Archive for May, 2010

Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership

Robert Reich:

It’s time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public will know what’s going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP’s strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the president is ultimately in charge.

If the government can take over giant global insurer AIG and the auto giant General Motors and replace their CEOs, in order to keep them financially solvent, it should be able to put BP’s north American operations into temporary receivership in order to stop one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

The Obama administration keeps saying BP is in charge because BP has the equipment and expertise necessary to do what’s necessary. But under temporary receivership, BP would continue to have the equipment and expertise. The only difference: the firm would unambiguously be working in the public’s interest. As it is now, BP continues to be responsible primarily to its shareholders, not to the American public. As a result, the public continues to worry that a private for-profit corporation is responsible for stopping a public tragedy.

Full Story: Robert Reich: Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership.

Massive Underwater Plumes Spell Disaster, Scientists Say

Independent scientists and government officials say there’s a disaster we can’t see in the Gulf of Mexico’s mysterious depths, the ruin of a world inhabited by enormous sperm whales and tiny, invisible plankton.

Researchers have said they have found at least two massive underwater plumes of what appears to be oil, each hundreds of feet deep and stretching for miles. Yet the chief executive of BP PLC – which has for weeks downplayed everything from the amount of oil spewing into the Gulf to the environmental impact – said there is “no evidence” that huge amounts of oil are suspended undersea.

BP CEO Tony Hayward said the oil naturally gravitates to the surface – and any oil below was just making its way up. However, researchers say the disaster in waters where light doesn’t shine through could ripple across the food chain.

“Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt about that,” said Prosanta Chakrabarty, a Louisiana State University fish biologist.

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: Massive Underwater Plumes Spell Disaster, Scientists Say.

Holder: World Bank estimates corruption serves as 20 percent tax

…more than one trillion dollars in bribes are paid each year

US Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday reaffirmed his country’s commitment to fight corruption, which he described as “one of the great struggles of our time.”

“Put simply, corruption undermines the promise of democracy. It imperils development, stability, and faith in our markets,” he said at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“The struggle against corruption, as President Obama has put it, ‘is one of the great struggles of our time’,” Holder said in a speech to delegates of the 35-nation OECD economic grouping in Paris.

The attorney general said that World Bank estimates showed that more than one trillion dollars in bribes are paid each year.

Full Story: Holder: World Bank estimates corruption serves as 20 percent tax | Raw Story.

Israeli Commandos Raid Gaza Aid Flotilla, Netanyahu Cancels Meeting With Obama

The Associated Press reports that “Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 passengers in a predawn raid that set off worldwide condemnation and a diplomatic crisis”:

Israel said the forces encountered unexpected resistance as they boarded the vessels. Dozens of passengers and at least five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the confrontation in international waters.

The Israeli military said in a statement: “Navy fighters took control of six ships that tried to violate the naval blockade (of the Gaza Strip) … During the takeover, the soldiers encountered serious physical violence by the protesters, who attacked them with live fire.”

The Israeli raid has “triggered widespread condemnation across Europe; many of the passengers were from European countries. The raid also strained already tense relations with Israel’s longtime Muslim ally Turkey, the unofficial sponsor of the mission, and drew more attention to the plight of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Israeli Commandos Raid Gaza Aid Flotilla, Netanyahu Cancels Meeting With Obama.

Paranoid ‘Hatriot’ Group Attempting Takeover of Local Sheriffs’ Offices

Today, a rather credulous Associated Press article reports on a movement to replace local sheriffs with proponents of a particularly virulent form of “tentherism“:

The retired police officer and investment adviser intends to make that a reality, joining at least a dozen candidates in other states running for office on an intepretation [sic] of the Constitution they say means the sheriff is the highest law enforcer in the land, even above federal agents.

“Frankly if he wants to, the sheriff can probably do more for the Constitution and protecting the people than anyone else,” Nichols said.

The candidates are part of a loosely organized nationwide movement called the Oath Keepers, which is enlisting law enforcement and military personnel to vow to refuse 10 orders they say are unconstitutional, from confiscating guns to warrantless searches.

Full Story: Think Progress » Paranoid ‘Hatriot’ Group Attempting Takeover of Local Sheriffs’ Offices.

Bilderberg 2010

This year’s Bilderberg conference will take place from June 3-6 at the Luxury Hotel Dolce Sitges in the south of Barcelona, Spain.

View the list of participants here.

What is the Bilderberg conference?

The best way I can describe the Bilderberg conference, without being melodramatic, is that it is a political symposium for revolutionary oligarchs and globalists, which is held in a different location around the world every year. Essentially, it is a political safe haven for powerful decision-makers in the Euro-American Establishment. The conference’s attendees change a little bit on a yearly basis, but the core group of conspirators stay the same, and they include famous men such as David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger. Other participants range from heads of states, CEOs, high-ranking military officers, industrialists, news and magazine publishers, university presidents, top central bankers, financiers, influential politicians, to basically anyone who harbors an elitist mindset and holds a key post in government, academia, business, and media.

The elect private club has pursued an agenda for political and economic centralization, to be culminated in a global government, ever since its clandestine creation in 1954. Much of it’s influence over Western democratic governments and global bodies is an open conspiracy. But because of the high level of secrecy in which the meetings are held, little is factually known of the club’s true purpose, ideas, and plan for the world, other than to establish an authoritarian global government. Media and news organizations don’t even acknowledge the existence of the Bilderberg group, let alone investigate it’s aims and political reach.

Full Story: Bilderberg 2010 | The Seminal.

Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it

The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades

We reached the edge of the oil spill near the Nigerian village of Otuegwe after a long hike through cassava plantations. Ahead of us lay swamp. We waded into the warm tropical water and began swimming, cameras and notebooks held above our heads. We could smell the oil long before we saw it – the stench of garage forecourts and rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air.

The farther we travelled, the more nauseous it became. Soon we were swimming in pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. One of the many hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that crisscross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months.

Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. “We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots,” said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. “This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.”

Full Story: Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it | Environment | The Observer.

Dean Baker: Why should we listen to deficit hawks?

Calls to cut social security come from economists who want to line Wall Street pockets with money from ordinary workers

When politicians demand that the public do something because of the dictates of financial markets, it is best to hold on to your wallet. Back in September of 2008, both President Bush and the Democratic leadership in Congress insisted that if we did not immediately hand over $700bn to the banks, the whole financial system would grind to a halt.

The threat worked – the banks got their $700bn from Congress and much more from the Fed – with few questions asked. As a result, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and the rest are now as profitable as ever and once again paying out record bonuses to “top performers”.

If the market had been allowed to run its course Goldman, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and many other major banks would have been bankrupt, leaving their shareholders and creditors out of luck and their top executives walking the unemployment lines. There are reasons that this outcome would have been undesirable for the economy as a whole, but there is a big difference between the Tarp blank check and doing nothing. If the politicians and their accomplices in the economics profession had not overwhelmed the public with fear, we could have ensured that the bankers suffered from the crisis that they had themselves created.

Full Story: Why should we listen to deficit hawks? | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

Despite Food Assistance Programs, Many American Children Experience Hunger

Approximately 49 million people, including 17 million children, experience household food insecurity – the lack of resources required to sustain the nutritional needs of family members – according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, this number may be even higher when examining the specific food needs of children. In a recent University of Missouri study, researchers found that food insecurity and hunger among children still persist, even in food secure households and despite food assistance programs and efforts to increase food security.

