Archive for April, 2010

Attack Wall Street, not social security

Dean Baker -

Deficit hawks are too scared of their powerful lobby friends to fix the healthcare system, so they have settled for an easier target

Suppose our top generals described the growing threat from a hostile Middle East power. The country has tens of billions of oil dollars, a growing army, chemical and biological weapons, and is in the process of developing nuclear weapons. After carefully describing the risks posed by this country, our generals suggested an immediate attack on Canada. They explain that combating this Middle East country would be difficult, but defeating Canada is easy.

This is essentially the story of the latest attack on social security. Everyone who looks at the projections agrees; the scary budget stories being hyped in the media and by the Wall Street crew are driven almost entirely by projections of exploding healthcare costs. But instead of proposing ways to fix the healthcare system, these deficit hawks want to attack social security. They tell us that fixing healthcare is hard. By contrast they think that cutting money from social security will be relatively easy.

The facts on this are straightforward and known by everyone involved in the budget debate. The US healthcare system is broken. We pay more than twice as much per person as the average for other wealthy countries.

Full Story: Attack Wall Street, not social security | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

The Super-Rich Want You To Hate Taxes So They Can Keep Your Money

When it comes to the American economy, there is one fundamental lie and one fundamental truth and it is up to you which you choose to believe. Tax Day is really a chance to ask: “Which side am I on?

The lie is that if the maximum freedom and, thus, maximum benefits are given to the super-rich elites, ultimately everyone will win because the super-rich will create companies and create jobs and buy things and that will benefit the rest of us. It’s been called various things over various times — Reaganomics, trickle down economics, free market capitalism. But mostly it’s just been called bullshit.

The average five-year-old could tell you the truth — that if you want to create the most amount of opportunity and prosperity for the most amount of people, it makes much more sense to spread opportunity and prosperity from the get-go rather than give it all to the top and pray it will spread. Bullshit economists — who are mostly from elite backgrounds, educated in elite institutions, and invested in preserving the elite status quo — have been trying for decades to persuade us to believe their lie rather than the common sense truth. Their lie led our economy right into the toilet, but the bullshit economists and their Wall Street pals are still scrambling to convince us that they’re the solution, not the problem.

Full Story: The Super-Rich Want You To Hate Taxes So They Can Keep Your Money | Sally Kohn’s Movement Vision Lab.

Tax Day Rhetoric Aside, Americans’ Bills are Lower

You wouldn’t know it by the Tax Day rhetoric, but Americans are paying lower taxes this year, even with increases passed by many states to balance their budgets. Don’t expect it to last.

Congress cut individuals’ federal taxes for this year by about $173 billion shortly after President Barack Obama took office, dwarfing the $28.6 billion in increases by states.

In the next few years, however, many can expect to pay more. Some future increases were enacted as part of Obama’s health care overhaul. And former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts expire in January. Obama and the Democrats want to renew only some of them, thus raising taxes for individuals making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.

As this year’s April 15 federal deadline passes, the debate about future tax increases has Republicans in Congress and conservatives across the country portraying Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals even before any new levies are approved. The discussion also is helping frame the congressional elections this fall.

Full Story: Tax Day Rhetoric Aside, Americans’ Bills are Lower | CommonDreams.org.

Report Says Contaminated Meat Is In Supermarkets

There Are Disturbing New Findings About Your Meat

It is a frightening picture: beef contaminated with toxic heavy metals, pesticides and antibiotics making its way into the nation’s supermarkets.

Phyllis K. Fong, the Agriculture Department’s inspector general, looked at how beef is tested for harmful substances.

According to her new report, inspectors charged with checking cattle for disease and meat for contaminants were, “unable to determine if meat has unacceptable levels of… potentially hazardous substances [and do] not test for pesticides… determined to be of high risk.”

The inspectors also failed to test beef for 23 pesticides, the report says.

The study — entitled the National Residue Program for Cattle Audit Report — says there are no standards for how much of certain dangerous substances, such as copper and highly toxic dioxin, is too much for someone to eat.?? As a result, meat containing these substances has gotten into the nation’s food supply, it finds.

Full Story: Report Says Contaminated Meat Is In Supermarkets – ABC News.

World’s Smartest Horse Lukas Is No Smart-Ass

To quote “The Theme From Mr. Ed”: “A horse is a horse, of course, of course.”

But that blanket statement is simply not fair to a 17-year-old thoroughbred gelding in Chino Hills, Calif., who is being touted as the smartest horse in the world for the many amazing feats he’s been able to master: 35 in all.

His name is Lukas and, although he doesn’t talk like Mr. Ed or Francis the Talking Mule, his owner and trainer, Karen Murdock, believes he should be given full credit for his high equine IQ.

Full Story: World’s Smartest Horse Lukas Is No Smart-Ass – AOL News.

U.S. Army To Court Martial ‘Birther’ Officer For Refusing To Follow Obama’s Orders

NBC News reports that the Army will court martial Lt. Col. Terry Lakin because of his refusal to deploy to Afghanistan. Lakin is part of the discredited “birther” movement, and as such believes that orders from President Obama are “illegal.”

Read more from NBC News here. Watch Lakin’s video below explaining why he believes Obama is not a natural born citizen.

WATCH:

Full Story: Terry Lakin, ‘Birther’, To Be Court Martialed By US Army.

Restaurant Secrets: 5 Things Your Server Won’t Tell You

I should preface this article by saying that overall, most restaurants abide by health regulations and do everything they can to provide their guests with the best experience possible. However, like every other industry, restaurants have a few dirty little secrets under their belts that they try to hide from customers. Of course, we’ve all heard stories about disgruntled waiters spitting in the food of the rude customers or cooks serving food that has been dropped on the floor — but I’ve honestly never seen any of that. Annoyed servers aside, there are things that customers should know about the restaurant industry so that they can have the best dining experience and get freshest, cleanest food possible. Having worked my way through restaurant kitchens, catering companies and culinary school; I’ve seen it all when it comes to food preparation and service. So here is a firsthand look at what really goes on behind those swinging doors.

Full Story: Divya Gugnani: Restaurant Secrets: 5 Things Your Server Won’t Tell You.

Pat Leahy-John Paul Stevens Meeting In January Marked Turning Point In Supreme Court Process

This January Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) held a weighty conversation on the judicial landscape with Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a man who he had come to know well over the past 35 years.

Over the course of the discussion, which took place in the Justice’s chambers, Stevens left the clear impression that he would retire from the bench within the year, according to sources with knowledge of what was said. It was serious enough that the Vermont Democrat felt compelled to ask the justice for permission to inform the president of the matter — permission that was granted.

“I won’t go into what the conversation was specifically about,” Leahy told the Huffington Post in an interview on Tuesday. “But I did feel the conversation I had with him was important enough to bring it up with the president.”

Since then, Leahy said, the White House has “done a great deal of work. They had already begun work and after my conversation with the president they sped it up.”

Full Story: Pat Leahy-John Paul Stevens Meeting In January Marked Turning Point In Supreme Court Process.

Democrats Batter Mitch McConnell For Standing With Wall Street

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) entered a political memo written by GOP strategist Frank Luntz into the official Congressional Record on Wednesday, arguing that it belonged there because Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans were repeating it verbatim in their effort to block Wall Street reform.

On Tuesday, McConnell came out against the Democratic reform plan, arguing that it would enshrine the system where some banks are too big to fail. The plan, which passed through Dodd's Banking Committee on a party-line vote, uses a tax on banks to create a $50 billion fund to wind down and liquidate major failing financial institutions.

McConnell, under attack for meeting with some two dozen top Wall Street executives before coming out against banking reform, shielded himself behind Kentucky community banks on Tuesday.

Full Story: Democrats Batter Mitch McConnell For Standing With Wall Street.

Another Top Fed Official Calls For U.S. To Break Up Megabanks

Referring to the danger posed by megabanks as one that’s able to spread “debilitating viruses throughout the financial world,” a second top Federal Reserve official called for policymakers to bust up the nation’s financial behemoths before they cause another worldwide financial crisis.

Richard W. Fisher, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told a gathering of economists and financial experts Wednesday that “a truly effective restructuring of our regulatory system will have to neutralize what I consider to be the greatest threat to our financial system’s stability… ‘too big to fail’.”

“In the past two decades, the biggest banks have grown significantly bigger,” Fisher said in New York during a lunchtime speech that elicited rounds of applause. “The average size of U.S. banks relative to gross domestic product has risen threefold. The share of industry assets for the 10 largest banks climbed from almost 25 percent in 1990 to almost 60 percent in 2009.

“Existing rules and oversight are not up to the acute regulatory challenge imposed by the biggest banks,” he said. So U.S. policymakers, along with their international counterparts, should come up with a system that will break them down into a manageable, less-risky size.

Full Story: Another Top Fed Official Calls For U.S. To Break Up Megabanks.

POLL: 59% Of Those In Favor Of Repeal Want Congress To Pursue The Public Option

Republicans have characterized the Democrats’ push to pass health care reform and their subsequent dismissal of GOP efforts to repeal the legislation as “arrogant,” pointing to opinion polls which show that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the new health care law and support its repeal. But if Republicans want to govern based on public opinion, they should be careful what they ask for.

A new national survey conducted between April 6th and 10th by researchers from Indiana University’s Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research (CHPPR) finds that while 58% of Americans support repealing the law a majority of those that favor repeal want Congress to pass more liberal legislation that includes a public option:

When asked how important they thought it was for Congress to work on “establishment of a public option that would give individuals a choice between government provided health insurance or private health insurance,” 67 percent of Americans rated this as an important topic to address. This finding is even more striking given the fact that 59 percent of those in favor of repealing the health care reform legislation rated the public option as important to pursue. Another surprise is that 67 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Independents also agreed that the public option was an important topic to be addressed by Congress.

Look:

Full Story: Wonk Room » POLL: 59% Of Those In Favor Of Repeal Want Congress To Pursue The Public Option.

Watchdog slams Obama mortgage rescue program

A congressional watchdog says that a US Treasury program is failing to help troubled borrowers. A new report from the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program says the $700 billion program is delaying foreclosures, not preventing them.

“I'm worried. I'm deeply worried,” Elizabeth Warren, Chairwoman of the oversight panel, told ABC's Bianna Golodryga Tuesday.

The home modification program was supposed to rescue up to 4 million American homes but has only helped about 170,000.

Full Story: Watchdog slams Obama mortgage rescue program | Raw Story.

Personal Tax Credit Largely Forgotten

In the run-up to tax day, the Obama administration is scrambling to remind Americans to claim one of the most expensive but little-appreciated provisions of the stimulus bill: $116.2 billion to give workers an $8-a-week break on their payroll taxes.

Because of the way the tax break was doled out, workers have to claim the credit on tax forms due April 15. The Internal Revenue Service is now routinely checking returns for errors and granting the credit when it’s due. Vice President Joe Biden has talked up a new White House website designed to help people claim the credit and is expected to discuss the credits Thursday at an event in Bethlehem, Penn.

The tax credits are worth $400 a year for single taxpayers earning up to $75,000 and $800 for couples earning $150,000 or less. But more than half of American households had no idea that they had received the extra money, according to new research from economists at the University of Michigan. Between 50% and 60% of respondents to a 1,000-household survey carried out last May and July said they hadn’t noticed that their employer had reduced their withholding. The research was conducted by Michigan economists Matthew Shapiro and Joel Slemrod, with Claudia Sahm of the Federal Reserve Board,

Only 13% of respondents said that they would mostly spend the extra money, with the rest saying they would save it or use it to pay down debt. By contrast, with 25% who said they had mainly spent the $600 they received as a lump sum the previous year as part of the Bush administration’s “stimulus” checks program, Mr. Shapiro said.

