform bill allows taxpayer funded abortions. At a press conference yesterday, GOP members of Congress convened to again hammer the lie home that health reform will provide taxpayer funds for abortion.
Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA), a member of the GOP leadership team at the press event yesterday, blasted Democrats for trying to pass a health reform bill with supposed funds for abortion coverage. ThinkProgress spoke to McMorris-Rodgers after the event. According to disclosure reports, McMorris-Rodgers’ state Republican Party provides health insurance through AWB Health Choice — a consortium of benefit packages including Lifewise Health Plans of Washington, which covers abortions. McMorris-Rodgers assailed the nonexistent abortion coverage in the health reform bill, while brushing aside her own campaign dollars going towards plans which cover abortion. Eventually, the congresswoman relented and admitted that her campaign dollars funding abortion coverage is “not” okay:
Boehner Claims Student Loan Reform Will ‘Eliminate Every Bank In The Country’
This weekend, Democrats plan to vote on their health care reform reconciliation
package, which also includes student loan reform. The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which would cut billions of dollars in senseless subsidies to private student lenders, passed the House last year. As of yesterday, it has a corresponding senate counterpart, which will be included in the reconciliation bill.
Currently, the federal government gives billions of dollars to student lenders to originate loans, and then guarantees loan repayment up to 97 percent, so the lenders are essentially useless middlemen that aren’t exposed to any of the loan risk. This is corporate welfare at its finest. So in order to build opposition to the bill, both the lenders and Republicans in Congress have been borrowing a tactic from the health care debate by falsely characterizing student loan reform as a “Washington takeover” of lending.
But House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) took this a step further last night, saying that student loan reform would actually “eliminate every bank in the country and all student loan lenders,” replacing them with the government:
Full Story: Think Progress » Boehner Claims Student Loan Reform Will ‘Eliminate Every Bank In The Country’.
Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera criticizes Bret Baier’s Obama interview.
Yesterday on the radio program “Brian and the Judge,” Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera criticized fellow network personality Bret Baier for not treating President Obama respectfully during his recent interview. Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino was also on the show and completely disagreed with Rivera, claiming that President Bush also received “aggressive” treatment:
RIVERA: At a certain point, you gotta recognize, in my opinion — and again, I’m not putting Bret down in any way shape or form — when the President seemed exasperated and frustrated and unable to complete a sentence, I thought at some point you got to make a difference between the guy who’s the Senate whip or the House whip, or the assemblyman, the leader of the state senate. He’s not a mayor, he’s the President.
PERINO: There’s not a single reporter who ever interviewed President Bush who would have done anything different. … I was there for 7.5 years, I watched them all. … They’re aggressive and they should be. [...]
Full Story: Think Progress » Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera criticizes Bret Baier’s Obama interview..
20 Principles for Successful Community Organizing
Kahn’s new book, “Creative Community Organizing: a Guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists and Quiet Lovers of Justice,” is a manifesto for the politically active.
I’ve been a rabble-rouser and social activist for 45 of my almost 66 years, and have made my living as a professional civil rights, labor, and community organizer, as well as a performer. In my new political memoir, Creative Community Organizing: A Guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists, and Quiet Lovers of Justice (Berrett-Koehler, 2010), I relate stories from some of the great social reform campaigns in recent American history, of which I’ve been privileged to play a part–including the Southern Civil Rights Movement, the
Click image to buy it now
Harlan County coal miner’s strike, and the fight to abolish for-profit prisons and immigrant family detention. The book has lessons that I hope will inspire and motivate a new generation of community organizers and young activists–and anyone else who seeks to make an impact in their communities, from musicians and soccer moms, to teachers and politicians.
What follows is a list of take-away lessons and principles, a sort of manifesto for today’s community organizers.
“Freedom, freedom is a hard won thing, and every generation has to win it again.”
Full Story: 20 Principles for Successful Community Organizing | Books | AlterNet.
Two Women a Day Die Giving Birth in America — and Many of These Deaths Can Be Prevented
While anti-choicers focus only on preventing access to a single procedure, women across the country are dying pointless deaths due to lack of access to proper care.
A damning new report from Amnesty International castigates the U.S. for dismal maternal mortality rates and a double standard of care that leaves racial minorities and lower-income women out in the cold. The report notes that nearly two women a day die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth–and many of these deaths could be prevented.
“Mothers die not because the United States can’t provide good care, but because it lacks the political will to make sure good care is available to all women,” Amnesty International America’s Executive Director Larry Cox said when the report’s findings were released. Somehow this miserable trend hasn’t gotten much attention from the anti-choicers who claim to only care about the preciousness of human life.
Pro-Life Only Until Birth
In the United States, where supposedly “pro-life” people make up around half the population, we’re not very good at securing either end of the spectrum–looking out for women seeking family planning or those women about to start a family. And the political allies of the folks exhorting women to “choose life” have been fighting tooth and nail against health reform that would improve access to insurance and care for pregnant women and young children.
My Experience with a Psychedelic Plant That Thousands Have Used for Release from Severe Addictions
Before Clare gives me the ibogaine she has me write out my intention for my journey, what I hope to get from the experience, and whatever questions I may want to ask the iboga spirits. She takes my intention and places it on a small altar she has built with candles and feathers. She runs my body over with burning sage and then spreads the smoke around the room, clearing spiritual energy and opening up the space for the iboga spirits to enter and do their work.
She has me lie down on the bed. Next to me on the pillow are a set of headphones hooked up to an ipod, and a special kind of visor allegedly designed by famedd psychedelic and spiritual artist Alex Grey that improves psychedelic visions. Clare takes my hand into hers.
“As part of the treatment plan here, I make a life contract with all of my clients. Sometimes the medicine will open a door to the other side and it will tell you you can go into it if you want. I make my clients promise me they’ll stay here in this life. They came here to live, and that’s exactly what they’re going to do. I know you’re not in that place, but I gotta say it anyway. Who knows what you may want to do once you’re up there.”
Full Story: My Experience with a Psychedelic Plant That Thousands Have Used for Release from Severe Addictions | Drugs | AlterNet.
You Have No Say About Your Military
The Top Five Questions We Should Ask the Pentagon
William Astore, -
When was the last time you saw the headline, “Cost of [Pentagon-weapons-system-of-your-choice] halved”? Probably never. Still, the thought came to mind when this recent Associated Press headline caught my eye: “Pentagon: F-35 fighter jet cost doubles.”
Here’s the story behind it: Since 2001, when an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was expected to cost an already hefty $50 million, the plane’s cost has soared into the stratosphere (despite the fact that the aircraft itself has barely left the ground). The estimated cost today is $113 million per plane. Yes, that’s per plane. This supposed future workhorse of the U.S. military is now priced like the planet’s most precious gem. It’s also 2 ½ years behind schedule. Keep in mind that the Marines, the Air Force, and the Navy are planning to buy a combined 2,450 of them for what’s now an eye-popping $323 billion. And if you think the costs are likely to stay in the $113 million range, given the history of Pentagon cost overruns, then I have a nice little national security bridge to Brooklyn I think the U.S. public might love.
