Archive for April, 2010
French to ban Muslim women from wearing veil
The French government is drawing up a law to ban Muslim women from wearing a full-face veil in public, despite advice that it could be illegal.
The new law will stop the niqab and the burka from being worn in the streets, shops and markets and not just in public buildings.
Nicolas Sarkozy is to press ahead with the bill claiming that the veil is an “assault on women’s dignity”.
“We’re legislating for the future. Wearing a full veil is a sign of a community closing in on itself and of a rejection of our values,” Luc Chatel, a spokesman for Mr Sarkozy, on leaving a cabinet meeting led by the President.
Full Story: French to ban Muslim women from wearing veil – Telegraph.
McCain: Illegal immigrants intentionally cause car accidents
Sen. John McCain has taken a hard turn to the right.
In an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, McCain threw his support behind what appears to be the nation’s stiffest immigration law in Arizona — and even took it one step farther.
McCain said that undocumented immigrants are a threat to American citizens because they are intentionally causing car accidents.
“It’s the drive-by that — the drivers of cars with illegals in it that are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway,” the onetime Republican presidential nominee told O’Reilly
Full Story: McCain: Illegal immigrants intentionally cause car accidents | Raw Story.
FACT CHECK: More Than Just A ‘Very Few’ Police Officers Oppose New Arizona Immigration Law
This morning, state Rep. Frank Antenori (R-AZ) appeared on MSNBC to justify voting for the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,” a bill which will probably end up establishing the harshest set of state immigration laws in the country. During the interview, MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall pointed out that there are “some” police officers in Arizona who are “unhappy with the bill.” Antenori and Hall engaged in a heated exchange as Antenori incessantly challenged Hall’s remark:
HALL: I should also note that there are police in the state who say that they are unhappy with the bill as well. I greatly appreciate your time, thank you so much.
ANTENORI: No no. M’am that’s not true. The majority of law enforcement officers support it, it’s only the Chiefs of Police…
Full Story: Think Progress » FACT CHECK: More Than Just A ‘Very Few’ Police Officers Oppose New Arizona Immigration Law.
Republicans Block Votes On 97 Federal Nominees In A Single Day
Republicans have been blocking votes on nominees to federal posts, taking longer to confirm President Obama’s nominees to executive agencies than nominees submitted by the previous three administrations. Due to these blocks, there is a backlog of 101 executive branch nominees that have yet to be voted on, ranging from the Transportation Safety Authority chief to members of the Marine Mammal Commission. Senators commonly issue “anonymous holds” to prevent a nomination from coming up for a vote.
Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) took aim at this tactic yesterday evening. Employing a “little-used rule adopted in 2007 that requires a Member to report his anonymous hold [on a federal nominee] in the Congressional Record [six days] after a colleague has tried to clear the name,” the two senators took to the Senate floor to try and clear the backlog and ask for unanimous consent for votes on scores of federal nominees.
Full Story: Think Progress » Republicans Block Votes On 97 Federal Nominees In A Single Day.
Protesting McDonnell’s Confederacy proclamation, VA lawmakers wear black ribbons to remember slaves.
Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) set off a firestorm of criticism when he quietly issued a proclamation declaring April “Confederate History Month” — without any mention of the atrocity of slavery. Eventually, he apologized for the omission and added language denouncing slavery to the proclamation. However, today, some members of the Virginia General Assembly — who are “in Richmond for a one-day session to consider amendments to legislation” proposed by McDonnell — “are wearing black ribbons in memory of ancestors who were held in slavery”:
Full Story: Think Progress » Protesting McDonnell’s Confederacy proclamation, VA lawmakers wear black ribbons to remember slaves..
RNC Chairman Steele: African-Americans ‘don’t have a reason’ to vote Republican.
In candid remarks made before a group of students at DePaul University, RNC Chairman Michael Steele said African-Americans “don’t have a reason” to vote for Republicans because “we haven’t done a very good job of giving you one.” The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Why should an African-American vote Republican?
“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” Republican National Chairman Michael Steele told 200 DePaul University students Tuesday night. […]
“For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”
Full Story: Think Progress » RNC Chairman Steele: African-Americans ‘don’t have a reason’ to vote Republican..
OPS: No one does, except: Millionaires, Billionaires and LARGE Corporations
Greek debt woes erase jobs, stoke social discontent
As international lenders hammer out the tough austerity measures Greece must take to escape a debt crisis shaking the euro zone, more and more Greeks are losing jobs with no visible recovery in sight.
“No matter where I ask for a job, I am turned down. I don’
t know how to feed my two children anymore,” said Thanassis Avgeris, 46, who lost his construction job more than a year ago.
Waiting in the queue at an Athens branch of the state Unemployment Agency, Avgeris is one of many suffering the effects of the near collapse of the construction sector, which had boomed before the 2004 Olympics.
Full Story: Greek debt woes erase jobs, stoke social discontent – Yahoo! News.
The New Christian Right and Christianity
The Weird Theology of Glenn Beck and His Cohorts
It is an unfortunate truth that organizations ranging from the mildly amusing to the extremely dangerous have all co-opted the term ‘Christian.’ Christian Right, Christian Coalition, etc., all use the term without, apparently, knowing what it means. It has reached a point where even Christians cringe when they hear the word in political commentary.
A few examples will suffice.
There is currently a case working its way to the Supreme Court involving the Christian Legal Society chapter at Hastings, a branch of the University of California. Hastings stopped funding this organization in 2004, when the society required its members to sign a statement of faith, and excluded all those who would not do so. Also excluded automatically are homosexuals.
*
The Christian Coalition, on its website, has ‘Action Alerts,’ opportunities for its adherents to further the causes it espouses. As of April 19, 2010, two of the top three ‘Action Alerts’ pertain to opposing health care (‘Last Chance to Say ‘NO’ to Healthcare Takeover;’ ‘Critical House Vote Coming up on Obamacare’), and the third to discrimination against gays and lesbians (‘Help us Defend ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’).
*
Sarah Palin, the current darling of the Christian right, preaches abstinence as the most effective sex education, says that U.S. military “is a source for good throughout the world,” and, during her embarrassing campaign for vice-president, talked about how God blessed the U.S. with oil.
*
Glenn Beck, also wildly popular with the so-called Christian right, has said that people should leave their churches if those churches preach social justice.
Full Story: Robert Fantina: The New Christian Right and Christianity.
The IRD’s Attack on My ”Silly” 9/11 Theories
David Ray Griffin -
A right-wing neocon organization called the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD)1 — which devotes itself to attacking religiously and socially progressive churches while supporting US imperial policies (going back to the Nicaraguan Contras funded illegally by the Reagan administration2 ) — has recently put out a press release attacking my next book, which is scheduled to be published this coming fall. Saying that I am “back with another outrageous book” in which I allege “new absurdities,” the IRD claims that I am “this time alleging that the Obama administration is attempting to undermine 9/11 conspiracy theorists.”3
False Assumptions about My Forthcoming Book
However, if members of the IRD staff could have waited until my book had been published, so they could have read it before attacking it, they could have seen that it does no such thing. They could have seen that it simply deals with an article, entitled “Conspiracy Theories,” co-authored in 2008 by Cass Sunstein and another professor at Harvard Law School.4 Using the “9/11 conspiracy theory” as their primary example of conspiracy theories, Sunstein and his co-author argued that the government should try to undermine it and that the best way to do this would be through a method they called “cognitive infiltration.” In 2009, President Obama appointed Sunstein as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.5 My forthcoming book is entitled Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama Appointee's Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory. Neither the title nor the book itself suggests that Obama will have Sunstein actually carry out this plan.
The IRD's premature criticism of my book is also wrong on another point. By speaking of what I will be “alleging,” the IRD was supporting its press release's title, “9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Dreaming Up New Absurdities.” The IRD's suggestion, in other words, is that I simply “dreamed up” the “absurdity” that someone connected to the Obama administration had a proposal for undermining 9/11 conspiracy theorists. However, the proposal made by Sunstein has been extensively discussed on the Internet.6 With a little research, therefore, the IRD could have learned that I had not simply made something up.
Full Story: The IRD’s Attack on My ”Silly” 9/11 Theories – 911truth.org.
Going After Goldman: A Crackdown on Financial Crime or a Kabuki Play Maneuver to Avoid Bringing Criminal Charges? | The Smirking Chimp
Danny Schechter -
Fox Business News was engrossed in interviewing a blonder than thou reality TV bimbo when the news that the Securities and Exchange Commission was filing fraud charges against Goldman Sachs broke on Friday afternoon.
The breaking news bulletins were already flying through cyberspace before the Fox Means Business network got around to moving from a snickering interview, with a starlet confessing to commodifying and monetizing her appeal, to the biggest story in months on the Street beat. Corporate fraud allegations seem to make free market boosters nervous.
At last, the mightiest of investment banks, described as a “giant vampire-squid on the face of humanity” by Matt Taibbi in a much-read diatribe, appeared to be in deep trouble. Taibbi himself was not convinced that the Government has the goods on Goldman.
Last Argentine dictator jailed for 25 years
The last leader of Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday for his involvement in the kidnapping, torture and murder of 56 people in a clandestine concentration camp.
Reynaldo Bignone, 82, was convicted along with six other former military and police officers for ordering beatings and electrocutions of dissidents of the military regime.
Dozens of relatives holding pictures of the dictatorship’s victims cheered after a judge read out the ruling in a makeshift courtroom set up in a gymnasium.
“Justice was slow in coming but it has finally arrived,” said Estela de Carlotto, head of the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
Full Story: Last Argentine dictator jailed for 25 years.
On Hitler’s Birthday – Are the Teabaggers just like the Nazi Beer Hall Party?
c
The Thom Hartmann Program can be heard daily M-F 12-3pm ET. Visit www.thomhartmann.com to listen live, join the community or purchase a podcast.
Call Grows Louder for FCC to Reclassify Broadband | CommonDreams.org
In the last few days, both the New York Times and noted digital activist Lawrence Lessig have joined the call for the FCC to reclassify broadband, which would once again allow the government to regulate the Internet in the face of hostile money-grubbing from big phone and cable companies after a federal court denied them that right a few weeks ago. It would also allow the FCC to protect net neutrality and ensure the Internet is open for all, not just for the rich.
By way of background, all the FCC needs to do to regulate the Internet – the most important communications medium of our time and well within the FCC's mission – is reverse a Bush-era mistake:
Under intense pressure from phone and cable companies, the Bush FCC chose to reclassify broadband as an “information service” instead of a “communications service” that provides strong regulatory oversight of traditional telephone services. Problem is, the “information service” classification so lacks the required regulatory authority, that the court just decided the FCC can't do anything. University of Michigan's Susan Crawford explains it in detail here.
Full Story: Call Grows Louder for FCC to Reclassify Broadband | CommonDreams.org.
Republicans: We’ll Call Wall Street Reform A ‘Bailout’ No Matter What
Financial Regulatory Reform: Democrats Experiencing Health Care Deja Vu
Republican leadership made it clear on Tuesday that, even if Democrats drop from regulatory reform legislation a suddenly controversial $50 billion fund to help wind down failing banks, they will still denounce the bill for including an unlimited bailout.