Children are considered food insecure if, in the last year, they did not eat enough, did not eat for a day, skipped a meal or were hungry because their family could not afford adequate food. In the study, ManSoo Yu, assistant professor in the MU School of Social Work and Master of Public Health Program, examined different factors related to food security among households and children, including racial comparisons among vulnerable households, participation in the food stamp program and informal food supports.

“We found that household food security does not equate to food security for children within those households,” Yu says. “Therefore, children who experience food insecurity may live in households that are defined as food secure. This is alarming considering previous research that indicates food insecure children are more at-risk for being overweight, having poor health, poor academic performance and poor psychosocial functioning.”

Full Story: On The Hill: Despite Food Assistance Programs, Many American Children Experience Hunger.

10 DEAD ON AID SHIP AFTER BOTCHED ISRAELI RAID

Gaza Flotilla ATTACKED: Israel Storms Aid Ship, At Least 10 Dead

Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 passengers in a predawn raid that set off worldwide condemnation and a diplomatic crisis.

Israel said its commandos were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they rappelled from a helicopter to board one of the vessels.

Dozens of activists and at least 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded in the bloody confrontation in international waters.

Full Story: Gaza Flotilla ATTACKED: Israel Storms Aid Ship, At Least 10 Dead.

Thom Explains Naked Shorts

Cenk of TYT: I totally agree with Thom here. What I was saying in my original video was that the anger should be aimed at the banks that have created this system and the regulators that have allowed it, and not as much on the smart hedge funds that take advantage of it.

The core of the problem is the betting as Thom explains, not the guy who happens to lay down a bet in the casino (however rich he might be). The problem is the casino itself that the banks created and the govt. allowed.

Privatized Government Just isn’t Working for Obama

Thom Hartmann:

Papantonio: Texas Tea Party

Thom Hartmann:

There is increased heat on the White House to do more about the Gulf oil spill, with Senator Nelson saying that it’s time for Obama and the military to step it up on the oil spill. But with the oil industry and the government sharing such a cozy relationship – to the point where the government allowed BP to write its own evaluations – is it even possible for the government to do anything? Mike Papantonio appeared on The Thom Hartmann Program to talk about what could possibly be done.

Have our privacy rights been eroded to point where the police are coming to your house next?

Thom Hartmann:

State Governments’ Funding in Danger

With stimulus programs that have padded states’ bottom lines for the past two years set to expire next year, tax revenues falling $686 billion last year and millions of unemployed seeking the aid of government services, states are facing budget shortfalls totaling $160 billion over the next two years, according to a report by the National League of Cities.

Facing serious budget shortfalls over the next two years, many state and local governments are getting creative and considering proposals that would completely restructure government.

With stimulus programs that have padded states' bottom lines for the past two years set to expire next year, tax revenues falling $686 billion last year and millions of unemployed seeking the aid of government services, states are facing budget shortfalls totaling $160 billion over the next two years, according to a report by the National League of Cities.

In response, some state’s have considered balancing their budget in unconventional ways.

Full Story: State Governments’ Funding in Danger | Economy In Crisis.

A Nation Lost

How deluded have we become as a country to think that we have the power to tell other nations what to do? We cannot even run our own country properly. Are we crazy?

We are already in too many wars. We are locked into wars in the Middle East that we cannot win. We are losing, if we haven’t lost already, the all important economic war. We are in phantom wars on drugs, terrorists and other abstract ideas with no identifiable enemy to fight.

America has become a nation lost. We can’t make our own weapons, we are so entrenched in debt that our children’s children will not even be able to pay it all back. We owe China over $600 billion plus interest. China, along with other countries, build all the things our country needs to live on to survive. We cannot tell them how to run their country when we are living on imports and debt.

Right now we are taking sides with South Korea against North Korea. South Korea does not show us preferential treatment. The South Korean government keeps our imports out of their markets. In 2007 South Korea sold the U.S. 615,000 cars while only allowing 7,000 of our cars into their country. They are not our friends any more than North Korea.

Full Story: A Nation Lost | Economy In Crisis.

United States: Next empire on the precipice of collapse?

After generations of ignoring the future for the sake of immediate gains, the United States is at a crossroads. Our government has to start voting for the future, instead of trying to build up the status quo.

We have heard for months that the sky is falling and the American economy is on the verge of collapse. The Bush administration warned of an economic Armageddon if its Wall Street bailout wasn’t approved immediately. The Obama administration has talked about saving us from the “verge of collapse.”

The fact is more nuanced than that; America may well be collapsing before our eyes, but it is happening more slowly than some would believe. A country like the United States is not going to go away over night, but it could very well be a shell of its former self a decade or more from now.

British historian Niall Ferguson, writing for Foreign Affairs, outlines the decline of the American empire as a result of its inability to squash desires for international commercial, military and political dominance. As our leadership struggles with the day-to-day problems of political sausage making, the seams of this nation could be coming apart.

Full Story: United States: Next empire on the precipice of collapse? | Economy In Crisis.

The American Century Is So Over

Irrespective of their politics, flawed leaders share a common trait. They generally remain remarkably oblivious to the harm they do to the nation they lead. George W. Bush is a salient recent example, as is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. When it comes to foreign policy, we are now witnessing a similar phenomenon at the Obama White House.

Here is the Obama pattern: Choose a foreign leader to pressure. Threaten him with dire consequences if he does not bend to Washington’s will. When he refuses to submit and instead responds vigorously, back off quickly and overcompensate for failure by switching into a placatory mode.

In his first year-plus in office, Barack Obama has provided us with enough examples to summarize his leadership style. The American president fails to objectively evaluate the strength of the cards that a targeted leader holds and his resolve to play them.

Full Story: The American Century Is So Over | CommonDreams.org.

Deepwater mystery: Oil loose in the Gulf

“Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt about that,” said Prosanta Chakrabarty, a Louisiana State University fish biologist.

Streaming video of oil pouring from the seafloor and images of dead, crude-soaked birds serve as visual bookends to the natural calamity unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.

But independent scientists and government officials say another disaster is playing out in slow motion — and out of public view — in the mysterious depths between the gusher and the coast, a world inhabited by sperm whales, gigantic jellyfish and diminutive plankton.

More than a month after the BP PLC spill began, the disaster’s dimensions have come into sharper focus with government estimates that more than 18 million gallons of oil — and possibly 40 million gallons — has already poured from the leaking well, eclipsing the 11 million gallons released during the Exxon Valdez spill.

“Every fish and invertebrate contacting the oil is probably dying. I have no doubt about that,” said Prosanta Chakrabarty, a Louisiana State University fish biologist.

Full Story: Deepwater mystery: Oil loose in the Gulf – Yahoo! News.

OPS: Here’s something to keep in mind in light of this:

Source of Half Earth’s Oxygen Gets Little Credit
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0607_040607_phytoplankton.html

so… how much of our oxygen generating capacity is being destroyed?

International Court May Define Aggression as Crime

More than 100 nations, contingents of human-rights groups and lawyers from around the globe, will begin a meeting on Monday in Kampala, Uganda, tackling issues that could fundamentally expand the power of international law.

The thorniest question on the agenda, one certain to dominate the conference, is a proposal to give the International Criminal Court in The Hague the power to prosecute the crime of aggression.

