Archive for March, 2010

Expect a False-Flag Attack Before an Attack on Iran

Paul Craig Roberts -

According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping “bunker-buster” bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The newspaper quotes Dan Piesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London: “They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran.”

The next step will be a staged “terrorist attack,” a “false flag” operation as per Operation Northwoods, for which Iran will be blamed. As Iran and its leadership have already been demonized, the “false flag” attack will suffice to obtain US and European public support for bombing Iran. The bombing will include more than the nuclear facilities and will continue until the Iranians agree to regime change and the installation of a puppet government. The corrupt American media will present the new puppet as “freedom and democracy.”

If the past is a guide, Americans will fall for the deception. In the February issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, a scholarly journal, Professor Lance DeHaven-Smith writes that state crimes against democracy (SCAD) involve government officials, often in combination with private interests, that engage in covert activities in order to implement an agenda. Examples include McCarthyism or the fabrication of evidence of communist infiltration, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on false claims of President Johnson and Pentagon chief McNamara that North Vietnam attacked a U.S. naval vessel, the burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in order to discredit Ellsberg (the Pentagon Papers) as “disturbed,” and the falsified “intelligence” that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Full Story: Expect a False-Flag Attack Before an Attack on Iran — Signs of the Times News.

Ashcroft Can Be Held Accountable for Post-9/11 Wrongful Detention

Federal Appellate Court Denies Former Attorney General’s Request for Full Court Review

SEATTLE – March 18 – The American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit charging that former Attorney General John Ashcroft is personally responsible for the wrongful detention of an innocent American, Abdullah al-Kidd, can go forward, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled today. The ruling denies Ashcroft’s request that his appeal be heard by the entire court and upheld the court’s September 2009 decision that the federal material witness law cannot be used to detain or investigate suspects where no probable cause exists for criminal charges. The ruling also held that Ashcroft does not have immunity in this case and can be held personally liable for the wrongful detention of al-Kidd.

“In this country, we don’t believe in arresting and imprisoning people who haven’t been charged with any crime,” said ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt. “Former Attorney General Ashcroft deliberately distorted the federal material witness law to allow the detention of innocent people. As the primary architect and overseer of this policy that so clearly circumvented the Constitution, he should be held personally liable.”

Prior to 9/11, the federal material witness law was used sparingly – especially with U.S. citizens – to ensure that witnesses would be available to testify in criminal cases. Arrests under the statute took place in rare cases to secure testimony where there was hard evidence that an individual had material information but would not testify voluntarily. After 9/11, Ashcroft retooled the law into an investigative detention statute, allowing the government to arrest and detain individuals for whom the government lacked probable cause to charge with criminal violations.

Full Story: Ashcroft Can Be Held Accountable for Post-9/11 Wrongful Detention | CommonDreams.org.

THE GROWING MOVEMENT FOR PUBLICLY-OWNED BANKS

Ellen Brown -

As the states’ credit crisis deepens, four states have initiated bills for state-owned banks, and candidates in seven states have now included that solution in their platforms.

“Hundreds of job-creating projects are still on hold because Michigan businesses and entrepreneurs cannot get bank financing. We can break the credit crunch and beat Wall Street at their own game by keeping our money right here in Michigan and investing it to retool our economy and create jobs.”

–Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero in the Detroit News, May 9, 2010

Struggling with 14% unemployment, Michigan has been particularly hard hit by the nation’s economic downturn. Virg Bernero, mayor of the state’s capitol and a leading Democratic candidate for governor, proposes that the state relieve its economic ills by opening a state-owned bank. He says the bank could protect consumers by making low-interest loans to those most in need, including students and small businesses; and could help community banks by buying mortgages off their books and working with them to fund development projects.

Bernero joins a growing list of candidates proposing this sensible solution to their states’ fiscal ills. Local economies have collapsed because of the Wall Street credit freeze. To reinvigorate local business, Main Street needs a heavy infusion of credit; and publicly-owned banks could fill that need.

Full Story: Web of Debt – THE GROWING MOVEMENT FOR PUBLICLY-OWNED BANKS.

Ex Monsanto Lawyer Clarence Thomas to Hear Major Monsanto Case

In Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case which could have an enormous effect on the future of the American food industry. This is Monsanto’s third appeal of the case, and if they win a favorable ruling from the high court, a deregulated Monsanto may find itself in position to corner the markets of numerous U.S. crops, and to litigate conventional farmers into oblivion.

Here’s where it gets a bit dicier. Two Supreme Court justices have what appear to be direct  conflicts of interest.

Stephen Breyer
Charles Breyer, the judge who ruled in the original decision of 2007 which is being appealed, is Stephen Breyer’s brother, who apparently views this as a conflict of interest and has recused himself.

Clarence Thomas
From the years 1976 – 1979, Thomas worked as an attorney for Monsanto. Thomas apparently does not see this as a conflict of interest and has not recused himself.

Fox, meet henhouse.

Full Story: Ex Monsanto Lawyer Clarence Thomas to Hear Major Monsanto Case « COTO Report.

Summers Takes On Boehner: ‘Punk Staffers’ Aren’t The Problem, Bank Lobbyists Are

Yesterday, speaking at the American Bankers Association governmental relations summit, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told the gathered bankers to fight Congressional financial reform efforts. “Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you and stand up for yourselves,” Boehner said.

Today, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Summers fired back at Boehner, saying that bankers certainly do not need any help in their effort to blunt regulatory reform:

“I do not think that those who want to address these issues are ‘little punk staffers’ who need to be stood up to,” Summers said in a speech at the National Press Club…“At a moment when there are four lobbyists per member of the House and Senate working on this issue, we in the Administration do not believe that the prominent issue is allowing bankers to stand up for themselves.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Summers Takes On Boehner: ‘Punk Staffers’ Aren’t The Problem, Bank Lobbyists Are.

China Drawing High-Tech Research From U.S.

For years, many of China’s best and brightest left for the United States, where high-tech industry was more cutting-edge. But Mark R. Pinto is moving in the opposite direction.

Mr. Pinto is the first chief technology officer of a major American tech company to move to China. The company, Applied Materials, is one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent firms. It supplied equipment used to perfect the first computer chips. Today, it is the world’s biggest supplier of the equipment used to make semiconductors, solar panels and flat-panel displays.

In addition to moving Mr. Pinto and his family to Beijing in January, Applied Materials, whose headquarters are in Santa Clara, Calif., has just built its newest and largest research labs here. Last week, it even held its annual shareholders’ meeting in Xi’an.

Full Story: China Drawing High-Tech Research From U.S. – NYTimes.com.

OPS:  Guess we’ll need more H-1B’s then huh?

Fox News host interrupts Obama 16 times in testy interview

When President Obama agreed to be interviewed by Fox News, he surely didn’t expect to be soft-balled. But he probably didn’t foresee the interviewer interrupting him more than a dozen times, and having to repeatedly point that out.

Host Bret Baier insisted on discussing the parliamentary procedures Democrats are mulling in order to squeeze the health care bill through, and a visibly frustrated Obama kept urging him to focus the substantive issues.

“The reason that I think this conversation ends up being a little frustrating is because the focus, entirely, is on Washington process,” he said. “And yes, I have said that is an ugly process. It was ugly when Republicans were in charge, it is ugly when Democrats are in charge.”

Full Story: Fox News host interrupts Obama 16 times in testy interview | Raw Story.

Subpoenas issued in Ensign ’sex and lobbying’ scandal: reports

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) isn’t off the hook for last year’s scandal-laden affair with his staffer’s wife. In fact, his troubles now look worse than ever.

The Nevada television news station KLAS reported on Thursday that the Department of Justice has enhanced its “criminal” investigation of the events surrounding Ensign’s actions.

The criminal probe stems from a romantic affair Ensign had with the wife of his key staffer and close friend, Doug Hampton, and what Ensign has done to help Hampton financially.

Subpoenas have been issued to at least six Las Vegas businesses. The Justice Department came to Las Vegas to interview several prominent business and political figures in what appears to be a wide-ranging and deadly-serious criminal probe.

The subpoena, which can be read here, seek “any and all records; including emails, phone calls and calendars regarding any interaction the Las Vegas businesses may have had with Ensign, his Chief of Staff John Lopez, Doug Hampton, Hampton’s wife Cindy — the object of the senator’s romantic interest — Ensign’s principal political advisor Mike Slanker, and Slanker’s company November Inc,” according to KLAS’s LasVegasNow.com Web site.

Full Story: Subpoenas issued in Ensign ’sex and lobbying’ scandal: reports | Raw Story.

WellPoint Failed To Deliver Tens Of Millions Of Dollars It Promised To Help Uninsured Americans

Health insurance companies have always claimed that they support “affordable, high-quality health care for every American” and are supportive of health care reform efforts and not simply concerned with their profits. To try to project this image of compassion for the uninsured, WellPoint Inc. — which recently came under fire for planning double-digit rate hikes in at least eleven states — pledged three years ago to use its charitable foundation to spend $30 million to assist the uninsured receive care.

A new investigative report by the Los Angeles Times finds that WellPoint’s foundation has completely failed to meet its promise of spending $30 million to help the uninsured. Rather, the company spent $6.2 million — a paltry 11 percent of what the company promised:

WellPoint’s public records indicate that from 2007 to 2009 the foundation gave less than $6.2 million in grants targeted specifically at helping uninsured Americans get access to coverage and care — barely one-fifth of what was promised and just 11% of the charity’s total giving over the last three years.

Full Story: Think Progress » WellPoint Failed To Deliver Tens Of Millions Of Dollars It Promised To Help Uninsured Americans.

The Truth About Self-Executing Rules

As the health care debate enters its final week, Republicans are amplifying their feigned outrage and hypocritical attacks. After it was reported that House Democrats may pass a “self-executing rule” to combine the Senate bill and their budget “fix” into one floor vote, Republicans falsely asserted the majority was abusing their power by trying to pass health care without voting on it. In reality, the self-executing rule would still require an up-or-down vote and has been used by Republicans dozens of times.