The announcement, which came in the form of an email from House Minority Leader John Boehner's office, is yet another indication that the GOP is edging towards a major fight on regulatory reform. And it left Democrats with a queasy feeling of déjà vu. As with health care reform, the White House is telling congressional Democrats not to make too big a fight over a controversial provision. But it remains unclear — at least to those on the Hill — exactly what the party is getting in return for backing down.
“The pressure from the White House on the bailout fund is frustrating,” said one Senate Democratic aide, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss negotiations. “Why drop a $50 billion fund if [Republicans] are still going to say it is in there?”
Full Story: Financial Regulatory Reform: Democrats Experiencing Health Care Deja Vu.
Arizona Immigration Law Sparks National Uproar
Arizona lawmakers approved a sweeping immigration bill Monday intended to ramp up law enforcement efforts even as critics complained it could lead to racial profiling and other abuse.
The state Senate voted 17-11 nearly along party lines to send the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, who has not taken a position on the measure championed by fellow Republicans. The House approved the bill April 13.
“This bill goes a long way to bringing law and order to the state,” said Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, who cited costly services provided to illegal immigrants and the recent slaying of a southeastern Arizona rancher near the U.S.-Mexico border as reasons for the move.
Full Story: Arizona Immigration Law Sparks National Uproar.
Forbes’ ‘Top 10 U.S Cities In Freefall’
Forbes has released its list of ‘Top 10 U.S. Cities In Freefall’, and California has the dubious distinction of appearing thrice. The greater Los Angeles, Riverside and Sacramento areas all made the list, only Florida had more cities represented. In compiling the list, Forbes used six metrics, including the percent the median home price has fallen since its individual peak, how many people were moving in and out of these metros, and percent change in unemployment.
Of California’s woes, Forbes writes:
Riverside, Los Angeles and Sacramento are suffering because of the knocks they took after their inflated housing markets began to plummet. Unemployment in the City of Angels has nearly tripled in three years, to 12%. Riverside’s unemployment has also ballooned, to 15%. Meanwhile Sacramento saw a 75% drop in new building permits. These are troubling signs for Cali metros, but not surprising. The end of the state’s home-price climb triggered more than just a housing slump.
“In California, so many jobs were concentrated in construction,” says Michael Fratantoni, vice president of research at the Mortgage Bankers Association, the professional association for real estate financiers. “Jobs building single family homes wound up not being sustainable, and there were a lot of job losses.”
The Forbes report comes on the heels of California’s most recent jobless report, which put the state’s unemployment rate at a record 12.6% for March. However, in what might be an encouraging sign for the region, KPCC reports today that foreclosures in LA County are down 43.5% for the first quarter of 2010 compared to last year.
Scroll through to see all of the cities that made the list.
Full Story: Los Angeles Among Forbes’ ‘Top 10 U.S Cities In Freefall’.
Lindsey Graham Gay? Conservative Group ALIPAC Demands Senator ‘Admit Homosexuality’
William Gheen, head of the conservative, anti-”amnesty,” anti-illegal immigration group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), spoke at a Greenville, S.C. Tea Party rally this weekend and called for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to “come out of that log cabin closet.”
According to Gheen, being gay is “a secret that Lindsey Graham has.”
Gheen told the crowd: “I hope this secret isn’t being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality.”
“Barney Frank is more honest and brave than you,” Gheen continued, referring to the openly-gay Massachusetts congressman.
Full Story: Lindsey Graham Gay? Conservative Group ALIPAC Demands Senator ‘Admit Homosexuality’.
Biden To Wall-Street-Friendly Democrats: The Middle Class Comes First
Vice President Biden today challenged a gathering of Wall-Street-friendly Democrats to join President Obama in making sure that this economic recovery, unlike the last one, actually benefits the middle class.
“I have one question. I have one challenge to you all. What policy steps will once again link productivity growth and middle-class incomes?” Biden asked the audience. “I hope collectively we can find an answer.
“The middle class needs to get its fair share again,” Biden said. “It sounds like a trite political slogan, but, folks, the system is not going to work if they do not believe they’re getting a fair share commensurate with the effort they put in.”
Full Story: Biden To Wall-Street-Friendly Democrats: The Middle Class Comes First.
Threat Of New, Larger Icelandic Eruption Looms
Travelers Worry About Flights But Scientists Fear Icelandic Volcano’s Violent Neighbor Katla
For all the worldwide chaos that Iceland’s volcano has already created, it may just be the opening act.
Scientists fear tremors at the Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano could trigger an even more dangerous eruption at the nearby Katla volcano – creating a worst-case scenario for the airline industry and travelers around the globe.
A Katla eruption would be 10 times stronger and shoot higher and larger plumes of ash into the air than its smaller neighbor, which has already brought European air travel to a standstill for five days and promises severe travel delays for days more.
The two volcanos are side by side in southern Iceland, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) apart and thought to be connected by a network of magma channels.
Full Story: Threat Of New, Larger Icelandic Eruption Looms – CBS News.
IMF proposes two big new bank taxes to fund bail-outs
Banks and other financial institutions face paying two new taxes to fund future bail-outs, the BBC has learned
Business editor Robert Peston said the global proposals by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were “more radical” than most had anticipated.
All institutions would pay a bank levy – initially at a flat-rate – and also face a further tax on profits and pay.
The measures are designed to make banks pay for the costs of future financial and economic rescue packages.
Full Story: BBC News – IMF proposes two big new bank taxes to fund bail-outs.
More than Half of U.S. Households Affected by Joblessness « The Washington Independent
In a startling new Pew survey, more than half of households say that within the past year a member of the household has been out of work — up 15 percentage points since last year. The survey in general paints a bleak picture of the jobless recovery:
And 70 percent of respondents report having a major financial difficulty, including unemployment, in the past year.
Full Story: More than Half of U.S. Households Affected by Joblessness « The Washington Independent.
SEC probing all 19 largest US banks
SEC chief pledges better oversight of banks
The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday pledged better oversight of the nation’s largest banks after criticism that the agency failed to spot accounting tricks at investment bank Lehman Brothers before it collapsed.
Chairman Mary Schapiro told a congressional panel that the agency has sent letters to 19 banks seeking information about whether they are using accounting tricks that a bankruptcy examiner said masked the bank’s precarious financial condition. Lehman failed in September 2008 in the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Schapiro, who was not with the SEC at the time, said the agency is scrutinizing Lehman’s use of the accounting move, known as Repo 105, that allowed it to mask its weakness.
Full Story: SEC chief pledges better oversight of banks.
Dodd rips GOP obstruction on financial reform: ‘Explain’ to Americans ‘why the status quo is in their interest.’
Banking Committee Chair Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) has led Democratic efforts to craft a bill to reform the financial regulatory system, which will be taken up by the Senate in coming days. Despite months of bipartisan negotiation and promises of cooperation, Republicans recently threatened to filibuster the bill. A visibly angry Dodd took to the Senate floor today to condemn the GOP’s obstructionism, calling out their “very false talking points” and warning them that they will have to explain to Americans, “I’m sorry but we’re not on your side:”
DODD: A letter from the Minority Leader said we’ve got 41 votes here to stop you from even debating this bill. Well, you explain that to the American taxpayer, to the small business, to the American family, and to others out there who are paying an awful price because the the mess that the very institutions who are today leading the charge against us getting a bill. Explain to them why the status quo is in their interest and their benefit. Mr. President, those who vote to block this bill will be sending a clear message to American families, businesses, community bankers and tax payers and that message will be, I’m sorry but we are not on your side. We are choosing another side of this equation.
A Plan to Close the Jobs Gap
Pat Choate -
A Plan to Close the Jobs Gap
Abraham Lincoln launched the transcontinental railroad. Dwight Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System. John F. Kennedy envisioned putting an American on the moon, and Lyndon Johnson made it happen. America requires a similar bold and vast national effort to close its jobs gaps. That national initiative will also simultaneously set the foundation for decades of future innovation, investment and the creation of self-sustaining non-inflationary, economic growth by the private sector. All these recommendations are possible within today’s fiscal constraints.
Where can the future jobs come from?
Solving three of America’s major economic problems can be major sources of new jobs, even as we advance innovative new industries.
• Each $1 billion of investment in the $2.2 trillion backlog of U.S. infrastructure needs can create 16,000 jobs.
• Each $1 billion reduction in our annual trade deficit will create 14,000 jobs.
• Each $1 billion reduction in energy imports will create 14,000 jobs.
Part one – A short-term jobs agenda
1. Save our unemployed youth with jobs. Create a new Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to redo parks, forests and urban areas.
2. Increase and extend unemployment benefits and food stamps through the end of this calendar year.
3. Provide supplemental fiscal aid that allows states to pay teachers,police, firefighters and other vital state and local workers.
4. Boost the formation of start-up jobs-creating companies by exempting 100 percent of any capital gains taxes for five years.
5. Provide federal funding for construction-ready projects that are already elements in long-term federal and state capital budgets.
6. Require that priorities for all jobs stimulus investments go to those that produce the greatest returns for the federal investment.
Full Story: A Plan to Close the Jobs Gap | Economy In Crisis.
How the Sleazy Used-Car Salesmen at Goldman Sachs Tricked Investors into Buying Their Busted Clunkers
Goldman Sachs is being sued by the government for allegedly defrauding its investors. Confused? Here’s some plain talk about a mega rip-off.
As the resident finance geek in my circle of friends, I had to field several questions about Wall Street megafirm Goldman Sachs, which was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission last week for allegedly defrauding its investors.
Of course, the danger I encountered while trying to explain what Goldman did was in getting bogged down in financial terminology. After all, a person can only hear so much about synthetic CDOs, equity tranches and credit default swaps before going insane.
I think the best way to explain these matters is to remove them from the arcane language of finance and put them into more familiar territory. For our purposes, let’s pretend that Goldman Sachs isn’t a major investment firm and is instead a small business based in rural Georgia called Honest Lloyd Blankfein’s Used Auto Emporium. And instead of selling mortgage-backed securities, let’s say that Honest Lloyd sells (you guessed it) used cars.
Four of the Most Dangerous Fraudulent Scientific Theories That Must Be Confronted
Climate-induced earthquakes, bottomless pits of oil, pet dinosaurs and a miraculous energy source: For the sake of public policy, it’s important to debunk the lies.
With threats of climatic disruption, food and energy shortages, epidemics, waves of extinctions, and other calamities looming larger every day, reports from the world of scientific research are getting plenty of attention in the media. But at times, scientific conclusions become garbled in translation, leading to widespread adoption of some bizarre beliefs.
Weird science can be entertaining, and we can often learn something by debating even the wackiest claims. But in the end, for the sake of sound public policy, it’s important to know what’s true and what’s not.
Five years ago, I made an attempt to separate fact from fiction (and found mostly fiction) in seven scientific beliefs widely held by America’s religious right, from the myth that condoms are full of holes to the “discovery” that prayers uttered on one continent can improve the outcomes of medical procedures on another.
Full Story: Four of the Most Dangerous Fraudulent Scientific Theories That Must Be Confronted | Environment | AlterNet.