Full Story: Personal Tax Credit Largely Forgotten – WSJ.com.

McConnell Tries To Dodge Repeated Questions About His Wall Street Fundraising

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been blasting the Senate’s financial regulatory reform bill in recent days, falsely arguing that it “institutionalizes” bailouts for Wall Street. As Think Progress reported, McConnell’s reason for opposing financial reform seems disingenuous in the face of reports that he attended a private fundraiser with hedge fund managers and other Wall Street elites last week.

Yesterday, reporters pressed McConnell for details about his meetings on Wall Street. McConnell repeatedly refused to discuss the matter and claimed that he based his opposition to financial reform not on fundraising from Wall Street but rather on concerns from community banks in Kentucky:

QUESTION: How do you push back against this perception that you’re doing the bidding of the large banks? There was a report that you guys met with hedge fund managers in New York. A lot of people are viewing this particular line of argument, this bailout argument as spin –

Full Story: Think Progress » McConnell Tries To Dodge Repeated Questions About His Wall Street Fundraising.

UW Drops Nike, Madison Designated Fair Trade City

The University of Wisconsin announced Friday that it would sever a licensing agreement with Nike effective immediately for failure to live up to the school’s code of conduct. The decision was sparked by the abrupt closure of two Nike factories in Honduras in which1,800 workers were allegedly denied $2.6 million in severance payments.

Opponents of free trade scored two major victories in Wisconsin this week as the University of Wisconsin in Madison cut ties with apparel provider Nike over workers rights issues and the Madison Common Council passed a resolution designating it a fair trade city.

The university announced Friday that it would sever a licensing agreement with Nike effective immediately for failure to live up to the school’s code of conduct. The decision was sparked by the abrupt closure of two Nike factories in Honduras. The 1,800 workers in those two factories were allegedly denied $2.6 million in severance payments owed to them and required by law.

Nike, which has a well documented history of exploiting cheap labor, sometimes in the form of children, and providing employees with poor working conditions in free trade zones, says that the factories were operated by subcontractors. The company has attempted to deflect blame, saying under Nike’s policy, subcontractors are responsible for compensating employees.

Full Story: UW Drops Nike, Madison Designated Fair Trade City | Economy In Crisis.

When will the Economy Collapse? You’re Looking at It!

Our economy is now wholly dependant on cash from foreign powers and nobody talks about fixing that. Our economy is melting away with long term unemployment expected to last for years and nobody has a plan to fix that.The Gini coeffienct used to gauge income distribution by the United Nations has the United States at 40.8 measuring the overall fairness of an economy. For instance Denmark famous for its equitable society has a 24.7. France is at 32.7 and Germany a 28.3, Japan 24.9. The US economy is closer to nations such as Jordan 38.8 and Morocco 39.5, Mexico is at 46.1 and the Peoples Republic of China is at 46.9

When people forecast the imminent collapse of the American economy I say, “look around! This is it!”

Economists of all stripes have all commented on China’s property bubble as hedge fund manager James Chanos said on the Charlie Rose show the other day, that China is “on a treadmill to hell,” the same sentiments are offered by Paul Krugman and Ben Bernanke. As in Mexico, free trade has created false hopes and rampant speculation. The Chinese government has two choices: let the good times roll unhindered and hope for the best until the crash or try to throttle the economy and hope that it doesn’t cause a crash. The first way a crash is certain to happen but no one can say when the second way a crash is almost certain to happen, only sooner.

Full Story: OpEdNews – Page 2 of Article: When will the Economy Collapse? You’re Looking at It!.

We are in a Massive Unemployment Crisis in this Country

“official” unemployment level is close to 10 percent but unofficially is closer to 20 percent when including those no longer looking for work, people working part time but want (and need) full time jobs as well as those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits.

We are in a massive unemployment crisis in this country that a rising DOW above 11,000 has no connection to and if anything masks the true state of the American economy.

Obama’s 780 billion plus stimulus package has all but been depleted. Though some jobs were created and some saved (mostly on the state and local level) the programs did not even keep up with the increase of new workers entering the job market.

There is a desperate need for a 1930′s type stimulus package of programs i.e. W.P.A. (works projects administration infrastructure construction and renovation projects), C.C.C. (civilian conservation corps) development projects for parks and national forests but also a massive influx of public, private and foundation aided efforts to form worker cooperatives (employee managed and controlled) as well as local area, (former) employee owned and operated factories (using existing vacant factory complexes that were closed by their previous owners who moved their labor operations to 3rd world countries).

Full Story: OpEdNews – Article: We are in a Massive Unemployment Crisis in this Country.

Microsoft Outsourcing Internal Technology Services

Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday that it had struck a three year deal with Indian outsourcing company Infosys Technologies that will allow Infosys to take the reins on internal IT services in 450 locations in 104 countries.

U.S. software developing giant Microsoft Corp. announced on Tuesday that it had struck a three year deal with Indian outsourcing company Infosys Technologies to provide technology and support services for the Seattle-based company.

The deal, the terms of which are undisclosed, but believed to be valued at over $100 million, will allow Infosys to take the reins on internal IT services in 450 locations in 104 countries.

Infosys will provide global internal IT services including helpdesk, desk-side services, IT infrastructure and applications support, Microsoft said in a statement.

Full Story: Microsoft Outsourcing Internal Technology Services | Economy In Crisis.

The Right Wing is ‘Trawling for Assassins’!

Len Hart,

Radical right wingers –tea baggers et al –are accused of ‘trawling for assassins. It’s but one of several outrages now associated with the disingenuous, bigoted ‘tea bagger movement’. The idea of ‘assassinating’ a President because he is both black and Democratic threatens to finish off America as a nation of noble ideals. Earlier the self-absorbed right wing –thinking themselves rich –allowed themselves to be used by a GOP party machine. They were fooled. To them, I say that like the rest of us, you have awakened as a cockroach unless you were one already.

A nation in which about one half of the population openly pines for the murder of the only fairly elected president in some 9 years may be finished. It’s hard to see any redemption following from that crooked, malevolent mentality. The writing is on the wall. The American ideals most us grew up with are on life-support!

It was all by design and began with the Presidency of Ronald Reagan about whom GOP-types swooned: “He made us feel good about ourselves!”

Not only have the Wall Street Journal and the hosts of Fox News been issuing their usual dark mutterings, but a new slogan has began appearing on bumper stickers, t-shirts, and even teddy bears: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8.”

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: The Right Wing is ‘Trawling for Assassins’!.

OPS; This is exactly, precisely what they are doing

Are US regulators dropping the ball when it comes to biocrops?

Robert Kremer, a US government microbiologist who studies Midwestern farm soil, has spent two decades analyzing the rich dirt that yields billions of bushels of food each year and helps the US retain its title as breadbasket of the world.

Mr. Kremer’s lab is housed at the University of Missouri and is literally in the shadow of Monsanto Auditorium, named after the $11.8-billion-a-year agricultural giant Monsanto Co. Based in Creve Coeur, Missouri, the company has accumulated vast wealth and power creating chemicals and genetically altered seeds for farmers worldwide.

But recent findings by Mr. Kremer and other agricultural scientists are raising fresh concerns about Monsanto’s products and the Washington agencies that oversee them. The same seeds and chemicals spread across millions of acres of US farmland could be creating unforeseen problems in the plants and soil, this body of research shows.

Mr. Kremer, who works for the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), is among a group of scientists who are turning up potential problems with glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and the most widely used weed-killer in the world.

Full Story: BusinessWorld Online: Are US regulators dropping the ball when it comes to biocrops?.

After Monsanto’s GM Meltdown in the USA…

After Monsanto’s GM Meltdown in the USA…

Syngenta comes to the rescue to keep the transgenic treadmill going Prof. Joe Cummins

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One major impact of crops genetically modified (GM) for insect resistance is that the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry toxins conferring insect resistance are specific for particular pests. After the Bt crops have been planted for several years, the target pest is usually diminished, leaving an ecological niche into which another insect pest species may invade. This has already happened with Bt cotton in India [1] (Mealy Bug Plagues Bt Cotton in India and Pakistan, SiS 45) and in the United Stated, where the tarnished plant bug has emerged as the major pest in the cotton belt [2] (GM Crops Facing Meltdown in the USA, SiS 46).

Now Christoph Then of Test Biotech, an independent German research group, reports on the spread of the western bean cutworm (Striacosta albicosta) and the massive damage inflicted on Bt maize in the United States [3]: “The infestation has been observed since the year 2000.…. This cutworm has historically been confined to very limited regions and did not cause any major problems in maize crops. For several years now the pest has been spreading into more and more regions within the US Corn Belt and causing substantial economic damage. In 2009, maize plants affected by the western bean cutworm were even found in Canada for the first time. According to scientific publications, this new pest has been caused by the large-scale cultivation of genetically engineered plants expressing Cry1Ab such as MON810. It is seen as a case of ‘pest replacement’, often found where there is extensive use of pesticides in industrial agriculture. Pest replacement means that new ecological niches open up which other competitors then occupy. In this case, a naturally occurring competitor of the western bean cutworm has been intentionally suppressed by the extensive cultivation of Bt maize plants, thus allowing the new pest to spread on a large scale and heavily infest the crop. A whole arsenal of insecticides – some of them highly toxic – and genetically engineered multi-stacked maize are recommended for controlling the pest.”

Full Story: After Monsanto’s GM Meltdown in the USA….

Tax Day rhetoric aside, Americans’ bills are lower

You wouldn’t know it by the Tax Day rhetoric, but Americans are paying lower taxes this year, even with increases passed by many states to balance their budgets. Don’t expect it to last.

Congress cut individuals’ federal taxes for this year by about $173 billion shortly after President Barack Obama took office, dwarfing the $28.6 billion in increases by states.

In the next few years, however, many can expect to pay more. Some future increases were enacted as part of Obama’s health care overhaul. And former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts expire in January. Obama and the Democrats want to renew only some of them, thus raising taxes for individuals making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.

Full Story: The Associated Press: Tax Day rhetoric aside, Americans’ bills are lower.

To Organize Against Wall Street, We Need a Narrative Focusing on Crime and Massive Fraud

DANNY SCHECHTER FOR BUZZFLASH

In politics, it’s always all about the narrative, about how issues are framed.

We ask ourselves how we can be experiencing the largest economic meltdown in decades with millions out of work and millions more losing their homes, and yet, with no real mass mobilization or ongoing response from the progressive world.

To understand this paradox, we need to reflect on how most of us define the problem.

To this day, there has not been an aggressive investigation of who and what brought down the system a la the Pecora Commission appointed by FDR. Instead we have a wimpy ineffectual body that can’t get its act together. The New York Times, which hailed its appointment, now buries its de facto obit way back in the business section, noting it has “been hobbled by delays and internal disagreements and a lack of focus.”

At the same time, the bookshelves are filling up with volumes of complicated treatises on the complexities of derivatives, risky profit models and credit-default swaps. The practitioners of the “dismal science” of economics are having a field day with long-winded dissertations that fail to engage the popular imagination.

Full Story: To Organize Against Wall Street, We Need a Narrative Focusing on Crime and Massive Fraud | BuzzFlash.org.