Full Story: The Truth About Self-Executing Rules | Media Matters Action Network.

A reminder of what $10 an hour looks like

And these are very conservative figures:

please notice that there is nothing in the budget for car insurance, food, or even an emergency fund.

Full Story: A reminder of what $10 an hour looks like – Democratic Underground.

Rep. Grayson proposes Medicare for all buy in

Rep. Alan Graysons Medicare You Can Buy Into Act Attracts 50 Co-Sponsors

With the Democrat-led push for healthcare reform in its final stages, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduces The Public Option Act, a measure that would allow people under sixty-five to buy into Medicare. The bill has attracted fifty co-sponsors. Grayson joins us to discuss the measure and healthcare reform overall, his own familys experience with private insurance companies and more.

Obama cancels Asia trip with health care vote likely Sunday

President Barack Obama today postponed a planned trip to Indonesia and Asia, putting the long-panned visit off until June to he can remain in Washington to push for Congressional approval of health care legislation.

“The president believes that right now the place for him to be is in Washington, seeing this through,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Obama’s plans for the trip were thrown into the air as Congressional Democrats continued to strive to round up votes for the package in the House of Representatives.

“We told the White House we thought it was important for the president to be here,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Full Story: Obama cancels Asia trip with health care vote likely Sunday | McClatchy.

Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader: A Discussion on Healthcare, Politics and Reform

Democracy NOW!

Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio announced on Wednesday he would switch his vote on the Democrat-led healthcare reform bill and support the legislation even though it does not create a public option. Kucinich’s decision came two days after he spoke with President Obama aboard Air Force One on their way to a rally in his district. In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we spend the hour with Kucinich and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader for an in-depth discussion on healthcare, the Obama administration, the Iraq war and more. [includes rush transcript]

Full Story: Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader: A Discussion on Healthcare, Politics and Reform.

The Truth About American and Israeli Interests Comes Out

The relationship between the United States and Israel has always rested on a number of pretensions, politically useful to politicians on both sides, but because they are untrue, certain eventually to prove destructive to both countries.

The destruction has now begun, as the pretensions and hypocrisies begin to fall. The cause of this is external and unexpected. Preoccupied with its own interests, and by the expansionist forces inside its society of secular Zionism, expressed in the Likud Party, and the equivalent expansionism motivated by millenarian religion, the Benjamin Netanyahu government has made itself an obstacle to American military security and to the interests of U.S. military forces operating in the Islamic world.

This has been obvious for many years but has only now been acknowledged by military commanders. As Mark Perry has reported on the Foreign Policy magazine website, a team dispatched by Gen. David Petraeus of Central Command briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Jan. 16 to the effect that the conduct of Israel with respect to the Palestinians has now caused the Islamic forces cooperating with the United States, as well as those fighting it, to conclude that the U.S. is weak, and its military posture is subverted by American complicity with Israel’s intransigence on the Palestinian issue.

Full Story: William Pfaff: The Truth About American and Israeli Interests Comes Out – Truthdig.

Max Keiser on Manipulation in the Obamacare Prediction Market

- Paul Krugman implicated

The media myth of Obama’s “falling poll numbers”

The release of an Associated Press poll last week that showed President Obama enjoying a healthy job approval rating of 53 percent didn’t generate much news beyond the wire service and produced even less commentary among the media’s chattering class. Then again, neither did another piece of polling news from January, which showed Obama basking in the glow of a 56 percent job approval rating.

The cold shoulder was expected, though. Why? It’s simple: the results didn’t fit the script.

Adopting the polar opposite narrative from the Bush era when pundits and reporters seemed obsessed with trying to boost the president’s standing, Beltway scribes today have made it plain that when it comes to Obama and polling, good news is no news.

Full Story: OpEdNews – Article: The media myth of Obama’s “falling poll numbers”.

Right Wing Gone Wild

Joe Conason -

Demagogues often prosper under the rules of democracy, intimidating the moderate and preying on the weak-minded. But in a healthy society, such figures cannot cross a final threshold of decency without jeopardizing their own status—and today’s right-wing nihilists seem to be on the verge of doing just that.

When Elizabeth Cheney, a daughter of the former vice president, questions the loyalty of anyone who stands up for the human rights of prisoners in the “war on terror,” she is treading very close to that line.

Operating behind a front group called Keep America Safe, Cheney and her associate, the journalist William Kristol, say there is a shadowy group of lawyers within the Justice Department that supposedly served the cause of “jihad” by representing detainees.

According to them, those attorneys and any others who represent detained suspects are “aiding and abetting America’s enemies” by filing lawsuits, thus transforming our courthouses into yet another theater of terrorist attack. Through those legal actions, the lawyers are undermining the moral authority of the war on terror and creating obstacles for the military and intelligence officials charged with defending us, says Keep America Safe. And by accusing the U.S. authorities of violating the prisoners’ human rights, they are “echoing the propaganda” of the jihadists.

Full Story: Joe Conason: Right Wing Gone Wild – Truthdig.

Toyota to hand off pension bill to U.S. – $131 Million

Toyota is leaving a $131-million pension shortfall to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. as it closes the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in Fremont, Calif., April 1, said Sergio Santos, president of UAW Local 2244.

But the PBGC, a federal corporation charged with protecting pension benefits of 44 million Americans, wants to discuss ways Toyota can reduce the gap.The agency has taken legal action to gain control of the NUMMI pension plan. PBGC spokesman Gary Pastorius said the agency wants to talk to Toyota about alternatives to a takeover, “but it just hasn’t happened yet. We still have questions.”

Full Story: Toyota to hand off pension bill to U.S. | freep.com | Detroit Free Press.

Illinois Supreme Court rules Provena must pay tax

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled this morning that Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana did not provide enough charity care to qualify for a property tax exemption.

The widely watched ruling, which rejected the Catholic hospital’s appeal of a tax review board decision to take away its tax exempt status in 2003, could set the stage for charity care expectations at hospitals around the country.

The ruling — supported by three judges, supported in part by two and not voted on by two others — means the hospital will have to begin paying property taxes. It has been considered a nonprofit hospital like most hospitals in the U.S. that are exempt from state property taxes

Full Story: Illinois Supreme Court rules Provena must pay tax – Chicago Breaking Business.

Republicans plot ways to block health reform in Senate

Democrats might like to think that health care reform is all but a done deal if it clears the House, but the Senate is where Republicans have been plotting for months to sentence it to a painful procedural death.

Republican aides have been mining the Senate’s arcane parliamentary rules for an attack that aims at striking elements both broad and narrow from the bill, weakening the measure and ultimately defeating it. Their goal is to force changes that leave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) without 51 votes to pass it, or at the very least, that drive it back to the House for a second vote that drags out the process and saps Democratic resolve.

But the first step in the Republicans’ game plan is making sure they never need to use the rest of it.

Full Story: Republicans plot ways to block health reform in Senate – Carrie Budoff Brown and Manu Raju – POLITICO.com.

Report: Justice Department Subpoenas Nevada Businesses in Connection With Ensign Inquiry

Justice Department investigators have issued subpoenas to Nevada businesses, seeking information related to Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and his former aide Doug Hampton, CBS affiliate KLAS-TV reported Wednesday.

Both the Senate Ethics Committee and the FBI are investigating Ensign’s involvement in procuring lobbying work for Hampton after Ensign ended an affair with Hampton’s wife, Cynthia Hampton. A $96,000 payment that Ensign’s parents made to the Hamptons may also be under review.

The KLAS-TV Web site reports that at least six Las Vegas-area businesses received subpoenas March 8, served by an FBI agent and a prosecutor from DOJ’s Public Integrity Section.

Full Story: Report: Justice Department Subpoenas Nevada Businesses in Connection With Ensign Inquiry – Roll Call.

Progressives Shouldn’t Follow Kucinich on Health Care

Matthew Rothschild -

I don’t blame Dennis Kucinich for changing his mind and deciding to vote for Obama’s health care reform bill.

The bill does have its merits: It greatly expands Medicaid coverage, it increases funding for community health centers, and it subsidizes people who don’t have a lot of money to buy health care insurance. And depending on the fine print, the bill may end discrimination against people with preexisting conditions.

Plus, Obama and the Democratic leadership were putting enormous pressure on him, and I’m sure he didn’t want to hand the Republicans an undeserved trophy.

Full Story: Progressives Shouldn’t Follow Kucinich on Health Care | The Progressive.

Nuclear Industry to Vermont: ‘Drop Dead’

Harvey Wasserman -

The nuclear power industry is sending a clear and forceful message to the citizens of Vermont: “Drop Dead.”

The greeting applies to Ohio, New York, California and a nation under assault from a “renaissance” so far hyped with more than $640 million in corporate cash.

The Vermont attack includes:

1) A direct threat to ignore the state Senate’s 26-4 February vote against renewing the Yankee reactor’s operating license. As a condition of buying Yankee, Entergy long-ago ceded to the legislature approval of any extension of an operating license, which expires in 2012. But Entergy now says it will spend all the corporate cash it needs to evict the current Senate and install one more to its liking.

Full Story: Nuclear Industry to Vermont: ‘Drop Dead’ | CommonDreams.org.

Most power plants still spewing toxic mercury, report says

Many of America’s coal-fired power plants lack widely available pollution controls for the highly toxic metal mercury, and mercury emissions recently increased at more than half of the country’s 50 largest mercury-emitting power plants, according to a report Wednesday.

The nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project reported that five of the 10 plants with the highest amount of mercury emitted are in Texas. Plants in Georgia, Missouri, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Michigan also are in the top 10.

The report, which used the most recent data available from the Environmental Protection Agency, found that mercury emissions increased at 27 of the top 50 plants from 2007 to 2008. Overall, power plant emissions of mercury decreased 4.7 percent in that timeframe, but that amount was far less than what would be possible with available emissions controls, the report said.

Full Story: Most power plants still spewing toxic mercury, report says | McClatchy.

Zero Public Option + One Mandate = Disaster

Norman Solomon -

Not long ago, the most prominent supporters of the public option were touting it as essential for healthcare reform. Now, suddenly, it’s incidental.