In other words, if all goes well from here (an unlikely possibility), a single future weapons system is now estimated to cost the American taxpayer almost one-third of what the Obama administration’s health-care plan is expected to cost over a decade. You could even think of the Pentagon’s weapons procurement process as the health-care system of the national security state. Its costs just never stop rising. In fact, the Government Accountability Office pegs major weapons systems cost overruns since 2001 at $295 billion, another near third of the cost of the health-care bill supposedly coming to a vote this week.
Full Story: Tomgram: William Astore, You Have No Say About Your Military | TomDispatch.
William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), is a TomDispatch regular. He has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. He can be reached at wastore@pct.edu.
Ominously For Ensign, Probe’s Focus Appears To Shift To Possible Quid Pro Quo
Buried under the pile of details that have emerged in the last 48 hours on the John Ensign investigation is one crucial over-arching development: The federal probe into the matter appears to have expanded, and shifted its focus in a way that may could make it an even graver threat to the Nevada senator than before.
In a nutshell: The Justice Department investigation began as an inquiry into whether Ensign flouted a lobbying ban by trying to help Doug Hampton get a lobbying job after Hampton left Ensign's office, and by directing his staff to work with Hampton once he was set up as a lobbyist. But now, it seems, investigators have also moved beyond Hampton, to consider whether the senator illegally tied legislative favors to contributions to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which he chaired.
To be sure, a breach of lobbying rules, as may have occurred here, would be significant. But a direct quid pro quo involving Ensign — who continues to maintain that he has done nothing illegal — would potentially constitute far more serious wrong-doing.
What's the evidence that the Feds have shifted their focus?
Full Story: Ominously For Ensign, Probe’s Focus Appears To Shift To Possible Quid Pro Quo | TPMMuckraker.
The Offshored Economy
Paul Craig Roberts - In the 20th century, Detroit, Michigan, symbolized American industrial might. Today it symbolizes the offshored economy.
Detroit’s population has declined by half. A quarter of the city–35 square miles–is desolate with only a few houses still standing on largely abandoned streets. If the local government can get the money from Washington, urban planners are going to shrink the city and establish rural areas or green zones where neighborhoods used to be.
President Obama and economists provide platitudes about recovery. But how does an economy recover when its economic leaders have spent more than a decade moving high productivity, high value-added middle class jobs offshore along with the Gross Domestic Product associated with them?
Some very discouraging reports have been issued this month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There have been record declines in both jobs and hours worked. At the end of last year, the U.S. economy had fewer jobs than at the end of 1997, 12 years ago. Hours worked at the end of last year were less than at the end of 1995, 14 years ago.
The average work week is falling and currently stands at 33.1 hours for non-supervisory workers.
Full Story: The Offshored Economy | Foreign Policy Journal.
Nat’l ID card + microchip required by Immigration Bill
The NYT reported yesterday (3/18) that senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina have introduced:
“..a proposal to overhaul the immigration system, which would require illegal immigrants to admit they broke the law before they could gain legal status and require all workers in the United States to carry a biometric identity card to prove that they are eligible to work…..
The plan calls for a big increase in immigration agents patrolling workplaces, and would require all workers, including legal immigrants and American citizens, to present a tamper-proof Social Security card when they apply for jobs. Biometric identity information would be stored on the card and not in any government database, according to an explanatory document from the senators.”
Information about biometric ID cards is easier to find at British websites, since they are far advanced in civilian surveillance and control. The Biometric Identity Cards site opines:
What biometric information will be stored on the card?
Full Story: Nat’l ID card + microchip required by Immigration Bill « Wake-up Call.
Tar sands mining: coming NOW to the United States
“At least there’s no tar sands mining in the United States.” We’ve all heard the horror stories from Canada. The Alberta tar sands project is among the most environmentally destructive projects in the world: strip mining and pulverizing rock, heating it to 700 degrees, gobbling up water, consuming far more energy than is created, manufacturing four times as much carbon emissions as conventional oil, and spewing poison into the earth, water, and sky.
However, a tar sands project, the first of its kind in the United States, is happening here in the eastern Utah desert, not far from Moab, Arches National Park, and Dinosaur National Monument. It’s about to break ground…unless you speak up.
Under eastern Utah, western Colorado, and southwestern Wyoming lurks oil-bearing shale and sand (“tar sand” and “oil sand” are synonymous). An industry white paper (14 pg pdf) claims that Utah has 25-32 billion oil equivalent barrels (about 55% of the known tar sand resources of the United States), compared to Alberta’s 1.7 trillion oil equivalent barrels. Further, “the United States has the largest, richest, and most concentrated deposits of oil shale in the world,” and (note the careful wording; “recoverable” is not the same as “proved”)
Full Story: Tar sands mining: coming NOW to the United States | The Seminal.
A Worried Postscript to the House Health Care Bill
Robert Reich -
Nothing that’s legislated is perfect and in my view the good that will come from passing health care legislation outweighs the bad, but be warned: the pending House bill (that will go to the Senate for a “reconcilation” vote) does not repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurers, nor does it contain a public insurance option. It thereby will allow health insurers to continue to consolidate into even larger entities, gain as much market power as they can, and charge ever higher prices. Yet Americans will be required to buy health insurance from them. Assuming the bill becomes law, this dissonance spells trouble. It will have to be addressed before 2014, when the bill takes effect.
Full Story: Robert Reich (A Worried Postscript to the House Health Care Bill).
Virginia warns wife of Justice Clarence Thomas her group is violating law
State officials tell Virginia Thomas that her conservative advocacy group, Liberty Central Inc., must comply with a law that requires registration before seeking donations.
Virginia consumer-protection officials have warned the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that her advocacy group is improperly soliciting contributions in the state.
In a letter to Virginia Thomas on Thursday, the state Office of Consumer Affairs directed Liberty Central Inc. to the Virginia law that requires groups to register with the office or request an exemption before seeking donations for a charitable purpose.
Liberty Central is a Virginia-based group soliciting contributions online and is not registered or exempt, said Michael Wright, the manager of regulatory programs at the Office of Consumer Affairs, a branch of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Under state law, political advocacy is considered a charitable purpose.
Full Story: Virginia warns wife of Justice Clarence Thomas her group is violating law – latimes.com.
Senator Brown on Health Insurance Reform
SENATOR SHERROD BROWN (D-OH) — Refuting GOP Falsehoods About Health Insurance Reform Effort. Senate floor speech on 3/19/10 (01:07).
Full Story: DPC Video.
Poll: Congress Dysfunctional, Corrupt, Selfish –
Even if you don’t like reading about polls, you may enjoy checking this one out.
The Pew Research Center asked 749 Americans to offer just one word to describe their current impressions of Congress.
Turns out no one word dominated the list, but the sentiment was consistent:
Full Story: Dysfunctional, Corrupt, Selfish – The Eye (CQ Politics).
Pope’s Former Diocese Faces ‘Tsunami’ Of Abuse Allegations
Pope Benedict XVI’s former diocese is facing new allegations of physical and sexual abuse on a daily basis, the head of its new sex-abuse task force said Friday.