Massey Disaster Not Just Tragic, but Criminal

By Amy Goodman

Massey Energy runs the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine in Montcoal, W.Va., where 29 miners were killed last week. The loss of life is tragic, but the UBB explosion is more than tragic; it is criminal. When corporations are guilty of crimes, however, they don’t go to prison, they don’t forfeit their freedom—they just get fined, which often amounts to a slap on the wrist, the cost of doing business. No one makes this clearer than the CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship. He has been the bane of climate-change activists and mine safety advocates for years. This latest mine disaster, if nothing else, will surely bring needed attention to this poster boy for malevolent big business trampling on communities, the environment and workers’ rights.

Days after the Massey explosion, Blankenship admitted in a radio interview: “Violations are, you know, unfortunately, a normal part of the mining process … there are violations at every coal mine in America. And UBB was a mine that had violations.” The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette has consistently reported critically on Massey Energy and Blankenship, prompting him to attack its editors in a November 2008 speech, saying: “It is as great a pleasure to me to be criticized by the communists and the atheists of the Gazette … would we be upset if Osama bin Laden were to be critical of us? I don’t think so.”

Initial speculation on the cause of the explosion is methane in the mine. The Massey UBB mine has received thousands of citations for violations, including many for failing to remove the methane with ventilation. Another cause may be the mine’s proximity to Massey mountaintop removal operations. Mountaintop removal involves the massive blasting away of mountaintops, providing access to seams of coal, but causing widespread destruction of the environment. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that a West Virginia state investigation into the explosion will include possible impact of nearby mountaintop mining operations. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson issued new rules restricting mountaintop removal on April 1, just days before the Massey explosion. Massey is the principal target of a growing grass-roots campaign against mountaintop removal. Among those arrested at protests have been renowned climate scientist James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and actress Daryl Hannah.

Full Story: Amy Goodman: Massey Disaster Not Just Tragic, but Criminal – Truthdig.

A Sign of Empire Pathology

More US military personnel have taken their OWN lives than have died in action

Here is a shocking statistic that you won’t hear in most western news media: over the past nine years, more US military personnel have taken their own lives than have died in action in either the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. These are official figures from the US Department of Defence, yet somehow they have not been deemed newsworthy to report. Last year alone, more than 330 serving members of the US armed forces committed suicide – more than the 320 killed in Afghanistan and the 150 who fell in Iraq (see wsws.org).

Since 2001, when Washington launched its so-called war on terror, there has been a dramatic year-on-year increase in US military suicides, particularly in the army, which has borne the brunt of fighting abroad. Last year saw the highest total number since such records began in 1980. Prior to 2001, the suicide rate in the US military was lower than that for the general US population; now, it is nearly double the national average.

A growing number of these victims have been deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. What these figures should tell us is that there is something fundamentally deranged about Washington’s “war on terror” – which is probably why western news media prefer to ignore the issue. How damning is it about such military campaigns that the number of US soldiers who take their own lives outnumber those killed by enemy combatants.

Full Story: A Sign of Empire Pathology.

The Republican Strategy on Financial Reform: Make Democrats Look Like Patsies for the Street

Robert Reich -

Senate Republicans today debuted their new strategy for financial reform: Refuse to cooperate with Democrats on grounds that the Dems are too willing to give Wall Street what it wants.

I’m not making this up.

In a Senate floor speech Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans couldn’t support the legislation that emerged from Chris Dodd’s banking committee because it “institutionalizes” future taxpayer bailouts of the Street, giving the Federal Reserve “enhanced emergency lending authority that is far too open to abuse.” Senator Bob Corker, a senior Republican on the committee who had spent many weeks negotiating the bill with Dodd, huffed that Dodd’s final bill provides “the ability to have bailouts.”

Full Story: Robert Reich (The Republican Strategy on Financial Reform: Make Democrats Look Like Patsies for the Street).

First moonwalker blasts Obama’s space plan

Neil Armstrong says rocket cancellation is ‘devastating’

The first man to walk on the moon blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s back-to-the-moon program on Tuesday, saying that the move is “devastating” to America’s space effort.

Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong’s open letter was also signed by Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon; and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who is marking the 40th anniversary of his famous lunar non-landing this week.

The letter was released to NBC News just two days in advance of Obama’s trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a space policy summit. Obama is expected to flesh out his vision for the space agency’s future during his speech at the summit.

Full Story: First moonwalker blasts Obama’s space plan – Space- msnbc.com.

Democrat front-runner wins Fla. US House race

Democratic state Sen. Ted Deutch on Tuesday handily won the first U.S. House race since Congress passed President Barack Obama’s massive health care overhaul.

With 59 percent of precincts reporting, Deutch had 62 percent of the vote compared to 36 percent for Republican underdog Ed Lynch. No-party candidate Jim McCormick trailed far behind with just 3 percent. The Associated Press called the race just about two hours after the polls closed.

Deutch, an attorney, and Lynch, a contractor, both 44, were vying to replace retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler.

“I have never before felt the way that I feel at this moment,” Deutch said to cheering supporters.

Full Story: Democrat front-runner wins Fla. US House race – Yahoo! News.

GM viruses offer hope of future where energy is unlimited

Scientists have made a fundamental breakthrough in their attempts to replicate photosynthesis – the ability of plants to harvest the power of sunlight – in the hope of making unlimited amounts of “green” energy from water and sunlight alone.

The researchers have assembled genetically modified viruses into wire-like structures that are able to use the energy of the sun to split water molecules into their constitute parts of oxygen and hydrogen, which can then be used as a source of chemical energy.

If the process can be scaled up and made more efficient, it promises to produce unlimited quantities of hydrogen fuel, a clean source of energy that can be used to generate electricity as well as acting as a portable, carbon-free fuel for cars and other vehicles.

Full Story: GM viruses offer hope of future where energy is unlimited – Science, News – The Independent.

Religion Scholar RESIGNS After Endorsing Evolution

A prominent Old Testament scholar has resigned from a professorial position after he was recorded on video endorsing evolution.

Until several days ago, Bruce K. Waltke was a professor at Florida’s Reformed Theological Seminary. But after the school found out about his video blog (the video has since been removed at Waltke’s request) on the website of the BioLogos Foundation, which promotes harmony between science and theology, he lost his job.

According to several people who saw the video, Waltke said that Christianity’s continued denial of evolution will “make [them] a cult.”

Waltke’s discharge speaks to just how profound the chasm is between scientists and theologians.

Inside Higher Ed reports:

Full Story: Religion Scholar RESIGNS After Endorsing Evolution.

Bank of America Now Supports Cramdown, Giving Judges Authority To Modify Home Mortgages (VIDEO)

Bank of America, the nation’s largest lender and its biggest bank by assets, now supports changing the law to give federal judges the power to modify mortgages in bankruptcy.

The bank joins Citigroup, the nation’s third-largest bank by assets, in supporting a change to existing law to give homeowners more leverage. Unlike other forms of debt, bankruptcy judges presently lack the power to change mortgage terms. The banking and home mortgage industry want to keep it that way — by not allowing judges the authority to change the terms, troubled homeowners are at the mercy of their lenders. They take what they get.

But Tuesday, before a nearly-empty Congressional hearing room, Barbara J. Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans, said her bank now supports leveling that playing field

Full Story: Bank of America Now Supports Cramdown, Giving Judges Authority To Modify Home Mortgages (VIDEO).

Glacier breaks in Peru, causing tsunami in Andes

A huge glacier broke off and plunged into a lake in Peru, causing a 75-foot (23-meter) tsunami wave that swept away at least three people and destroyed a water processing plant serving 60,000 local residents, government officials said on Monday.

Green Business

The ice block tumbled into a lake in the Andes on Sunday near the town of Carhuaz, some 200 miles north of the capital, Lima. Three people were feared buried in debris.

Investigators said the chunk of ice from the Hualcan glacier measured 1,640 feet by 656 feet.

“This slide into the lake generated a tsunami wave, which breached the lake’s levees, which are 23 meters high — meaning the wave was 23 meters high,” said Patricio Vaderrama, an expert on glaciers at Peru’s Institute of Mine Engineers.

Full Story: Glacier breaks in Peru, causing tsunami in Andes | Reuters.

Doctor shortage? 28 states may expand nurses’ role

A nurse may soon be your doctor. With a looming shortage of primary care doctors, 28 states are considering expanding the authority of nurse practitioners. These nurses with advanced degrees want the right to practice without a doctor’s watchful eye and to prescribe narcotics. And if they hold a doctorate, they want to be called “Doctor.”

For years, nurse practitioners have been playing a bigger role in the nation’s health care, especially in regions with few doctors. With 32 million more Americans gaining health insurance within a few years, the health care overhaul is putting more money into nurse-managed clinics.

Those newly insured patients will be looking for doctors and may find nurses instead.

Full Story: Doctor shortage? 28 states may expand nurses’ role – Yahoo! News.

GE announces new LED bulb will last for 17 years

GE’s Appliances & Lighting division announced that it plans to release a new 9-watt LED bulb — a replacement for 40-watt general service incandescent bulbs – that will last for 17 years.

The new “Energy Smart” LED bulb puts out 450 lumens–about the same output as a 40-watt incandescent–while consuming 9 watts and will be available for purchase this fall or early 2011.

Because of their relative energy efficiency and durability, LED lights are expected to start replacing other technologies more rapidly this year.

Full Story: GE announces new LED bulb will last for 17 years.

Lieberman: ‘Thank God’ political momentum is with Republicans

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the poster child of liberal bloggers’ ire, has done it again.

Once the darling of Democratic political heavyweights — he campaigned in 2000 as the vice presidential running mate of then-Vice President Al Gore — the Connecticut senator now appears to enjoying sparring his his former party at every opportunity.

Lieberman became an independent during his 2006 campaign, in which he faced off with liberal millionaire Ned Lamont. Liberal bloggers largely supported Lamont.

Full Story: Lieberman: ‘Thank God’ political momentum is with Republicans | Raw Story.

OPS; Why the hell don’t the Dems remove all of his committee assignments?

Huckabee compares gay marriage to incest, polygamy, drug use

Mike Huckabee, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, says the effort to allow gays and lesbians to marry is comparable to legalizing incest, polygamy and drug use.

Huckabee also told college journalists last week that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt. “Children are not puppies,” he said.

Huckabee visited The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., last Wednesday to speak to the Student Government Association. He also was interviewed by a campus news magazine, The Perspective, which published an article on Friday.

Huckabee told the interviewer that not every group’s interests deserve to be accommodated, if their lifestyle is outside of what he called “the ideal.”

Full Story: Huckabee compares gay marriage to incest, polygamy, drug use | Raw Story.

Oklahoma Republicans Conspire With Tea Parties To Form Anti-Federal Government Militia

The Associated Press reports that Oklahoma tea party leaders, “frustrated by recent political setbacks,” are working with right-wing Republicans in the Oklahoma legislature to create a new “volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.” State Sen. Randy Brogdon (R-OK) and State Rep. Charles Key (R-OK) have met with tea party leaders, like J.W. Berry of the Tulsa-based OKforTea group, to plan legislation for a state-authorized militia. Brogdon, who is running for Governor and sponsored the right-wing anti-health reform “state sovereignty” resolution in his state, explained that he believes his anti-federal government militia has constitutional backing:

The founding fathers “were not referring to a turkey shoot or a quail hunt. They really weren’t even talking about us having the ability to protect ourselves against each other,” Brogdon said. “The Second Amendment deals directly with the right of an individual to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from an overreaching federal government.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Oklahoma Republicans Conspire With Tea Parties To Form Anti-Federal Government Militia.