If approved, it could open the door to criminal accusations against powerful political and military leaders for attacks the court deems unlawful. Those could range from full-scale invasions to pre-emptive strikes.

Full Story: International Court May Define Aggression as Crime – NYTimes.com.

BP Prepared for Spill 10 Times Gulf Disaster, Permit Plans Say

BP Plc said in permit applications for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that it was prepared to handle an oil spill more than ten times larger than the one now spewing crude into the waters off the southern United States.

“Proper execution of the procedures detailed in this manual will help to limit environmental and ecological damage to sensitive areas as well as minimizing loss or damage to BP facilities in the event of a petroleum release,” the company said in its oil-spill response plan, filed with the U.S. Minerals Management Service in 2008.

The company listed as its worst-case scenario a blowout in an exploratory well 57 miles west of the disaster, in a valley on the seafloor known as Mississippi Canyon. It’s about 33 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Such a blowout could have spewed 250,000 barrels a day, according to the 582-page plan.

Full Story: BP Prepared for Spill 10 Times Gulf Disaster, Permit Plans Say – Bloomberg.com.

Barack Obama and BP warn of risks in oil spill ‘open heart surgery’

• Operation to cut broken pipe deemed too risky earlier

• BP boss describes ‘open heart surgery on TV for everyone’

Under immense pressure to plug its catastrophic American oil leak, BP is preparing for a hazardous last-ditch salvage operation that risks making the gush of crude into the Gulf of Mexico even heavier if its robotic submarines fail in an inch-perfect exercise to cut through a broken pipe a mile beneath the ocean’s surface.

After the failure of a “top kill” effort to stuff the leak with mud and rubbish, BP’s managing director, Bob Dudley, stressed the difficulty of a new plan to pipe spurting oil to a ship on the ocean’s surface, describing it as highly challenging for engineers who will be asked to perform “the equivalent of open heart surgery on television for everyone”.

The under-fire company faced calls from Louisiana lawmakers to make an immediate $1bn investment to protect threatened wetlands and estuaries on the Louisiana coast. The White House’s energy tsar, Carol Browner, warned that the giant, rapidly expanding oil slick caused by an explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig was‚ “probably the biggest environmental disaster we have ever faced”.

Full Story: Barack Obama and BP warn of risks in oil spill ‘open heart surgery’ | Environment | The Guardian.

Are You Fighting Against Your Own Upliftment?

As you will know if you have been following these columns, I am of the mind that just about anyone can improve both their life circumstances as well as the quality of how they experience their life. I have taken numerous approaches, attempting to share ideas that I have found useful in my own life and that others seem to have found beneficial as well.

A common theme running through these articles includes the notion that how you frame the problem is the problem coupled with it’s not what happens to you but what you choose to do about it.

The dialogue has been rich, comical, supportive, derogatory and sometimes just downright spiteful. I appreciate the exchanges, even the most vitriolic, because no matter the point of view, at least the commenter is engaged.

Full Story: Russell Bishop: Are You Fighting Against Your Own Upliftment?.

PBS’s ‘This Emotional Life’: Memorial Day — Remembering Military Suicides

For some families, this Memorial Day will be especially hard. Their loved ones — spouses, parents, sons and daughters — didn’t die the hero’s death. They were one of 160 soldiers last year who committed suicide, despite the military’s unprecedented effort to stem the tide.

How does it happen? After surviving harrowing combat, why would a young soldier decide to take his or her own life? The Army is spending $50 million to figure it out, and we may get an answer in a couple of years. But for some, that will be too late.

While no one can truly understand the tormented heart and mind that would lead someone to actually pull the trigger, swallow the pills, position the rope that will end a life, there are some conditions that can certainly explain the despair. The story of Ryan’ Doc’ Krebs, featured on The Wounded Platoon (Frontline May 18, 2010), gives some clues.

Full Story: Brigadier General (Ret) Stephen N. Xenakis, M.D.: PBS’s ‘This Emotional Life’: Memorial Day — Remembering Military Suicides.

Hurricane Season Complicates Gulf Oil Spill

As hurricane season approaches, the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico takes weather forecasters into nearly uncharted waters.

The Gulf is a superhighway for hurricanes that form or explode over pools of hot water, then usually move north or west toward the coast. The site of the sunken rig is along the general path of some of the worst storms ever recorded, including Hurricane Camille, which wiped out the Mississippi coast in 1969, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The season officially starts Tuesday, and while scientists seem to agree that the sprawling slick isn’t likely to affect the formation of a storm, the real worry is that a hurricane might turn the millions of gallons of floating crude into a crashing black surf.

Full Story: Hurricane Season Complicates Gulf Oil Spill.

Men’s skin cancer death rate doubles over 30 years

The rate of men dying from the deadliest form of skin cancer has doubled over the past three decades.

Figures from Cancer Research UK show a steep increase in deaths from malignant melanoma, especially in elderly men.

In the late 1970s fewer than 400 (1.5 per 100,000) men died from melanoma but that figure has now risen to over 1,100 (3.1 per 100,000).

Yet the cancer is preventable if people avoid sunburn and deal with ‘worrying’ moles early, the charity said.

The death rates for women have also risen, from 1.5 to 2.2 per 100,000.

Full Story: BBC News – Men’s skin cancer death rate doubles over 30 years.

Hopes for breast cancer vaccine

American scientists say they have developed a vaccine which has prevented breast cancer from developing in mice.

The researchers – whose findings are published in the journal, Nature Medicine – are now planning to conduct trials of the drug in humans.

But they warn that it could be some years before the vaccine is widely available.

The immunologist who led the research says the vaccine targets a protein found in most breast tumours.

Vincent Tuohy, from the Cleveland Clinic Learner Research Institute, said: “We believe that this vaccine will someday be used to prevent breast cancer in adult women in the same way that vaccines have prevented many childhood diseases.

Full Story: BBC News – Hopes for breast cancer vaccine.

Christian conservatives target seated judges

Critics say move threatens separation of church and state

A group of conservative attorneys say they are on a mission from God to unseat four California judges in a rare challenge that is turning a traditionally snooze-button election into what both sides call a battle for the integrity of U.S. courts.

Vowing to be God’s ambassadors on the bench, the four San Diego Superior Court candidates are backed by pastors, gun enthusiasts, and opponents of abortion and same-sex marriages.

“We believe our country is under assault and needs Christian values,” said Craig Candelore, a family law attorney who is one of the group’s candidates. “Unfortunately, God has called upon us to do this only with the judiciary.”

Full Story: Christian conservatives target seated judges – Politics- msnbc.com.

Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig

Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week.

The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the chain of events that led to the disaster on the rig.

The documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of “well control.” And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer.

On June 22, for example, BP engineers expressed concerns that the metal casing the company wanted to use might collapse under high pressure.

Full Story: Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig – NYTimes.com.

Researchers prove acupuncture’s effectiveness in pain therapy

Acupuncture eases pain in the limbs because it releases a natural molecule called adenosine, neuroscientists in the United States reported on Sunday.

The mechanism was discovered through experiments in lab mice, which were given an injection of an inflammation-inducing chemical in their right paw.

The researchers inserted fine needles below the midline of the mice’s knee, at a well-known acupuncture location called the Zusanli point.