“It is like a tsunami,” Elke Huemmeler, who leads the diocese’s newly founded abuse prevention task force, told The Associated Press.
Huemmeler estimates there are about 120 cases on the record to date, around 100 of them at the nearby Ettal monastery boarding school, run by Benedictine monks. She stresses, however, her role is not to deal with the old cases, but help set up the prevention program.
Full Story: Pope’s Former Diocese Faces ‘Tsunami’ Of Abuse Allegations.
15 Executives Who Get Paid Millions To Deny You Health Care Coverage
The business model of American health insurers is basically: try to get healthy customers as clients, and then resist as long as possible when it comes to paying out claims.
That’s actually not an indictment or a criticism.
It’s just the way our system works, and it’s screwed up.
Whatever you feel about Obamacare, you probably think our current system needs reform in some sense.
Below we present the posterboys of the problem. Top healthcare CEOs making millions, leading companies that deny you coverage.
Full Story: 15 Executives Who Get Paid Millions To Deny You Health Care Coverage.
Sin Isn’t the Problem with the World, Theology Is
Pat Robertson has been under fire by Christians and non-Christians alike after his divisive comment over the reasons why the destructive earthquake hit the helpless country of Haiti. The televangelist asserted that the death toll is due to a historical pact that the Haitians made with the Devil and that the pact has cursed the island and all who live on it. His message of doom and gloom represents Christianity as an enemy of the world. His kind of Christianity is the kind that most want nothing to do with.
Robertson was dealing with an issue that Christians have gotten wrong for centuries: our need to oppress others with the labels and words we use. A lot of the language within churches tends to be exclusive and pervasive, like the word “sinner,” a word used to differentiate those who will not be saved from those who will. But what if that word doesn’t mean what we think it means?
Full Story: George Elerick: Sin Isn’t the Problem with the World, Theology Is.
Dems Scared Into Action By Everyone From Donors To The Base
Democratic lawmakers, from the leadership on down, are facing what many describe as an unprecedented amount of political pressure as the party scrambles to pass health care reform.
In recent days, the message has been conveyed throughout the caucus that the failure to pass legislation into law would be a cataclysmic misstep. It goes beyond the certainty that activists in the base would be demoralized, that the president would be weakened or that Congress would seem entirely ineffectual (if not so already). The damage to the party would be so far-reaching, lawmakers have been told, that even the big-time donors who have long supported Democratic causes would be less inclined to contribute.
“The party is on a precipice,” said one longtime Democratic donor who asked to speak on the condition of anonymity. “If they pass this [bill], people will be jubilant. If they don't, there are going to be a lot of us who consider just staying home in 2010.”
Full Story: Dems Scared Into Action By Everyone From Donors To The Base.
10 Things Obama Won’t Tell Us (Happy Sunshine Week!)
The routine disclosure of White House visitor logs and the White House’s Open Government Initiative are but two examples.
And yet the Obama administration’s openness only goes so far.
In some ways, particularly when it comes to covering up the most controversial aspects of (or policies held over from) the Bush administration, this White House is as opaque as the last one.
In honor of Sunshine Week, which is a celebration of the importance of open government and freedom of information, here are 10 of the things that President Obama is keeping us in the dark about.
Vote for which ones you think are the most outrageous.
Full Story: 10 Things Obama Won’t Tell Us (Happy Sunshine Week!).
California bar now considering disciplinary action against birther lawyer Orly Taitz
The Republican primary race for California’s secretary of state is turning unusual — to put it mildly.
The Orange County registrar has confirmed that Orly Taitz — the de facto leader of the “birther” movement trying to prove President Obama wasn’t born in the United States — has qualified to run for secretary of state. And her main opponent is a man who has only ever voted once.
Taitz’ move appears to be related to her campaign to have Obama disqualified as president. Secretaries of state are responsible for elections.
Taitz, who has filed and so far lost numerous lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility for the presidency, told WorldNetDaily that if elected, she will use her office to pursue an investigation of Obama’s citizenship.
Full Story: California sec. of state race: Birther leader vs. man who rarely votes | Raw Story.
Federal Reserve Must Disclose Bank Bailout Records
The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.
The Fed had argued that it could withhold the information under an exemption that allows federal agencies to refuse disclosure of “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential.”
Full Story: Federal Reserve Must Disclose Bank Bailout Records (Update3) – Bloomberg.com.
Baird plans to make Toyota papers public
looking into Toyota being charged criminally
Transport Minister John Baird plans to open up the books on Toyota for all to see.
Baird told the Commons transport committee Thursday he intends to release more than 3,000 pages of detailed Transport Canada documents on the Japanese automaker to the committee within weeks.
“We will make it all available to you as quickly as humanly possible,” said Baird, who earlier this week said Transport Canada was looking into whether Toyota should be charged criminally for its handling of recent defects.
He said it should take about four days to redact private and third-party information in the documents and at least another 20 days to obtain consent from Toyota to release the information.
Full Story: Baird plans to make Toyota papers public – thestar.com.
The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking
Education is moving to domestic policy center stage. The first round of competition for federal “Race to the Top” funds is over, and that competition generated a flurry of school reform activity across the nation. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia were selected and are now preparing for a winnowing round two.
In addition, the Department of Education just released its proposal to revamp the important Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which is up for reauthorization. (Its last incarnation brought us No Child Left Behind.) This proposal is already fueling local and national debate about the particulars of school reform: how to assess teacher quality, for example, or the promulgation of charter schools, or how to remedy failing schools.
So far, our discussions and debates about education have been focused on these particulars, frequently sparking more heat than light. But there seems to be little alternative thinking in the approach to school reform itself. And both elite and mainstream media have pretty much fallen in line with the reigning policy talk about the problems with our schools and how to fix them. As well, no one in power is asking the more fundamental questions like: What is the purpose of education in a democracy, and are our reforms enhancing—or possibly restricting—that purpose?
I wrote the following essays to address some of these broader questions.
Part One: Education ‘Miracles’ Don’t Survive Scrutiny
Full Story: Truthdig – The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking.
Robert Fisk: The mysterious case of the Grey Lady of Bagram – Robert Fisk, Commentators
How does a neuroscientist and mother of three end up in jail as an al-Qaida agent?
Dr Shams Hassan Faruqi sits amid his rocks and geological records, shakes his bearded head and stares at me. “I strongly doubt if the children are alive,” he says. “Probably, they have expired.” He says this in a strange way, mournful but resigned, yet somehow he seems oddly unmoved. As a witness, supposedly, to the mysterious 2008 re-appearance of Aafia Siddiqui – the “most wanted woman in the world”, according to former US attorney general John Ashcroft – I guess this 73-year-old Pakistani geologist is used to the limelight. But the children, I ask him again. What happened to the children?
Dr Faruqi is Aafia Siddiqui’s uncle and he produces a photograph of his niece at the age of 13, picnicking in the Margalla hills above Islamabad, a smiling girl in a yellow shalwar khameez, half-leaning against a tree. She does not look like the stuff of which al-Qa’ida operatives are made. Yet she is now a semi-icon in Pakistan, a country which may well have been involved in her original kidnapping and which now oh-so-desperately wants her back from an American prison. Her children, weirdly, disconcertingly, have been forgotten.