Uninformed Limbaugh Wonders ‘Where Was The Union’ At Non-Union Mine Disaster

Last Friday, Rush Limbaugh asked why a coal miner union didn’t protect the 29 miners who were killed when Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, WV, exploded under unsafe conditions:

Was there no union responsibility for improving mine safety? Where was the union here? Where was the union? The union is generally holding these companies up demanding all kinds of safety. Why were these miners continuing to work in what apparently was an unsafe atmosphere?

Listen here

Full Story: Think Progress » Uninformed Limbaugh Wonders ‘Where Was The Union’ At Non-Union Mine Disaster.

McConnell Slams Financial Reform Bill After Meeting With Hedge Fund Managers And Other Wall Street Elites

This morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declared his opposition to the financial reform bill before the Senate. McConnell claimed to have principled objections to the bill, saying that it “institutionalizes” bailouts of Wall Street and that it would give the Federal Reserve “enhanced emergency lending authority that is far too open to abuse.”

What McConnell did not mention was that, last week, he traveled alongside National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn (TX) to New York City for a private meeting with elite hedge fund managers and other Wall Street executives. The purpose of the meeting between the top Republicans and the financial executives was to enlist “Wall Street’s help” in funding Republican campaigns in the fall and killing any tough financial reform:

As a financial reform bill starts to take shape in Washington, two key lawmakers came to New York City last week to explain what it means for Wall Street, and how financial executives might help prevent some of its least market-friendly aspects from becoming law by electing more Republicans, FOX Business Network has learned.

Full Story: Think Progress » McConnell Slams Financial Reform Bill After Meeting With Hedge Fund Managers And Other Wall Street Elites.

Shareholders call on Massey Energy to fire Don Blankenship.

Shareholders are calling on Massey Energy to seek the immediate resignation of chairman and CEO Don Blankenship in the aftermath of the West Virginia disaster that killed 29 miners, the worst in forty years. The Change to Win Investment Group — a union pension fund group with over $200 billion in assets — believes the Upper Big Branch mine explosion is the “tragic consequence of the board’s failure to challenge Chairman and CEO Blankenship’s confrontational approach to regulatory compliance.” New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, who controls about $14.1 million of Massey stock as the trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, blasted Massey’s “callous disregard for the safety of its employees” as a “failure both of risk management and effective board oversight”:

Full Story: Think Progress » Shareholders call on Massey Energy to fire Don Blankenship..

Gingrich: If Republicans Shut Down The Government, It Will Be Obama’s Fault

At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last week, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich outlined a two-tiered strategy for the GOP if they win elections in 2010 and 2012: 1) Refuse to fund any of Democrats’ “radical efforts” if Republicans win control of Congress in November, and 2) Repeal “every radical bill passed by the [Democratic] machine” if Republicans win Congress and the presidency in 2012.

Basically, Gingrich seemed to be advocating a shutdown of the federal government similar to the one he orchestrated in 1995. Today, ThinkProgress attended a blogger briefing hosted by the Heritage Foundation and asked the former Speaker whether he believes his strategy could possibly lead to a government shutdown, and if he thinks conservatives should embrace that possibility. Gingrich replied that if a shutdown does occur, it would all be President Obama’s fault:

GINGRICH: Well, look — I think that would be up to President Obama. As long as the Congress passes an appropriations bill, the President would then have to decide to sign it or veto it. If the President decides on an unpopular issue that he is going to veto the Congress’ restraint of spending, I think the Congress should tolerate that.

Full Story: Think Progress » Gingrich: If Republicans Shut Down The Government, It Will Be Obama’s Fault.

Fifty-five years after Brown v. Board, Mississippi county schools ordered to stop school segregation.

Today, a federal court ordered a county in Walthall County in Mississippi to “stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county’s only majority-white school.” From the Justice Department’s press release:

“More than 55 years after Brown v. Board of Education, it is unacceptable for school districts to act in a way that encourages or tolerates the resegregation of public schools,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We will take action so that school districts subject to federal desegregation orders comply with their obligation to eliminate vestiges of separate black and white schools.”

According to the motion, the district’s practice of permitting hundreds of students — the vast majority whom are white — to attend schools outside their assigned residential attendance zone without restriction prompted a disproportionate number of white students to attend a single school in the district, leaving a number of other schools disproportionately black.

Full Story: Think Progress » Fifty-five years after Brown v. Board, Mississippi county schools ordered to stop school segregation..

How Financial Reporters Create Illusion to Cover Up Wall Street’s Scams | Economy | AlterNet

The corporate media’s job is to sell confidence on Wall Street’s numbers, rather than tempered or even depressed expectations, no matter how realistic they may be.

Is Charles Dickens reminded us in his classic novel Great Expectations, the line between crime and cash is a continually blurry one. And it’s easily manipulated by language and narrow self-interest.

For example, let’s just consider the overly extensive use of one term: “Unexpectedly.” It is especially ubiquitous in finance journalism, where it is repeatedly used to console a rightfully nervous readership that, while good news is a great expectation, bad news just seems to comes out of nowhere. Although I’ve been informally following this clumsy usage for years now since diving into the hazy, crazy world of finance, I’ve never run out of daily examples. Just plug the term “unexpectedly” into Google News on any given day, and neither will you.

Here’s a few that Google coughed up during this writing: “U.S. Home Sales Fall Unexpectedly in Feb.,”ABC News reported. “French Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Falls On Job Concern,” Bloomberg News reported. “South Africa Unexpectedly Cuts Rates to 6.5%,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Full Story: How Financial Reporters Create Illusion to Cover Up Wall Street’s Scams | Economy | AlterNet.

L.A. Mayor Asks to Shut City Services Two Days a Week

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for shutting down “nonessential” city services two days a week, after Controller Wendy Greuel said the municipality’s cash may run out next month.

The plan would target services that don’t generate revenue, the 57-year-old mayor said in a press conference today. He also said the Department of Water and Power is on a path to a negative credit rating watch. The City Council voted to block a proposed electricity rate increase last week.

Fitch Ratings yesterday withdrew its AA- rating on $720 million of bonds the department planned to sell this month, according to a press release. The debt-rating company said it had assumed a rate increase in the credit assessment. The sale, which included $616 million of taxable Build America obligations, has been postponed, according to the Fitch release.

Full Story: L.A. Mayor Asks to Shut City Services Two Days a Week (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

More Than 53 Percent of Your Tax Bill Goes to the Military

Dave Lindorff -

Your tax dollars at war.

If you're like me, now that we're in the week that federal income taxes are due, you are finally starting to collect your records and prepare for the ordeal. Either way, whether you are a procrastinator like me, or have already finished and know how much you have paid to the government, it is a good time to stop and consider how much of your money goes to pay for our bloated and largely useless and pointless military.

The budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which has to be voted by Congress by this October 1, looks to be about $3 trillion, not counting funds collected for Social Security (since the Vietnam War, the government has included the Social Security Trust Fund in the budget as a way to make the cost of America's imperial military adventures seem smaller in comparison to the total cost of government). Meanwhile, the military share of the budget works out to about $1.6 trillion.

That figure includes the Pentagon budget request of $708 billion, plus an estimated $200 billion in supplemental funding, called “overseas contingency funding” in euphemistic White House-speak), to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, some $40 billion or more in “black box” intelligence agency funding, $94 billion in non-DoD military spending, $100 billion in veterans benefits and health care spending, and $400 billion in interest on debt raised to pay for prior wars and the standing military.

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Dave Lindorff | More Than 53 Percent of Your Tax Bill Goes to the Military.

Camouflaging a Christian Nationalist Worldview Behind a “Pro-Israel” Facade

While the nation is fixated on the racist statements and misspelled signs at Tea Party events, there is simultaneous movement working to bring together a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-national, and even multi-religious coalition, in an aggressive effort to “reform” America to conform with their biblical worldview.

On April 15-16 the Freedom Federation, a recent coalition of Religious Right activist organizations, will be holding a conference at Liberty University titled The Awakening 2010. The event could be described as Religious Right activists – White, Hispanic, Asian, and African American, coming together to embrace a John Birch Society worldview to the tunes of Hebrew melodies. It may sound unlikely, but the “pro-Israel” agenda is the camouflage that provides cover for this explicitly Christian nationalist movement.

This gathering of Religious Right leaders features familiar faces and familiar themes such as opposition to gay rights and reproductive rights. But the overall theme of the organization is reforming American government. The Freedom Federation includes established Religious Right organizations including the Family Research Council, Traditional Values Coalition, Eagle Forum, Concerned Women of America, and Wallbuilders, but notable is the inclusion of many organizations from the independent charismatic wing of the Religious Right which has been organized and streamlined under the auspices of C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and its apostles and prophets. These include Lou Engle’s “The Call,” Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries and Oak Initiative, Strang Communications, Cindy Jacobs’ Generals International, and Che Ahn’s Harvest International.

Full Story: Talk To Action | Camouflaging a Christian Nationalist Worldview Behind a “Pro-Israel” Facade.

Global Food Security Act, S.384, to give $billions to Monsanto, other GMO producers

100+ Groups Join Scientists and Development Experts in Urging Senate to ‘Strip the GM Mandate’ from the Global Food Security Act

Controversial language said more likely to feed biotech corporations than the world’s poor

Experts, scientists and advocates from around the world petitioned the U.S. Senate today in a concerted attempt to strip what they term a “stealth corporate giveaway” embedded in a foreign aid bill which is expected to hit the Senate floor soon. The “Global Food Security Act” (S.384), sponsored by Senators Casey (D-PA) and Lugar (R-IN), is intended to reform aid programs to focus on longer-term agricultural development, and restructure aid agencies to better respond to crises. While lauding the bill’s intentions, the petitioners object to a clause earmarking one agricultural technology (genetically modified – GM crops) for potentially billions of dollars in federal funding. $7.7 billion in U.S. funds are associated with the bill and no other farming methods or technologies are mentioned.

Monsanto has lobbied more than any other interest in support of this bill. The company is one of two or three dominant corporations in the increasingly concentrated biotechnology industry likely to benefit from the new research funding stream as well as from future profits from their patented products (both seeds and pesticides).

Full Story: Global Food Security Act, S.384, to give $billions to Monsanto, other GMO producers « Food Freedom.

Gravity-measuring satellites and GPS confirm Greenland ice melting, affecting more of Greenland Ice Sheet

Over the last decade or so, scientists have tracked a significant loss of ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). While some of that loss has been as a direct result of surface melting, most of it presently appears to be a result of warmer ocean waters melting the ice tongues that stretch out into fjords. Essentially, the warmer water melts the bottom of the glacier and makes it more likely to break up, and as the ice tongue breaks up, the glacier behind the tongue starts to move faster, dumping yet more ice into the ocean.

There has been a significant amount of study of the GIS, and multiple independent lines of evidence have shown that Greenland’s glaciers are thinning and thus losing mass. These include satellite radar altimetry, the GRACE gravity mapping satellites, and both airborne and satellite laser altimetry. Now a peer-reviewed paper published in March shows that another analysis of GRACE and new GPS data has found that mass loss has spread from the warmer southeast coast to the comparably cooler northwest coast, significantly increasing the amount of Greenland coastline affected by mass loss.

Full Story: Scholars and Rogues » Gravity-measuring satellites and GPS confirm Greenland ice melting, affecting more of Greenland Ice Sheet.