Goldman Hires Obama’s Ex-White House Counsel to Defend Bank Against Fraud Charges
Wall Street banking behemoth Goldman Sachs, which was charged with securities fraud last Friday over its role in the subprime mortgage meltdown, has hired President Obama’s former White House Counsel Greg Craig to defend the company, according to a report published late Monday by Politico.
Reporters Eamon Javers and Mike Allen, citing an unnamed source, reported that Craig was hired “in recent weeks to help navigate the halls of power in Washington.”
“Whatever the reason for his hiring, Craig will presumably be a key player in the intricate counterattack Goldman Sachs officials in Washington and Manhattan improvised during the weekend — a plan that took clearer shape Monday as Britain and Germany announced that they might conduct their own investigations of the firm,” Politico reported.
Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Goldman Hires Obama’s Ex-White House Counsel to Defend Bank Against Fraud Charges.
Are school lunches a national security threat?
A group of retired military officers says high-calorie school lunches are threatening national security.
A study by the group Mission: Readiness finds that school lunches are making American kids so fat that fewer of them can meet the military’s physical fitness standards. That, in turn, is putting recruitment in jeopardy.
A report from the group, being released Tuesday, says that 27 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 are too overweight to join the military.
One of the officers, retired Navy Rear Admiral James Barnett Jr., says many young Americans are simply too fat to fight.
The officers are pushing for passage of a wide-ranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation’s school lunches healthier.
Full Story: Are school lunches a national security threat?.
A Short Citizen’s Guide to Reforming Wall Street
Robert Reich -
The real scandal isn’t the Street’s unlawful acts (i.e., Securities and Exchange Commission vs. Goldman Sachs) but legal acts that have reaped the Street a bonanza and nearly sunk the rest of us.
It’s good we finally have an SEC on which three out of five commissioners are willing to enforce laws already on the books. Hopefully other enforcement agencies (CFTC, FDIC, and the Fed) will follow suit. But we also need to make illegal the recklessness that’s now legal.
The Dodd bill now being considered in the Senate is a step in the right direction. Yet despite the hype, it’s a very modest step. It leaves out three of the most important things necessary to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown:
Full Story: Robert Reich (A Short Citizen’s Guide to Reforming Wall Street).
AMERICA NEEDS A POPULIST ON THE COURT
Jim Hightower -
Good grief, here we go again!
When Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he was stepping down from the high bench, politicos, pundits, and even most progressive activists immediately began chattering about where his replacement should stand on abortion, gay marriage, gun ownership, the death penalty, and other social issues. As important as all of these are, the crying need on the Court is for a populist-minded justice who will unflinchingly stand up to corporate arrogance and avarice.
No single issue comes close in importance to the broad threat that is now posed to America's very democracy by what Thomas Jefferson called “the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations.” The rise of corporate plutocracy reached a dangerous apex in January. In a sneak attack mounted behind an obscure election case, five overtly corporatist justices pulled off a judicial coup. They unilaterally proclaimed that corporations are “persons” with a Constitutional “right” to spend unlimited sums of money to buy our elections!
Who was the most eloquent and forceful opponent of this ludicrous usurpation of The People's authority? John Paul Stevens.
Full Story: Jim Hightower | AMERICA NEEDS A POPULIST ON THE COURT.
Land grabs continue as elites resist regulation
– A year after the purchases of vast swathes of farm land in Africa first drew public attention, transactions remain as opaque as ever.
Private companies are resisting a global code of conduct that would ensure transparency and local elites continue to benefit from deals that encourage corruption and increase food insecurity.
The hunger riots witnessed in parts of the developing world in the past two years were the most visible and direct effect of sky-rocketing food prices. Simultaneously, international investors started purchasing agricultural land in some of the most fertile regions of the world, particularly Africa.
Often described by recipient governments as “agricultural investments”, many such ventures were decried by sections of African and western civil society as “land grabs”. Some of these million-dollar projects have pitted host countries and corporations against local subsistence farmers.
Full Story: Land grabs continue as elites resist regulation.
Google reveals government data requests and censorship
For the first time Google has released details about how often countries around the world ask it to hand over user data or to censor information.
Brazil tops the list with 3,663 data requests while the US made 3,580 and the UK came a distant third with 1,166.
Just last month the internet giant pulled its search engine out of China over online censorship issues.
Google said it cannot provide statistics on requests from China which are regarded as state secrets.
Brazil was also made the highest number of requests to Google to remove content with 291 calls between July and December 2009. In second place was Germany with 188, India with 421 and the US with 123 requests.
Full Story: BBC News – Google reveals government data requests and censorship.
Corporations Aren’t Persons
Matthew Rothschild
The court’s ruling will destroy whatever hope we may ever have had of democracy in this country
ON FEBRUARY 16, ABOUT 200 people gathered on the steps of the Wisconsin state capitol. “It’s fitting that we stand out in the cold,” said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “That’s where the Supreme Court has left us.”
He was referring to the court’s recent decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which granted corporations the right to spend unlimited funds on so-called independent expenditures to influence the outcome of elections. The crowd heartily agreed with McCabe. Signs said: “No Corporate Takeover of Elections,” “Free Speech, Not Fee Speech,” “Money Is Not Speech, Corporations Are Not Persons.” And a chant went up: “Overrule the Court.”
Ben Manski, executive director of the Liberty Tree Foundation, drew the crowd in with a historical analogy.
Full Story: Corporations Aren’t Persons | The Progressive.
Mitch McConnell Gets it Wrong
Robert Reich -
CANDY CROWLEY (CNN, Sunday): The president says you are being deceptive in describing this bill.
MCCONNELL: Well, Candy … there is a bailout fund in the bill that was reported out of the Banking Committee, the partisan bill that came out of committee on a party-line vote.
CROWLEY: But that still does not—
MCCONNELL: I don’t think that’s in dispute.
CROWLEY: But that bailout is funded by the banks themselves, is it not? It is not a taxpayer bailout?
MCCONNELL: Well, Robert Reich, who was Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor, says it is a bailout fund.
***
When Mitch McConnell has to misquote me to find evidence he’s telling the truth, he is desperate.
No, Senator, I never said Dodd’s finance reform bill contains a bailout fund. The fund in the Dodd bill is a $50 billion liquidation fund designed to keep the creditors of distressed banks from jumping ship so fast they’d cause widespread financial panic before the bank’s operations could be wound down. And the cost of that liquidation fund would be paid entirely by Wall Street’s biggest banks. So it’s not, I repeat not, a bailout fund.
Full Story: Robert Reich (Mitch McConnell Gets it Wrong).
OPS: Can we get serious? McConnell didn’t get it wrong – he lied.
Democrats Call Out GOP Leaders On Wall Street Dealings As Financial Reform Goes Full Tilt
With the Senate planning to begin debate this week on the largest regulatory overhaul of the financial industry since the Great Depression, Democrats are demanding that GOP divulge details of “backroom negotiations” with Wall Street executives.
Advocates of reform, both inside and outside the Senate, are pushing the chamber to adopt the strongest possible measures to regulate banks and financial institutions so as to give consumers the most protection possible.
“With the announcement that the Senate is now scheduled to begin floor debate on a comprehensive financial regulatory reform package this week, we urge Senators to enact real reform to protect Americans and our financial system,” says John Morton, managing director of the Pew Economic Policy Group, a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts that promotes policies and practices that strengthen the U.S. economy. “Senators from both sides of the aisle can and should work together to pass a final bill that: creates an early warning system; ends ‘Too Big To Fail’ and bailouts; increases transparency in markets; and provides meaningful consumer protections. Financial reform must significantly reduce the likelihood of future crises and ensure that, should a crisis occur, the American taxpayer is not left covering the tab.”
Full Story: On The Hill: Democrats Call Out GOP Leaders On Wall Street Dealings As Financial Reform Goes Full Tilt.
Senator Reid on Reforming Wall Street
SENATOR HARRY REID (D-NV) — Republicans Stand with Special Interest Friends on Wall Street, Not Taxpayers or Shareholders. Senate floor speech on 4/19/10 (01:11).
Full Story: DPC Video.
What’s Wrong with the Financial Reform Bil
Matt Taibbi -
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s financial “reform” proposal (Barney Frank’s wasn’t much better) won’t change the nature of anything Wall Street does. Dodd’s needless watering down of a proposal to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency has been well-documented, so here is a list of 10 other problems Dodd’s bill will not fix:
via Speculating Banks Still Rule — Ten Ways Dems and Dodd Are Failing on Financial Reform
Friend Nomi Prins, who in a former life worked for Goldman, this weekend sent along a link to an article in which she outlines the gaps in the current version of the financial regulatory reform bill. Given that the bill is sometimes being pitched as the answer to some of the problems underlined by the Goldman case, it’s a very sobering read.
My favorite is the halting, incomplete attempt at a rollback of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, i.e. the pseudo-restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act known as the Volcker rule. Nomi writes:
Full Story: What’s Wrong with the Financial Reform Bill – Matt Taibbi – Taibblog – True/Slant.
Squashing the Goldman vampire squid
Dean baker -
Allegations against Goldman Sachs highlight the pressing need to break up big banks and introduce strict financial regulation
In the past few months we have learned a number of things about Goldman Sachs.
In February, we found out that it played a central role in helping Greece to hide its government budget deficit from the European Union, the financial markets, and the public at large. Goldman sold complex swaps to Greece in which it paid the Greek government for future revenue streams on items like airport landing fees. This was in effect a loan, but the swap allowed the Greek government to avoid entering the borrowed money on its books as a loan, which would have raised its budget deficit above the euro zone limits. Today of course Greece’s financial meltdown is threatening the stability of the euro.
Then, just last month, Goldman was sued for sex discrimination by a former vice-president who claims that she was put on the “mommy track” after taking a maternity leave. She was fired as she was about to start a second leave. (In fairness to Goldman, Wall Street is still for the most part an all-boys club.)
Full Story: Squashing the Goldman vampire squid | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
Blackwater Officials Indicted for Weapons Violations
Jeremy Scahill -
From the first days of the launch of the so-called “war on terror,” Blackwater has been at the epicenter of some of the most secretive operations conducted by US forces globally. It has worked on government assassination programs and drone bombings, operated covertly in Pakistan for both the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command, assisted secret raids inside of Syria, trained foreign militaries and continues to bodyguard senior US officials in Afghanistan. The company also has a bloody track record of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many seasoned observers believe that the extent of the dark acts committed by Blackwater have yet to come to light.
While Congressional committees, the IRS, the FBI and lawyers representing foreign victims of the company have fought for years to hold Blackwater and its forces accountable for their alleged crimes, the company has proved to be Teflon. Not a single case against the company has resulted in any significant action. Following last December’s dismissal of the high-profile criminal case against the Blackwater operatives allegedly responsible for the 2007 Nisour Square shootings that left seventeen Iraqis dead and more than twenty others wounded, federal prosecutors have now launched another salvo.