Full Story: Robert Fisk: The mysterious case of the Grey Lady of Bagram – Robert Fisk, Commentators – The Independent.
Pledge of Independence- no votes for Dems or GOP
Friends, our premise from the beginning has been that we must first speak out for policy change to our elected officials. For unless we are in fact speaking out, only then can we know if they will listen to us or not. AFTER we do that, it becomes clear who is listening and who is not, and THEN we have the base to hold them to account accordingly, and to remove from office those who will not listen.
We have now arrived at the latter point with regard to each and every sitting member of Congress of both major parties without exception, and the fake Independents can go too.
We are calling for all citizens of the United to declare that under no circumstance will they vote for any candidate associated with either the Democratic or Republican parties, and that we instead dedicate our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor, to electing worthy independents who can demonstrate a lifetime of public policy advocacy on behalf of the people, true citizen legislators.
Full Story: Pledge of Independence- no votes for Dems or GOP « Wake-up Call.
Afghanistan: Russians Tell U.S. Generals to Bribe the Taliban
Minutes of Secret Meeting Between Russian Veterans and Gen. Stanley McChrystal Also Say ‘More Troops Won’t Make A Difference’
Two Russian veterans of the Soviet Afghan war privately warned Gen. Stanley McChrystal last summer that the key to winning the war would be to pay off the Taliban. The official who wrote up a summary of two meetings between the Russians and U.S. military commanders also wrote that one of the “key take-aways” from the meetings was that extra troops were not the key to victory.
ABCNews.com has obtained a document summarizing the discussions between two veterans of the Soviet Union’s failed Afghan war and McChrystal, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, during an August 2009 video teleconference. The document also summarizes a private in-person meeting in Moscow between the two Russians and American Brig. Gen. Henry Nowak
Full Story: Afghanistan: Russians Tell U.S. Generals to Bribe the Taliban – ABC News.
SEIU To Yank Support For Arcuri, Will Search For Challenger
It appears SEIU is dead serious about this business about yanking support for House Dems who vote No on the health bill.
The SEIU bluntly informed Dem Rep Michael Arcuri of New York yesterday that it’s pulling support for him in the wake of the news that he’s an all-but-certain No, I’m told. And the search for a primary or third-party challenger is underway.
Jerry Dennis, the president of SEIU local 200, which represents 14,000 workers statewide in New York, called Arcuri yesterday and delivered the news, SEIU spokesman Matt Nerzig tells me.
Full Story: SEIU To Yank Support For Arcuri, Will Search For Challenger | The Plum Line.
U.S. Bases in Colombia Rattle the Region
On the shores of the Magdalena River, in a lush green valley dotted with cattle ranches and farms, sits the Palanquero military base, an outpost equipped with Colombia’s longest runway, housing for 2,000 troops, a theater, a supermarket, and a casino.
Palanquero is at the heart of a ten-year, renewable military agreement signed between the United States and Colombia on October 30, 2009, which gives Washington access to seven military bases in the country. Though officials from the U.S. and Colombian governments contend the agreement is aimed at fighting narcotraffickers and guerrillas within Colombian borders, a U.S. Air Force document states the deal offers a “unique opportunity” for “conducting full spectrum operations” in the region against various threats, including “anti-U.S. governments.”
The Pentagon sought access to the bases in Colombia after Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa canceled the lease for the U.S. military base in Manta, Ecuador. The U.S. capability in Colombia will now be greater than at Manta, which worries human rights advocates in Colombia and left-leaning governments throughout the region.
Full Story: U.S. Bases in Colombia Rattle the Region | The Progressive.
EPA Launches National Study of Hydraulic Fracturing
Responding to reports of environmental contamination [1] in gas drilling areas across the country, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will conduct a nationwide scientific study [2] to determine if the problems are caused by the practice of injecting chemicals and water underground [3] to fracture the gas-bearing rock.
The study, announced Thursday but hinted at for months, will revisit research the agency published in 2004 [4], which concluded that the process of hydraulic fracturing [5] did not pose a threat to drinking water. The 2004 report has been widely criticized, in part because the agency didn’t conduct any water tests in reaching that conclusion.
“The use of hydraulic fracturing has significantly increased well beyond the scope of the 2004 study,” EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones wrote in response to questions from ProPublica. The old study, she said, did not address drilling in shale, which is common today. It also didn’t take into account the relatively new practice of drilling and hydraulically fracturing horizontally for up to a mile underground, which requires about five times more chemical-laden fluids than vertical drilling. “This study is the agency’s response to public concern about this practice and Congressional request.”
Full Story: EPA Launches National Study of Hydraulic Fracturing – ProPublica.
What’s the Matter with Democrats?
by David Sirota -
Ever since Thomas Frank published his book “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” Democrats have sought a political strategy to match the GOP’s. The health care bill proves they’ve found one.
Whereas Frank highlighted Republicans’ sleight-of-hand success portraying millionaire tax cuts as gifts to the working class, Democrats are now preposterously selling giveaways to insurance and pharmaceutical executives as a middle-class agenda. Same formula, same fat cat beneficiaries, same bleating sheeple herded to the slaughterhouse. The only difference is the Rube Goldberg contraption that Democrats are using to tend the flock.
First, their leaders campaign on pledges to create a government insurer (a “public option”) that will compete with private health corporations. Once elected, though, Democrats propose simply subsidizing those corporations, which are (not coincidentally) filling Democratic coffers. Justifying the reversal, Democrats claim the subsidies will at least help some citizens try to afford the private insurance they’ll be forced to buy — all while insisting Congress suddenly lacks the votes for a public option.
Full Story: What’s the Matter with Democrats? by David Sirota on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.
Twisting History in Texas
The changes to the social studies curriculum recently approved by the conservative-dominated Texas Board of Education have attracted attention mainly because of how they may affect textbooks used in other states. Since Texas certifies texts centrally rather than by individual school districts, publishers have a strong incentive to alter their books to conform to its standards so as to reach the huge Texas market. Where was Lee Harvey Oswald, after all, when he shot John F. Kennedy? In the Texas School Book Depository–a tall Dallas building filled with textbooks.
Most comment on the content of the new standards has focused on the mandate that high school students learn about leading conservative figures and institutions of the 1980s and ’90s, specifically Phyllis Schlafly, the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the Contract With America and the NRA. In fact, there is nothing wrong with teaching about modern conservatism, a key force in recent American history. My own textbook has a chapter called “The Triumph of Conservatism” and discusses most of the individuals and groups mentioned above.
More interesting is what the new standards tell us about conservatives’ overall vision of American history and society and how they hope to instill that vision in the young. The standards run from kindergarten through high school, and certain themes obsessively recur. Judging from the updated social studies curriculum, conservatives want students to come away from a Texas education with a favorable impression of: women who adhere to traditional gender roles, the Confederacy, some parts of the Constitution, capitalism, the military and religion. They do not think students should learn about women who demanded greater equality; other parts of the Constitution; slavery, Reconstruction and the unequal treatment of nonwhites generally; environmentalists; labor unions; federal economic regulation; or foreigners.