In fact, many who were lauding a public option as the key to a better healthcare future are now condemning just about anyone who insists that the absence of a public option makes the current bill unworthy of support.

Consider this statement: “If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current healthcare bill. Any measure that expands private insurers’ monopoly over healthcare and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real healthcare reform.”

That statement is as true today as it was when Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, made it three months ago in a Washington Post op-ed. But now, a concerted political blitz is depicting anyone who takes such a position as a menace to “real healthcare reform.”

Full Story: Zero Public Option + One Mandate = Disaster | CommonDreams.org.

Anti-MTR Activists Risk Arrest at EPA HQ with Elaborate Protest

Activists Risk Arrest with Elaborate Protest at EPA HQ; Demand Immediate Action to Stop Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Group Erects Purple Mountain Majesty At EPA; Say “If Administrator Lisa Jackson Won’t Visit the Appalachian Mountains, They Will Bring The Mountains to Her”

WASHINGTON— In an attempt to further pressure EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to enforce the Clean Water Act and halt mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR), activists early this morning erected two 20-foot-tall, purple tripod structures in front of the agency’s headquarters. A pair of activists perched at the top of the tripods have strung a 25-foot sign in front of the EPA’s door that reads, “EPA: pledge to end mountaintop removal in 2010.” Six people are locked to the tripods and say they won’t leave unless Administrator Jackson commits to a flyover visit of the Appalachian Mountains and MTR sites, which she has never done before.

Full Story: The Understory » Breaking: Anti-MTR Activists Risk Arrest at EPA HQ with Elaborate Protest.

Polar Bear, Bluefin Tuna Ban Fails At UN Conservation Meeting

A U.S.-backed proposal to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna prized in sushi was rejected Thursday by a U.N. wildlife meeting, with scores of developing nations joining Japan in opposing a measure they feared would devastate fishing economies.

Monaco introduced the proposal at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES. It argued that extreme measures for the iconic, migratory fish were necessary because the stocks have fallen by 75 percent due to widespread overfishing.

But as debate opened, it became clear that the proposal had little support. Only the United States, Norway and Kenya supported the proposal outright. The European Union asked that implementation be delayed until May 2011 to give authorities time to respond to concerns about overfishing.

Full Story: Polar Bear, Bluefin Tuna Ban Fails At UN Conservation Meeting.

NASA Captures Gorgeous ‘Cosmic Rose’ In Berkley 59 Cluster (PICTURE)

NASA’s WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) space telescope has turned up yet another stunning image that captures a star cluster NASA likens to a ‘cosmic rosebud blossoming with new stars.’

The infrared image is of a grouping of young stars at the Berkeley 59 cluster, which is located around 3,300 light-years from Earth in the Cepheus constellation.

NASA highlights what’s seen on the WISE image:

The stars, called the Berkeley 59 cluster, are the blue dots to the right of the image center. They are ripening out of the dust cloud from which they formed, and at just a few million years old, are young on stellar time scales.

The rosebud-like red glow surrounding the hot, young stars is warm dust heated by the stars. Green “leafy” nebulosity enfolds the cluster, showing the edges of the dense, dusty cloud. This green material is from heated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, molecules that can be found on Earth in barbecue pits, exhaust pipes and other places where combustion has occurred.

Full Story: NASA Captures Gorgeous ‘Cosmic Rose’ In Berkley 59 Cluster (PICTURE).

FDIC’s Sheila Bair Backs Consumer Agency, Defying Other Regulators

In contrast to her fellow federal bank regulators, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair continues to back an independent consumer-focused agency to protect borrowers from predatory lenders.

At a gathering of bankers held by the American Bankers Association, Bair reiterated her support for the consumer agency, though she acknowledged that the chances of it being a stand-alone agency — free from interference by other regulators — are waning.

“It’s better to have a stand-alone agency, she said in response to questions from reporters. But, “it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”

Full Story: FDIC’s Sheila Bair Backs Consumer Agency, Defying Other Regulators.

SEC probes Jim Cramer & TheStreet.com’s finances

TheStreet.com, the financial Web site founded by loudmouth stock picker and TV personality Jim Cramer, is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The publicly traded company attracted the attention of regulators because of accounting woes at a former subsidiary called Promotions.com, TheStreet.com said yesterday.

TheStreet.com revealed the news in an SEC filing explaining why it will be late reporting its annual financial results.

Last summer, TheStreet.com announced there were “issues” related to how it had been recording revenue at Promotions.com, the marketing company it acquired in 2007. An internal probe ensued and resulted in several quarters of delayed earnings results for the parent company, frustrating investors.

Full Story: SEC probes TheStreet.com’s finances – NYPOST.com.

Obama On Fox News: Accuses Bret Baier Of Interrupting, Two ‘Going At Each Other’

In a rare interview with Fox News on Wednesday, President Obama predicted to host Bret Baier that Congress will soon pass the health care reform proposal that his administration has been working on for months.

OBAMA: I’m confident it will pass. And the reason I’m confident that it’s going to pass is because it’s the right thing to do. Look, on a whole host of these measures, whether it’s health care, whether it was fixing the financial system, whether it’s making sure that we passed the Recovery Act, I knew these things might not be popular, but I was absolutely positive that they were the right thing to do and that, over time, we would be vindicated in having made those tough decisions.

I think health care is exactly the same thing. We — I’ve got a whole bunch of portraits of presidents around here, starting with Teddy Roosevelt, who tried to do this and didn’t get it done. The reason that it needs to be done is not its affect on the presidency. It has to do with how it’s going to affect ordinary people who right now are desperately in need of help.

Full Story: Obama On Fox News: Accuses Bret Baier Of Interrupting, Two ‘Going At Each Other’.

CBO Score On Health Care Bill Released:

Boosts Democrats’ Hopes Of Passing Reform –

Comprehensive health care reform will cost the federal government $940 billion over a ten-year period, but will increase revenue and cut other costs by a greater amount, leading to a reduction of $130 billion in the federal deficit over the same period, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, a Democratic source tells HuffPost. It will cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.

The source said it also extends Medicare’s solvency by at least 9 years and reduces the rate of its growth by 1.4 percent, while closing the doughnut hole for seniors, meaning there will no longer be a gap in coverage of medication. The CBO also estimated it would extend coverage to 32 million additional people.

The CBO score is the last piece House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was waiting on before putting the puzzle together on the House floor. A contingent of Blue Dogs has been holding out support, insisting that the bill be fully paid for and not increase the deficit. The numbers give a major boost to Pelosi and her leadership team, which can now begin the whip count in earnest and can specifically point to the cost savings.

Full Story: CBO Score On Health Care Bill Released: Boosts Democrats’ Hopes Of Passing Reform.

Loud sex enough for cops to search your home, court rules

For Brian McGacken of Farmingdale, New Jersey, an evening of loud sex resulted in a 10-year prison sentence for growing marijuana.

On Feb. 17, 2007, New Jersey state troopers arrived at McGacken’s home, responding to an anonymous 911 call complaining of screams coming from McGacken’s home. McGacken explained the noise was a bout of loud sex; his girlfriend appeared at the front door and corroborated his claim.

But officers searched his home anyway, and found enough marijuana — including potted plants — to put him away for 10 years on charges of producing a controlled substance.

Full Story: Loud sex enough for cops to search your home, court rules | Raw Story.

Survivor: Irish priest committed abuse, destroyed family

Ireland, one of the world’s most Catholic countries, has been reeling from the revelation that Catholic leaders there covered up child abuse, including sexual abuse, by priests for decades.

But not all of the victims were Irish.

The Emerald Isle exported many priests over the years. And that’s how one of Ireland’s most prolific, known child abusers ended up in Rhode Island in the late 1960s.

Helen McGonigle was 6 when, she says, the Rev. Brendan Smyth fondled, raped and sodomized her.

Full Story: Survivor: Irish priest committed abuse, destroyed family – CNN.com.

Rev. Augustus Tolton first U.S. black priest considered for sainthood

The Rev. Augustus Tolton, the nation’s first known black Roman Catholic priest, could become St. Augustus.

Cardinal Francis George announced Wednesday that he will appoint a commission to assemble facts about Tolton’s “heroic virtues” and introduce his cause for sainthood to Rome. He also invited anyone who can report spiritual or physical favors granted through prayer in Tolton’s name to submit their testimony to the archdiocese.

“We need his prayers and his help, especially to become a more united church,” George told the Catholic New World, the archdiocese’s newspaper.

Full Story: Rev. Augustus Tolton first U.S. black priest considered for sainthood – chicagotribune.com.

Episcopalians Confirm Mary Glasspool as a Second Openly Gay Bishop

A majority of bishops and dioceses of the Episcopal Church have approved the election of the church’s second openly gay bishop, the Rev. Mary D. Glasspool, a decision likely to increase the tension with fellow Anglican churches around the world that do not approve of homosexuality.

The worldwide Anglican Communion, the network of churches connected to the Church of England, has been in turmoil since the Americans elected their first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire in 2003. Theological conservatives in the Communion say the Bible condemns homosexuality, while liberals say the Scripture is open to interpretation.

Bishop Glasspool, 56, is to be consecrated as one of two new assistant bishops, known as suffragan bishops, in Los Angeles on May 15. Both elected suffragan bishops are women — the first ever to serve in the diocese.

Full Story: Episcopalians Confirm Mary Glasspool as a Second Openly Gay Bishop – NYTimes.com.

Idaho lawsuit aimed at health care plan

Idaho took the lead in a growing, nationwide fight against health care overhaul Wednesday when its governor became the first to sign a measure requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government if residents are forced to buy health insurance.

Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states.

Constitutional law experts say the movement is mostly symbolic because federal laws supersede those of the states.

But the state measures reflect a growing frustration with President President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. The proposal would cover some 30 million uninsured people, end insurance practices such as denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, require almost all Americans to get coverage by law, and try to slow the cost of medical care nationwide.

Democratic leaders hope to vote on it this weekend.