Last week, the Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury had returned a fifteen-count indictment against five current and former Blackwater officials, charging them with conspiracy to violate a series of federal gun laws, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Among those indicted were Blackwater owner Erik Prince’s longtime right-hand man, former company president Gary Jackson, Blackwater’s former legal counsel Andrew Howell and two former company vice presidents. Given Blackwater’s track record and the severity of other allegations against the company–including killing unarmed civilians–if the charges in this case stick, it would be somewhat akin to Al Capone going down for tax evasion. The one major difference being, the number-one man at Blackwater, Erik Prince, is evading prosecution and jail. Prince, who remains the Blackwater empire’s sole owner, was not indicted.
Full Story: Blackwater Officials Indicted for Weapons Violations.
Court Upholds OSHA’s Power to Protect Workers
In a major win for workers’ safety on the job, a federal appeals court upheld the power of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to determine how to craft and enforce workplace safety rules.
The saga began when Eric Ho, a contractor in Houston, hired 11 immigrant workers in 2003 to remove asbestos from a building but did not train them or provide them with respirators. After a city inspector issued a stop-work order because of asbestos violations, Ho directed employees to work at night behind locked gates.
OSHA cited Ho for 22 separate violations—11 for not training each worker and 11 for not providing a respirator for each worker. Amazingly, the Bush administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission overturned the majority of the citations, saying Ho could only be cited once for not training workers and once for not providing respirators. That meant Ho only had to pay two fines, not 22.
Full Story: AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | Court Upholds OSHA’s Power to Protect Workers.
US to remove all its forces from Iraq by 2011: Biden
US Vice President Joe Biden has said that the Obama Administration is committed to end its combat mission in Iraq by August this year and remove all of its troops from the country as scheduled by the end of 2011.
“We remain committed to end our combat mission in Iraq this summer, by the end of August 2010, and in accordance with the US-Iraqi security agreement that was signed a couple of years ago to remove all US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011,” Biden told reporters in his remarks at the White House.
“As we complete this security transition, we will continue to work to build a lasting partnership with Iraqi people and their government based on the many shared interests we have that go beyond the military cooperation we've had of late, including the economy, education, cultural exchanges, and the development of a strong economy for Iraq,” he said.
Earlier, Biden yesterday commended Iraqi forces in taking the lead in the killing of top two al-Qaida leaders in Iraq.
Full Story: US to remove all its forces from Iraq by 2011: Biden – US – World – The Times of India.
The Lutheran Church Embraces the LGBTQ Community!
George Bernard Shaw once said, “Certainly all great truths begin as blasphemies.” On April 11, 2010, those who identify as people of faith and as “non-heterosexual” were given particular cause to celebrate Shaw's wisdom: a most unlikely church has given a most unlikely people a gift of love and truth, and I cannot stop smiling.
After twenty-five years of deliberation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Church Council has abolished its anti-gay policies, effective immediately. Following from discussions at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly last summer, the ELCA will now allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as rostered leaders. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) human beings are no longer considered abominations but blessed church members with full standing. Same-sex partners and families can now fully participate in the ELCA Pension Plan.
Best of all, the ELCA is reinstating people who were removed from ministry positions because they were truthful and came out of the closet, as well as those who conducted holy unions for non-heterosexual couples. The ELCA has practiced restorative justice.
Full Story: Rev. Dr. Cindi Love: The Lutheran Church Embraces the LGBTQ Community!.
World’s Opinion Of U.S. Has ‘Improved Sharply’ Under Obama, Says BBC Poll
Since Barack Obama entered office, the world’s view of the United States has ‘improved sharply,’ according to a poll carried out by the BBC World Service.
Nearly 30,000 people in 28 countries were asked to rate countries on their positive impact upon the world. This year 46% of the respondents rated the US’s influence as positive – the first time since 2005 that the survey returned more positive votes than negative for America.
“After a year, it appears the ‘Obama effect’ is real” said Steven Kull director Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa) at the University of Maryland, who helped conduct the poll.
Full Story: World’s Opinion Of U.S. Has ‘Improved Sharply’ Under Obama, Says BBC Poll.
How Much Is A Miner’s Life Worth To Massey Coal Company?
Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy Company which runs the Upper Big Branch mine where 29 miners were killed earlier this month in an explosion, spoke to the Charleston Daily Mail about his company’s plans for survivor’s benefits.
The benefits as described by Blankenship, can be summarized as:
– Life insurance payouts from the company that will total five times the worker’s annual pay.
– Payments will continue over the course of the life of spouse.
– At least 20 years of health benefits to survivors.
Full Story: How Much Is A Miner’s Life Worth To Massey Coal Company?.
DynCorp Audit Finds Poor Controls On Millions Of Dollars In Afghan Police Program
The private contractor that trains the Afghan police force, a U.S. military program long criticized for wasting money, has failed to document millions of dollars in expenses, according to a leading defense audit agency.
A November 2009 audit by the Defense Contract Audit Agency, made public Friday by a Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight, uncovered serious deficiencies in how DynCorp International tracks payroll, bills from subcontractors, cost vouchers and millions of dollars in labor costs. In sum, the audit found many of DynCorp’s billing and financial controls to be inadequate.
The audit is notable for providing the first hard look at the company’s financial accountability in Afghanistan, where since 2004 it has played a key role training the Afghan National Police. This effort is critical to the drawdown of U.S. troops.
Full Story: DynCorp Audit Finds Poor Controls On Millions Of Dollars In Afghan Police Program.
Goldman Sachs vs. Republicans On SEC Voted AGAINST Charging Goldman Sachs With Fraud
SEC: All You Need To Know (Latest UPDATES)
The SEC’s lawsuit against Goldman Sachs has sent shockwaves through the financial industry and Washington, D.C. To keep up with all the latest updates and breaking news on the Wall Street scandal of the year, stay tuned to our coverage.
SEC Vote On Goldman Was Split Along Party Lines
Bloomberg has a bombshell addition to the continuing saga of the Goldman Sachs prosecution. The SEC’s commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines to prosecute Goldman over its Abacus deals — the three Dems voted to charge and the two Republicans voted not to charge.
The reported vote results are sure to lend ammunition to critics of the SEC’s enforcement action who argue that Goldman was unfairly targeted by the agency.
Full Story: Goldman Sachs vs. SEC: All You Need To Know (Latest UPDATES).
Shorting The Middle Class: The Real Wall Street Crime
Arianna Huffington -
The press is all abuzz with news of the SEC suing Goldman Sachs for fraud. While this is certainly big news in itself, even more important is what it says about what the financial elite has been doing to America for the last 30 years: shorting the middle class.
The SEC's action is a perfect moment for us to look at the bigger picture of how the American people were sold on the promise of never-ending prosperity while Wall Street was overseeing a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the richest Americans.
The results have been devastating: a disappearing middle class, a precipitous drop in economic and social mobility, and ultimately, the undermining of the foundation of our democracy.
Full Story: Arianna Huffington: Shorting The Middle Class: The Real Wall Street Crime.
End women’s right to vote, Nevada’s largest newspaper says
The editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal says he was kidding when he penned an editorial calling for women’s right to vote to be repealed, but plenty of people aren’t laughing.
Thomas Mitchell has found himself defending his “satirical” look at the differences in the voting patterns of men and women after receiving a “swift and voluble” public reaction to his column on Friday, which was entitled “Time to repeal the 19th amendment?”
“People and candidates for public office should be judged on the basis of their ideas, stance on the issues, character, experience and integrity, not on the basis of age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion or disability,” Mitchell wrote. “Therefore, we must repeal the 19th Amendment. Yes, the one granting suffrage to women. Because? Well, women are biased.”
Full Story: End women’s right to vote, Nevada’s largest newspaper says | Raw Story.
Financial Reform Debate Set to Begin This Week
Much like health care reform, Senate Republicans appear to be unanimously opposed to financial reform, which they indicated in a letter sent to the White House and Senate leadership last week.
“We are united in our opposition to the partisan legislation reported by the Senate Banking Committee,” all 41 Senate Republicans said in the letter Friday, which was made public by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) office.
The House has already passed its own version of financial reform. The Senate was expected to vote on the measure this week. Without peeling off a Republican to vote in favor of reform, however, the Democrats will not have the votes to overcome a filibuster if Republicans choose to go that route.
Full Story: Financial Reform Debate Set to Begin This Week | Economy In Crisis.
Don’t Just Smoke a Joint on 4/20 — Take Action Against Marijuana Prohibition
Stand up today with other Americans and get the word out there. This war will end; how soon depends, in part, on you.
April 20th (4/20) has long been associated with marijuana, both marijuana use and marijuana activism. Thousands of Americans will gather on that day at rallies in Boston, Boulder, New York, Santa Cruz, Seattle and other cities. For people who prefer to relax with a joint instead of a beer or martini it’s a time to celebrate. For those who don’t use marijuana it’s a time to stand up in support of their friends, family, and fellow citizens who face arrest for nothing more than what they put into their body. For the Drug Policy Alliance and the drug policy reform movement 4/20 represents something even bigger.
The movement to end marijuana prohibition is very broad, composed of people who love marijuana, people who hate marijuana, and people who don’t have strong feelings about marijuana use one way or the other. We all agree on one thing though – marijuana prohibition is doing more harm than good. It’s wasting taxpayer dollars and police resources, filling our jails and prisons with hundreds of thousands of nonviolent people, and increasing crime and violence in the same way alcohol Prohibition did. Police made more than 750,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2008 alone. Those arrested were separated from their loved ones, branded criminals, denied jobs, and in many cases prohibited from accessing student loans, public housing and other public assistance.
Full Story: Don’t Just Smoke a Joint on 4/20 — Take Action Against Marijuana Prohibition | Drugs | AlterNet.
9 Reasons Sex Fantasies Are Good For You
Sex fantasies are a healthy — and essential — part of a satisfying sex life.
The beauty of fantasy is that we can tap this wellspring of creativity at any time, in any place, with no one else privy to our thoughts. ‘‘A major advantage of fantasy as an aid to physical sexual stimulation,’’ wrote Lonnie Barbach, Ph.D., in For Yourself, her 1976 classic about female sexuality, ‘‘is that it requires no equipment and is always available.’’ Temporarily and vicariously, fantasy allows us to sample highly charged sexual scenarios that exist in a world beyond what real life allows. Not surprisingly, women use fantasy most often to increase sexual desire and to facilitate sexual functioning, especially orgasm.
Besides being effective in turning up sexual heat, fantasies also have an amazing ability to help us cope with the emotional stresses of sex. They offer a way to immediately reduce the biggest block to sexual pleasure: anxiety. Looking more closely at how certain fantasies work, we can discover how they soothe our worries or distract us from concerns that would otherwise get in the way of enjoying sex. By focusing on the steamy images and stories in our minds, we can feel less inhibited and more inspired to be sexually open and expressive. Thus, fantasies often work to increase sexual stimulation while simultaneously decreasing emotional anxiety. When women consider when and why they turn to fantasy, they often mention both sexual and emotional issues.
Full Story: 9 Reasons Sex Fantasies Are Good For You | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet.
How the Top 5 Supermarkets Waste Food
About 63% of supermarket waste is food. In a nation where millions are going hungry, a lot of that surplus food could feed people in need. But not every grocery chain cares.