Full Story: Twisting History in Texas.
Rachel Maddow – Reverend Dr. Welton Gaddy:
suspicious of Bart Stupak’s audacity
OPS: Stupak’s involvement in the Cult: C-Street ‘Family’ needs to be deeply investigated
Toyota used its ‘game plan’ to escape a major early recall
As congressional investigators learned last month, Toyota Motor lobbyists claimed last year to have saved the company $100 million by fending off a 2007 federal investigation into unintended acceleration.
Toyota and agency officials dismissed the claim as an idle boast.
But a closer look at the 2007 investigation, revealed in agency records and internal Toyota e-mails, shows that after federal investigators at the time diagnosed a number of potential dangers in Toyota cars and trucks, the automaker resisted the findings and in the end escaped a broad recall that could have cost millions of dollars.
Investigators with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Toyota in 2007 that the design of Toyota pedals or floor pans could allow floor mats to entrap the accelerator. They saw a problem in Camrys, Priuses, Avalons and Lexus ES350s. Moreover, they believed that any type of floor mat could pose a danger
Full Story: Toyota used its ‘game plan’ to escape a major early recall – washingtonpost.com.
YouTube Secrets Exposed In Lawsuit
Viacom Inc. and Google Inc.’s YouTube site began airing each other’s dirty laundry Thursday, providing a tantalizing peek at the wheeling and dealing that triggered a bitter battle over the copyright laws governing the Internet.
The previously confidential information came out as part of the evidence in a copyright lawsuit that Viacom filed against YouTube in 2007 for alleged copyright infringement of “The Colbert Report,” “The Daily Show” and other shows.
The sensitive documents were unsealed because Viacom and YouTube are both trying to persuade U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton to decide the case without a trial.
Full Story: Viacom-YouTube Secrets Exposed In Lawsuit.
Chris Matthews Blasts Americans For Prosperity President (video)
Matthews To Health Care Reform Opponent: What You’re Talking About Doesn’t Exist
Chris Matthews interviewed Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, Thursday about health care reform.
At the center of their discussion was disturbing footage from an Ohio protest that showed opponents of the health care overhaul legislation shouting down a health care supporter, a man with Parkinson’s Disease sitting before them.
One of the screaming men wore a pin for Americans for Prosperity. Phillips condemned the angry protester, but said that because of “the government takeover” he could imagine why the man was so angry.
Phillips told Matthews that the man with Parkinson’s should join his group and fight health care reform. Matthews scoffed at the claim
Full Story: Matthews To Health Care Reform Opponent: What You’re Talking About Doesn’t Exist.
EXCEL ART: 17 Awesome Drawings Made With Microsoft Excel
To most of us, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets looks like an endless field of rows and columns. But artist Danielle Aubert sees more than empty cells waiting for data input and equations.
Aubert uses Excel as a drawing tool, ‘changing cell preferences for background color, fill pattern, and border styles and from time to time inserting “comment” boxes and letters or words,’ the artist explains.
Aubert created three series of Excel Drawings. Every day or so she would create a new worksheet. The 16-day series she published as a book; the 58-day series she set up as a multi-page spreadsheet and rendered it for the Web; and the 4.5-month series she made into a time-lapse video. All three can be viewed on her website, DanielleAubert.com.
Check out her Excel Art in the slideshow below.
Full Story: EXCEL ART: 17 Awesome Drawings Made With Microsoft Excel (PHOTOS, VIDEO).
Conservative Blogger: Hannity Freedom Concerts A ‘Scam,’
Conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel has accused Sean Hannity’s Freedom Alliance charity of unethical fundraising practices and use of money. Schlussel points out how less than four percent of Freedom Alliance’s earnings in 2006 went to the nonprofit’s listed causes — college funding for the children of fallen soldiers and care for wounded veterans.
Media Matters For America points out the accuracy of Schlussel’s numbers analysis, but withholds judgment on the validity of her claims, as Freedom Alliance does not openly state on its Web site the percentage of raised funds that will go to their specific programs. Nevertheless, Freedom Alliance may be hurt by Schlussel’s accusations that tens of thousands of dollars were spent on private planes for Hannity’s family and friends.
Full Story: Hannity Freedom Concerts A ‘Scam,’ Blogger Says.
Conservative Talk radio attacks an 11-year old
Conservative talk show hosts and columnists have ridiculed an 11-year-old Washington state boy’s account of his mother’s death as a “sob story” exploited by the White House and congressional Democrats like a “kiddie shield” to defend their health care legislation.
Marcelas Owens, whose mother got sick, lost her job, lost her health insurance and died, said Thursday he’s taking the attacks from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin in stride.
“My mother always taught me they can have their own opinion but that doesn’t mean they are right,” Owens, who lives in Seattle, said in an interview.
Full Story: State of the health care debate: Talk radio attacks an 11-year old | McClatchy.
What’s In, What’s Out in Health Care Reform Bill
Bye bye, Cornhusker Kickback. Hello, special treatment for Tennessee and North Dakota.
Democrats unveiling revisions Thursday to their health care overhaul bill decided to kill the extra $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska that has become a symbol of backdoor deal making.
But the 153 pages of changes to the massive health care package include extra money for hospitals in Tennessee that serve large numbers of low-income patients. And though the bill would revamp the nation’s student loan system to make the government the only lender, one bank – the state-owned Bank of North Dakota – would be allowed to continue making student loans.
That provision ended up rubbing Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the wrong way. Fearing it would become a target by Republicans in what he said is “an overly heated partisan environment,” he asked the House late Thursday to remove it from the legislation.
Full Story: What’s In, What’s Out in Health Care Reform Bill.
Jon Stewart’s Spends Half His Show Skewering Glenn Beck
Intro:
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Netanyahu, Clinton Talk: Israeli Leader Plans Meeting In US Next Week
ISRAELI LEADER CALLS CLINTON TO DEFUSE TENSIONS
Hoping to defuse a fight between friends, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed Thursday to meet next week in Washington to confront an embarrassing dispute over Israeli land claims.
The Obama administration’s special envoy for Mideast peace, George Mitchell, prepared to return to the region for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Netanyahu called Clinton on Thursday. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declined to provide details of the conversation, which he described as the Israeli prime minister’s response to Clinton’s call last week in which she harshly criticized Israel’s announcement of additional Jewish settlement housing in east Jerusalem.
Full Story: Netanyahu, Clinton Talk: Israeli Leader Plans Meeting In US Next Week.
Glaxo funded backers of ‘danger’ drug
Pharmaceutical giant accused of skewing debate about diabetes treatment linked to heart attacks
Full Story: Glaxo funded backers of ‘danger’ drug – Health News, Health & Families – The Independent.
North Tyneside high street ‘revived’ by fake shop front
Fake businesses are to be used to lessen the impact of the recession on high streets in North Tyneside
With 140 empty shops in the borough, council bosses think they have come up with a unique way of ensuring shopping areas remain as vibrant as possible.