They rotated the needle gently every five minutes for 30 minutes, mimicking a standard acupuncture treatment.

Full Story: Researchers prove acupuncture’s effectiveness in pain therapy | Raw Story.

German President Koehler quits amid row over military

German President Horst Koehler says he is resigning immediately, following criticism of remarks he made about German military deployments abroad.

Mr Koehler, whose job is largely ceremonial, had linked missions such as the Afghanistan deployment with the defence of economic interests.

His remarks drew criticism from a number of German politicians.

Mr Koehler, 67, was re-elected last year to serve a second five-year term as president.

Full Story: BBC News – German President Koehler quits amid row over military.

Israel stations nuclear missile subs off Iran

Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.

The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.

The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.

The flotilla’s commander, identified only as “Colonel O”, told an Israeli newspaper: “We are an underwater assault force. We’re operating deep and far, very far, from our borders.”

Full Story: Israel stations nuclear missile subs off Iran – Times Online.

Sad milestone: Cost of US wars ‘passes $1 trillion’

Cost of US wars; Enough to give Pell Grants to all 19 million US college students for 9 years…

The cost of the United States’ wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost taxpayers more than one trillion dollars, a Massachusetts nonprofit said Sunday, marking a grim milestone on the eve of the Memorial Day holiday.

According to the group, the threshold was crossed Sunday at 10:06 am ET, based on Congressional appropriations for the wars. To date, the group notes, $747.3 billion has been appropriated for the U.S. war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in Afghanistan.

The group, National Priorities Project, conveyed the size of US war spending by highlighting other things that could have been bought with the money. For example, for the price of America’s two wars, the US could give $5,500 in Pell grants to all of America’s 19 million college students for the next nine years. One trillion would also pay the entire healthcare bill for 294 million people, or 440 million children, the group says.

Full Story: Sad milestone: Cost of US wars ‘passes $1 trillion’ | Raw Story.

‘At least 10 dead’ as Israel storms aid convoy: Israeli TV

At least 10 people were killed as Israeli forces stormed a boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists bound for Gaza, Israeli television and radio stations reported on Monday.

According to Israel’s private channel 10 television, Israeli marine commandos had opened fire after being attacked with axes and knives by a number of the passengers on board the aid ships, the television said, without giving the source of its information.

The station did not say whether the dead and injured were passengers or members of the Israeli navy.

Full Story: ‘At least 10 dead’ as Israel storms aid convoy: Israeli TV | Raw Story.

Church sued victim of convicted sex abuser: report

AP: Pope refused to defrock convicted priest

A Catholic diocese in Canada sued the victim of a convicted pedophile priest, driving the victim to attempt suicide several times, according to a newspaper report published Sunday.

The church’s move would prove to be a successful tactic to force the victim to settle out of court. And some victims of Catholic church sex abuse say the tactic is a common one.

John Caruso, a victim of convicted Roman Catholic priest James Kneale, sued the church for $8.6 million over sexual abuse he suffered at Kneale’s hands as an altar boy in the 1980s. The church responded with a “legal thunderbolt,” reports Mary Ormsby at the Toronto Star:

Full Story: Church sued victim of convicted sex abuser: report | Raw Story.

BP oil rig registration raised in Congress over safety concerns

Deepwater Horizon’s registration under the flag of convenience of the Marshall Islands has been brought up in Congress as a safety issue

Political ripples from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster have travelled as far as the north Pacific, where authorities of the remote Marshall Islands have been found to be the ones technically responsible for scrutinising safety standards on the doomed BP rig.

The rig, which was owned by Transocean, but under lease to BP when it exploded and sank on 20 April, is regarded as an ocean-going vessel in legal terms.

In common with 34 other Transocean oil rigs, Deepwater Horizon was registered under the flag of convenience of the Marshall Islands, a country of barely 65,000 people halfway between Hawaii and Papau New Guinea. That status means the Marshall Islands’ shipping registry was responsible for ensuring compliance with quality standards for construction, equipment and operation on the rig.

Full Story: BP oil rig registration raised in Congress over safety concerns | Environment | The Guardian.

Lost a leg in Iraq, all but forgotten at home

If the Army needs proof that Ryan Hallberg suffered a loss when he was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq, it need look no farther than 4 inches below his right knee. There’s nothing there.

Despite an amputation from his injuries, Hallberg has twice been denied a $50,000 insurance benefit because he has been told by the federal insurance office administering the program that “there is not enough medical information to support your loss.”

Similar cases are emerging across the country about the same program, established five years ago to address the growing number of troops coming hope with traumatic injuries from Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, whose office has become involved in Hallberg’s case, called it an example of “government bureaucracy gone amok.” A recent Government Accountability Office audit is critical of how claims from the program have been denied.

Full Story: Lost a leg in Iraq, all but forgotten at home | StarTribune.com.

The Pain Caucus

Paul Krugman:

What’s the greatest threat to our still-fragile economic recovery? Dangers abound, of course. But what I currently find most ominous is the spread of a destructive idea: the view that now, less than a year into a weak recovery from the worst slump since World War II, is the time for policy makers to stop helping the jobless and start inflicting pain.

When the financial crisis first struck, most of the world’s policy makers responded appropriately, cutting interest rates and allowing deficits to rise. And by doing the right thing, by applying the lessons learned from the 1930s, they managed to limit the damage: It was terrible, but it wasn’t a second Great Depression.

Now, however, demands that governments switch from supporting their economies to punishing them have been proliferating in op-eds, speeches and reports from international organizations. Indeed, the idea that what depressed economies really need is even more suffering seems to be the new conventional wisdom, which John Kenneth Galbraith famously defined as “the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability.”

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – The Pain Caucus – NYTimes.com.

Irish state bankruptcy looms as unions push through strike ban

Such is the perilous state of the Irish economy that the rationale for the Croke Park pact between the Irish trade unions, the government and public sector employers has already been exposed as a fraud.

Croke Park set out terms in which the unions agreed to a four-year strike ban, huge productivity and flexibility demands, job losses on a “voluntary” basis in return for a cap on pay cuts for public service workers. Their claim that this would somehow prevent an economic meltdown lies in tatters. In reality the deal exposed the trade unions as a tool of the financial aristocracy for imposing the costs of the banking crisis onto the working class and opens the way for yet more savage attacks.

That is precisely why the provision to avoid further pay cuts was qualified by being “subject to no currently unforeseen budgetary deterioration” in Irish state finances.

Full Story: Irish state bankruptcy looms as unions push through strike ban.

Protesters bound for Gaza

BREAKING NEWS: Ten people have reportedly been killed and more than 30 injured after Israeli forces attacked a flotilla seeking to break through a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Contact with Herald journalist Paul McGeough, who is on board one of the flotilla vessels, has been lost.

This is what McGeough filed earlier before contact with the flotilla was lost …

Video at link

Full Story: Protesters bound for Gaza.

What Obama Isn’t Telling American Workers

Most importantly, a cheaper dollar lowers the living standards of U.S. workers, since the price of foreign goods will become inflated. With a catastrophic U.S. debt, inflation will continue for years to come.

A lot is happening in the tumultuous realm of global economics. The “Great Recession” has caused tectonic shifts internationally, with outcomes that will dramatically change the lives of millions of people in the U.S. and beyond. And while Obama is acknowledging this fact with repeated references to “a new world order,” he isn't explaining how this adversely affects working-class Americans. The truth would be far too “controversial.”