Unemployment. Health care. The national debt. So many social issues take a lot to fix: experts, money, and lots of time. To add to a growing list of social issues, here’s another: 1 in 7 American households has trouble putting food on the table at some point during the year, according to a recent USDA report.
But in a nation where so many go hungry, a possible solution has emerged.
Grocery stores have lots of foods that need to be taken off shelves daily: stock that needs to rotate, surplus food like bananas that are starting to have brown spots, or refrigerated items that need to move for the new product coming in. Food products make up 63 percent of a supermarket’s disposed waste stream, according to a California Integrated Waste Management Board industry study. That’s approximately 3,000 lbs. thrown away per employee every year. The stores can’t sell the food, so they toss it in the compost or garbage.
Organizations and an army of volunteers — called “food recovery” groups — are stationed around the country, ready to transport that food from the stores to the people that need it most. Meats that are close to the sell-by date, for example, can be frozen and good for several more months.
If only it was that simple.
Full Story: How the Top 5 Supermarkets Waste Food | Investigations | AlterNet.
Who is Next in the SEC’s Crosshairs? Some Possible (and Heretofore Overlooked) Suspects
Both the traditional media and the blogosphere have taken an almost obsessive interest in the suit the SEC filed against Goldman last week with regard to one of its synthetic real estate related CDOs, Abacus 2007 AC1. Goldman’s shares and the stock market in general traded down, presumably seeing this suit as a turn in the tide, an end of the US government’s supine stance on questionable practices in the financial service sector.
Although the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the SEC is widening its investigation, so far it appears to be going only after very low hanging fruit. While the Journal notes that the SEC is looking into specific CDOs issued by Merrill, UBS, and Deutsche Bank, in all the examples mentioned, there is an existing private lawsuit against the investment bank. As we discuss in detail below, we think this initial salvo falls well short of the universe of possible miscreants.
So the big question remains: how aggressively will the SEC pursue these cases? As John Bougearel noted in an earlier post, it is too early to tell whether this suit is indeed the beginning of a concerted initiative (with the initial litigation allowing the SEC to perfect its legal arguments and uncover more information through the discovery process) or simply an effort to address (as in appease) to a public mad as hell about no-questions-asked bank bailouts and continuing subsidies to the financial services industry.
Full Story: Who is Next in the SEC’s Crosshairs? Some Possible (and Heretofore Overlooked) Suspects « naked capitalism.
Financial Reform Is Good; Firing Bernanke Would Be Better
Dean Baker -
The financial reform bills moving through Congress offer some hope for a more stable financial system. While there is still much up for grabs, it is likely that whatever gets through Congress will improve regulation of derivatives, increase regulators’ ability to restrict leverage and establish a consumer financial products protection agency. It could also lead to a separation of trading from commercial banking. This will decrease the risk of taxpayers subsidizing risky deals.
But there are good grounds for questioning whether the reform proposals will lead to fundamental changes in the financial system and prevent the recurrence of the sort of speculative bubble that wrecked the economy. With the exception of proposals coming out of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which would prohibit commercial banks from being involved in trading derivatives, there is little in the bills before Congress that would change the fundamental structure of the financial industry. The enormous consolidation that has taken place over the last two decades would be left in place with huge “too big to fail” (TBTF) banks still dominating the sector.
This is important for two reasons. First, a TBTF bank enjoys an inherent advantage over its competitors because of its implicit guarantee from the government. If investors believe that the government will ultimately step in and bail out investors because the economic consequences of letting them take a big hit is too great, they will be willing to lend money at a lower cost to TBTF banks than their competitors. I calculated that the size of this implicit government subsidy to TBTF banks could be as much as $34 billion a year.
Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Financial Reform Is Good; Firing Bernanke Would Be Better.
CORPORATE MURDER?
Jim Hightower -
A mass murder has taken place in another American workplace, taking 29 lives. The authorities know who did it, so shouldn’t that person be made to pay for this heinous crime?
Yes! But the killer is one of America’s largest coal corporations, Massey Energy Company, and you can’t give the death penalty to a corporation. Can you? Well, the Supreme Court has ruled that a corporation is a “person” – so why not?
Massey – headed by its right-wing multimillionaire CEO, Don Blankenship – has spent millions of dollars on lobbyists and lawmakers to fend off any effective regulations to protect mine workers. By using its political clout to muzzle the federal watchdog, Massey has been able to flaunt the law. Last year, it had nearly 500 safety violations in just one of its mines, including life-threatening violations. It’s punishment? Fines totaling a mere $168,000 – chump change to an outfit with $56 million in profits last year.
Full Story: Jim Hightower | CORPORATE MURDER?.
Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think: more than $1Trillion a year « Wake-up Call
That’s right: more than $1TRILLION a year.
When President Obama presented his budget recently for fiscal year 2011, he proposed that the Pentagon’s outlays be increased by about 4.5 percent beyond its estimated outlays in fiscal 2010, to a total of almost $719 billion. Although many Americans regard this enormous sum as excessive, few appreciate that the total amount of all defense-related spending greatly exceeds the amount budgeted for the Department of Defense.
In fiscal year 2009, which ended last September, the Pentagon spent $636.5 billion. Lodged elsewhere in the budget, however, other lines identify funding that serves defense purposes just as surely as—sometimes even more surely than—the money allocated to the Department of Defense. On occasion, commentators take note of some of these additional defense-related budget items, such as the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons program, but many such items, including some extremely large ones, remain generally unrecognized.
Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, many observers probably would agree that its budget ought to be included in any complete accounting of defense costs. After all, the homeland is what most of us want the government to defend in the first place.
Full Story: Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think: more than $1Trillion a year « Wake-up Call.
Noam Chomsky Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’
Chris Hedges -
Noam Chomsky is America’s greatest intellectual. His massive body of work, which includes nearly 100 books, has for decades deflated and exposed the lies of the power elite and the myths they perpetrate. Chomsky has done this despite being blacklisted by the commercial media, turned into a pariah by the academy and, by his own admission, being a pedantic and at times slightly boring speaker. He combines moral autonomy with rigorous scholarship, a remarkable grasp of detail and a searing intellect. He curtly dismisses our two-party system as a mirage orchestrated by the corporate state, excoriates the liberal intelligentsia for being fops and courtiers and describes the drivel of the commercial media as a form of “brainwashing.” And as our nation’s most prescient critic of unregulated capitalism, globalization and the poison of empire, he enters his 81st year warning us that we have little time left to save our anemic democracy.
“It is very similar to late Weimar Germany,” Chomsky told me when I called him at his office in Cambridge, Mass. “The parallels are striking. There was also tremendous disillusionment with the parliamentary system. The most striking fact about Weimar was not that the Nazis managed to destroy the Social Democrats and the Communists but that the traditional parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, were hated and disappeared. It left a vacuum which the Nazis very cleverly and intelligently managed to take over.”
Full Story: Chris Hedges: Noam Chomsky Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’ – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.
US military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015
• Shortfall could reach 10m barrels a day, report says
• Cost of crude oil is predicted to top $100 a barrel
The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.
The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.
“By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day,” says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.
Full Story: US military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015 | Business | The Guardian.
The Financial Terrorists Who Destroyed Our Economy Will Pay Zero in Taxes — and Get $33 Billion in Refunds
You and I are working our asses off, paying 30% of our limited income in taxes. Not the banks that triggered the financial crisis.
Journalist David DeGraw has put together a devastating report detailing how Wall Street continues to pillage the economy with the government’s help. “The staggering level of theft continues unabated,” writes DeGraw. “Our future is going up in flames and our government isn’t even making the slightest effort to put out the fire. In fact, they are purposely pouring gasoline all over it.” DeGraw’s investigation is a follow up to his previous report The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America — check that one out to get caught up. AlterNet will run in a series of articles based on DeGraw’s investigation. Here is part one.
The first thing people need to understand is that the economic crash wasn’t a crash for the people who caused it. In fact, these financial terrorists are now doing better than ever. In a recent report, titled “Social Inequality in America: Widening Income Disparities,” more evidence of the unprecedented transfer of wealth was revealed:
Joint Chiefs Chair: No, No, No. Don’t Attack Iran.
We are all screwed if Iran gets a nuke. And we may be just as screwed if the United States attacks Iran to keep Tehran from getting that nuke.
Okay, I’m paraphrasing a bit. But that’s the core of the message from America’s top military officer, who reiterated today his canyon-deep reservations about any military solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. Sure, U.S. strikes might set back Tehran’s atomic weapons program — for a while. But the “unintended consequences” of a hit on Iran’s nuclear facilities could easily outweigh the benefits of that delay, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told a forum at Columbia University.
“Iran getting a nuclear weapon would be incredibly destabilizing. Attacking them would also create the same kind of outcome,” Mullen said. “In an area that’s so unstable right now, we just don’t need more of that.”
Full Story: Joint Chiefs Chair: No, No, No. Don’t Attack Iran. | Danger Room | Wired.com.
Now we know the truth. The financial meltdown wasn’t a mistake – it was a con
Hiding behind the complexities of our financial system, banks and other institutions are being accused of fraud and deception, with Goldman Sachs just the latest in the spotlight. This has become the most pressing election issue of all
The global financial crisis, it is now clear, was caused not just by the bankers’ colossal mismanagement. No, it was due also to the new financial complexity offering up the opportunity for widespread, systemic fraud. Friday’s announcement that the world’s most famous investment bank, Goldman Sachs, is to face civil charges for fraud brought by the American regulator is but the latest of a series of investigations that have been launched, arrests made and charges made against financial institutions around the world. Big Finance in the 21st century turns out to have been Big Fraud. Yet Britain, centre of the world financial system, has not yet levelled charges against any bank; all that we’ve seen is the allegation of a high-level insider dealing ring which, embarrassingly, involves a banker advising the government. We have to live with the fiction that our banks and bankers are whiter than white, and any attempt to investigate them and their institutions will lead to a mass exodus to the mountains of Switzerland. The politicians of the Labour and Tory party alike are Bambis amid the wolves.
Just consider the roll call beyond Goldman Sachs. In Ireland Sean FitzPatrick, the ex-chair of the Anglo Irish bank – a bank which looks after the Post Office’s financial services – was arrested last month and questioned over alleged fraud. In Iceland last week a dossier assembled by its parliament on the Icelandic banks – huge lenders in Britain – was handed to its public prosecution service. A court-appointed examiner found that collapsed investment bank Lehman knowingly manipulated its balance sheet to make it look stronger than it was – accounts originally audited by the British firm Ernst and Young and given the legal green light by the British firm Linklaters. In Switzerland UBS has been defending itself from the US’s Inland Revenue Service for allegedly running 17,000 offshore accounts to evade tax. Be sure there are more revelations to come – except in saintly Britain.
Full Story: Now we know the truth. The financial meltdown wasn’t a mistake – it was a con | Will Hutton | Business | The Observer.
Sad Day for America: Moyers down to 2 final shows on PBS
Bill Moyers Journal: Simon Johnson and James Kwak on Real Financial Reform
Sadly, Bill Moyers Journal is going off the air at the end of the month. This was one of Moyers’ better segments to finish off his return to PBS after some time in exile, which started with his documentary that is a must see from back in April of 2007, Buying the War. If you’ve never seen it, go watch it on line at Moyers’ site here.