The first empty shop unit to be given a makeover with a “flat pack” shop front is in Whitley Bay.
North Tyneside Council said the move was cost-effective and would help to attract new investment.
The council said the fake shop in Whitley Bay – which alone has 49 empty units – has been welcomed by traders and shoppers.
Full Story: BBC News – North Tyneside high street ‘revived’ by fake shop front.
Maryland Trying To Secede From The South
Maryland’s official song may include a line about “Northern scum” left over from the Civil War era, but the state isn’t feeling so Southern anymore.
Though Marylanders live just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, their attitudes and even their accents straddle that border. These days, leaders feel they’ve got more in common with states to the north.
In one sign of the shift, lawmakers successfully petitioned to move from the Southern Region of the Council of State Governments to the Eastern Region, where they’ll be able to trade ideas with fellow officials from Pennsylvania, New York, and other states they consider more like-minded.
Full Story: Maryland Trying To Secede From The South.
Brown calls anti-police booby traps in Riverside County ‘urban terrorism’
The California attorney general seeks the public’s help in solving the attacks, so far without injuries, targeting an anti-gang task force and police officers in Hemet.
Describing it as “urban terrorism,” California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown joined with Riverside County officials Thursday in asking the public to help find those who tried at least three times to kill officers assigned to a Hemet-based gang task force.
“It is incredible and even unprecedented for police officers here to be subject to terrorist attack,” Brown said at a Riverside news conference. “We have seen it south of the border, but not here yet.”
The attacks have involved booby traps aimed at either the headquarters of the Hemet-San Jacinto Gang Task Force or officers assigned to the unit, officials said.
Last December a utility line was redirected to flood the offices with gas so any spark would cause an explosion. In February, a modified handgun was hidden by the gate to the office and rigged to fire. When a gang officer opened the gate, the weapon went off, narrowly missing him. And two weeks ago, police said, a “dangerous” device was found near the unmarked car of a task force member.
Full Story: Brown calls anti-police booby traps in Riverside County ‘urban terrorism’ – latimes.com.
OPS: And that’s all he needs to start putting people in jail without due process of any kind
Tony Blair’s secret dealings with South Korean oil firm UI Energy Corp
Former PM’s deals revealed as his earnings since 2007 reach $20 million.
Tony Blair waged an extraordinary two-year battle to keep secret a lucrative deal with a multinational oil giant which has extensive interests in Iraq.
The former Prime Minister tried to keep the public in the dark over his dealings with South Korean oil firm UI Energy Corporation.
Mr Blair – who has made at least £20million since leaving Downing Street in June 2007 – also went to great efforts to keep hidden a £1million deal advising the ruling royal family in Iraq’s neighbour Kuwait.
In an unprecedented move, he persuaded the committee which vets the jobs of former ministers to keep details of both deals from the public for 20 months, claiming it was commercially sensitive. The deals emerged yesterday when the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments finally lost patience with Mr Blair and decided to ignore his objections and publish the details.
Full Story: Tony Blair’s secret dealings with South Korean oil firm UI Energy Corp | Mail Online.
Arizona Drops Children’s Health Insurance Program
Underplayed Story of the Day:
Buried way back on A17 of the NYT, another reminder of how ugly it is out there:
Arizona on Thursday became the first state to eliminate its Children’s Health Insurance Program when Gov. Jan Brewer signed an austere budget that will leave nearly 47,000 low-income children without coverage.
The Arizona budget is a vivid reflection of how the fiscal crisis afflicting state governments is cutting deeply into health care. The state also will roll back Medicaid coverage for childless adults in a move that is expected to eventually drop 310,000 people from the rolls.
State leaders said they were left with few choices because of a $2.6 billion projected shortfall next year. But hospital officials and advocates for low-income people said they were worried that emergency rooms would be overrun by patients who had few other options for care, and that children might suffer enduring developmental problems because of inadequate medical attention.
Full Story: Underplayed Story of the Day: Arizona Drops Children’s Health Insurance Program – Swampland – TIME.com.
Saying insurance firms have ‘hostaged’ Congress, Democrat won’t vote for health bill
A liberal Democrat says he won’t vote for President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare bill, asserting that the measure is a giveaway to large health insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
“We’ve paid the ransom, but at the end of the day the insurance companies are still holding the hostages,” Rep. Stephen Lynch said in an interview with the Boston Globe on Thursday. “This is a very good bill for insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. It might be good for Nebraska, I don’t know. Or Florida residents… But it’s not good for the average American, and it’s not good for my district. Or for Massachusetts.”
Lynch voted for the House version of the health care package when it was passed last December. But the House version included a provision for a “public option,” or government-run competitor to private insurance firms. He says the final bill subsidizes the companies that Obama himself has demonized for preying on consumers.
Full Story: Saying insurance firms have ‘hostaged’ Congress, Democrat won’t vote for health bill | Raw Story.
US Policy for 50 years – Get Rid Of Jobs
Ernest F. Hollings
Sober Up
Few people realize that for the past fifty years the policy of the United States government has been to get rid of jobs.
Beginning with the Marshall Plan after World War II the government sent money, equipment and expertise to revive the economies of Europe and the Pacific Rim. In doing so, the U. S. called for open markets and free trade. Europe responded, but Japan never opened its market. Instead, Japan started a trade war for market share by closing its domestic market, subsidizing and selling its export at cost, making up the profit in the closed market. It worked. Today, Toyota is #1, while Ford, GM and Chrysler struggle. We have yet to force Japan to open its market. We in Congress tried, but numerous attempts to open Japan’s market and enforce our trade agreements were thwarted by the White House or vetoed by the President. Our attempts were all led by Corporate America to protect their investment and jobs in country. Then with NAFTA with Mexico and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China Corporate America gave up and joined production in China, India and Mexico. Jobs hemorrhaged. Two years ago Alan Blinder, the Princeton economist, estimated that the nation would lose thirty to forty million jobs in ten years to offshoring. The economy boat has sprung leaks from derivatives and credit default swaps. With stimulus, we bail as fast as we can to stop the leaks, but do nothing to plug the hole in the hull ripped by offshoring. Stimulation can be a total success and we’ll still loss more jobs than are created.
Fifty years ago, as Governor of South Carolina, I worked with the textile industry to save its jobs. Testifying before the old Tariff Commission, Tom Dewey representing Japan ran me around the room with calls for free trade. When we lost, I went to President John Kennedy, who promulgated his seven-point program to save textiles. But it wasn’t long before Japan was back at its tricks in trade, joined by Korea and China. China opened its market for foreign production in exchange for technology, but limited imports to things China didn’t produce. China’s control of its labor, safety, and currency and its failure to control the environment changed David Ricardo’s “comparative advantage” in international trade from productivity to government. Corporate America could compete with any company in the world, but not with any country. Globalization is nothing more than a trade war with production looking for a country cheaper to produce. What we have now is a trade war, friendly, without guns.
Full Story: Sober Up | Economy In Crisis.