The first unmentionable fact is the inevitable, long-term decline of the dollar, a phenomenon that can now be considered government policy. The business magazine Forbes comments:

“The Treasury Department would never admit this, but for the time being it's in the country's interest to keep its currency low because it stimulates exports for the economy's manufacturing base and lowers the value of the debt that the Treasury is piling up.” (October 5, 2009)

These policies are essentially economic attacks on foreign corporations and governments, and U.S. workers.

Full Story: OpEdNews – Article: What Obama Isn’t Telling American Workers.

Stabilizing the Job Market

The economic downturn in the United States has had many casualties across the American economy. Unemployment today is nearly double where it was at the beginning of the financial recession, and it is likely to remain unchanged at nearly 10 percent for many more months.

Thus far the Republican members of Congress have given few ideas on how to stabilize the job market. They have called for tax cuts, a proposal that has little historical support for job growth. They have called for spending cuts, a proposal that by its very nature increases unemployment. They have also nearly unilaterally opposed everything that has been brought up by their opposition – even when it included tax cuts, spending cuts, or both.

Meanwhile the Democrats have largely attempted to make large nationwide moves to help everyone, everywhere, all at once. The result, not surprisingly, has been highly ineffective.

Full Story: Stabilizing the Job Market | Economy In Crisis.

Service Economy Taking Over U.S.

High-paying manufacturing jobs are rapidly disappearing, only to be replaced by low-paying, and oftentimes menial, service sector jobs that produce absolutely nothing of value, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s 2009 Occupational Employment and Wages report.

The report found that retail sales, cashiers, general office clerks, food preparation and service workers, and nurses were the occupations with the highest levels of employment in 2009.

In fact, nine of the top 10 jobs in the survey pay such low wages that they put a worker supporting a family of four in near poverty.

While the fast food, health care and financial services industry has been booming, the manufacturing sector has not. The U.S. had just 8.9 million workers in what the report refers to as production occupations. Workers in those occupations average a salary of over $33,000 per year. By comparison, there were 11.2 million workers in food preparation and serving related occupations in 2009, who made just a little over $18,000 per year, on average.

Full Story: Service Economy Taking Over U.S. | Economy In Crisis.

Wackenhut in the Gulf guarding BP & US ‘Command ‘ Center

Jeremy Scahill:

I just got off the phone with my friends Naomi Klein, author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” and her husband Avi Lewis, host of al Jazeera English's popular program Fault Lines. They are traveling around the devastated US Gulf reporting on the horrific disaster caused by BP's massive oil spill. They described to me a run in that they just had with the private security company Wackenhut, which apparently has been hired to do the perimeter security for the “Deepwater Horizon Unified Command.” The “Unified Command” is run jointly by BP and several US government agencies including the US Coast Guard, the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security.

Wackenhut, of course, is the notorious private security company that operates in the US and around the globe. It recently became part of the huge British mercenary network G4S. Most recently, Wackenhut gained global infamy for the conduct of guards from its subsidiary Armor Group after it was revealed by whistleblowers that the company created a “Lord of the Flies environment” at the embassy “in which guards and supervisors are ‘peeing on people, eating potato chips out of [buttock] cracks, vodka shots out of [buttock] cracks… [drunken] brawls, threats and intimidation from those leaders participating in this activity.” According to the Project on Government Oversight, “Multiple guards say this deviant hazing has created a climate of fear and coercion, with those who declined to participate often ridiculed, humiliated, demoted, or even fired. The result is an environment that is dangerous and volatile. Some guards have reported barricading themselves in their rooms for fear that those carrying out the hazing will harm them physically.”

In other words, Wackenhut is the perfect choice to “guard” the joint BP-US government-US military operation in the Gulf.

Full Story: BP and US Government ‘Command Center’ Guarded by Company From Afghan Embassy Hazing Scandal | The Nation.

Who are the real “crazies” in our political culture?

-

Glenn Greenwald -

One of the favorite self-affirming pastimes of establishment Democratic and Republican pundits is to mock anyone and everyone outside of the two-party mainstream as crazy, sick lunatics. That serves to bolster the two political parties as the sole arbiters of what is acceptable: anyone who meaningfully deviates from their orthodoxies are, by definition, fringe, crazy losers. Ron Paul is one of those most frequently smeared in that fashion, and even someone like Howard Dean, during those times when he stepped outside of mainstream orthodoxy, was similarly smeared as literally insane, and still is.

Last night, the crazy, hateful, fringe lunatic Ron Paul voted to repeal the Clinton-era Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy (or, more accurately, he voted to allow the Pentagon to repeal it if and when it chooses to) — while 26 normal, sane, upstanding, mainstream House Democrats voted to retain that bigoted policy. Paul explained today that he changed his mind on DADT because gay constituents of his who were forced out of the military convinced him of the policy’s wrongness — how insane and evil he is!

In 2003, the crank lunatic-monster Ron Paul vehemently opposed the invasion of Iraq, while countless sane, normal, upstanding, good-hearted Democrats — including the current Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Senate Majority Leader, House Majority Leader, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and many of the progressive pundits who love to scorn Ron Paul as insane — supported the monstrous attack on that country.

Full Story: Who are the real “crazies” in our political culture? – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

BP’s corporate, personal ties to White House emerge

Three years ago, the national laboratory then headed by Steven Chu received the bulk of a $500 million grant from the British oil giant BP to develop alternative energy sources through a new Energy Biosciences Institute.

Chu received the grant from BP’s chief scientist at the time, Steven E. Koonin, a fellow theoretical physicist whom Chu jocularly described as “my twin brother.” Koonin had selected the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley, over other universities in the United States and Britain, in part because of Chu’s pioneering work in alternative fuels.

Today, Chu is President Barack Obama’s energy secretary, and he spent Tuesday in Houston working with BP officials to try to find a way to stop the flow of oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Full Story: BP’s corporate, personal ties to White House emerge – STLtoday.com.

Oil and gas development permits overwhelmingly approved by Louisiana

The catastrophic blowout of BP’s Deepwater Horizon, still spewing oil from the seafloor off the coast of Louisiana, has shone a bright light on the federal government’s lax oversight of Big Oil.

But Louisiana also has a history of accommodation to the industry’s role in coastal erosion, which devours the equivalent of a football field of the state’s wetlands every 38 minutes.

Any pipeline, oil well or other energy development in Louisiana’s 19-parish coastal zone needs a state permit, a stamp of approval saying the work results in “no net loss” of wetlands. State regulators are supposed to weigh a project’s environmental risks against its economic benefits, but the balance is tipped overwhelmingly in favor of oil and gas, a Times-Picayune review of five years of state records shows.

Full Story: Oil and gas development permits overwhelmingly approved by Louisiana | NOLA.com.

‘This Scares Everybody’ Says BP: Top Kill Fails, Imperils Gulf; ‘There Are No Solar Spills’

Juan Cole:

British Petroleum’s attempt to plug the petroleum gusher a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico through a “top kill,” pumping mud into the oil pipeline in hopes of plugging it up, has failed, according to Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles.

The LAT quotes him as saying, chillingly, at a news conference Saturday in Robert, LA, “After three full days, we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well, so we now believe it is time to move on to another option . . . This scares everybody – the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing or the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far.”