Bill sat down with Simon Johnson and James Kwak to talk about Wall Street and their dirty dealings that have yet to be reformed, why we need to get rid of “too big to fail”, whether the reforms being considered by the Congress now are strong enough and what we need to do to keep from having another collapse of our financial system.
Sadly there’s a huge hole that is about to be left in what’s left of real journalism in our country with Moyers leaving the airways. Mr. Moyers, you will be missed. He did say that he’s not going away all together thankfully.
Full Story: Bill Moyers Journal: Simon Johnson and James Kwak on Real Financial Reform | Video Cafe.
Blackburn Won’t Endorse Bachmann’s ‘Gangster Government’ Rhetoric
On Thursday, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) referred to the government as a “gangster government,” telling a group of conservative activists, “We’re on to them. We’re on to this gangster government. And we are not going to let them have their way.” The following day, President Clinton — who has drawn parallels between the Oklahoma City bombing incident in 1995 and the current atmosphere of right-wing, anti-government hatred — took aim at Bachmann’s comments. “They are not gangsters. They were elected. They are not doing anything they were not elected to do.”
Clinton said people involved with “hatriot” groups like the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters may take the wrong lessons from irresponsible rhetoric. “Ninety-nine percent of them will never do anything they shouldn’t do, but there are people who advocate violence and anticipate violence,” he warned. Fortunately, some of Bachmann’s conservative colleagues are heeding Clinton’s warning. This morning, during an appearance on Meet The Press, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) — also a strong supporter of the Tea Parties — refused to endorse Bachmann’s “gangster government” rhetoric:
Full Story: Think Progress » Blackburn Won’t Endorse Bachmann’s ‘Gangster Government’ Rhetoric.
5 Airlines Won’t Charge For Carryon Bags
U.S. airlines never met a fee they didn’t like. Until now, it seems.
Five major carriers on Sunday agreed not to follow the lead of a small Florida airline that plans to charge for carryon bags. Their commitment comes just in time to keep travelers from running for the exits during the peak summer flying season, but it is doubtful that it marks a change in strategy.
Airlines are going to tack on every fee they feel they can get away with because it bolsters their revenue stream while allowing them to keep base fares lower. They just don’t feel like passengers will tolerate losing their sacred free carryons – at least not right now.
The promise to New York Sen. Charles Schumer from American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and JetBlue Airways comes despite the fact that some of those same airlines are expected to report first-quarter losses next week. They were stung by higher fuel prices and the heavy February snowstorms.
Full Story: Schumer: 5 Airlines Won’t Charge For Carryon Bags.
Clinton: I Was Wrong to Listen to Wrong Advice Against Regulating Derivatives*
In my EXCLUSIVE “This Week” interview, I asked former President Bill Clinton if he thought he got bad advice on regulating complex financial instruments known as derivatives from his former Treasury Secretaries, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. He acknowledged that he was wrong to take the advice of those advising him against regulating derivatives.
“On derivatives, yeah I think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take [their advice] because the argument on derivatives was that these things are expensive and sophisticated and only a handful of investors will buy them and they don’t need any extra protection, and any extra transparency. The money they’re putting up guarantees them transparency,” Clinton told me.
“And the flaw in that argument,” Clinton added, “was that first of all sometimes people with a lot of money make stupid decisions and make it without transparency.”
Full Story: Clinton: I Was Wrong to Listen to Wrong Advice Against Regulating Derivatives* – Political Punch.
Bank Paying Staff Over $5 Billion In Bonuses In Wake Of Fraud Charges
GOLDMAN DEFIES BELIEF
Goldman Sachs set to pay £3.5bn in bonuses
GOLDMAN SACHS, the world’s biggest investment bank that is now assailed by accusations of fraud, is poised to reignite controversy over bankers’ bonuses by paying its staff more than £3.5 billion for just three months’ work.
The bumper payouts will equate to about £110,000 a head for the firm’s 32,500 employees worldwide, with a handful of top traders expected to be in line for multi-million-pound bonuses.
Close to £600m is expected to be paid to the group’s 5,500 London-based staff for the first three months of this year. This is on a par with their remuneration in 2007, the last year of the boom.
The revelation of the enormous pay deals comes as Goldman prepares for a legal battle with the US government. The group was sued on Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wall Street regulator, over claims it defrauded investors of $1 billion. Goldman denies the charges.
Full Story: Goldman Sachs set to pay £3.5bn in bonuses – Times Online.
OPS:
- to keep it’s employees who might know anything quiet.
- To the less they have the less they have to give back
Economics Lessons from ‘A Beautiful Mind’
The Reagan administration alone, like that of Warren Harding before it, is proof that, left to its own devices, an elite, robber-baron class will act to enrich itself and, in the process, imperil the nation.
Len Hart -
The Greek tradition found virtue in the pursuit of rational self interest, a tradition that later found expression in Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” in which is posited “rational self-interest” as an “invisible hand” upon “free markets”. Recent bank failures, recession, accounting crimes and corporate scandals, however, amount to enormous empirical evidence that “laissez faire” capitalism is a myth. The “invisible hand” –as modern conservatives have defined and appropriated it –is mere “wishful thinking”.
There is no “invisible hand” which exclusively militates against crooks, charlatans, and fast buck artists who have now firmly ensconced themselves as much in the board rooms as among sleazy fly-by-nighters. The Reagan administration alone, like that of Warren Harding before it, is proof that, left to its own devices, an elite, robber-baron class will act to enrich itself and, in the process, imperil the nation. A ‘robber baron’ era, a ‘Gilded Age’ did not merely precede the Great Depression, it caused it by impoverishing every other class but the upper crust. While there has never been a bust without the ‘bubble’ that precedes it, the ‘bubble’ itself is the result of the deliberate transfer of wealth to an increasingly small elite. Today, in America, that elite is but one percent of the total population. It owns more than some 95 percent of the rest of us combined.
Markets left to their own devices trend toward oligopoly in which oligarchs effect political plutocracy through the exercise of sheer political muscle, intimidation, fraud, and outright bribery. The “invisible hand” does not moderate the rich and powerful. If a ruling cabal is to be moderated it must be done by political action and the power of cooperative or, perhaps, ‘socialist’ interventions. This much is implied by Adams himself.
Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: Economics Lessons from ‘A Beautiful Mind’.
Ten Inconvenient Truths the Teabaggers don’t know.
Mike Malloy -
and…that the teabaggers don´t wanna hear…
An eruption of chaos across Europe
The eruption of an Icelandic volcano has paralysed air traffic in much of Europe and other parts of the world.
It is is showing no signs of slowing down and scientists are wary of making any predicitons. The last time a volacano erupted in southern Iceland, nearly two centuries go, it lasted two years.
David Chater reports from one of the first flights to make out of European airspace – an Iceland flight from Glasgow, Scotland to Rekvik. (April 17 2010)
Evergreen Cooperatives Forge an Innovative Path toward High-Quality Green Jobs
How can we make sure green jobs are good jobs? One approach to this much discussed question is to make green jobs union jobs, which typically offer higher wages and better benefits than non-union jobs. Another is to require that contractors who receive public funding for green projects pay their workers family supporting wages and provide health insurance. In Cleveland, Ohio, a new and different path is being forged toward high-quality, green jobs—through worker-owned cooperatives, where the workers are not only being paid well, but also can accumulate wealth for themselves and their communities as partial owners of profitable green businesses.
“If you can link wealth building and ownership opportunities to the creation of green jobs, then you maximize benefits to workers and you stabilize communities,” said Ted Howard, founding executive director of The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland and one of the architects of Cleveland’s groundbreaking Evergreen Cooperative Initiative.
The idea for the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative came out of a partnership between the Cleveland Foundation and several local hospitals and universities that are situated in the Greater University Circle area of Cleveland, a one-square mile area surrounded by neighborhoods where the unemployment rate is 20-25 percent and 30 percent of the residents are living in poverty. These groups realized that they could leverage the $3 billion that local “anchor institutions” like University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University spend on goods and services every year to generate significant economic development for the 43,000 people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Full Story: Evergreen Cooperatives Forge an Innovative Path toward High-Quality Green Jobs : Apollo Alliance.
The Gun Show Loophole, 11 Years After Columbine
Two rallies by gun rights celebrants and anti- government polemicists are planned Monday on both sides of Washington’s Potomac River. They will invoke the Second Amendment and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. A more apt, and tragic, anniversary to keep in mind is the Columbine school massacre of 1999. Eleven years later, and Congress has failed to close the gun show loophole that made the carnage possible.
Two Columbine students had a friend obtain four high-powered weapons, no-questions-asked, from gun show “hobbyist” dealers, and then used them to kill 12 children and a teacher. Since then, the gun lobby and its all-too-willing Congressional enablers have managed to block all efforts to require buyers at weekend gun shows to undergo the same background checks required of buyers at federally registered gun shops.
Polls show the public favors closing the gun show loophole by a wide margin, but the people’s right to safety is nothing when compared with the gun lobby’s clout.
At a park in Virginia just across from the nation’s capital, marchers will be openly strutting with their weapons, as the state’s “open carry” law permits. Participants at the other rally on the National Mall are being told that it is illegal to flash guns, so they must dare to leave them home. Just up the Hill in Congress, the gun lobby’s ever-compliant caucus is fighting that ban too.
Full Story: Editorial – The Gun Show Loophole, 11 Years After Columbine – NYTimes.com.
Is this the end of migration?
Climate change is affecting bird behaviour at a staggering rate. Some 20 billion have already changed their flight plans
It’s rained three times as much as usual this winter in Andalusia, and almost every day unemployed amateur ornithologist Javier Caracuel has walked past a disused mining tower in the decaying industrial town of Linares and looked up, expecting the pair of white storks that nest there to have migrated south.
Yet despite the surrounding high noise levels – the tower, some 10 metres high, is jammed between a school and a street clogged with traffic – and Andalusia’s wettest winter in decades, the storks have stayed put. And they’re not alone. “There have always been a couple of storks at the top of the church spire down by the railway station, but I’ve never seen so many across town,” Mr Caracuel explains, “and there are dozens more in the villages.”
The changes in storks’ behaviour that Mr Caracuel has observed in one near-forgotten mining town in north-eastern Andalusia are far from uncommon. At a recent high-level congress attended by 200 migration experts, leading Spanish ornithologist Miguel Ferrer estimated that 20 billion birds have changed their migrating habits in the last few decades. The biggest single identifiable reason behind such a massive behavioural shift, involving 70 per cent of the world’s migrating birds is – surprise, surprise – climate change.
Full Story: Is this the end of migration? – Climate Change, Environment – The Independent.
Welcome to Confederate History Month
Frank Rich -
It’s kind of like that legendary stunt on the prime-time soap “Dallas,” where we learned that nothing bad had really happened because the previous season’s episodes were all a dream. We now know that the wave of anger that crashed on the Capitol as the health care bill passed last month — the death threats and epithets hurled at members of Congress — was also a mirage.