Full Story: The Associated Press: Idaho first to sign law aimed at health care plan.

N. Korea Is Said to Execute Finance Chief

North Korea has arrested and possibly executed its top financial official as it struggles to contain chaos set off by its botched attempt to halt inflation through a radical currency revaluation, according to news reports Thursday in South Korea.The fate of Pak Nam-gi, the ruling Workers’ Party’s finance and planning department chief, who is said to have spearheaded the currency reform, became a focal point of speculation when he failed to appear at any official functions reported in the North Korean news media for the past two months.

But the reclusive nature of the North Korean government has made it nearly impossible to verify reports about high-ranking officials.

If the reports about his arrest or execution are true, though, they suggest that the ailing North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, considers the public discontent in the aftermath of the currency reform a serious challenge to his grip on power.

Full Story: N. Korea Is Said to Execute Finance Chief – NYTimes.com.

Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.

“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Center manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”

Full Story: Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely | Threat Level | Wired.com.

OPS:  So the obvious question becomes are these Toyota acceleration problems connected to hacking the cars computer? Is this what Toyota is really afraid will come out?  Are other car companies building this in?  Is  your car rigged like this?

Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16

Walgreens will stop taking new Medicaid patients in Washington state as of April 16, saying it loses money filling their prescriptions.

Effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across the state won’t take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over Medicaid reimbursement.

The company, which operates 121 stores in the state, will continue filling Medicaid prescriptions for current patients.

In a news release, Walgreens said its decision to not take new Medicaid patients stemmed from a “continued reduction in reimbursement” under the state’s Medicaid program, which reimburses it at less than the break-even point for 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.

Full Story: Local News | Walgreens: no new Medicaid patients as of April 16 | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Virginia to sue government if Dems pass health care reform

Virginia will file suit against the federal government if the Democrats’ health care reform bill is approved, said a spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) this afternoon.

Cuccinelli (right) has suggested previously he would likely file suit, but spokesman Brian Gottstein said that Virginia’s lawsuit over government health care is now certain. Although Gottstein gave no details of the legal basis for this kind of lawsuit, he indicated that the process is “still being worked out.”

In a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Cuccinelli warns Democrats of using the “deem and pass” approach, which would not permit a freestanding vote on the Senate-passed health care reform bill.

Full Story: Virginia to sue government if Dems pass health care reform | Raw Story.

Wachovia pays $160 million to stop drugs probe

Wachovia has agreed to pay US prosecutors 160 million dollars for its failure to stop drug money being laundered to Mexican affiliates, the DEA said Wednesday.

The embattled bank admitted it failed to stop an estimated 110 million dollars from being sent from the US to Mexico by wire transfer that was used to buy cocaine-transporting aircraft.

The Drug Enforcement Administration said Wachovia-run foreign exchange houses in Mexico — or casas de cambio (CDCs) — were involved in the illicit trades between 2004 and 2007.

Full Story: Wachovia pays $160 million to stop drugs probe | Raw Story.

Insurers score big win as parliamentarian blocks rate hike watchdog | Raw Story

A Democrat’s proposal to create a government watchdog board which would vet insurance premium hikes is likely off the table after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the proposal isn’t suitable to be added in reconciliation, the budget measure Democrats are using to move health care reform forward in the Senate.

The announcement hands a victory to the managed US healthcare industry, which claims that it needs double-digit rate hikes to maintain profitability. The proposal to create the national rate authority came after an announcement from Wellpoint, which said it was raising the premiums of some Blue Cross members in California by 39 percent. (Wellpoint isn’t alone in its double-digit rate hikes — Michigan, Connecticut and Maine have all seen hikes of more than 20 percent in the past year.)

It was introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

Full Story: Insurers score big win as parliamentarian blocks rate hike watchdog | Raw Story.

Dodd financial reforms won’t fix banks

Peter Morici -

America’s banks are as vulnerable today as before the credit crisis and reforms offered by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd won’t fix things.

Prior to the crisis, Americans spent vastly more than they earned, borrowing against overvalued homes through creative mortgages. Banks offered adjustable rate mortgages and other products that unrealistically assumed homeowners could shoulder much bigger monthly payments after five years or refinance homes at higher values. Often incomes and home values were not verified and similar games abounded on credit cards.

Many borrowers knew they faced calamity but cultivated delusions that their paychecks would miraculously increase and housing prices would perpetually rise to finance lifestyles built on fantasies more than facts.

Full Story: Outside View: Dodd financial reforms won’t fix banks – UPI.com.

U.S. Productivity Gains Misleading

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

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

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

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

Video: Jon Stewart Takes on the Texas Taliban School Board

China Asking U.S. Groups to Favor China over U.S.

With the 2010 election cycle about to jump into full swing, the nation’s many politicians are turning to tried and true methods of producing results. They are antagonizing against China. Politicians on the Left and Right are looking for opportunities to blast Chinese environmental policies, labor standards, human rights abuses, and international commercial manipulation.

Unfortunately, the rhetoric is creating a problem for the United States; it is upsetting the Chinese.

It is important to note that China does, in fact, do all of the things that it is being accused of. It has virtually no environmental or worker safety regulations. It practices overt mercantilist favoritism of domestic companies, it manipulates international currency markets, and takes full advantage of the good graces of open markets around the world.

On Tuesday China rebuked the United States for being “protectionist.” One of the most close and regulated economies in the world (China) accused the most open and unregulated (the United States) of evil protectionism, and the claim was given good press.

Full Story: China Asking U.S. Groups to Favor China over U.S. | Economy In Crisis.

Dollar, Paul Krugman

Peter Schiff  -

There is a huge difference between having legitimate buyers of our bonds and just having the Fed monetize the debt. When the Chinese government buys our bonds, it’s the Chinese money supply that grows. But when the Federal Resurvey buys our bonds, it’s our money supply that grows. There is a huge difference.

Video at Link

Full Story: Dollar, Paul Krugman | Economy In Crisis.

In Details of Dodd Bill, Some Loopholes and Unanswered Questions

Effects Unclear on Consumer Bureau, Payday Lenders and Credit Raters

The fine print in the sweeping overhaul of the U.S. financial system proposed by Sen. Christopher Dodd reveals loopholes, ambiguities and unanswered questions about some key players – among them a new consumer protection bureau, credit-rating companies and payday lenders.

Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, unveiled his draft legislation on Monday. His plan’s details suggest his struggle to balance the conflicting demands of Republicans and the financial industry lobbyists, who oppose an independent new consumer agency, and Democrats, many of whom question whether Dodd has gone far enough.

Dodd has stressed the reach of his blueprint, especially noting the importance of a new independent consumer watchdog to write rules for products such as mortgages and credit cards. “This crisis started when people were given mortgages they didn’t understand and could never afford,” said Dodd. “If there was a watchdog on duty, it didn’t bark.”

Full Story: In Details of Dodd Bill, Some Loopholes and Unanswered Questions | The Huffington Post Investigative Fund.

Urban Harvesters Scavenge Backyards to Feed the Hungry

The idea is so simple: Trees produce more food than people can eat. Most of the fruit goes to waste. Get the food and donate it to those in need.

Randy Stannard issues a warning to first-time harvesters: Participate in a community fruit-gleaning event, and suddenly, fruit trees will seem to surround you. You’ll notice only the fruit trees in your neighborhood. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of them, just waiting for their bounty to be picked. And you won’t feel content until every last edible piece of produce sits in your bucket.

Matt Jurach, a gung-ho harvester, knows this feeling well. Under a bright sun on a warm Saturday morning in February, he role-plays for the rest of the group, explaining how to best approach homeowners who, like his dad, might be protective of their fruit trees. Jurach has volunteered at five fruit-harvesting events in the past year and knows what he’s talking about.

“I’m such a sucker for efficiency,” Jurach explains later. “It kills me to see all the effort people put into a tree and it produces all this fruit, then it falls onto the ground and rots. It’s understandable, because we’re busy people. But when you have a group, we complete the last step.”

Full Story: Urban Harvesters Scavenge Backyards to Feed the Hungry | Food | AlterNet.

Zero Point of Systemic Collapse

Chris Hedges:

We stand on the cusp of one of humanity’s most dangerous moments.

Aleksandr Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of anarchists about how to overthrow the czar, reminded his listeners that it was not their job to save a dying system but to replace it: “We think we are the doctors. We are the disease.” All resistance must recognize that the body politic and global capitalism are dead. We should stop wasting energy trying to reform or appeal to it. This does not mean the end of resistance, but it does mean very different forms of resistance. It means turning our energies toward building sustainable communities to weather the coming crisis, since we will be unable to survive and resist without a cooperative effort.

These communities, if they retreat into a pure survivalist mode without linking themselves to the concentric circles of the wider community, the state and the planet, will become as morally and spiritually bankrupt as the corporate forces arrayed against us. All infrastructures we build, like the monasteries in the Middle Ages, should seek to keep alive the intellectual and artistic traditions that make a civil society, humanism and the common good possible. Access to parcels of agricultural land will be paramount. We will have to grasp, as the medieval monks did, that we cannot alter the larger culture around us, at least in the short term, but we may be able to retain the moral codes and culture for generations beyond ours. Resistance will be reduced to small, often imperceptible acts of defiance, as those who retained their integrity discovered in the long night of 20th-century fascism and communism.

We stand on the cusp of one of the bleakest periods in human history when the bright lights of a civilization blink out and we will descend for decades, if not centuries, into barbarity. The elites have successfully convinced us that we no longer have the capacity to understand the revealed truths presented before us or to fight back against the chaos caused by economic and environmental catastrophe. As long as the mass of bewildered and frightened people, fed images that permit them to perpetually hallucinate, exist in this state of barbarism, they may periodically strike out with a blind fury against increased state repression, widespread poverty and food shortages. But they will lack the ability and self-confidence to challenge in big and small ways the structures of control. The fantasy of widespread popular revolts and mass movements breaking the hegemony of the corporate state is just that – a fantasy.

Full Story: Chris Hedges: Zero Point of Systemic Collapse | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters.