Worse, the best estimates of independent scientists for the amount of petroleum being released daily is now north, possibly well north, of 25,000 barrels a day.

To put this rate in perspective, it should be noted that oil companies routinely invest substantial resources to get fields going in places such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Iraqi Kurdistan that pump 7,000 to 15,000 barrels of petroleum a day.

Full Story: ‘This Scares Everybody’ Says BP: Top Kill Fails, Imperils Gulf; ‘There Are No Solar Spills’ | CommonDreams.org.

Merkel Goes From Glories To Disgrace

It was only nine months ago that Forbes magazine named German Chancellor Angela Merkel the world’s most powerful woman for the fourth year in a row.

She impressed Germans and foreigners alike with her ascent to power – an East German pastor’s daughter who took control of the male-dominated conservative party and won elections in Europe’s economic powerhouse, becoming Germany’s first female chancellor in 2005.

She was lauded for hosting the world’s top leaders at the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm in 2007 with ease and professionalism. She repaired relations with the United States that were strained over the Iraq war, and she positioned herself as a political heavyweight on the continent. It seemed that no major political and economic decision could be made in Europe without Merkel’s approval.

Full Story: Merkel Goes From Glories To Disgrace.

The Super Fiber That Controls Your Appetite and Blood Sugar

Imagine eating 12 pounds of food a day — and still staying thin and healthy. That may sound crazy, but it’s exactly what our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate for millennia! And they didn’t have any obesity or chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, or dementia.

Of course, I wouldn’t advise anyone today to eat 12 pounds of food, because the food in our society lacks one major secret ingredient that our ancestors ate in nearly all their food — fiber!

Fiber has so many health benefits that I want to focus on it in this week’s blog. I’ll explain some of its benefits and give you nine tips you can begin using today to get more fiber in your diet. I’ll also tell you about my favorite “super-fiber” that can help you increase your total fiber intake overnight.

But before I tell you about what fiber can do for you, let’s a look a little more at the history of fiber.

Full Story: Mark Hyman, MD: The Super Fiber That Controls Your Appetite and Blood Sugar.

Obama Administration Signals Lawsuit Over Arizona Immigration Law

Justice Department officials told Arizona’s attorney general and aides to the governor Friday that the federal government has serious reservations about the state’s new immigration law. They responded that a lawsuit against the state isn’t the answer.

“I told them we need solutions from Washington, not more lawsuits,” said Attorney General Terry Goddard, a Democrat.

The Justice Department initiated separate meetings by phone and face-to-face in Phoenix with Goddard and aides to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer to reach out to Arizona’s leaders and elicit information from state officials regarding the Obama administration’s concerns about the new law.

Full Story: Obama Administration Signals Lawsuit Over Arizona Immigration Law.

The Rest Of The World Is Taking On Big Banks — Why Not The U.S.?

The Consensus On Big Banks Shifts, But Not At Treasury

Attitudes towards big banks are changing around the world and across the political spectrum. In the UK, the new center-right government is looking for ways to break them up:

“We will take steps to reduce systemic risk in the banking system and will establish an independent commission to investigate the complex issue of separating retail and investment banking in a sustainable way; while recognizing that this will take time to get right, the commission will be given an initial time frame of one year to report.”

The European Commission, among others, signals that a bank tax is coming; presumably, as suggested by the IMF, this will have higher rates for bigger banks and for banks with less capital. And other European officials are increasingly worried by the lack of capital in German banks, by the recent reckless lending sprees in Ireland and Spain, and by the dangers posed by banks that are much bigger than their home countries (e.g., Switzerland).

Yet top Obama administration officials refuse to change their opinions in the slightest; they have dug in behind the idea that they represent the moderate center on banking policy. This is a weak position; it is simply a myth with no factual basis – the people who pushed effectively for more reform over the past few months were the center, not the left, of the Democratic party.

Full Story: The Consensus On Big Banks Shifts, But Not At Treasury « The Baseline Scenario.

Colin Powell: Oil Spill Is ‘Beyond The Capacity’ Of BP To Solve, Military Might Have Role

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested on Sunday that the United States military has a role to play in helping contain the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying that the problem now was “beyond the capacity” of BP to stop.

“The president has to get involved as quickly as possible,” Powell told ABC’s This Week. “If you don’t, then public opinion starts to drag you in the media, and pushes you. And so when something like this clearly is going to get beyond the capacity of whoever caused it, get beyond the capacity of local authorities, I think the federal government has to move in quickly and move in with, to use my favorite expression, decisive force and demonstrate that it’s doing everything that it can do.”

Powell continued: “[This] is a major problem that can only be dealt with by the federal government and all the resources of the federal government and that’s what the president is now doing.”

Full Story: Colin Powell: Oil Spill Is ‘Beyond The Capacity’ Of BP To Solve, Military Might Have Role.

Did aliens contact Earth in 1977?

When something truly startling happens, people say: “OMG!” or the dreaded, “Awesome!” But when Jerry Ehman sat at his kitchen table on Aug. 18, 1977, and saw six numbers and letters on the computer printout in front of him — six symbols that have become one of the grandest riddles in modern science — he chose the simplest expression of all. He took a red pen, circled the letters and then wrote:

When Jerry Ehman wrote that three-letter word, “wow,” he was a professor at Ohio State University volunteering with SETI, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. Every few days, a messenger would bike over from “The Big Ear,” Ohio State’s giant radio telescope in Delaware, Ohio, and hand Jerry computer records of sounds coming in from deep space. If something surprising popped up, he was to notify the other SETI folks.

What he saw that day was like an answered prayer.

Full Story: Aliens Found In Ohio? The Wow! Signal : NPR.

San Jose union begins organizing pot workers

A major California labor union is organizing medical cannabis workers in Oakland, a move that analysts say will help efforts to legalize marijuana and open the door for the union to organize thousands more workers if state voters pass a measure in November to allow recreational marijuana use by adults.

The 26,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 in San Jose is believed to be the first union in the country to organize workers in a marijuana-related business. It is considering new job classifications including “bud tender” – a sommelier of sorts who helps medical marijuana users choose the right strain for their ailment.

“Union bud tender,” said Carl Anderson, executive director of AMCD, an Oakland nonprofit medical cannabis dispensary that is going through the city’s permitting process. The dispensary has 15 freshly minted union employees as it readies for an expected opening in December. “With full union health benefits and a pension,” Anderson said.

Full Story: San Jose union begins organizing pot workers.

Man got cancer from transplanted kidney

Man died after getting a kidney transplanted from a donor with disease

A prominent organ-transplant hospital wasn’t to blame for the death of a man who became riddled with cancer after getting a kidney from a donor who unknowingly had uterine cancer, jurors found Friday.

The Queens jury found for NYU Langone Medical Center on Friday in the medical malpractice case surrounding Vincent Liew’s 2002 death, said the hospital’s lawyer, Robert Elliott. Experts have said it may be the only case of uterine cancer being transmitted by transplant, though the hospital has suggested Liew died of another form of cancer derived from the transplant.

Attorneys for Liew’s widow, Kimberly, who had sued seeking more than $3 million in damages, didn’t immediately return a call.

Full Story: Hospital wins suit after man got uterine cancer – Cancer- msnbc.com.