Take it from the louder voices on the right. Because no tape has surfaced of anyone yelling racial slurs at the civil rights icon and Georgia Congressman John Lewis, it’s now a blogosphere “fact” that Lewis is a liar and the “lamestream media” concocted the entire incident. The same camp maintains as well that the spit landing on the Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver was inadvertent spillover saliva from an over-frothing screamer — spittle, not spit, as it were. True, there is video evidence of the homophobic venom directed at Barney Frank — but, hey, Frank is white, so no racism there!
“It’s Not About Race” declared a headline on a typical column defending over-the-top “Obamacare” opponents from critics like me, who had the nerve to suggest a possible racial motive in the rage aimed at the likes of Lewis and Cleaver — neither of whom were major players in the Democrats’ health care campaign. It’s also mistaken, it seems, for anyone to posit that race might be animating anti-Obama hotheads like those who packed assault weapons at presidential town hall meetings on health care last summer. And surely it is outrageous for anyone to argue that conservative leaders are enabling such extremism by remaining silent or egging it on with cries of “Reload!” to pander to the Tea Party-Glenn Beck base. As Beck has said, it’s Obama who is the real racist.
Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Welcome to Confederate History Month – NYTimes.com.
Warnings about Lejeune’s tainted water unheeded for years
For 30 years, thousands of Marines and their family members at Camp Lejeune, N.C., drank, cooked with and bathed in water that was laced with dangerous chemicals, but when outside contractors began raising questions about the toxic water, documents show, base officials rebuffed them and ignored the warnings or ordered more tests.
The worst-offending wells finally were shut down in November 1984, more than four years after the first warnings. In that time, more than 2,500 babies may have been carried in utero on the base or born at Camp Lejeune hospital, according to estimates by federal scientists.
Strung together, thousands of pages of documents tell the story of how the contamination was allowed to continue. They show that Camp Lejeune officials had been told consistently that something very foul flowed through the base’s pipes.
Full Story: Warnings about Lejeune’s tainted water unheeded for years | McClatchy.
Afghanistan: A conspiracy of silence
An IoS poll shows 77 per cent of Britons want our forces to come home and a majority believe our presence makes UK streets less safe from terrorist attack. Yet all three parties are ducking this most critical issue
It is one of the few genuine issues of life and death during this general election campaign. It will not dictate how much any British school improves, how many police appear on the streets of a city, or how quickly patients are allowed to leave hospitals around the country. But it will, literally, decide the fate of thousands of British service personnel and, ultimately, how many of them live and die.
Yet nobody wants to talk about Afghanistan.
When Nick Clegg “won” the televised party leaders’ debate on Thursday night, his victory owed nothing to his limp response to a question about support for British troops serving in Afghanistan. The Liberal Democrat leader agreed that British troops in Afghanistan were under-paid and under-equipped, but he did not question why they had lost 281 colleagues in that country, or why they were there in the first place.
Full Story: Afghanistan: A conspiracy of silence – UK Politics, UK – The Independent.
iPhone HD Pictures Leaked?
Possible iPhone 4G Photos Found -
Speculation has been growing that Apple plans to unveil the next generation of iPhones, which have been called the ‘iPhone HD’ or ‘iPhone 4G.’
In a recent article, the Wall Street Journal, citing ‘people briefed on the matter,’ suggested that Apple could be introducing two new iPhone models sometime later this year.
BoyGeniusReport added fuel to the fire with reports that AT&T had blocked employees from taking vacations in June–a restriction that reportedly occurs only for iPhone launches.
Full Story: iPhone HD Pictures Leaked? Possible iPhone 4G Photos Found.
Top Fed Official: Financial Reform Favors Wall Street Over Main Street
Keep the Fed on Main Street
LAST week, I visited Santa Fe, N.M., and spoke to one of America’s many Main Streets: more than 300 small-business owners, real estate developers, artists, bankers and other citizens. A good number of them, experiencing the fallout of the financial crisis and feeling the stress it put on New Mexico’s banks, were angry and frustrated.
You see, New Mexico’s financial institutions were not too big to fail. They were never invited to meetings and told to accept financing from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. As a result, banks and residents of Santa Fe, like those in towns all over Middle America, have struggled mightily through this recession. It was clear that, like politics, the effects of financial crises are mostly local.
This explains why it undermines the very foundation of our economic system when the government decides that a financial institution is too big or too powerful to fail. The big banks and investment companies hold a significant advantage in the competition for funds (for example, from depositors and bond holders), because creditors know that they will be bailed out when a crisis occurs. This advantage has systematically undermined the competitive position of every smaller bank, and has enabled the largest banking organizations to more than double their share of industry assets since the 1990s. These trends serve neither the national economy nor communities like Santa Fe. And in the end, they are a burden on taxpayers.
Full Story: Op-Ed Contributor – Keep the Fed on Main Street – NYTimes.com.
OPS: Of Course, just like HCR favored Insurance Companies and Pharma over consumers – there is a pattern here
Mood Elevators: 5 Natural Ways to Uplift Your Mood
Are you letting bad mood ruin your day?
For some people the feeling of gloominess or depression is due to neuro-chemical or hormonal imbalance and for others it’s the daily stress or upsetting events that wear down one’s emotional reserves. Studies show that people who are depressed or melancholic are twice as likely to develop cancer, heart disease and are a lot more susceptible to colds and flu. While psychotropic medications can be helpful for people who suffer from mood disorders, many patients are finding help from natural solutions. Here are some suggestions to lift your mood, your spirit, and your health.
Full Story: Dr. Maoshing Ni: Mood Elevators: 5 Natural Ways to Uplift Your Mood.
The Man At The Heart Of The Goldman Fraud Scandal
John Paulson Needs A Good Lawyer
Of all the reactions so far to various dimensions of Goldman fraudulent securities “Fab” scandal, one stands out. On Bill Maher’s show, Friday night, I argued that John Paulson – the investor who helped design the CDO at the heart of the affair – should face serious legal consequences.
On the show, David Remnick of the New Yorker pointed out that Paulson has not been indicted. And since then numerous people have argued that Paulson did nothing wrong – rather that the fault purely lies with Goldman for not disclosing fully to investors who had designed the CDO.
But this is to mistake the nature of the crime here – and also to misread the legal strategy of the SEC.
The obvious targets are Goldman’s top executives, whom we know were deeply engaged with the housing side of their business in early 2007 – because it was an important part of their book and they were well aware that the market was in general going bad.
Full Story: John Paulson Needs A Good Lawyer « The Baseline Scenario.
Was Obama’s Economic Advisor Lewis A. Sachs’ Exit a Preemptive Strike?
Lewis Sachs Oversaw Firm That Sold Controversial Securities
When the White House announced last week it would be losing the services of 
, one of the president’s top economic advisers, the reason given for Sachs’s departure was that his work was largely complete.
“He’s leaving now that markets have stabilized and Secretary [Timothy] Geithner has had time to set up a permanent team,” Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Williams said.
But Sachs’s quiet exit, reported in a blog entry on the New York Times web site, comes without any apparent next move for the Wall Street veteran, except for what he told the Times was his desire for time to “catch up on some sleep.”
Full Story: Was Obama’s Economic Advisor Lewis A. Sachs’ Exit a Preemptive Strike? – ABC News.
Ash may hover for days over uncertain Europe
Over 80% Of European Flights Canceled Sunday… US Operations In Afghanistan Disrupted
The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound is far from finished spitting out its grit, and offered up new mini-eruptions Saturday that raise concerns about longer-term damage to world air travel and trade.
Facing days to come under the volcano’s unpredictable, ashy plume, Europeans are looking at temporary airport layoffs and getting creative with flight patterns to try to weather this extraordinary event.
Modern Europe has never seen such a travel disruption. Air space across a swath from Britain to Ukraine was closed and set to stay that way until Sunday or Monday in some countries, affecting airports from New Zealand to San Francisco. Millions of passengers have had plans foiled or delayed.
Full Story: Ash may hover for days over uncertain Europe.
Neo-Nazis, counter-demonstrators square off in LA
Police officers stood between the white supremacists and counter-demonstrators on the south lawn of Los Angeles’ City Hall, where about 50 members of the National Socialist Movement waved American flags and swastika banners for about an hour.
The neo-Nazis shouted “sieg heil,” but their words were mostly drowned out by chants of “racists go home” and “stop the Nazis” from the larger crowd of about 500 counter-protestors who held signs that read “Nazis: Get Out of Los Angeles” and “Racists Are Ignorant.”
Full Story: The Associated Press: Neo-Nazis, counter-demonstrators square off in LA.
California’s jobless rate hits high of 12.6% in March
The state adds 4,200 jobs, but more people were seeking work than in February. L.A. County’s rate holds at 12.4%; Orange County’s rises to 10.1%. Meanwhile, unemployment benefits are running out.
California’s unemployment rate reached a new high of 12.6% in March, bolstering fears that a weak labor market will remain a drag on the state’s economy at least through the end of the year.
The unemployment rate in February was 12.5%.
Despite hints of an economic turnaround, some of the 2.3 million unemployed in the state found March the toughest month yet. That’s because tens of thousands have been out of work so long that their unemployment checks will be cut off within the next few weeks. They’re not helped by the $18-billion measure signed Thursday by President Obama that extends jobless benefits for many Americans through June 2.
Full Story: California’s jobless rate hits high of 12.6% in March – latimes.com.
OPS: the reported figures are always the inaccurate U3. The real unemployment figure, the U6, is going to closer to 20%
Ecuadorean threat to oil giants
The Ecuadorean government has threatened to take over foreign oil concessions if the companies resist growing state control of the industry.
President Rafael Correa said every day millions of dollars were going to oil companies that should go to the state.
The government has been pressing the companies to give up concessions that give them a share of oil field profits and accept service contracts instead.
Oil firms operating in Ecuador come from Spain, Brazil, China and Italy.
Full Story: BBC News – Ecuadorean threat to oil giants.
Obama warns GOP on obstructionism of financial reform
US President Barack Obama urged US lawmakers on Saturday to move forward on finance reform designed to stave off future meltdowns, promising to hold Wall Street accountable.
GOP obstructionism could derail Obama’s hopes to sign this next major piece of legislation, according to an AP report.
“Every day we don’t act, the same system that led to bailouts remains in place, with the exact same loopholes and the exact same liabilities,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. “And if we don’t change what led to the crisis, we’ll doom ourselves to repeat it.
“Opposing reform will leave taxpayers on the hook if a crisis like this ever happens again,” the president said.
“This issue is too important,” said Obama. “The costs of inaction are too great.
Full Story: Obama warns GOP on obstructionism of financial reform | Raw Story.
Pope: Scandals call for ‘new evangelization’
Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday the Roman Catholic Church had been wounded by sin as he flew to Malta on his first foreign trip since a wave of priest sex abuse scandals broke in Europe and the United States.
“Malta loves Christ who loves his Church which is his body, even if this body is wounded by our sins,” he told accompanying journalists in a direct allusion to the scandals.
The pope’s plane landed shortly after 1500 GMT after the brief flight from Rome to the deeply Catholic
Full Story: Pope: Scandals call for ‘new evangelization’ | Raw Story.
OPS: Well, they really call for jail time, and a big WAKE UP!
Geithner ‘very confident’ US finance reform will pass
A White House plan to reform regulation of the financial sector has already attracted Republican opposition, but US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is “very confident” the overhaul will pass.