A POWERHOUSE BANKER SPEAKS THE TRUTH

Jim Hightower -

While Washington hems and haws over weak and meek Wall Street reforms, a gutsy, populist-minded reform has popped out of the least likely of places: the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Richard Fisher, the president of this branch of the Fed and a peer-in-good-standing of Wall Street’s financial elite, has forthrightly uttered a truth in public that most Washington leaders are even afraid to whisper in private: Banks that are “too big to fail” are too big, period. As Fisher put it: ” A truly effective restructuring of our regulatory regime will have to neutralize what I consider to be the greatest threat to our financial system’s stability—the so-called too-big-to-fail [banks].”

The 10 biggest banks now have 60 percent of all banking assets. Fisher notes that the Wall Street executives running these behemoths “may believe they can act recklessly without fear of paying the ultimate penalty. They and many of their creditors assume the Fed and other government agencies will cushion the fall and assume the damages, even if their troubles stem from negligence or trickery. They have only to look to recent experience to confirm that assumption.”

Full Story: Jim Hightower | A POWERHOUSE BANKER SPEAKS THE TRUTH.

Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America

Matthew Rothschild,  -

Noam Chomsky, the leading leftwing intellectual, warned last week that fascism may be coming to the United States.

“I’m just old enough to have heard a number of Hitler’s speeches on the radio,” he said, “and I have a memory of the texture and the tone of the cheering mobs, and I have the dread sense of the dark clouds of fascism gathering” here at home.

Chomsky was speaking to more than 1,000 people at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, where he received the University of Wisconsin’s A.E. Havens Center’s award for lifetime contribution to critical scholarship.

Full Story: Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America | The Progressive.

Noam Chomsky: Ridiculing the tea party shenanigans is a serious error

NOAM CHOMSKY, Havens Center, Orpheum Theater, Madison WI 4/2010

BofA Insider to Plead Guilty to Hacking ATMs

Any guess which company supplies Bank of America’s hackable ATM systems?…

As we have long tried to get across to anyone who would listen, the greatest threat to “secure” computerized systems — such as the electronic voting systems, incredibly, still in use in all 50 states for this year’s crucial election cycle — comes from insiders.

Late last week, another report, this one via ComputerWorld, underscored the point yet again:

BofA insider to plead guilty to hacking ATMs

IDG News Service – A Bank of America computer specialist is set to plead guilty to charges that he hacked the bank’s automated tellers to dispense cash without recording the activity.

Full Story: The BRAD BLOG : BofA Insider to Plead Guilty to Hacking ATMs.

Tax Audits: IRS Gives Big Corporations a Pass « Wake-up Call

Big corporations still get away with it. A stunning new analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University shows how the IRS targets smaller corporations, while larger corporations that would yield more unpaid tax dollars go unaudited.

It’s worth reading the whole thing, but I share some highlights:

1. Among corporations with assets over $250 million, the IRS reduced the number of audits by 22 percent and the number of hours spent auditing by 33 percent between 2005 and 2009. In an era of high deficits and higher concern over corporate malfeasance, there are no excuses. Congress even increased the number of full time auditors available for such work by 6 percent.

Audit hours, change for large corporations

between FY 2005 and FY 2009

2. While the time spent auditing large corporations dropped a third, time spent auditing small and midsized corporations increased. Hours went up 30 percent for small and 13 percent for midsized tax audits.

Full Story: Tax Audits: IRS Gives Big Corporations a Pass « Wake-up Call.

Poverty Can Slow Kids’ Normal Development

Remedies for ‘material hardships’ depend on society’s willingness, expert says

April 12 (HealthDay News) — The effects of poverty — from crowded housing to insufficient heat and an uncertain diet — combine to lower the chances that infants and toddlers will be healthy and grow normally, new research suggests.

“The current findings raise serious concerns about the future well-being of America’s young children, given rising poverty among families with young children and many households’ inadequate wages and benefits to meet fluctuating food, housing and energy costs,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Deborah Frank, a pediatrician and director of the Grow Clinic at Boston Medical Center, said in a hospital news release.

Research and interventions often neglect to take into account “material hardships” — such as decreased access to food, housing issues and inconsistent home heating — when they consider the effects of poverty on children, the study authors noted.

Full Story: Poverty Can Slow Kids’ Normal Development – BusinessWeek.

Why Does Google Care About Your Power Bill?

Like most people, I don’t have much information readily available about my power use. A bill containing information on my energy use during the previous month arrives via email every month, and I pay what it says I owe the utility. I have no idea what appliances suck the most power in my house, or how I could best reduce my overall consumption. But now Google wants to make sure everyone has more and better information about how much energy we use.

Google has already released a prototype PowerMeter, a web-based energy monitoring tool that provides real-time information about home usage. The company is also eyeing the market for other tech innovations that could help cut consumer energy use. But in order to work, their system and most others require smart grid technology like meters that can connect homes with their utilities. They also require information from power providers that would make it possible to use these meters.

Thus, Google and other high-tech companies are ramping up pressure on the government to ease access to the information and innovations that would expand use of these products. The company hosted a summit on access to energy information on Tuesday at its DC office, and joined 45 other major companies, venture capitalists, and environmental groups in calling on the Obama administration to “adopt the goal of giving every household and business access to timely, useful and actionable information on their energy use” in a letter. By giving energy users better information, they write, government can help “unleash the forces of innovation in homes and businesses.”

Full Story: Why Does Google Care About Your Power Bill? | Mother Jones.

Evidence that Depleted Uranium is intended as a weapon of genocide

Now that the horrors of Depleted Uranium are being revealed to the world, we can expect for apologists to begin moving into the next phase of damage control within the coming months. It will likely be claimed that the depopulation of much of the Middle East was an unfortunate result of the DU that the Pentagon used because it was not aware of the health effects it would have.

This article is meant to demonstrate why this is not the case. The radioactive waste is intentionally used to depopulate and economically cripple the nations that the United States government declared war on. A declassified memorandum from 1943 explains how radioactive material can be used as a gas warfare instrument.1 It mentions that:

As a gas warfare instrument the material would be ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs. In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person’s body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty

Full Story: Evidence that Depleted Uranium is intended as a weapon of genocide « Wake-up Call.

ADVANCING OUR RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY

Jim Hightower -

One thing that gives me good cheer is the periodic eruption of legal common sense that provides a little more justice in our society.

The latest advance comes from a state not known for progressive eruptions: Georgia. In 2005, the legislature joined in what was then a legal fad to restrict access to state courts by patients who're harmed by the medical negligence of hospitals, doctors, and others. Georgia legislators, responding to myths and outright lies pushed by insurance corporations, imposed an arbitrary cap of $350,000 on any damages for pain and suffering that juries could award to victims of malpractice – no matter how horrendous the suffering.

The myth spread by insurance lobbyists and corporate front groups was that there was a national epidemic of stupid, runaway juries awarding millions of dollars for nothing but a hangnail, thus causing health care costs to explode. In fact, though, even the wildest interpretation of rising health costs finds less than 1.5 percent attributable to lawsuits.

Full Story: Jim Hightower | ADVANCING OUR RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY.

Tax Day Prompts Rethinking on Climate Policy

It’s tax time, and millions of Americans will steel themselves to send Washington more of their hard earned money than they estimated they’d have to. It may feel galling, perhaps because the benefits of our taxes often go unnoticed. We come to expect drivable roads, clean water, responsive police and fire services, benefit payments and health care for our parents or grandparents, and even a world where no nation dares attack us. So, when elected officials propose a new tax, the normal responses range from “what for” to “hell, no.”

This anti-tax sentiment sometimes leads policymakers to dream up complicated schemes to collect revenues without seeming to tax anyone. That’s the case, for example, with the convoluted cap-and-trade strategy for addressing climate change. Climate, at least, is a cause which passes the “what for” test. But there’s a much better way to deal with it that might not inspire a “hell, no” reaction: apply a fee to all forms of energy based on how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases each releases into the climate, and then recycle the revenues as cuts in payroll and other taxes.

Such a revenue-neutral carbon-based tax has some surprising support, especially compared to the cap-and-trade alternative supported by some industries and by most of Wall Street — who unsurprisingly want to get their hands on the markets that would trade the scheme’s “permits” for producing greenhouse gases. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Hart Research found that Americans prefer a carbon tax over cap-and-trade by a two-to-one margin.

Full Story: Robert J. Shapiro: Tax Day Prompts Rethinking on Climate Policy.

Chromasun lands $3 million for solar air conditioners

Chromasun, a developer of solar collectors designed to drive air conditioning chillers, has raised $3 million in its first round of venture capital, which was led by VKR Holding, a Danish investment firm. GoGreen Capital and two unnamed U.S. investors also invested in the deal.

Using solar energy to cool buildings is enticing because the hottest times of the day coincide with the best times to harvest sunlight. Rather than use solar panels to make electricity, though, Chromasun’s system converts heat into usable energy for cooling. The solar collector cannot completely cool a building but the idea is that the chiller will run on solar power during peak times, offsetting the most expensive periods to purchase electricity.

Founded in 2008, Chromasun has developed a solar thermal collector appliance that uses reflectors to achieve 25 times sun concentration. The reflector optics are made of aluminium mirrors that pivot in unison to follow the sun. The entire appliance is enclosed in a sealed glazed canopy that protects it from the elements and it can be mounted on rooftops.

Full Story: Chromasun lands $3 million for solar air conditioners.

IT outsourcing by US to hit $79 billion this year

The US IT services market will return to its pre-downturn growth rate of 5% in 2010, going by the strong IT hardware demand seen in the last two quarters, Forrester Research has predicted.

The $85 billion US IT services market had shrunk 5% in 2009, affecting the growth rate of the $40 billion Indian IT and outsourcing industry.

“The cutbacks in tech purchases were in many cases driven by fear. Fear that the economy was headed toward a multiyear recession… and fear that firms would not be able to borrow from banks or the credit market if they needed, resulting in the drive to hoard cash and slash capital investment… As fears ease and prices rebound, the pent-up demand in those industries for IT goods and services will bounce back in 2010,” Forrester said in its report on the US IT industry last week.

The strongest segment in IT services will continue to be IT consulting, which grew even in 2009 as companies struggled to cut IT costs, followed by hardware support and system integration.

IT outsourcing, which grew from $75 billion to $76 billion in 2009, will hit $79 billion in 2010, Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels concluded.

Full Story: IT outsourcing by US to hit $79 billion this year – dnaindia.com.

Domenici: Ending Bush tax cuts would help reduce the deficit – The Hill’s On The Money

Retired Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) on Monday told The Hill that ending tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush would help reduce the deficit, but he stopped short of advocating their expiration.

“Does it [extending Bush tax cuts] make it harder to get us where we have to go? Yes,” he said.

Domenici is a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit organization looking for ways to reduce the deficit and debt. Absent immediate action, the group predicts publicly held debt will spiral out of control.

Domenici said the key to reducing the red ink is raising public awareness about dire consequences the country faces if nothing is done soon.

Full Story: Domenici: Ending Bush tax cuts would help reduce the deficit – The Hill’s On The Money.

OPS:  No Shit!

Dawn Johnsen’s Usefulness As A Stalking Horse For Principles Is Apparently Over

During the 2008 campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama often promised to dismantle much of the unitary executive power that his predecessor, President George W. Bush, claimed for himself in the name of fighting the War On Terror. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the way Democrats swept into power in 2006 and did nothing about this or with the more general concept of “absolute power” and its tendency to “corrupt absolutely” probably had reason to wonder and worry. Nevertheless, Obama talked a good game, and provided reason to hope for the best.