Hidden U.S. Debt Bombs Affecting National Security
America’s fiscal situation may be much worse than the general public even realizes. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has said that the nation’s debt is not only an economic issue, but a national security issue as well.
At nearly $13 trillion, with much of that owned to foreign governments, the national debt is completely unsustainable, however, according to CNNMoney.com, due to budgetary tricks and gimmicks, America’s fiscal situation may be much worse than the general public even realizes.
One of the nation’s biggest expenditures left unaccounted for are the unfunded obligations to Social Security and Medicare. By 2037, the Social Security trust fund, which has been raided numerous times over the years to pay for other programs, is expected to only be able to cover a portion of the promised benefits. That could happen to Medicare as early as 2017.
The cost of losses that government-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are piling up are not accounted for either. As government-sponsored entities, the federal government is obligated to cover the costs of the companies losses, to a certain point. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that those losses could total $370 billion by 2020.
Full Story: Hidden U.S. Debt Bombs Affecting National Security | Economy In Crisis.
The U.S. is in Real Trouble
The U.S. was founded on policies that put America first using strong economic buffers on our borders, the U.S. needs to protect itself once again
The government, media and the president lament the evils of protectionism in the free trade system. Meanwhile the U.S. is in the midst of an international trade war and is losing due to our lack of protectionism. The U.S. was founded on policies that put America first using strong economic buffers on our borders, it is time to protect our country once again
Video at Link
Full Story: The U.S. is in Real Trouble | Economy In Crisis.
Ore. lawsuit claims Boy Scouts sex abuse coverup
The Boy Scouts of America has long kept an extensive archive of secret documents that chronicle the sexual abuse of young boys by Scout leaders over the years.
The “perversion files,” a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could all change in the coming weeks in an Oregon courtroom.
The lawyer for a man who was molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday. The lawyer says the files show how the Boy Scouts have covered up abuse for decades.
Full Story: Ore. lawsuit claims Boy Scouts sex abuse coverup – Yahoo! News.
Pilots Union Protests United Airlines’ Outsourcing Plan
“Joint venture agreements that allow American jobs to be outsourced in the midst of attempting to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression cannot be allowed. Now is not the time to make it easier to ship jobs overseas,” Rep. Tim Bishop said.
Roughly 200 unionized pilots representing five different airlines spent their St. Patrick’s Day Wednesday picketing United Airline’s Chicago headquarters because of a joint venture between the company and an Irish airline that would result in the outsourcing of some pilot jobs, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Beginning March 28, United Airlines plans to enter into a limited partnership with Irish airline Aer Lingus. Under the proposed agreement, United would provide marketing, a feed of passengers, and equally split the costs of establishing and maintaining a new route between Washington’s Dulles International Airport and Madrid. Aer Lingus would provide the pilots, planes and many of the staff.
“For the pilots and flight attendants, our concern is that this ‘joint venture’ is just a harbinger of things to come. United Airlines management has clearly demonstrated that they have no qualms about outsourcing our flying,” The Association of Flight Attendants and Airline Pilots Association said in a joint statement.
Full Story: Pilots Union Protests United Airlines’ Outsourcing Plan | Economy In Crisis.
The Consequences of Living in an Economic Free-For-All
Our inspiration for understanding the respective roles of government on the one hand and large-scale business, finance, and industry on the other is Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. president from 1901 to 1909 and cousin of Franklin Roosevelt, whom we quote at the head of this chapter. Teddy Roosevelt – a Republican and an imperialist — was about as far from being a dangerous leftist as it is possible to be, but he had this to say:
The vast individual and corporate fortunes, the vast combinations of capital which have marked the development of our industrial system, create new conditions and necessitate a change from the old attitude of the state and the nation toward property…More and more it is evident that the state, and if necessary the nation, has got to possess the right of supervision and control as regards the great corporations which are its creatures. (Quoted by Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex, Random House, 2001.)
In his presidential message to Congress on December 3, 1901, Roosevelt declared,
Full Story: The Consequences of Living in an Economic Free-For-All | Books | AlterNet.
Obama’s US Top Cop for Banks Wants Less Regulation, Echoes Republican Wall St. Pals
Republicans are taking an unpopular stand with Wall Street. Dems need to have the guts to stand up against them both.
If you had any doubt about the bank lobby’s vice-grip on public policy, look no further than the meeting of the American Bankers Association currently taking place in Washington. In a shameless effort to curry favor with the deep-pocketed financial industry, House Minority Leader John Boenher, R-Ohio, urged lobbyists to fight hard against financial reform. And astonishingly, the nation’s top bank cop, Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, actually agreed with him.
The ABA is the top lobby group for the nation’s financiers, and has been fighting hard to prevent meaningful regulation of the industry that drove the global economy off a cliff in 2008. Their current conference is focused on “government relations,” known to the rest of the world as “shameless vote-buying.”
At Thursday’s meeting, Rep. Boehner made an impassioned plea for the bank lobby to keep up the fight, according to a report by Dow Jones NewsWires:
“Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves,” Boehner said. “All of us are hearing from our friends and constituents on lack of credit, you can’t get a loan, the more your government takes and taxes, the more regulations you have to comply with the more cost you have there and less amount you are going to have available to loan to customers.”
Full Story: Obama’s US Top Cop for Banks Wants Less Regulation, Echoes Republican Wall St. Pals | Economy | AlterNet.
What White People Fear
Understanding the fears behind the racial politics of both conservative and liberal whites can help change a society in which wealth and well-being are still tied to race.
In the struggle for racial justice, it’s time to pay more attention to the fears of white people.
In a white-dominated world, that may seem counterintuitive. In the racial arena, what do we white people have to be afraid of?
There are lots of things to fear in this world, of course; race is not the only aspect of life in which people face injustice and inequality. A majority of people of all colors (including working-class and poor whites) struggles economically in a predatory corporate capitalist system, and all women, regardless of race, cope with gender discrimination and the threat of sexual violence in a male-dominated world.
But what fears could white people have as white people?
Full Story: What White People Fear | Media and Culture | AlterNet.
How Many Mexican Drug War Deaths Can We Attribute to U.S. Pot Laws?
It’s time to remove the production and distribution of marijuana out of the hands of violent criminal enterprises and into the hands of licensed businesses.
It was less than one year ago when acting U.S. DEA administrator Michelle Leonhart publicly declared that the escalating violence on the U.S./Mexico border should be viewed as a sign of the “success” of America’s drug war strategies.
“Our view is that the violence we have been seeing is a signpost of the success our very courageous Mexican counterparts are having,” said Michele Leonhart, who was recently nominated by President Obama to be the agency’s full time director. “The cartels are acting out like caged animals, because they are caged animals.”
Well, if the DEA’s chief talking head thought that some 6,300 drug cartel-related murders in 2008 was an indication of progress, one can only imagine that she believes that this weekend’s south-of-the-border killing spree — which included the murder of a pregnant U.S. official and members of her family — must be downright victorious.
Full Story: How Many Mexican Drug War Deaths Can We Attribute to U.S. Pot Laws? | Drugs | AlterNet.