MIT’s Ridiculously Colorful Glove is the Latest Hand Tracking Interface (video)

Human computer interfaces just got a lot more colorful. Graduate student Robert Wang at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) has developed a simple but effective system for tracking hand motion that only requires a webcam and a glove. That lycra glove is covered in colorful blotches designed to help the hand tracking software determine how the user is posed. The color based technique allows for cheap and speedy motion capture at an interactive rate, giving you the ability to move virtual objects on the screen. Wang has a great overview of the system in the video below – it’s the most powerful and awesome eye-sore I’ve ever seen.

There is a vast array of motion caption hardware systems in development. Gesture based control technology, which will be coming to your TV, video game console, and computer this year, relies on these systems to identify and understand hand positions and motion. Wang, and his advisor Jovan Popovic, have accomplished most of the feats I’ve seen in other hand-tracking systems, but with much simpler (and cheaper) hardware. The trick is in the colors, which gives the video sampling software reference points to determine hand orientation. Pranav Mistry (from MIT’s Media Lab) uses an even simpler version of the color enhanced tracking for his Sixth Sense personal augmented reality device – with just bits of colored tape or marker caps on his fingertips. Though both of these MIT solutions seem silly in appearance, you can’t argue with their accuracy and speed:

Full Story: MIT’s Ridiculously Colorful Glove is the Latest Hand Tracking Interface(video) | Singularity Hub.

Rep Mark Kirk (R-IL) admits falsifying Navy record

The Republican candidate for President Obama’s old Senate seat has admitted to inaccurately claiming he received the U.S. Navy’s Intelligence Officer of the Year award for his service during NATO’s conflict with Serbia in the late 1990s.

Rep. Mark Kirk, a Navy reservist who was elected to Congress in 2001, acknowledged the error in his official biography after The Washington Post began looking into whether he had received the prestigious award, which is given by top Navy officials to a single individual annually.

The Post’s inquiries were sparked by complaints from a representative of state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Kirk’s Democratic opponent in the Illinois Senate race.

Full Story: Illinois Senate candidate admits claim about military award was inaccurate.

Poll: 51 Percent of Americans Oppose Offshore Oil Drilling

As the Deepwater Horizon leak continues to dump oil into the Gulf of Mexico, American opinions about offshore oil drilling have begun to shift. More than half now believe the risks of offshore drilling outweigh the benefits, according to a nationwide survey by Virginia Commonwealth University released today.

Views about offshore drilling are likely influenced by the major oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the survey. The leak has been ongoing since an April 20 explosion aboard a drilling rig. The leak raises the specter of environmental risks from offshore drilling when the process goes awry.

When asked specifically about the risk and benefit tradeoffs of offshore drilling, a 51-percent majority indicate the environmental risks outweigh the benefits; 35 percent think the benefits outweigh the environmental risks.

Full Story: Poll: 51 Percent of Americans Oppose Offshore Oil Drilling | LiveScience.

Falling Off the $1 Trillion Cliff

Robert Greenwald:

We’re headed for an ugly cliff this Sunday. At 10 a.m. on May 30, all of those little cost of war counters that have been furiously spinning away on countless websites will cross the $1 trillion mark. No alarm will sound. No bell will ring. But, on the day before Memorial Day, the cost of the wars in cold, hard cash will follow the human cost of the Afghanistan war into a new order of magnitude.

Just how much is $1 trillion? Let’s put it into real-world terms. For that amount of money, you could do fantastic, life-changing things like:

• Provide jobs for 1 million music/arts teachers for a year, and
• Provide health care for 1 million children for one year.

And then, just for fun, you could also:

Full Story: Falling Off the $1 Trillion Cliff « SpeakEasy.

Ancient mayor’s ‘lost tomb’ found south of Cairo

Archaeologists have discovered the 3,300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital’s mayor, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 19th century treasure hunters first carted off some of its decorative wall panels, officials announced Sunday.

Ptahmes, the mayor of Memphis, also served as army chief, overseer of the treasury and royal scribe under Seti I and his son and successor, Ramses II, in the 13th century B.C.

The discovery of his tomb earlier this year in a New Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara, south of Cairo, solves a riddle dating back to 1885, when foreign expeditions made off with pieces of the tomb, whose location was soon after forgotten.

Full Story: Ancient mayor’s ‘lost tomb’ found south of Cairo – Science- msnbc.com.

US eyes plan for unilateral military strike on Pakistan

US military planners are looking at options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan, for use if a successful attack on US soil is traced to Pakistani tribal areas, The Washington Post reported late Friday.

US retaliation would be contemplated only under extreme circumstances, unnamed senior military officials told the Post.

These circumstances might include a catastrophic attack that convinced President Barack Obama that the ongoing campaign of CIA drone strikes was insufficient.

“Planning has been reinvigorated in the wake of Times Square,” one official told the newspaper.

Full Story: US eyes plan for unilateral military strike on Pakistan | Raw Story.

Oakland looks to become first US city to tax, license commercial marijuana production

Local governments in California and other Western states have tried to clamp down on medical marijuana, but Oakland has taken a different approach.

If you can’t beat ‘em, tax ‘em.

After becoming the first U.S. city to impose a special tax on medical marijuana dispensaries, Oakland soon could become the first to sanction and tax commercial pot growing operations. Selling and growing marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

Two City Council members are preparing legislation, expected to be introduced next month, that would allow at least three industrial-scale growing operations.

Full Story: Oakland looks to become first US city to tax, license commercial marijuana production | Raw Story.

OPS: Unfortunately, State law won’t supersede Federal Law.

Van Susteren runs opinion poll on her intelligence — and loses

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren was so upset by a recent viewer email calling her stupid that she put up an opinion poll asking followers to rate who’s smarter — Van Susteren or her detractor, “Brian.”

“Who is dumber?” the poll asks. “Greta? Or Brian for spending his time watching someone he thinks is dumb?”

So far, Brian is winning. As of May 29, 78 percent of poll respondents agreed that Van Susteren is dumber than Brian.

Of course, Internet polls aren’t scientific and are often hijacked by particular groups to make a particular point. But it seems, at the very least, that Van Susteren’s fans didn’t show up in enough numbers to defend her.

Full Story: Van Susteren runs opinion poll on her intelligence — and loses | Raw Story.

California passes bill to counteract ‘disturbing’ Texas curriculum

Measure ensures Texas standards don’t ‘creep into our textbooks,’ senator tells Raw Story

texastextbooks California passes bill to counteract disturbing Texas curriculum

The California Senate on Friday approved legislation that sends a clear message to Texas and textbook publishers: don’t mess with our kids’ minds.

“My bill begins the process of ensuring that California students will not end up being taught with Texas standards,” State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who authored and sponsored the legislation, told Raw Story in an interview. Texas standards had better not “creep into our textbooks,” he said.

The S.B. 1451 measure – approved on a bipartisan vote of 25-5 – requires California’s Board of Education to examine and report any discrepancies between the new Texas standards and California’s standards. “At that point,” Yee told Raw Story, “we will make it very, very clear that we won’t accept textbooks that minimize the contributions of minorities and propagate the close connection between church and state.”

Full Story: California passes bill to counteract ‘disturbing’ Texas curriculum | Raw Story.