Hope, of course, is not a plan, but a plan nevertheless seemed to be emerging when Indiana University Constitutional law professor and former acting Assistant Attorney General Dawn Johnsen was nominated to head the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. A fierce and fully-vested critic of the OLC memos that enabled the Bush White House to consolidate power, her nomination was seen as a clear sign that the Obama White House was serious about dismantling the unitary executive.

Full Story: Dawn Johnsen’s Usefulness As A Stalking Horse For Principles Is Apparently Over.

Mine Disaster Probe To Be SECRET

Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: Should Investigation Be Public?

[As of now, the hearings] won’t be open to the public … Almost certainly, the investigative interviews will occur behind closed doors. Members of the press and the public will be shut out from this terribly important government task. Despite the efforts of the Salt Lake Tribune, which has sued unsuccessfully in federal court previously to try to open such proceedings, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has staunchly insisted on secrecy in these proceedings.

Why not Web cast the interviews? Why not quickly make transcripts available publicly on the Internet. And why not hold periodic press briefings where detailed information about what has been found so far is made public?

All of the secrecy might make sense, if MSHA and state officials didn’t almost always allow coal company lawyers to sit in on the interviews. [...] One way around that is for MSHA to invoke its authority under federal law to conduct the investigation through a public hearing. In addition to cutting out this issue with the lawyers — and having the positive benefit of being open and transparent — this route has the advantage of giving MSHA something it doesn’t otherwise have: Subpoena power to get documents and force witnesses to come and testify (or at least show up and take the 5th).

Full Story: Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: Should Investigation Be Public?.

Studies show more evidence of water on moon, Mars

The second study suggested that ice has recently melted and re-frozen on Mars, widening some of the characteristic gullies on its surface.

The two studies add to the political and scientific debate about how best to explore our solar system and the universe — with missions that include human crews, or experiments using robots and remote surveys.

The administration of President Barack Obama last month said it would cancel the Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 after a review found the $108 billion program was underfunded and already off-track to meet most of its goals.

Full Story: Studies show more evidence of water on moon, Mars | Reuters.

Judge BLOCKS Health Insurers’ Double-Digit Rate Hike

Judge denies insurers’ request for injunction

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Stephen E. Neel today denied a request by six health insurers to allow them to implement double-digit premium rate increases for tens of thousands of small businesses and individuals.

Neel's decision not to grant an injunction sought by the insurers means the state Division of Insurance's rejection of 235 proposed rate hikes stands for now.

In making his much anticipated ruling, Neel accepted the argument of state government that the insurers should appeal the decision of Insurance Commissioner Joseph G. Murphy within the insurance division before they turn to the courts.

Full Story: Judge denies insurers’ request for injunction – Daily Business Update – The Boston Globe.

Ukraine Nuclear Deal Reached As DC Summit Begins

The White House announced Monday that Ukraine was giving up all its highly enriched uranium, marking success for a major U.S. arms control initiative shortly before President Barack Obama opens a conference on locking down nuclear materials.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Ukrainian stockpile, sufficient for several nuclear weapons, would be transferred to the United States for reprocessing by 2012.

The new Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, had just wrapped up a pre-conference meeting with Obama when the announcement was made.

Ukraine was left with major nuclear materials when the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991.

Full Story: Ukraine Nuclear Deal Reached As DC Summit Begins.

Jobless Aid Provisions Clear Procedural Hurdle In Senate

The Senate voted Monday to move forward on a measure that extends several jobless aid programs that expired on April 5 after Congress adjourned for its Easter break.

In late March, on the eve of the recess, Republicans had refused to allow for speedy passage of the measure, citing deficit concerns, and instead offered their own version of the $9 billion bill that was paid for with unused funds from the $787 billion stimulus package. Democrats insisted that unemployment benefits be extended on an emergency basis, exempt from “pay-as-you-go” budget rules.

Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) — broke with their party and supported a procedural vote to advance the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he reached an agreement with Republicans to proceed to the actual bill on Tuesday afternoon, with a final vote possible on Thursday.

Full Story: Jobless Aid Provisions Clear Procedural Hurdle In Senate.

Europe Finds Cleaner Energy Source by Burning Trash

The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste, round the clock.

Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago.

In that time, such plants have become both the mainstay of garbage disposal and a crucial fuel source across Denmark, from wealthy exurbs like Horsholm to Copenhagen’s downtown area. Their use has not only reduced the country’s energy costs and reliance on oil and gas, but also benefited the environment, diminishing the use of landfills and cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The plants run so cleanly that many times more dioxin is now released from home fireplaces and backyard barbecues than from incineration.

Full Story: Europe Finds Cleaner Energy Source by Burning Trash – NYTimes.com.

Homeland Security to Develop Cell Phones That ‘Smell’ Poisonous Gas

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to make us into walking poison detectors. According to Physorg, as part of a program called Cell-All, the department will develop by the end of the year 40 cell phone prototypes that can detect poisonous gas in the air. Officials say cell phones available today can be modified to do this by simply inserting a chip that costs less than $1. When the chip detects a harmful toxin in the air, it alerts the owner by vibrating or making a noise. If the threat is serious enough, the phone will send a message with its findings to a central server. Then, that server will check phones near that location to make sure the findings aren’t in error. After determining the danger, authorities would be notified and possibly deployed.

Homeland Security claims the service will be used on a volunteer basis, and that all information will remain anonymous and confidential. Still, we expect more questions about privacy to come up as details become available, especially since it sounds like this service will essentially track your cell phone’s location. But Cell-All could save the government time, money and manpower when it comes to responding to toxic gas threats. [From: Physorg, via: Fox News]

Full Story: Homeland Security to Develop Cell Phones That ‘Smell’ Poisonous Gas.

East Longmeadow priest James Scahill calls for Pope Benedict XVI to resign

A Roman Catholic priest from western Massachusetts who’s been a longtime critic of the church’s handling of the clergy abuse crisis has called on Pope Benedict XVI to step down.

The Rev. James Scahill of St. Michael’s in East Longmeadow in his sermon on Sunday also demanded greater protection of children and greater accountability from church hierarchy.

The pope has been subjected to intense criticism recently for the way he has dealt with some abuse cases. Scahill said because he has violated an important tenet of faith by not being truthful, the pope should step down.

Full Story: East Longmeadow priest James Scahill calls for Pope Benedict XVI to resign | Massachusetts Local News – MassLive.com.

ANALYSIS: Senate Republicans Block Over 100 Bills That Have Strong Bipartisan Support

Our guest blogger is Tony Carrk, Policy Director for Progressive Media, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund and Media Matters Action Network. Progressive Media intern Nick Wellkamp also contributed to this post.

Much has been made about Senate Republicans’ abuse of the filibuster, which has skyrocketed in recent years. But less attention has been devoted to how Republican obstruction has held up hundreds of other important pieces of legislation, many of which passed the House with overwhelming majorities and strong bipartisan support.

Because the way the Senate operates allows the legislative calendar to be consumed by extended debate, Republicans’ obstruction does not just hold up the immediate bill in question — it also holds up every other important piece of legislation waiting to be considered, and prevents the Senate from considering legislation that it would otherwise be inclined to pass.

Full Story: Wonk Room » ANALYSIS: Senate Republicans Block Over 100 Bills That Have Strong Bipartisan Support.

Florida ordinance targets people who give to beggars and peddlers

Supporters of the measure cite traffic safety. Critics say it violates free-speech rights.

Dare to buy red roses or a newspaper from a street vendor, and soon you could be breaking the law.

At least in Oakland Park, Fla.

Citing traffic safety concerns, officials in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of 42,000 tentatively approved an ordinance targeting not only panhandlers and peddlers, but the people who give to them or buy something from them.

Under the ordinance initially passed last month, anyone who responds to a beggar with money or any “article of value” or buys flowers or a newspaper from someone on the street would face a fine of $50 to $100 and as many as 90 days in jail.

Full Story: Florida ordinance targets people who give to beggars and peddlers – latimes.com.

Survey: Troops shift political parties

Political party affiliation has fallen sharply among those wearing the uniform today, a new Military Times survey shows.

An exclusive survey of some 1,800 active-duty troops shows the percentage of self-identified Republicans has decreased by one-third since 2004, from 60 percent to 41 percent, while the percentage of self-identified independents has nearly doubled to 32 percent during the same period.

These career-oriented officers and mid-grade and senior enlisted members are still far more conservative than liberal, but they are less likely today to identify with the GOP, the survey shows.

Full Story: Survey: Troops shift political parties – Navy News, news from Iraq – Navy Times.

Groups call for arrest of West Virginia mine CEO

A coalition of NGOs who say they are fighting against the influence of the US Chamber of Commerce has called for the arrest of Don Blankenship, the CEO responsible for the West Virginia mine where 29 workers lost their lives last week.

In a press release on Monday, StopTheChamber.com said Blankenship was “as criminally culpable as any mass murderer” for the disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, because he had systematically worked to avoid safety regulations.

“This was not an accident, but rather the result of deliberate and intentional decisions and actions of Don Blankenship, a director of the United States Chamber of Commerce,” said Kevin Zeese, a founder of the liberal-oriented Velvet Revolution, which runs the StopTheChamber.com site.

Full Story: Groups call for arrest of West Virginia mine CEO | Raw Story.

Oklahoma conservatives, lawmakers plot anti-federal militia

Frustrated by recent political setbacks, tea party leaders and some conservative members of the Oklahoma Legislature say they would like to create a new volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.

Tea party movement leaders say they’ve discussed the idea with several supportive lawmakers and hope to get legislation next year to recognize a new volunteer force. They say the unit would not resemble militia groups that have been raided for allegedly plotting attacks on law enforcement officers.

“Is it scary? It sure is,” said tea party leader Al Gerhart of Oklahoma City, who heads an umbrella group of tea party factions called the Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance. “But when do the states stop rolling over for the federal government?”

Full Story: Oklahoma conservatives, lawmakers plot anti-federal militia | Raw Story.

Outsourcing America’s Future

Outsourcing is not a new phenomenon. Companies have scoured the globe for cheap labor unions for decades, manufacturing cars in Mexico and shirts in Malaysia. Yet the practice has never threatened U.S. sovereignty to the degree it is today. Outsourcing has ballooned in recent decades, leaving the United States uncompetitive, its citizens jobless and its future bleak.

The way our markets are structured, it is almost impossible for any business to resist the trend of cutting American industrial jobs and shipping the work overseas. Although American corporations have laid-off millions of American workers in recent years as part of their outsourcing policies, they are not to blame. The real blame lies with the corrupt politicians and foreign trade lobbyists who push their ideals onto the American people through debilitating “free trade” deals.

The North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization make it impossible for the U.S. to place taxes or tariffs on outsourced work. U.S. businesses search the Earth to find areas where workers are underrepresented and lax environmental rules reign supreme. Since America’s competitors engage in outsourcing, it is completely unavoidable for American corporations if they want to remain in business. Individual American corporations must do what they can to survive. Once their competitors start moving jobs overseas, they have no choice but to follow suit. Today even high paying jobs are being outsourced to India including doctors, mathematicians, accountants, financial analysts engineers, biologists, architects, physicists, chemists and programmers.

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

Manufacturing: Decades of Decline

Before the official recession even began those who worked in productive industry and manufacturing had already been battered by their own downturn.

Throughout this recession the pains of our economic decline have hit virtually every American family and every individual American worker. Before the official recession even began those who worked in productive industry and manufacturing had already been battered by their own downturn.