Paul Krugman

AFP Refuses To Pull ‘Disgraceful’ Ad Attacking Congresswoman Whose Parents Recently Died Of Cancer

Conservative anti-reform front group Americans for Prosperity has been running vicious attack ads in Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper’s (D-PA) district, claiming that health care reform will lead to lower cancer survival rates. The ad — also running in 17 other key districts through tomorrow — features a breast cancer survivor named Tracy Walsh who claims, “If government takes over health care,” rationing recommendations by “a government panel” “could cost your life.” She adds that if she had followed a panel’s advice on mammograms, “my cancer would have spread undetected, and my chances of survival would have been reduced.”

The Dahlkemper ad has been taken off AFP’s YouTube channel, but this is a duplicate ad going after Chris Carney. Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » AFP Refuses To Pull ‘Disgraceful’ Ad Attacking Congresswoman Whose Parents Recently Died Of Cancer.

After Calling Self-Executing Rule Unconstitutional, Pence Admits He Previously Voted For It

Last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) stirred faux outrage over the House Democrats’ plan to use a “self-executing rule” to pass the Senate health care reform bill, saying Americans would “have standing to sue against” the bill and that it’s “breathtakingly unconstitutional.” The claim has now turned into the latest fact-free GOP talking point to try to kill reform; Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) picked up on the theme yesterday. “It really tramples on the Constitution of the United States,” he said on the House floor.

Today, the Daily Caller’s Jon Ward asked Pence if it was “correct” to call the rule “unconstitutional.” “Well I think it’s probably unconstitutional,” he said, adding, “My background in law and constitutional issues suggests to me it’s unconstitutional.” But later in the interview, Pence admitted that he had voted for self-executing rules in the past:

Full Story: Think Progress » After Calling Self-Executing Rule Unconstitutional, Pence Admits He Previously Voted For It.

Boehner Tells Bankers To Fight Financial Reform:

‘Don’t Let Those Little Punk Staffers Take Advantage Of You’

This week, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) released the latest version of his financial regulatory reform bill, which aims to correct the deficiencies in the financial system that led to 2008’s economic crisis. The House of Representatives has already passed a comprehensive regulatory reform bill, and now that Dodd has given up on negotiating with recalcitrant Republicans, he is moving on an expedited timeline, with a markup scheduled for Monday.

It’s taken the Senate a year and a half after the financial crisis to even get to this point, but House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told “an enthusiastic crowd of bankers” today that, even if the Senate passes a bill, reconciling it with the House version will take another year. “If the Senate is able to produce a bill, I think it’s just as likely that we’ll be talking about the same issue a year from now as we are right now,” Boehner said at the American Bankers Association government relations summit.

Boehner then added that the bankers should be standing up for themselves against “those little punk staffers” trying to write new regulations:

Full Story: Think Progress » Boehner Tells Bankers To Fight Financial Reform: ‘Don’t Let Those Little Punk Staffers Take Advantage Of You’.

How Get-Rich-Quick Crime Came to Define an Era

Ponzi Nation  -

Every great American boom and bust makes and breaks its share of crooks. The past decade — call it the Ponzi Era — has been no different, except for the gargantuan scale of white-collar crime. A vast wave of financial fraud swelled in the first years of the new century. Then, in 2008, with the subprime mortgage collapse, it crashed on the shore as a full-scale global economic meltdown. As that wave receded, it left hundreds of Ponzi and pyramid schemes, as well as other get-rich-quick rackets that helped fuel our recent economic frenzy, flopping on the beach.

The high-water marks from that crime wave, those places where the corruption reached its zenith, are still visible today, like the 17th floor of 885 Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan, the nerve center of investment firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities — and, as it turned out, a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest in history. Or Stanfordville, a sprawling compound on the Caribbean island of Antigua named for its wealthy owner, a garrulous Texan named Allen Stanford who built it with funds from his own $8 billion Ponzi scheme. Or the bizarrely fortified law office — security cards, surveillance cameras, hidden microphones, a private elevator — of Florida attorney Scott Rothstein, who duped friends and investors out of $1.2 billion.

The more typical marks of the Ponzi Era, though, aren’t as easy to see. Williamston, Michigan, for instance, lacks towering skyscrapers, Italian sports cars, million-dollar mansions, and massive security systems. A quiet town 15 miles from Lansing, the state capital, Williamston is little more than a cross-hatching of a dozen or so streets. A “DOLLAR TIME$” store sits near Williamston’s main intersection — locals affectionally call it the “four corners” — and its main drag is lined with worn brick buildings passed on from one business to the next like fading, hand-me-down jeans. It’s here, far from New York or Antigua, that thanks to two brothers seized by a financial fever dream, the Ponzi Era made its truest, deepest American mark.

Full Story: Tomgram: Andy Kroll, Welcome to America, Sucker | TomDispatch.

FCC’s Broadband Plan: Who’s for It-and Against It

Since the FCC formally revealed its plan to expand broadband access on Tuesday, the idea has been generally well-received. And really, what’s there to protest so far? The plan’s stated goal is to connect “100 million households to affordable 100-megabits-per-second service, building the world’s largest market of high-speed broadband users and ensuring that new jobs and businesses are created in America.” It also stresses making broadband faster and more powerful.

So far the only group consistently cited as being the “loser” in all of this is the National Association of Broadcasters, which has expressed reservations about losing its portion of the airwaves to make room for the broadband providers. But which industry players stand to win big if the plan moves forward? Here’s what the Post reported on this point:

Full Story: On The Hill: FCC’s Broadband Plan: Who’s for It-and Against It.

It’s time for Netanyahu to say yes to Obama

Haaretz Editorial -

The cancellation of the visit by American envoy George Mitchell, who has been delegated to renew the diplomatic negotiations, embodies the slippery slope facing Israel during the past week. Even before completing the first year of his second term in office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to foment crises in two key strategic areas: the peace process with the Palestinians and relations with the United States.

The affair of the building plans for Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, which cast a pall on U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visited, pushed back the two-state solution. At the same time, the unnecessary snub of a friendly guest became a deep rift in the dialogue between the Israeli government and the White House.

In order to rescue the proximity talks and resolve the crisis in relations with the United States, the Obama administration has made three demands of Netanyahu: cancelling the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee’s decision to approve for presentation building plans for Ramat Shlomo, a “significant” gesture to the Palestinians and a public statement that the indirect talks will deal with all the core issues, including Jerusalem.

Full Story: It’s time for Netanyahu to say yes to Obama – Haaretz – Israel News.

Note to Congress: Don’t Be Stupid. The Cost of Doing Too Little on Bank Reform Will Hit the Ballot Box as Well as Our Wallets

Like most political writers, I like studies. Sometimes the data give me semi-factual fodder for my opinions and other times a reason to reexamine my preconceptions.

Thing is, there are so many studies that people often only read the ones that have conclusions with which they already agree. In the worst cases, the request for a study to be undertaken in the first place is not an attempt to gain further knowledge, but a delay tactic.

And I’m afraid such is the case with the proposed government studies folded into the financial reform legislation working its way through Congress.

The New York Times writes today that those studies (roughly 38 in the House bill and 24 in the Senate) will “effectively delay for up to two years the possibility of addressing” the problems that led up to the financial crisis in the first place, and may prevent new regulations from being implemented until then. Reading between the lines of the piece, it’s clear that the studies are less about information-gathering and more about mollifying the banking industry (emphasis mine):

Full Story: Note to Congress: Don’t Be Stupid. The Cost of Doing Too Little on Bank Reform Will Hit the Ballot Box as Well as Our Wallets | BuzzFlash.org.

GOP House Used Dreaded So-Called ‘Slaughter Rule’ 202 Times under Speakers Gingrich and Hastert

Republicans set new records for deeming under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent and 35 percent of all rules, respectively. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) there were 40, 42 and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively).

Republicans are flailing away about procedural maneuvers involved in passing health care reform because polling shows that the public doesn’t have a clue how bills are passed and they hate seeing how legislative sausage gets made.

Republicans also don’t care when their own rank hypocrisy is revealed in the “liberal media” — when there are balanced reports, for example, that they used the same arcane rules with wild abandon when they controlled Congress. The Republican base will never learn about their own pols’ hypocrisy because these voters have been trained to get their “news” exclusively from right-wing propaganda outlets like Fox News and hate radio, where untidy facts like these will never be mentioned.

But independent voters, who are not averse to exposure to a variety of points of view, still control the outcomes in many congressional districts, so it is important to set the record straight.

Full Story: Pensito Review.

Official Documents Confirm Major Criminal Investigations of Turkish Operatives in Chicago

Newly Released FBI Documents Support Explosive Claims by Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds

Recently released FBI documents prove the existence of highly sensitive National Security and criminal investigations of “Turkish Activities” in Chicago prior to September 11, 2001. These documents add further support to many of the allegations that former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has claimed, in public and in Congress, since 2002. The documents were released under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into an organization called the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA), an organization repeatedly named by Ms. Edmonds as being complicit in the crimes that she became aware of when she was a translator at the FBI.

The documents released under FOIA are almost completely redacted, but they do support many of Edmonds’ claims, including:

There were a number of very serious FBI investigations into “Turkish activity in Chicago” involving a number of targets, including TACA

These investigations were related to “National Security” among other things.

These investigations were regarded as so sensitive that no files were to be uploaded to FBI’s computer system.

Congressional corruption was involved.

The FBI repeatedly conducted actual “physical surveillance” against Turkish and American targets.

Some of these investigations were shut down in 2001.

Full Story: Sibel Edmonds’ Boiling Frogs Post | Home of the Irate Minority.

Mario Draghi and Goldman Sachs, Again

In its previous response to us, the Bank of Italy pointed out that Mario Draghi (its current governor) did not join the management of Goldman Sachs until 2002 – hence he was not there when the controversial Greek “debt swaps” were arranged.

We agree that he joined Goldman only in January 2002 (this was in our original post). But the latest revelations regarding the Goldman-Greece relationship (on the Senate floor, no less) clearly indicate that Goldman was a lead manager of Greek debt issues in spring 2002, i.e., when Mr. Draghi was on board.