“I am very confident that we’re going to have the votes for a strong package of financial reforms that’ll bring derivative markets out of the dark, help protect the taxpayers from having to fund future bailouts,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in an interview to air Sunday.
President Barack Obama has made legislation introducing new oversight of the financial system his next big priority, and has pledged to veto any bill that does not include new regulation of derivatives.
Full Story: Geithner ‘very confident’ US finance reform will pass – Yahoo! News.
Corporate Front Group Funded By Coal Industry Scorns Widow Of Mine Disaster: ‘Everyone Wants Free Money’
Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) Honored as “Legislator of the Year” by ALEC
Yesterday, the AP reported that Marlene Griffith, a widow of William Griffith, one of the 29 men killed in last week’s explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia, is suing Massey Energy, the owner of the mine. Griffith filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Raleigh County Circuit Court, arguing that Massey’s handling of work conditions at the mine plus its history of safety violations amounted to aggravated conduct that rises above the level of ordinary negligence. Marlene and here husband were to celebrate their 33rd wedding anniversary weeks after the deadly blast on April 5.
Indeed, as the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson has reported, the mine where William Griffith worked had been cited for over 3,000 safety violations. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who has mocked safety regulators as being “as silly as global warming,” had gummed up the safety regulations process by filing endless appeals instead of paying fines and fixing safety problems.
Responding to the lawsuit, Nathan Coffey, the Public Affairs Coordinator of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), took to Twitter yesterday to mock Marlene Griffith. Coffey posted a link to the AP story about Marlene Griffith, sarcastically commenting that “Everyone wants free money!” View a screen shot of the comment below:
Journalism’s Parasites
David Sirota -
No matter how much this week’s Pulitzer Prize triumphalism hides it, the fact remains that journalism these days is “a disaster,” as Ted Koppel said recently. And unfortunately, retrospection dominates the news industry’s self-analysis. Like dazed tornado victims, most media experts focus on what happened and why, oh lord, why?
The queries are important, though just as critical are two prospective questions: 1) If, to butcher a Chinese aphorism, every crisis is an opportunity, then who is making an opportunity out of journalism’s current crisis and 2) are those opportunity-maximizers actually parasites destroying journalism for the long haul?
The answer to the initial question is three groups, starting with the Access Traders. These are reporters like The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter and NBC’s Chuck Todd, who, while covering politics for major media, are also signing separate contracts to write books chronicling White House gossip. Facing a crisis in audience share, these correspondents’ employers encourage the double-dip opportunities, hoping book exposure will result in residual attention. But the simultaneity is problematic: As the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz notes, hard-hitting stories in these reporters’ day jobs “might alienate potential (book) sources and flattering ones might loosen The dynamic’s deleterious effect on journalism is obvious.
Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Journalism’s Parasites.
Last U.S. Sardine Plant Shuts Down
Maine’s famed “Beach Cliff” sardines can no longer be marked “proudly made in the USA,” after its parent company shuttered Friday the last sardine canning plant in the country.
“Due to the continued reduction of catch limits, we are ceasing production and closing our Prospect Harbor facility,” Bumble Bee said in a statement on the plant’s closing.
“This difficult decision is in no way a reflection on the outstanding performance of the workforce at the plant. Everyone associated with the plant should be proud of the excellent work at the facility over the years,” said the company, which acquired the 75-year-old Stinson plant in 2004.
Full Story: Last U.S. Sardine Plant Shuts Down — Signs of the Times News.
The firm not charged in Goldman case made billions on collapse
New York hedge fund manager John Paulson was one of the first to predict the collapse of the subprime mortgage market — and to cash in on his knowledge.
By late 2005, he already had concluded that the subprime loans underlying high-yield bonds being sold worldwide would become worthless, even as some Wall Street firms were still ramping up their sale of related securities.
“We determined …that there was a complete mispricing of risk of mortgage securities,” Paulson testified at a congressional hearing in November 2008.
Full Story: The firm not charged in Goldman case made billions on collapse | McClatchy.
Bishop’s Revenge on Nuns
This is the present state of health care– this is why we needed reform…
Arizona has become the first state to cancel its State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which, like other SCHIP programs, is funded jointly by the state and the federal government.
The budget passed by the legislature and signed into law by Republican governor Janice K. Brewer eliminates the $22.9-million program, known as KidsCare, as of June 15th. The program served 38,000 children living in families with incomes between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty level ($22,000 to $44,000 for a family of four).
This is the reality that Catholic nuns are well aware of, since so many of them spend their days patching holes in the social safety net with their unpaid or underpaid highly skilled labor. This, no doubt, is the reason that American nuns gave crucial last-minute support to health care reform. And the nuns are being made to pay…
Bishop Lawrence Brandt of the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg has declared that religious sisters from communities whose leaders endorsed the final version of the national health care reform bill can no longer promote their recruitment events in his parishes or in the diocesan newspaper.
The nuns are claiming what sounds like equal rights of conscience…
Full Story: Bishop’s Revenge on Nuns « Kmareka.com.
Financial Regulators and Insiders had Foreknoweldge of the Housing Bubble
Greenspan and many other bankers, regulators and industry insiders say that “no one could have known” that we were in a housing bubble.
For example, Greenspan:
Stood by his conviction that little could be done to identify a bubble before it burst, much less to pop it.
And he claimed that:
We didn’t and couldn’t have known about the problem until Fannie and Freddie figures were released in December 2009.
But leading housing price analyst Robert Shiller has charted real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) housing prices back to 1890. Here’s how it looked as of August 2006:
Full Story: Financial Regulators and Insiders had Foreknoweldge of the Housing Bubble.
The South, Slaves and Subversives
Old times there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland.
-A song, Dixie
It’s easy to make fun of the South. It was, of course, made easier by Virginia Governor, Robert F. McDonnell who declared April Confederate History month and in so doing omitted any reference to slavery. Explaining the omission Mr. McDonnell said: “there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.” He also said he hoped to promote tourism by issuing the proclamation and referring to slavery, he probably thought, was not apt to attract a cotton candy eating crowd. Nonetheless, the governor recognized the error of the proclamation and corrected it.
On April 8 he said failing to refer to slavery in the proclamation constituted a major omission. He issued an amendment to the proclamation that said slavery “was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders.” It seems a bit awkward to be expressing thanks for slavery’s eradication as if it had just occurred a few months ago, but when curing an insensitive proclamation it’s better to go too far than not far enough. Those who took the occasion of the poorly proclaimed proclamation to describe the south as insensitive have probably failed to notice the steps taken by another southern state to acknowledge the follies of an earlier era. That state is South Carolina.
Full Story: The South, Slaves and Subversives | CommonDreams.org.
Calculate lives into the cost of coal
People in the mining camps of the Appalachian coal fields know the perils of the industry upon which, for generations, their fragile communities have depended.
The evidence cannot be ignored. It is around them in those mountain hamlets every day of their lives.
They hear it in the rasping coughs of gray-faced men, driven from the pits with lungs lacerated by years of breathing coal dust.
They see it in the shuffling gait of neighbors broken, disabled — often missing limbs — the victims of roof falls and mechanical mishaps.
Full Story: Calculate lives into the cost of coal – KansasCity.com.
Major lender signals surge in local foreclosures
Data show Bank of America sends wave of auction notices to homeowners
Bank of America, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, ramped up its foreclosure activity in March, sending hundreds of letters warning delinquent borrowers in the region that it could sell their homes at auction in as little as three weeks, according to North County Times analysis of data from ForeclosureRadar.
The bank said the increased activity was a natural consequence of borrowers running out of options.
Analysts and real estate agents said the moves by the Charlotte, N.C., banking giant, which controls a large share of the Southern California mortgage market, could signal a final reckoning for homeowners who have been protected by government programs for months or even years.
Last month, a Bank of America division called ReconTrust N.A. sent out a flurry of “notices of auction,” which alert owners of the date their homes could be sold in foreclosure proceedings.
Full Story: EXCLUSIVE: Major lender signals surge in local foreclosures.
Goldman Sachs charged by the SEC: A volcanic cloud over Wall Street
The charges against Goldman could have far wider consequences
IS THE most powerful and controversial firm on Wall Street about to get the comeuppance that so many think it deserves? On Friday April 16th America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed civil charges against Goldman Sachs and one of its vice-presidents, Fabrice Tourre, for allegedly defrauding investors by failing to disclose vital information about a financial product linked to subprime mortgages, as America’s housing market was starting to wobble. Goldman’s shares tumbled, dragging down stockmarkets.
The instrument in question, structured and marketed by Goldman, was a synthetic collateralised debt obligation (CDO), whose performance was tied to that of residential mortgage-backed securities. Goldman told its investors, who included some European banks, that the securities bundled together to form the CDO had been selected by an independent third party, ACA Management. The SEC alleges that the investment bank failed to disclose that another firm, Paulson & Co, a big hedge-fund manager, had in fact had a hand in choosing what went into the CDO.
This was a crucial omission, since Paulson & Co—run by John Paulson, who made billions in 2007-08 betting against the housing market—had taken a short position against the CDO; in other words, his firm would profit if the instrument performed poorly. “The product was new and complex but the deception and conflicts are old and simple,” said Robert Khuzami, head of the SEC’s enforcement division.
Full Story: Goldman Sachs charged by the SEC: A volcanic cloud over Wall Street | The Economist.
Holy mistake! Congress wipes out congressional health care insurance
Legislate in haste, repent at leisure. Looks like Congress is having one of those “Holy S—!” moments; it appears they have royally mucked up their own health insurance – for all 535 members of Congress and untold congressional employees. In a hurry, they forgot to get it right and wrote it all wrong; now it’s the law…
Now Congress is in the same boat they built for the rest of America, without a clue what the new health care reform will mean to them. The beauty of their delimma is pure poetic justice to some -they have written law requiring that they move into a system that doesn’t yet exist.
How could that be? Simple, a scaled-down provision of Republic Senator Grassley’s “Health Reform Accountability Act” – this one requiring all congress members and their employees, with the exception of Senate committee and leadership staffs, to get their health insurance through the same health insurance exchanges where the general public would get theirs was left in the bill, unopposed, and was signed into law by President Obama.
Full Story: Holy mistake! Congress wipes out congressional health care insurance.
Crocodile Tears on Wall Street
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
With all due respect, we can only wish those Tea Party activists who gathered in Washington and other cities this week weren’t so single-minded about just who’s responsible for all their troubles, real and imagined. They’re up in arms, so to speak, against Big Government, especially the Obama administration.
If they thought this through, they’d be joining forces with other grassroots Americans who in the coming weeks will be demonstrating in Washington and other cities against High Finance, taking on Wall Street and the country’s biggest banks.
The original Tea Party, remember, wasn’t directed just against the British redcoats. Colonial patriots also took aim at the East India Company. That was the joint-stock enterprise originally chartered by the first Queen Elizabeth. Over the years, the government granted them special rights and privileges, which the owners turned into a monopoly over trade, including tea.
Full Story: Crocodile Tears on Wall Street | CommonDreams.org.
-
Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
-
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