The downturn in manufacturing didn’t begin in December 2007 when the financial markets began to crumble. The downturn of manufacturing began perhaps two decades earlier when the United States stopped focusing on its own economic strategies.

Both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree that establishing a real manufacturing and industrial policy in the United States is the only way of making up for these two decades of decline. Unfortunately, with so much partisan squabbling in the halls on Capitol Hill, there is almost no bipartisan consensus about how we can climb out of this hole.

Full Story: Manufacturing: Decades of Decline | Economy In Crisis.

The Future of American Jobs

Robert Reich -

Many of my students at Berkeley who will be graduating in June are worried about the job market. I understand their worries. But they and other new college grads have less cause for concern than most American workers. Let me explain.

Since the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, the U.S. economy has shed 8.4 million jobs and failed to create another 2.7 million required by an ever-larger pool of potential workers. That leaves us more than 11 million jobs behind. (The number is worse if you include everyone working part-time who’d rather it be full-time, those working full-time at fewer hours, and people who are overqualified for the jobs they’re in.)

This means even if we enjoy a vigorous recovery that produces, say, 300,000 net new jobs a month, we could be looking at five to eight years before catching up to where we were before the recession began.

Full Story: Robert Reich (The Future of American Jobs).

Tariffs Slapped on Chinese-Made Steel Tubing

The U.S. Commerce Department announced that it would impose steep tariffs on imports of Chinese-made oil field pipe.

American steel producers won a major victory Friday as the U.S. Commerce Department announced that it would impose steep tariffs on imports of Chinese-made oil field pipe after an investigation found that much of the product was highly subsidized by the government and illegally dumped in the U.S. market.

“As a result of this final determination, Commerce will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect a cash deposit or bond equal to the weighted-average dumping margins,” the ruling said.

The duties to be imposed rage from 30 percent on some companies, to 99 percent on others.

Full Story: Tariffs Slapped on Chinese-Made Steel Tubing | Economy In Crisis.

The Young and the Jobless

Unemployment among those ages 16 to 24 reached an all-time high 19.2 percent during the recession.

America’s youngest workers are among the hardest hit by the current recession, according to a report released last week by the Economic Policy Institute.

Unemployment among those ages 16 to 24 reached an all-time high 19.2 percent during the recession. While those figures have improved somewhat since peaking in September 2009, young people are still having a difficult time navigating the poor economy.

Despite making up just 13.5 percent of the workforce, young people account for one in every four unemployed Americans.

Full Story: The Young and the Jobless | Economy In Crisis.

Don Blankenship Called Safety Regulators ‘As Silly As Global Warming’

Video -

The death toll from Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine explosion last week has reached a total of 29 miners, the worst coal disaster in 40 years. When the disaster occurred, Massey was contesting millions of dollars in major safety violations levied against the mine. At his Labor Day anti-union rally last year, Massey CEO Don Blankenship attacked the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), claiming it “seeks power over coal miners.” He mocked both “Washington politicians” and local elected officials who attempt to ensure miner safety, calling their efforts “as silly as global warming”:

We also endure a Mine Safety and Health Administration that seeks power over coal miners versus improving their safety and their health. As someone who has overseen the mining of more coal than anyone else in the history of central Appalachia, I know that the safety and health of coal miners is my most important job. I don’t need Washington politicians to tell me that, and neither do you. But I also know — I also know Washington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner safety. The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than we do is as silly as global warming.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Don Blankenship Called Safety Regulators ‘As Silly As Global Warming’.

Fox News admits tea partiers cling to ‘mistruths, exaggerations and conspiracy theories.’

Reporting for FoxNews.com, Cristina Corbin writes that tea party rallies have “attracted the kinds of mistruths, exaggerations and conspiracy theories that make Tea Party leaders cringe.” Corbin notes that many tea partiers believe the conspiracy that Obama “is a secret Muslim” and that “Obama wants to keep Americans unemployed so that they become dependent on government-run programs.” She then highlights some of the comments she has observed from tea partiers:

foxdeath“Obama, to me, is a socialist. He’s a Muslim and all he wants to do is bankrupt us and run us into the ground,” Ken Schwalbach of Escanaba, Mich., said at a rally on Friday. […]

“What’s more disturbing is that he’s not answering them,” Tea Party member and conservative blogger Andrea Shay King said of the questions over Obama’s birthplace. […]

Ron Moore of Petoskey, Mich., said he stood firm in his belief that the Democrats’ goal was to implement “death panels” to decide who receives medical care and who does not. “They’ve already started,” he said.

Full Story: Think Progress » Fox News admits tea partiers cling to ‘mistruths, exaggerations and conspiracy theories.’.

Idaho man fired shotgun into air to intimidate Census worker.

For months, conservatives have spread unfounded fears and rumors about the Census. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) warned ominously that the Census could be used again to imprison Americans in internment camps, as was done to Japanese Americans during World War II. Far right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones posted a popular article on his website last year, claiming that Census workers are collecting data so the “New World Order” can “launch Predator Drone missile attacks, the aptly named HELLFIRE missile” at dissident Americans. In small town Benewah County, Idaho, the Coeur d’ Alene Press reports that a man named Richard Powell fired his shotgun “near a U.S. Census worker who was trying to deliver a census form”

Full Story: Think Progress » Idaho man fired shotgun into air to intimidate Census worker..

Tea Party Darling Running For NY Governor In Hot Water For Forwarding Racist, Sexually Explicit E-mails

One of the newest heroes of the Tea Party movement is “outspoken” Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, a multimillionaire who has railed against “liberal elites.” Earlier this month, he officially declared his Republican candidacy for New York’s gubernatorial race. However, WNYMedia.net reveals that Paladino has “regularly forwarded pornography and racially degrading material to friends on the Internet.” The Buffalo News reports:

[WNYMedia.net managing director Marc] Odien released e-mail pictures that supposedly show Miss France having sex with a man, a photo of dancing African tribesmen entitled “Obama Inauguration Rehearsal,” a photo of President Obama and the first lady doctored to simulate a 1970s pimp and prostitute, and an e-mail showing chimpanzees doing an Irish dance entitled “proof the Irish discovered Africa.”

As WNYMedia.net notes, the “Obama Inauguration Rehearsal” was “very popular in the white supremacist community and has been posted at the Neo-Nazi Stormfront website.” Here’s the picture from the October 2009 e-mail that shows “President Obama and the First Lady dressed in 70s-era blaxploitation pimp and prostitute costumes while attending a formal event at the White House”:

Full Story: Think Progress » Tea Party Darling Running For NY Governor In Hot Water For Forwarding Racist, Sexually Explicit E-mails.

Blunt rejects barring insurers from denying insurance to adults with pre-existing conditions.

Last week, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who is running for the Senate, visited with health care professionals in Springfield, MO to hear their take on health care reform. On Friday, KSPR, an ABC affiliate in Missouri, aired footage from the meeting, capturing Blunt saying that unlike children, adults shouldn’t be protected from being discriminated against for insurance because of pre-existing conditions:

BLUNT: Access for kids who have pre-existing conditions, who would be against that? But access for adults, who have done nothing to take care of themselves, who actually will have as I’ve just described every incentive not to get insurance until the day that you know that you’re going to have medical expenses, that’s, that’s a very different kind of story.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Blunt rejects barring insurers from denying insurance to adults with pre-existing conditions..

Purported doctor on Texas A&M message board claims he ‘laid off my first Obama voting employee.’

Posting on a message board for Texas A&M students and alumni, a user named “dermdoc” wrote last week that he “laid off my first Obama voting employee today.” “Our reimbursement rates are spiraling downward, taxes are projected to go up with Obamacare, so I did it,” the poster wrote, adding: “I made this decision because I can.” CBSNews.com’s Brian Montopoli reports that he tried to contact “the person who we believe to have been responsible for the posting, but our requests for comment went unanswered.” “It is kind of interesting watching their face as you explain to them the economic consequences of the policies of the guy they voted for,” wrote dermdoc. “That is the way business works,” he added. “If that makes me an ahole, so be it.” Here’s a screenshot of one of dermdoc’s messages:

Full Story: Think Progress » Purported doctor on Texas A&M message board claims he ‘laid off my first Obama voting employee.’.

Is It Time To Replace The American Dream?

Today’s youth find little value in the caricature of human nature as rational, calculating and utilitarian. They prefer to think of human nature as empathic.

he following is an adapted excerpt from Jeremy Rifkin’s new book, ‘The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis’ (Tarcher/Penguin; January 2010).

For two hundred years the American Dream has served as the bedrock foundation of the American way of life. The dream, reduced to its essence, is that in America, every person has the right and opportunity to pursue his or her own individual material self interest in the marketplace, and make something of their life, or at least sacrifice so the next generation might enjoy a better life. The role of the government, in turn, is to guarantee individual freedom, assure the proper functioning of the market, protect property rights, and look out for national security. In all other matters, the government is expected to step aside so that a nation of free men and woman can pursue their individual ambitions.

Full Story: Is It Time To Replace The American Dream? | Vision | AlterNet.

Moyers: Obama’s Bad Gamble on Afghanistan — 100,000 Soldiers Used as Chips for a Bet the US Can’t Win

We are losing lives for no purpose. The perpetuation of this unnecessary war exacerbates the problems in the Islamic world.

BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the Journal. The war in Afghanistan has claimed more than one thousand American lives and in the last two years alone the lives of more than four thousand Afghan civilians. It's costing American taxpayers over three-and-a-half billion dollars every month—a total of some $264 billion so far. But for all that, in the words of one policy analyst quoted by the New York Times this week, “there are no better angels about to descend on Afghanistan.”

The news from that torturous battleground continues to dismay, discourage and enrage. America's designated driver there, Hamid Karzai, is proving increasingly unstable behind the wheel. The United States put Karzai in power and our soldiers have been fighting and dying on his behalf ever since. Despite widespread corrupton in his government. Now he's making threats against the western coalition that is shedding blood and treasure on his behalf.

Even more disturbing,for the moment, are the civilian deaths from nighttime raids andaerial bombings by American and other NATO troops. Just this week, we learned of an apparent cover-up following a Special Forces raid in February that killed five civilians, including three women, two of whom were pregnant. It's believed bullets were gouged from the women's bodies to conceal evidence of American involvement.

Full Story: Bill Moyers Journal . Transcripts | PBS.

Catholic Church Tries to Quiet Pedophilia Scandal with New Policy, While Atheists Push for Pope’s Arrest in the UK

The church drops its defense posture, edits its guidelines to read that church leaders should report clerical sex abuse to civil authorities.

For the first time in canonical history, the Vatican has made clear in public guidelines that bishops and other church leaders should report clerical sex abuse to local authorities if required by law.

The move is a departure from recent church statements, which claimed the sex abuse accusations were part of a conspiratorial effort to undermine the pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

As a steady stream of church sex abuse cases come to light, Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of confirmed molesters before he became pope in 2005 has been severely questioned. Just this weekend, a 1985 letter bearing his signature confirmed many critics’ allegations. In that letter, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as he was then known, resisted calls to defrock a known pedophile priest in Northern California.

Ratzinger wrote, on behalf of the Catholic Church’s doctrinal office, which he headed: “This court, although it regards the arguments presented in favour of removal in this case to be of grave significance, nevertheless deems it necessary to consider the good of the Universal Church.” He then suggested that the priest in question be provided with “as much paternal care as possible.”

Full Story: Catholic Church Tries to Quiet Pedophilia Scandal with New Policy, While Atheists Push for Pope’s Arrest in the UK | Belief | AlterNet.