This raises three entirely reasonable and straightforward questions.

Full Story: Simon Johnson: Mario Draghi and Goldman Sachs, Again.

Health care reform protestors mock man who carried sign saying he has Parkinson’s disease.

Activists staged “competing rallies” outside of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s (D-OH) district office yesterday, in a noisy, often confrontational attempt to influence the undecided congresswoman’s vote. At one point, a man with a sign saying he has Parkinson’s disease and needs help sat down in front of the reform opponents. Several protesters mocked the man, calling him a “communist” and derisively “throwing money at him.” “If you’re looking for a handout you’re in the wrong end of town,” one man said. Watch it (at approximately 0:51):

Full Story: Think Progress » Health care reform protestors mock man who carried sign saying he has Parkinson’s disease..

Dodd’s Bill on Financial Regulation Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Matthew Rothschild, -

It’s been more than a year and a half since Lehman Brothers went bust and the entire edifice of Wall Street came tumbling down, only to be put back together by trillions of taxpayer dollars.

And still, to this day, Congress hasn’t passed any financial reform.

On Monday, Chris Dodd finally unveiled the Democrats’ Senate bill. Like the House bill, it at least does something to address the problems that brought this terrible recession upon us, like creating a Consumer Protection Financial Bureau to increase regulation.

But it’s not nearly enough

Full Story: Dodd’s Bill on Financial Regulation Doesn’t Go Far Enough | The Progressive.

The Green They Steal, The Greed They Wear

A St. Patrick’s Day Lament

by Michael Moore

Friends,

It was amazing. Every story on the front page of Monday’s New York Times told the story of the Age of Greed during which a system known as capitalism is slowly, but surely, killing us:

Insurance company greed: “Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care”

War profiteers: “Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants”

There’s no profit in repairing our infrastructure: “Repair Costs Daunting as Water Lines Crumble”

China, the bank: “China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage”

You mean NAFTA didn’t improve life in Mexico: “Two Drug Slayings in Mexico Rock US Consulate”

What happens when Big Food profits from hurting kids: “Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has New Boss”

Full Story: The Green They Steal, The Greed They Wear | CommonDreams.org.

EU attacks ‘optimistic’ economic outlooks

The European Union has criticised the UK and other European nations for having “optimistic” growth assumptions and bloated deficits.

The UK must tackle “uncertainty” in plans to cut its deficit, the EU said.

EU rules say government deficits must be below 3% of GDP, but the UK’s deficit is expected to hit £178bn – or 12.6% of GDP – this year.

Germany, France, Spain and Italy were also warned they were over-reliant on economic recovery to meet debt targets.

Full Story: BBC News – EU attacks ‘optimistic’ economic outlooks.

That Is Immoral! That Is Wrong!

Sen Bernie Sanders Speaking on the Senate Floor

Part 1

Part 2

Jesse Ventura on “American Conspiracies”

Thom Hartmann

Is it child abuse to teach w/ religious textbooks?

Thom Hartmann

Women, girls rape victims in Haiti quake aftermath

When the young woman needed to use the toilet, she went out into the darkened tent camp and was attacked by three men.

“They grabbed me, put their hands over my mouth and then the three of them took turns,” the slender 21-year-old said, wriggling with discomfort as she nursed her baby girl, born three days before Haiti’s devastating quake.

“I am so ashamed. We’re scared people will find out and shun us,” said the woman, who suffers from abdominal pain and itching, likely from an infection contracted during the attack.

Full Story: Women, girls rape victims in Haiti quake aftermath – Yahoo! News.

More homeowners are opting for ‘strategic defaults’

Underwater on their mortgages and angry at banks, more borrowers are choosing to hand over the keys, even if they can afford the payments.

Wynn Bloch has always dutifully paid her bills and socked away money for retirement. But in December she defaulted on the mortgage on her Palm Desert home, even though she could afford the payments.

Bloch paid $385,000 for the two-bedroom in 2006, when prices were still surging. Comparable homes are now selling in the low-$200,000s. At 66, the retired psychologist doubted she’d see her investment rebound in her lifetime. Plus, she said she was duped into an expensive loan.

The way she sees it, big banks that helped fuel the mess all got bailouts while small fry like her are left holding the bag. No more.

Full Story: More homeowners are opting for ‘strategic defaults’ – latimes.com.

Middle Class Losing Health Insurance Faster Than The Rich Or Poor

It’s the biggest “doughnut hole” of them all: Members of the middle class are losing their health insurance faster than any other income group, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The number of middle-income earners covered by employer health insurance fell by three million from 2000 to 2008, and government programs and the individual market aren’t picking up the slack. The total number of uninsured middle-income earners rose from 10.5 million to 12.9 million, representing 16.2 percent of the income bracket — a bigger increase than for any other income group.

“It really underscores how the problem of uninsurance is not something simply affecting lower-income Americans but is increasingly affecting the middle class,” said Brian Quinn, the foundation’s research and evaluation office. The most recent Census Bureau estimate puts the total uninsured population at 46.3 million.

Full Story: Middle Class Losing Health Insurance Faster Than The Rich Or Poor.

Jobs Bill Poised To Clear Senate, Head To Obama

Companies that hire unemployed workers get a temporary payroll tax holiday under a bill headed for likely Senate passage Wednesday.

A positive vote would send the legislation to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature.

It would be the first of several election-year jobs bills promised by Democrats to be enacted into law, though there’s plenty of skepticism that the measure will do much to boost hiring.

Full Story: Jobs Bill Poised To Clear Senate, Head To Obama.

Upload C-SPAN Highlights, Win A Prize

This Wednesday, C-SPAN will be releasing over 160,000 hours of footage in a searchable video library. The programming dates back to 1987, just a year after the launch of C-SPAN 2, which ostensibly means that every Congressional floor speech and high profile event since Reagan’s final years in office will be available and embeddable online.

According to a press release:

Of the video library, C-SPAN co-president Susan Swain said: “Its extensive holdings will allow the public to see how elected officials, politicians, journalists, experts, authors and other opinion leaders present themselves on the issues of the day and over time.”

Added bonuses: A “Congressional Chronicle” feature lets viewers to search all floor speeches and committee remarks for any member, and built-in tools allow you to post a video link to Facebook, Twitter or e-mail.

So what’s worth watching? Which memorable speech deserves revisiting? And what can we learn from such a rich archive?

The Huffington Post needs your help in answering these questions. Upon the launch of C-SPAN’s video library, we’re inviting readers to send us the embed codes of the best videos and moments from over 20 years of Congressional history.

Full Story: Upload C-SPAN Highlights, Win A Prize.

Rachel Maddow Questions Geithner About Role At New York Fed: ‘Where Were You?’ (VIDEO)

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner described the nation’s financial crisis as “deeply unfair” to average Americans Tuesday, during an interview with Rachel Maddow. Geithner told Maddow that because of American suffering, he felt a “deep sense of responsibility” to reform the nation’s financial system:

GEITHNER: I think this is a just war. I think it’s a necessary and important thing to do. I think we have a deep obligation to get them to do this. The president has put out a sweeping package of reforms, strongest reforms we’ve contemplated as a country since the Great Depression, necessarily so because this was so damaging.

The House passed a bill very close to what the president proposed. Senator Dodd has put out a very good, strong bill. I do not think this is a Democratic or Republican thing. This is an American thing. I think you’re going to see — when this gets to the Senate floor, I think you’re going to see a lot of support for this, because I think it’s very hard for people in Washington to look their constituents in the eye and say, we’ve just had the worst financial crisis in generations, but we couldn’t find the will as a country to reform the rules of the game.

Full Story: Rachel Maddow Questions Geithner About Role At New York Fed: ‘Where Were You?’ (VIDEO).

Brazil Catholic Church Sex Scandal:

Video Allegedly Shows Priest Abusing Altar Boy

Brazilian authorities are investigating three priests accused of sexually abusing altar boys after a video allegedly showing one case of abuse was broadcast on television, police and church officials said Tuesday.

The case came to light after the SBT network aired a video purportedly showing an 82-year-old priest having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy who worked for him for four years. Other young men appeared on the report saying that they, too, had been abused by Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa.

Also under investigation are Monsignor Raimundo Gomes, 52, and Father Edilson Duarte, 43, for allegedly having sexual relations with boys and young men.

Full Story: Brazil Catholic Church Sex Scandal: Video Allegedly Shows Priest Abusing Altar Boy.

CIA Hoped To Turn ‘Gay Terrorist’ Spy Against 9/11 Planners

The Gay Terrorist

It’s been more than eight years since 9/11, but the fallout continues to reverberate throughout today’s New York. The Obama administration’s waffling over how to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the attack’s mastermind, and the continuous, embarrassing delay in rebuilding the towers downtown have kept 9/11 more in the headlines than usual.

Now, as those political battles roll on, a new story about the run-up to 9/11 has emerged—a previously undisclosed, covert C.I.A. effort to recruit a spy to penetrate Al Qaeda a year and a half before the planes crashed into the towers.

The development is intriguing in part because the informant they were after was thought to be secretly gay—a fact that gave intelligence agents leverage in their efforts to turn him against his conservative Islamist circle. But the case may also help answer one of the long-standing mysteries of the 9/11 narrative: why a terrorist known to one part of the U.S. government wasn’t captured by other parts before he boarded a plane and helped carry out the most devastating attacks on the country.

Full Story: The Gay Terrorist | The New York Observer.

One-year freeze on earmarks fails in Senate, splits GOP

The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly defeated a bid to freeze spending earmarks for a year.

Lawmakers voted 68-29 against an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., to impose a one-year moratorium on earmarks. Twenty-four fellow Republicans voted for DeMint’s measure, while 15 GOP senators voted against it.

The vote came six days after House Democratic leaders banned earmarks to defense contractors and other private companies, limiting them to state or local governments and nonprofit groups.

DeMint and fellow conservative Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., engaged in a brief but fierce debate on the Senate floor before the vote.