Two Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit
Jim Hightower: -
How billionaires’ money took over Washington — and created the mobs who rant against reform.
Despite a constant racket from the forces of the far-out right (Fox television’s yackety-yackers, just-say-no GOP know-nothings, tea-bag howlers, Sarah Palinistas, et al.), the great majority of Americans support a bold progressive agenda for our country, ranging from Medicare for all to the decentralization and re-regulation of Wall Street. Indeed, in the elections of 2006 and 2008, people voted for a fundamental break from Washington’s 30-year push to enthrone a corporate kleptocracy.
Yet the economic and political thievery continues, as the White House, Congress, both parties, the courts, the media, much of academia, and other national institutions that shape our public policies reflexively shy away from any structural change. Instead, the first instinct of these entities is to soothe the fevered brow of corporate power by insisting that corporate primacy be the starting point of any “reform.” Thus, when Washington began its widely ballyhooed effort last year to reform our health-care system, step number one was to announce publicly that the monopolistic, bureaucratic insurance behemoths that cost us so much and deliver so little would retain their controlling position in the structure. Likewise, Wall Street barons who crashed America’s financial system were allowed to oversee the system’s remake–and (Big Surprise!) the same top-heavy structure and shaky practices that caused the crash are being kept in place.
Full Story: Hightower: Two Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit | Investigations | AlterNet.
McCain and Lieberman’s “Enemy Belligerent” Act Could Set U.S. on Path to Military Dictatorship
On March 4th, Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman introduced a bill called the “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010″ that, if passed, would set this country on a course to become a military dictatorship.
The bill is only 12 pages long, but that is plenty of room to grant the president the power to order the arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment of anyone — including a U.S. citizen — indefinitely, on the sole suspicion that he or she is affiliated with terrorism, and on the president’s sole authority as commander in chief.
The Act begins with the following (convoluted) requirement:
Stenography As Journalism Classic:
Christian News Service Publishes Lies by Rep. Dreier (R-Closet) about ‘Slaughter Rule’ Without Balance or Rebuttal
Yesterday Rep. David Dreier, a Republican from Southern California, and the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, spoke with Matt Cover who writes for the Christian News Service (CNSNews.com) about the procedural issues involved in Democrats’ plans to pass health care reform, especially including the “Slaughter Rule,” named for the current Rules chair, Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York. As we noted earlier, Republicans are flogging away at the process, rather than the substance of the bill, because focusing on congressional procedures drives polling on reform down.
The content of what Dreier said to CNSNews ranged from disingenuous to outright lying — and CNSNews printed all of it without question, without bothering to fact check or present any sort of perspective from the pro-reform side.
That’s not journalism, it’s stenography — and, worse, propaganda.
Full Story: Pensito Review.
Bernanke footnote: Fed wants end to ‘minimum reserve requirements’
In the footnotes of a speech U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke would have given to the House Financial Services Committee on Feb. 10, lies a unique and startling disclosure.
Hosted on the Federal Reserve’s own servers, the written testimony of the bank’s chairman explains in plain text what expanding the Fed’s powers will do.
“The Federal Reserve believes it is possible that, ultimately, its operating framework will allow the elimination of minimum reserve requirements, which impose costs and distortions on the banking system,” footnote number nine, at the bottom of the page, explains without additional qualification.
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), who is not running for reelection, is currently pushing a financial reform bill that would grant the Fed unprecedented new powers to regulate financial markets, including insurance companies and small lenders, under the auspice of forcing such firms to lessen their exposure to risky investments.
Full Story: Bernanke footnote: Fed wants end to ‘minimum reserve requirements’ | Raw Story.
Cancer Is a Preventable Disease — So Why Don’t We Prevent It?
Cancer is perhaps the most frightening of all diseases we face. And the thing is, it’s very often entirely preventable. If we simply made some different decisions, earlier, many cancers would never happen.
That sounds like an audacious statement. Cancer after all, comes “out of the blue” — we report that it happened “suddenly,” that it came “without warning.” It is the proverbial bolt of lightning that changes our lives all in one strike. How could we prevent lightning?
But in fact, a newly emerging consensus holds that 90 percent of cancers are rooted in environmental or behavioral causes. That means we have a much larger window for rooting out cancer early — and what’s more, a much wider opportunity to head it off before it ever comes close. The lever for opportunity, though, is us — we need to act.
Full Story: Thomas Goetz: Cancer Is a Preventable Disease — So Why Don’t We Prevent It?.
Christiane Amanpour To Host ‘This Week’ On ABC
Christiane Amanpour has been named the anchor of ABC’s Sunday morning public affairs program, “This Week.”
“I am delighted to announce that Christiane Amanpour will join ABC News as the new anchor of ‘This Week,’” ABC News president David Westin said in an e-mail to staff. “A highly respected journalist recognized around the world for her reporting, she brings to her new position a wealth of experience and knowledge, as well as a deep commitment to bringing news of the world to the American people. She will also appear on all other ABC News programs and platforms to provide international analysis of the important issues of the day. And, she will be anchoring primetime documentaries on international subjects.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining the incredible team at ABC News,” Amanpour said. “Being asked to anchor ‘This Week’ and the superb tradition started by David Brinkley, is a tremendous and rare honor and I look forward to discussing the great domestic and international issues of the day. I leave CNN with the utmost respect, love and admiration for the company and everyone who works here. This has been my family and shared endeavor for the past 27 years and I am forever grateful and proud of all that we have accomplished.”
Full Story: Christiane Amanpour To Host ‘This Week’ On ABC.
MAPLight.org Shows Links Between Politicians’ Votes, Campaign Contributions
It’s no mystery that money has become a key factor in American politics. But until now it’s been difficult to show voters just how closely politicians hew to the interests of their political patrons and campaign donors.
MAPLight.org, a non-partisan web site, hopes to change that. The site uses three data sets to create a detailed picture that illustrates money’s influence over elected officials: campaign contributions, voting records, and the supporting and opposing interests of a bill.
Dylan Ratigan lavished praise on the web site during his show Thursday and interviewed MAPlight’s director
Full Story: MAPLight.org Shows Links Between Politicians’ Votes, Campaign Contributions.
Indiana Homeowner Kicked Out Of HAMP For Early Payment Wins Reprieve
After losing one of her part-time jobs in the fall, Indiana law student Melissa Stuart applied for a mortgage modification in hopes of reducing her monthly payment. Her servicer, GMAC, deemed her eligible and put her in a trial modification under the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program. She said her monthly payment shrank to $874 from $1,108 — a huge relief.
“I would have had to live off my credit card,” said Stuart, 28. “Two-hundred bucks doesn’t sound like a lot but I had a premium increase on my health insurance… I went from $180 to $219.”
To keep people in their homes, HAMP gives servicers cash incentives to modify mortgage terms. Borrowers who meet eligibility requirements are put in trial modifications that typically last three months (Stuart’s was for four), and if they make their payments the modification is supposed to become permanent. But GMAC called Stuart with bad news in February.
Full Story: Indiana Homeowner Kicked Out Of HAMP For Early Payment Wins Reprieve.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