Iraq Vet From WikiLeaks Video Unit: “This Is What War Looks Like”

Josh Stieber on the truth behind the WikiLeaks video: “Compared to things that I was being taught in basic training … the language in the helicopter was relatively mild.”

Josh Stieber was deployed to Iraq in February 2007 as part of the “surge” overseen by George W. Bush. An enthusiastic supporter of the war when he enlisted, Stieber served with Bravo Company 2-16, the same unit now depicted in the chilling video released last week by WikiLeaks.org, which shows American troops massacre 12 Iraqi civilians from an Apache helicopter, including two Reuters employees, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, Saeed Chmagh. Also killed was Saleh Mutashar, the father of two young children who were themselves injured on the scene, when their father attempted to pick up the wounded Saeed to take him to the hospital, only to get shot by U.S. troops.

Josh Stieber was not on the mission over Baghdad that day. By then he had already begun questioning the actions he was being asked to carry out in Iraq; he had refused an order from his commanding officers a few days earlier — “a command that I didn’t feel right in following,” as he told Glenn Greenwald on Friday — and he was kept behind. Otherwise, he said, “I would have been in that video.”

Full Story: Iraq Vet From WikiLeaks Video Unit: “This Is What War Looks Like” | World | AlterNet.

Small-City Mayor Takes on the Pentagon — War Spending Should Be Spent on Americans, Not on Killing Afghans

Matt Ryan, the mayor of Binghamton, New York, is sick and tired of watching people in local communities “squabble over crumbs,” as he puts it, while so much local money pours into the Pentagon’s coffers and into America’s wars. He’s so sick and tired of it, in fact, that, urged on by local residents, he’s decided to do something about it. He’s planning to be the first mayor in the United States to decorate the façade of City Hall with a large, digital “cost of war” counter, funded entirely by private contributions.

That counter will offer a constantly changing estimate of the total price Binghamton’s taxpayers have been paying for our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001. By September 30, 2010, the city’s “war tax” will reach $138.6 million — or even more if, as expected, Congress passes an Obama administration request for supplemental funds to cover the president’s “surge” in Afghanistan. Mayor Ryan wants, he says, to put the counter “where everyone can see it, so that my constituents are urged to have a much-needed conversation.”

Full Story: Small-City Mayor Takes on the Pentagon — War Spending Should Be Spent on Americans, Not on Killing Afghans | | AlterNet.

Bank Failures – Why Georgia?

Paul Krugman -

As we look for ways to prevent future financial crises, many questions should be asked. Here’s one you may not have heard: What’s the matter with Georgia?

I’m not sure how many people know that Georgia leads the nation in bank failures, accounting for 37 of the 206 banks seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation since the beginning of 2008. These bank failures are a symptom of deeper problems: arguably, no other state has suffered as badly from banks gone wild.

To appreciate Georgia’s specialness, you need to realize that the housing bubble was a geographically uneven affair. Basically, prices rose sharply only where zoning restrictions and other factors limited the construction of new houses. In the rest of the country — what I once dubbed Flatland — permissive zoning and abundant land make it easy to increase the housing supply, a situation that prevented big price increases and therefore prevented a serious bubble.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Bank Failures – Why Georgia? – NYTimes.com.

Orwellian Justice System: Spying on Americans Continues Despite Court Order

The Securitization and Militarization of Daily Life

What could be a significant legal victory in the on-going battle against blanket surveillance transpired March 31 in district court in San Francisco, along with a stinging rebuke of the Obama administration.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled that the government had violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and that the National Security Agency’s warrantless spying program was illegal.

In Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Obama, Walker found that the government employed extralegal means in 2004 to wiretap the now-defunct Islamic charity’s phone calls, as well as those of their attorneys. Ruling that the plaintiffs had been “subjected to unlawful surveillance,” Walker declared that the government was liable to pay them damages.

The court’s decision is a strong rejection of administration assertions that an imperious Executive Branch, and it alone, may determine whether or not a case against the government can be examined by a lawful court, merely by invoking the so-called “state secrets privilege.”

Full Story: Orwellian Justice System: Spying on Americans Continues Despite Court Order.

Silent Coup

How the CIA is Welcoming Itself Back Onto American University Campuses

A CounterPunch Special Investigation

By DAVID PRICE

Throughout the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, independent grassroots movements to keep the Central Intelligence Agency off American university campuses were broadly supported by students, professors and community members. The ethos of this movement was captured in Ami Chen Mills’ 1990 book, C.I.A. Off Campus. Mills’ book gave voice to the multiple reasons why so many academics opposed the presence of the CIA on university campuses: reasons that ranged from the recognition of secrecy’s antithetical relationship to academic freedom, to political objections to the CIA’s use of torture and assassination, to efforts on campuses to recruit professors and students, and the CIA’s longstanding role in undermining democratic movements around the world.

For those who lived through the dramatic revelations of the congressional inquiries in the 1970s, documenting the CIA’s routine involvement in global and domestic atrocities, it made sense to construct institutional firewalls between an agency so deeply linked with these actions and educational institutions dedicated to at least the promise of free inquiry and truth. But the last dozen years have seen retirements and deaths among academics who had lived through this history and had been vigilant about keeping the CIA off campus; furthermore, with the attacks of 9/11 came new campaigns to bring the CIA back onto American campuses.

Henry Giroux’s 2007 book, The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial Academic Complex, details how two decades of shifts in university funding brought increased intrusions by corporate and military forces onto university. After 9/11, the intelligence agencies pushed campuses to see the CIA and campus secrecy in a new light, and, as traditional funding sources for social science research declined, the intelligence community gained footholds on campuses.

Full Story: David Price: Silent Coup.

Sen. Durbin: Senate Should Follow House, Repeal Health Insurers’ Antitrust Exemption

No matter how it tries, Congress can’t seem to let go of healthcare reform.

After year of often acrimonious debate, the House last month approved — and, to great fanfare, President Obama signed into law — the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, designed to expand health coverage to 31 million Americans, and provide enhanced protection to those already covered.

The work didn’t end there, as the House and Senate subsequently each had to approve — and in the case of the House, re-approve — a package of reform “fixes” considered under special rules known as reconciliation.

Full Story: On The Hill: Sen. Durbin: Senate Should Follow House, Repeal Health Insurers’ Antitrust Exemption.

National Peace Conference

AN INVITATION FROM

After Downing Street, Arab American Union Members Council, Black Agenda Report, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, Campus Antiwar Network, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, Peace of the Action, Progressive Democrats of America, U.S. Labor Against the War, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Announcing…
A NATIONAL CONFERENCE
TO BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

July 23-25, 2010, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
The purpose of this conference is to bring together antiwar and social justice activists from across the country to discuss and decide what we can do together to end the wars, occupations, bombing attacks, threats and interventions that are taking place in the Middle East and beyond, which the U.S. government is conducting and promoting. Attend and voice your opinion on where the antiwar movement is today and where we go from here.
In these deeply troubled times, Washington’s two wars and occupations rage on, resulting in an ever increasing number of dead and wounded; more and more civilians killed in drone bombing attacks; misery, deprivation, dislocation and shattered lives for millions; and a suicide rate for U.S. service members soaring to unprecedented heights. At the same time, trillions are spent on these seemingly endless Pentagon conflicts waged in pursuit of profits and global domination while trillions more are lost by working people in the value of their homes, in the loss of their jobs, pensions and health care, and in cuts for public services and vitally needed social programs.

We are witness to the massive bailout of banks and corporations while union contracts are shredded, work is outsourced, jobs are shipped off-shore, workers are evicted from their homes, and our youth and students face a bleak future of rising tuition costs, an ever-declining quality of education, and diminishing employment opportunities. They are offered instead the opportunity to become cannon fodder as the military serves as the employer of last resort while prison awaits many others.

Full Story: National Peace Conference – Home.

Super-High Alcohol Beer Heads to the U.S.

Thanks to a war between European brewing companies, it’s never been easier to catch a healthy beer buzz. Or get yourself totally sloshed. In November BrewDog, a Scottish microbrewery started three years ago, released a new brand, dubbed Tactical Nuclear Penguin. The beer set a new record by weighing in at a scary 32% alcohol-by-volume, over six times the strength of familiar domestic brands like Budweiser. As explained on a cheeky video on the company’s website (warning: the clip contains simulated penguin sex), the brewery was able to attain such a high alcohol content for its product by freezing the beer at a local ice cream factory, at temperatures as low as -6 degrees, for 21 days. Alcohol freezes at lower temperatures than water, and removing water from the solution increased the alcohol concentration.

Jim Watt, one of BrewDog’s co-founders, says that some 400 bottles of Tactical Nuclear Penguin are in the process of being shipped to a few stores in California and New York City, including a Whole Foods location; about half of the consumers buying beer from the BrewDog website are from the U.S. Watt’s eyes are clearly fixed on the American market. “We’re keen to push the envelope,” says Jim Watt, one of BrewDog’s co-founders, “and challenge people’s perceptions of how beer can be enjoyed.” (See pictures of Denver, Beer Country.)

A warning label on the Tactical Nuclear Penguin bottle does state: “This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. It is exactly the same manner you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost.”

Full Story: Super-High Alcohol Beer Heads to the U.S. – Yahoo! News.

Fact-checking Kyl and Gates from ABC’s ‘This Week’

We’re fact-checking several claims made on today’s edition of This Week.

• With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, nomination hearings were a major topic on the Sunday shows. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said he thought a filibuster was unlikely, but he wasn’t ruling it out entirely, either. “President Obama himself attempted to filibuster Justice Alito, who now sits on the Supreme Court,” Kyl said.

We looked at the record and found Obama did join a Democratic filibuster that ultimately failed. Interestingly, Obama still had some critical words on the filibuster; read our full report. We rated Kyl’s statement True.

• Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review. Gates, who served in the same job under President Bush, said the policy objectives of the two administrations are not that different. “The policy of the Bush administration was also not to add new nuclear capabilities.”

Full Story: PolitiFact | Fact-checking Kyl and Gates from ABC’s ‘This Week’.

Judge Jed Rakoff taps into nation’s outrage over economic crisis

The outspoken federal jurist has condemned not only big banks for their financial misdeeds but also their regulators.

The economic crisis has brought out the populist in many politicians and others. Among the more unlikely ones may be a silver-bearded federal judge who has wasted no chance to tell the country’s biggest banks what he thinks about how they operate.

When Bank of America Corp. was trying to settle civil charges over its conduct in its purchase of Merrill Lynch, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff wrote that the bank’s executives had led what “could have been a bank-destroying disaster if the U.S. taxpayers had not saved the day.”

Addressing how the firm pays its top people, the judge spoke in February of “the incredibly bloated compensation of too many executives in too many American companies.”

Full Story: Judge Jed Rakoff taps into nation’s outrage over economic crisis – latimes.com.

Risk of Japan going bankrupt is real, say analysts

Greece’s debt problems may currently be in the spotlight but Japan is walking its own financial tightrope, analysts say, with a public debt mountain bigger than that of any other industrialised nation.

Public debt is expected to hit 200 percent of GDP in the next year as the government tries to spend its way out of the economic doldrums despite plummeting tax revenues and soaring welfare costs for its ageing population.

Based on fiscal 2010′s nominal GDP of 475 trillion yen, Japan’s debt is estimated to reach around 950 trillion yen — or roughly 7.5 million yen per person.

Full Story: Risk of Japan going bankrupt is real, say analysts – Yahoo! News.