Full Story: One-year freeze on earmarks fails in Senate, splits GOP | McClatchy.

Dennis Kucinich Flips: Will Support Health Care Reform

After an intense White House lobbying effort, Dennis Kucinich announced on Wednesday morning that he has decided to vote for health care reform when it comes before the House in the next few days, reversing his previous position and giving a boost to President Obama, congressional leaders and the reform effort.

Kucinich had been one of the few remaining holdouts who felt that the bill did not go far enough. Kucinich, a former presidential candidate, objected that the bill did not include a robust public insurance option tied to Medicare rates and did not include a provision to allow states to enact single-payer legislation if they so chose. His support gives House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a much-needed vote as she looks for 216 members to move the package through this week.

Kucinich came under intense pressure from liberals, with blogger Markos Moulitsas, the founder of DailyKos, going so far as to suggest he should face a primary challenge if he votes no. House leadership, however, largely considered his vote lost.

Full Story: Dennis Kucinich Flips: Will Support Health Care Reform.

Geithner Warns Unemployment Will Stay High in 2010

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other top economic officials in the Obama administration say that, while they expect some improvement this spring, 2010 will probably remain a rough year for Americans looking for work.

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Geithner read a joint statement — which he prepared with Christina Romer, chairwoman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, and Peter Orszag, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget — warning that the nation’s unemployment rate “is likely to remain elevated for an extended period. The forecast projects that in the fourth quarter of 2011, the unemployment rate will be 8.9%, and that by the fourth quarter of 2012, it will be 7.9%.”

Geithner called the current unemployment rate of 9.7% “unacceptable by any metric.” He testified that it usually takes the creation of more than 100,000 jobs per month to bring the unemployment rate down; the administration foresees job creation averaging 100,000 for the rest of 2010 — but doesn’t expect it to substantially exceed that. In fact, Geithner said, the jobless rate might even rise slightly over the next few months, as unemployed workers attempt to return to the labor force.

Full Story: Geithner Warns Unemployment Will Stay High in 2010 – DailyFinance.

Revealed: Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld warned 9/11 Commission about ‘line’ it ’should not cross’

Senior Bush administration officials sternly cautioned the 9/11 Commission against probing too deeply into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to a document recently obtained by the ACLU.

The notification came in a letter dated January 6, 2004, addressed by Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and CIA Director George J. Tenet. The ACLU described it as a fax sent by David Addington, then-counsel to former vice president Dick Cheney.

In the message, the officials denied the bipartisan commission’s request to question terrorist detainees, informing its two senior-most members that doing so would “cross” a “line” and obstruct the administration’s ability to protect the nation.

Full Story: Revealed: Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld warned 9/11 Commission about ‘line’ it ’should not cross’ | Raw Story.

Hawaii considers legislation to ignore birthers.

The birther conspiracy continues to live on, despite definitive proof showing that President Obama was indeed born in the United States. Hawaii’s government agencies are becoming so frustrated with the delusional birthers that the state is considering a bill “permitting government officials to ignore people who won’t give up“:

But the state still gets between 10 and 20 e-mails seeking verification of Obama’s birth each week, most of them from outside Hawaii, [Lorrin Kim, chief of the Hawaii Department of Health's Office of Planning, Policy and Program Development] said Tuesday.

A few of these requesters continue to pepper the Health Department with the same letters seeking the same information, even after they’re told state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest. Responding wastes time and money, Kim said. [...]

Full Story: Think Progress » Hawaii considers legislation to ignore birthers..

Laws for Sale

Former Senator Ernest F. Hollings –

The Supreme Court’s decision to allow unlimited corporate cash to buy political power through unlimited political spending is exactly what we in the Congress tried to prevent in 1971 and 1974 when we limited spending in political campaigns.

Matt Bai’s article in The New York Times entitled, “Laws for Sale” examines the Supreme Court’s decision to allow unlimited corporate cash to buy political power through unlimited political spending. This is exactly what we in the Congress tried to prevent in 1971 and 1974 when we limited spending in political campaigns. Maurice Stans, Richard Nixon’s fundraiser in the 1968 presidential race, was threatening and ingenious. All kinds of cash and money were flowing into the campaign, wihch shocked both Republicans and Democrats. Stans made it appear that public office was up for sale. So in 1971 by a vote of 88-2, we limited spending in federal campaigns. All contributions of $100 or more had to be reported, and even the amount of money a candidate gave his or her own campaign was strictly limited. We included a check-off system for the taxpayers so they could earmark $1.00 of their taxes to a presidential campaign fund. Our concern was that without government funding only the wealthy could afford to run an expensive presidential race.

In 1972, Stans pulled out all the stops to amass a war chest for Nixon’s re-election. Stans advised the South Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association that their “fair share” was $350,000. Ten of them agreed to cough up $35,000 apiece. So, in 1974, by a vote of 60-16, we again limited spending in federal campaigns. Under a formula using voting age population, Senator Thurmond and I were limited to $336,904. This was thirty-five years ago. Fast forward for inflation and the increase in population, and a campaign today in South Carolina would be limited to $3 million or $4 million. This would give the Senator time to do his work rather than fundraise.

Full Story: Laws for Sale | Economy In Crisis.

How the Economy was Lost, Doomed by the Myths of Free Trade

Paul Craig Roberts -

The American economy has gone away. It is not coming back until free trade myths are buried six feet under.

America’s 20th century economic success was based on two things. Free trade was not one of them. America’s economic success was based on protectionism, which was ensured by the union victory in the Civil War, and on British indebtedness, which destroyed the British pound as world reserve currency. Following World War II, the U.S. dollar took the role as reserve currency, a privilege that allows the U.S. to pay its international bills in its own currency.

World War II and socialism together ensured that the U.S. economy dominated the world at the mid 20th century. The economies of the rest of the world had been destroyed by war or were stifled by socialism [in terms of the priorities of the capitalist growth model. Editors.]

Full Story: How the Economy was Lost, Doomed by the Myths of Free Trade | Economy In Crisis.

The Foreign Value Added Tax: Making Our Exports Uncompetitive

Unknown to most Americans, the United States is losing the ability to compete in global trade because of the little known foreign Value-Added Tax (VAT).

Foreign governments use this tax against United States producers as a means to prevent the importation and consumption of U.S. goods, while providing incentives for their countries to export their goods to the U.S. The foreign VAT was a subsidy created after World War II to speed up beneficial other countries’ recovery. However, it is still used today by 149 countries to exploit this advantageous position against American trade. We have not used it domestically to off set theirs as a benefit to ourselves.

The foreign VAT gives the companies of other nations and their exports the upper-hand by providing incentives in the form of rebates equal to the indirect tax on the exported product. For example, the VAT rate is 19 percent in Germany; therefore the Germans receive a 19 percent rebate from their government on each product exported to the U.S. This acts as a subsidy for a product while encouraging the exportation of products to the U.S. However, the VAT imposes a punishment on U.S. exports by placing a VAT equivalent to the Value Added Tax rate of the importing country. This means all U.S. exports that enter into Germany are taxed 19 percent on top of another 19 percent for the transportation fees of the goods into the country. The VAT destroys American industries’ ability to promote exports, while encouraging foreigners to sell their products to Americans – it must be amended or eliminated.

Full Story: The Foreign Value Added Tax: Making Our Exports Uncompetitive | Economy In Crisis.

U.S. Close to Ratings-Downgrade Danger Zone

One of the world’s top credit rating agencies warned in a report released Tuesday that the U.S., along with Britain, France, Germany and Spain, could be in jeopardy of losing its triple-A rated creditworthiness.

[moody s investors service ... ] In its quarterly report, Moody’s Investor Service said that the U.S.’s credit rating is not in imminent danger, however, Washington’s margin for error is shrinking. If the U.S. does not begin to better manage its debt problems, its could be facing a credit downgrade in the near future.

France, Spain and Germany are in the same boat as well. But, Britain and the U.S. face the most precarious situations because of debt concerns.

Full Story: U.S. Close to Ratings-Downgrade Danger Zone | Economy In Crisis.

Many Nations Surpassing U.S. in Education

We were quick to rescue Wall Street from itself, but we have taken no action to stop the bleeding in education

Education has always been the backbone of American productivity, for generations American students were the best and brightest the world had to offer. Unfortunately, for nearly 20 years the state of primary and secondary education in America has fallen off.

It is not that our students are worse than their predecessors, far from it, in fact American students today are ahead of virtually all those who came before them. Instead, our students have not accelerated as fast as students elsewhere in the developed world. By American standards we are getting better but, after having watched much of the world pass us by, much of our student body is falling behind internationally.

[Bored student at her desk Bld018316,jp2005_0002485,adolescent ...] On March 9, The New York Times, published an article detailing how more and more Americans are being passed up by international standards. In the U.S. Senate there has been some movement to take on America’s educational deficiencies.

Full Story: Many Nations Surpassing U.S. in Education | Economy In Crisis.

TPP Talks: NAFTA Round Two?

Negotiations began Monday in Melbourne, Australia, to iron out issues between the U.S. and seven other nations considering entering the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would be President Obama’s first major trade initiative since taking office.

[ Trans-Pacific Partnership ... ] Leading the U.S. delegation is U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who will be joined by his counterparts from the countries of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile, Brunei, Peru and Vietnam.

The proposed TPP would be by far the largest negotiated trade pact involving the U.S. since the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the free trade zone is expected to grow once implemented. Kirk has publicly stated that he would eventually like to see Japan, Malaysia, Peru and South Korea enter the fold. And AFP reports that some experts believe that Canada and Mexico – America’s partners in the failed NAFTA pact – could join as well.

Full Story: TPP Talks: NAFTA Round Two? | Economy In Crisis.

Weekly Audit: Will Weak Reforms Bring on Another Crisis?

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) unveiled his latest financial reform proposal on Monday, and the stakes for the new legislation couldn’t be higher. After consumer groups raised a major ruckus, Dodd has dropped one of his most egregious concessions to the bank lobby—cutting enforcement authority from the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). That’s good news: Without a major regulatory overhaul, the U.S. economy’s destructive boom and bust cycle will start all over again.

We’ve been down this road before. The Enron fiasco should have served as a wake-up call for policymakers, but instead, the weak federal response to Enron’s major fraud helped pave the way for the current economic slump.

What does Enron have to do with the crisis?

As Megan Carpentier emphasizes for The Washington Independent, one of the key “reforms” Congress enacted in the Enron aftermath was a law requiring every CEO to sign-off on their company’s accounting statements—but it has accomplished almost nothing.

Full Story: The Media Consortium » Weekly Audit: Will Weak Reforms Bring on Another Crisis?.

Honoring Granny D: Crusader for Democracy

Jim Hightower -

Doris Haddock made her voice heard. She embodied the national yearning for democratic reform and rallied a movement.

It read like just another obituary written about someone who'd lived a very long time: “Doris Haddock died peacefully in her family home,” it began. “Born in 1910, she lived through two world wars and the Great Depression. She is survived by her son, eight grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.”

Oh, and one other thing: “She walked across the United States at age 90 to rally public support for campaign finance reform.”

Doris Haddock — better known as “Granny D” — was not your usual elderly lady, living her last years in quiet repose. She had always been that finest of the American species: a “Citizen” — with a capital C — one who stayed engaged in the public issues of her time.

Full Story: Honoring Granny D: Crusader for Democracy | Vision | AlterNet.

Daily Beast Female Elites Denounce Global Human Rights Violations While Ignoring U.S. Crimes

Promising solutions for international women’s rights problems, the Daily Beast’s ‘Women in the World’ conference ended up supporting the status quo for US foreign policy.

On the last day of the Daily Beast’s Women in the World summit in Manhattan, a weekend-long conference offering “stories and solutions” to some of the most serious human rights problems faced by women across the globe, “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl sat down with Barack Obama’s senior adviser and confidant, Valerie Jarrett, for a pleasant conversation. After some initial “hard news” questions on health care — no mention of Stupak or the public option — Stahl invited Jarrett to provide some biographical bullet points tracing her early career as a Chicago real estate lawyer (the job made her so “miserable” she would sit in her office and cry), to the Daley administration (she was “scared to death” of the mayor), to the White House, asking her at one point, as a single mom, “How do you do it?”

As a preface to a broader discussion of the White House and its policies, all this would be fine and good. Jarrett is a public figure, and, as some of the conference speakers eloquently demonstrated over the weekend, personal narrative has its value (especially given the tough reality for single moms). But before long, the interview devolved into something resembling a PR show. Stahl gave Jarrett ample room to wax poetic about the great privilege of working for Barack Obama, an “extraordinary” man full of “tenacity,” “empathy,” “inner strength,” and so on, without asking her a single substantive question about the policies his administration has adopted — policies with significant implications for the rest of the world. “Every day I pinch myself,” Jarrett mused.

Full Story: Daily Beast Female Elites Denounce Global Human Rights Violations While Ignoring U.S. Crimes | World | AlterNet.

Bosses in the Bedroom

Your Boss Can Secretly Film You in the Bathroom — The Countless Ways You Are Losing Privacy at Work

Privacy is dead. Get over it. So says Scott McNealy, former president of Sun Microsystems.

He’s right. Workplace privacy is dead and buried. Employers can and do read e-mail, eavesdrop on telephone calls, monitor Internet access and watch workers with hidden cameras (even in bathrooms and locker rooms). Virtually all of this is legal. Technically, employers aren’t supposed to listen to personal telephone calls, but it happens all the time and you have no way of knowing. Some judges have found bathroom cameras to be an invasion of privacy, but other judges allow it.

As bad as this is, it’s getting worse. Bosses are now spying on workers’ home lives. Millions of workers carry company-issued cell phones. Every one of these phones is equipped with GPS. The technology required to track cell phones is readily available and not very expensive. The cost of tracking an employee 24/7 is only $5 a month. Employers often keep GPS tracking a secret or tell the workers they can turn off the GPS when they go home and continue to track them. The National Workrights Institute (NWI) has already begun receiving complaints about GPS.

Even more serious are the problems created by company-issued laptops. Employers usually tell workers it’s OK to use them for personal purposes as well as business. It’s presented as a perk—now you don’t need to buy your own computer.

Full Story: Bosses in the Bedroom.

How the IRS Helps H&R Block Scam Taxpayers

You know tax season is around the corner when you see start seeing the guys in the cheap Statue of Liberty costumes. They begin popping up in mid-February, haunting subway exits and downtown intersections nationwide draped in garish aqua togas, faces lit up in sparkle paint, heads topped by radiant crowns of chipped Styrofoam. They are the hourly sandwich-board street barkers of Liberty Tax Service, carrying not tablets symbolic of ancient Roman wisdom, but paper fliers advertising modern-day tax services.

Echoing the original, these copycat Lady Liberties also beckon the poor. But instead of offering refuge, they offer scams.

Among the products and services provided by Liberty Tax Service are Refund Anticipation Loans (RAL). Together with fellow tax preparation giants H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, Liberty has become a leading purveyor of RALs: short-term, high-interest, fee-laden loans on imminent tax returns, the majority of which are taken out by the working poor. Over the last two decades, RALs have become a common and increasingly controversial part of the nation’s tax season hustle. In 2008, more than eight million Americans spent nearly a billion dollars paying interest and fees on RALs—often based on misleading or incomplete information—swelling the profits of tax preparers and their partner banks.

Full Story: How the IRS Helps H&R Block Scam Taxpayers | Economy | AlterNet.

Lehman Brothers Autopsy: Repo 105, and Why Auditors Have Some Explaining to Do

If you haven’t already watched it, Marketplace has a great video explaining Repo 105, a shady accounting maneuver through which Lehman Brothers hid its financial troubles for so long before finally filing in 2008 for the largest bankruptcy in U.S history.

As business reporters sniff through Anton Valukas’ 2,200-page “coroner’s report” on Lehman, here’s a look at all the people who’ve denied they knew anything about the “Repo 105” scam.

Full Story: Lehman Brothers Autopsy: Repo 105, and Why Auditors Have Some Explaining to Do – ProPublica.

Did Obama make a backroom deal to kill the public option?

A New York Times reporter has confirmed that President Obama made a deal with hospital lobbyists back in August of 2009, that promised there would be no public option.

Obama, on many occasions made speeches supporting a public option but this explains why he never did anything to get it included in a health care bill.

Nancy Pelosi had said only a few days ago that a public option wouldnt be in the House bill largely because Obama never fought for it,, never pushed for it and never supported it. And now we know why. Because of this backroom deal with lobbyists he made back in August promising there would be no public option.

Full Story: Did Obama make a backroom deal to kill the public option?.

Why Does Corporate Media Ignore That Palin Wants Extreme Christian Government?

The New Apostolic Movement uncovered … and un-covered.

The mainstream media has plenty of time and space to devote to Sarah Palin’s Hollywood hi-jinks, but apparently has little interest in delving into her fantastic religious connections.

A few weeks back, I interview Rachel Tabachnick about a movement of religious conservatives called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The story, which appeared at Alternet on Monday, March 1, was given the rather tantalizing title, “Heads Up: Prayer Warriors and Sarah Palin Are Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America”. The subhead was also a juicy tease, advising that the NAR was likely “the largest religious movement you’ve never heard of.”

All-in-all, the piece was probably the most extensive article/interview yet published on this movement. While the piece didn’t go “viral,” it did provoke an interesting response. Within a few days, it became one of the “Most READ,” “Most EMAILED” and “Most DISCUSSED” articles at Alternet.

Full Story: Why Does Corporate Media Ignore That Palin Wants Extreme Christian Government? | BuzzFlash.org.

OPS: On the other hand Why does the media ignore that the Republican endgame is a Fascist Police State?

Jon Stewart Assumes Corporate Rights, its only fair –

- A liberal dose of political comedy

U.S. Chamber of Commerce sets sights on Democrats ahead of midterm elections

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, already one of Washington’s largest lobbying groups, is gearing up to play a major role in this year’s midterm elections on a scale that rivals the nation’s two main political parties.

Modeled in part on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign juggernaut, the group has built a grass-roots operation known as Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It has a member list of 6 million names, aimed at lobbying on legislation and swaying voters to back preferred candidates, primarily Republicans, in battleground areas, officials said.

The group will target vulnerable Democrats in up to two dozen states with ads, get-out-the-vote operations and other grass-roots efforts. The chamber plans to spend at least $50 million on political races and related activities this year, a 40 percent increase from 2008.

Full Story: U.S. Chamber of Commerce sets sights on Democrats ahead of midterm elections – washingtonpost.com.

Evidence of a Financial Coup in America

The devastating Lehman Brothers bankruptcy report

“The ideas of economists… are more powerful than is commonly understood.
Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.” — John Maynard Keynes

How much more evidence of a financial coup and the THEFT of TRILLIONS of DOLLARS do we need before the media and our politicians do something, anything, to restore a rule of law in this nation? What is it going to take?

About four months ago, I reached a breaking point and wrote an angry post calling out the media, even Independent online media, for their lack of intensive coverage on the THEFT of TRILLIONS of OUR DOLLARS. I just can’t understand how this has not been the number one story every second of every day?

And now comes the devastating Lehman Brothers bankruptcy report/indictment, which, once again, proves the all-out fraudulent activities that led to the THEFT of TRILLIONS of OUR DOLLARS. Over the past few days, I have skimmed through the over 2000 page report/indictment of Lehman Brothers, Ernst & Young, the Wall Street elite, Federal Reserve and US government. You would think, just maybe, that this report would finally set off major alarm bells within the mainstream media and Washington. Finally, we will get the wall-to-wall coverage this deserves, right? . . . Ah . . . nope! Some coverage, yes, but not nearly enough. It has been only a few days since the report was released and the coverage is already dropping off into the cesspool of “reporting” that masquerades as modern “journalism.”

Full Story: Evidence of a Financial Coup in America.