Shot in Iraq, soldier gets bill for missing equipment

As Americans prepare to honor fallen soldiers this Memorial Day, one former Oregon National Guard member is wondering why he’s being charged more than $3,000 for military gear that was lost after he was shot.

Gary Pfleider, a six-year veteran of the Guard, received a Purple Heart after he was shot by a sniper in Iraq. Some time later, he received a somewhat less gratifying award: A bill for $3,175 for military equipment that was lost when he was shipped out of Iraq for medical treatment.

CBS affiliate KVAL in Eugene, Oregon, reports:

Full Story: Shot in Iraq, soldier gets bill for missing equipment | Raw Story.

Yes, We Can Push Out BP

The administration has been keeping an ecological criminal in charge of the crime scene during a national crisis.

The latest attempt by BP to shut down its apocalyptic oil gusher — the “top kill” maneuver — has failed, despite BP CEO Tony Hayward’s assurance yesterday that it had a 70 percent chance of success. There’s no question that the federal government, if the president so decides, can take over the challenge of mitigating the damage of BP’s oil to the shores and waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But can President Obama take charge of stopping the wellhead gusher from the foreign oil giant? The administration argues it’s keeping BP in charge of the attempts to shut down the blown out well because government doesn’t have the equipment or expertise to solve this engineering problem without BP:

Adm. Thad Allen, Incident Commander: “To push BP out of the way, it would raise the question, to replace them with what?” [White House briefing, 5/24/10]

David Axelrod, White House adviser: “They’ve got equipment that our government doesn’t have.” [Fox News, 5/24/10]

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior: “This administration has done everything we can possibly do to make sure that we push BP to stop the spill and to contain the impact. We have also been very clear that there are areas where BP and the private sector are the ones who must continue to lead the efforts with government oversight, such as the deployment of private sector technology 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface to kill the well.” [White House briefing, 5/24/10]

Full Story: Think Progress » Yes, We Can Push Out BP.

Former Bush Adviser: ‘Republicans Are So Far Out Of Step’ On ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

Last week before the House passed an amendment to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), the policy that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly, Republicans took to the floor to rail against repeal, calling it a “social experiment,” un-patriotic and an “insult” to the military. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) claimed that “the American people don’t want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda.”

Today, on ABC’s This Week, former Bush adviser Matthew Dowd asked rhetorically, “They socialize with kids that are openly gay and all of the sudden they go in the armed services, somebody gives them a rifle and they’re not supposed to be around gay people anymore?” Then he took a shot at the GOP intransigence:

DOWD: It doesn’t make any sense. It’s long been decided in the public’s mind. I think the Republicans are so far out of step about this, where the country is…Republican office holders are so far out of step with this.

Full Story: Think Progress » Former Bush Adviser: ‘Republicans Are So Far Out Of Step’ On ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.

Is It Raining Oil In Florida? This Is Just The Beginning

As early as May 9 it was announced that FEMA evacuation protocol for forest fires in and around Tampa, Florida could be activated at a moment’s notice in the event of the oil slick approaching Florida’s coastline. One proposal is to undergo a ‘controlled burn’ of surface oil in the Gulf to prevent the oil reaching Florida’s coast. This would result in highly toxic fumes blowing ashore. In fact, toxic fumes have already been reported elsewhere as Gulf residents complain of breathing difficulties and nausea:

Oil is semi-volatile, which means that it can evaporate into the air and create a heavy vapor that stays near the ground — in the human breathing zone. When winds whip up oily sea water, the spray contains tiny droplets — basically a fume — of oil, which are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs. We know that’s happening in the Gulf Coast, because people are reporting a heavy oily smell in the air. Already my colleagues in Louisiana are reporting that people in the coastal community of Venice, Louisiana are suffering from nausea, vomiting, headaches, and difficulty breathing.

The following eyewitness account came to our attention yesterday:

Full Story: Is It Raining Oil In Florida? This Is Just The Beginning — Signs of the Times News.

Media ignores Goldman Sachs’ ties to Corexit dispersant

In a recent New York Times’ article “Less Toxic Dispersants Lose Out in BP Oil Spill Cleanup”, journalist Paula Quinlan questions why BP is using the 100 % toxic, 54 percent effective dispersant Corexit to clean up the oil when twelve other dispersants proved more effective in EPA testing.

BP spokesman Jon Pack defended the use of Corexit, which he said was decided in consultation with EPA. He called Corexit “pretty effective” and said the product had been “rigorously tested.”

“I’m not sure about the others,” Pack said. “This has been used by a number of major companies as an effective, low-toxicity dispersant.”

BP is not considering or testing other dispersants because the company’s attention is focused on plugging the leak and otherwise containing the spill, Pack said. “That has to be our primary focus right now,” he said.

Nalco spokesman Charlie Pajor said the decision on what to use was out of his company’s hands. He also declined to comment on EPA comparison tests, saying only that lab conditions cannot necessarily replicate those in the field. “The decision about what’s used is made by others — not by us,” he said.

Quinlan only looks at part of the picture. She associates BP’s investment in Nalco and oil industry representation on the board as the main reasons that Corexit was used instead of Dispirsit, which EPA testing shows to be twice as effective and a third less toxic. Yes, BP is hedging its losses with the profit it will make with its investment in Nalco, but who else benefits?

Follow the money…and the money goes to Goldman Sachs and friends. Instead, Quinlan (or her editor) goes after Exxon.

Full Story: Media ignores Goldman Sachs’ ties to Corexit dispersant – Picasso Dreams.

Obama’s Katrina? Maybe Worse

Frank Rich:

FOR Barack Obama’s knee-jerk foes, of course it was his Katrina. But for the rest of us, there’s the nagging fear that the largest oil spill in our history could yet prove worse if it drags on much longer. It might not only wreck the ecology of a region but capsize the principal mission of the Obama presidency.

Bioenergy represented 31.7% of the final energy use, compared to 30.8% oil, according to preliminary Swedish Energy Agency statistics presented by the Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio).

Svebios says the total share of renewable energy, using the definition in EU:s renewable energy directive (RED), was 46.3% in 2009 – well ahead of the EU target trajectory, and only 3.7% short of the EU target of 49% in 2020.

The major renewable energy source beside bioenergy in Sweden is hydropower. Wind power is still a relatively small contributor to the energy supply.

The main reason for the fast increase of renewable energy in recent years is the steady growth of bioenergy use, Svebio says.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Obama’s Katrina? Maybe Worse – NYTimes.com.

Renewable Energy Focus – More bioenergy than oil in Sweden

Bioenergy passed oil as the biggest energy source in Sweden in 2009 in final energy use.

Bioenergy represented 31.7% of the final energy use, compared to 30.8% oil, according to preliminary Swedish Energy Agency statistics presented by the Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio).

Svebios says the total share of renewable energy, using the definition in EU:s renewable energy directive (RED), was 46.3% in 2009 – well ahead of the EU target trajectory, and only 3.7% short of the EU target of 49% in 2020.

The major renewable energy source beside bioenergy in Sweden is hydropower. Wind power is still a relatively small contributor to the energy supply.

The main reason for the fast increase of renewable energy in recent years is the steady growth of bioenergy use, Svebio says.

Full Story: Renewable Energy Focus – More bioenergy than oil in Sweden.

The Technology Oil Executives Don’t Want to Talk About

Long before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, caught fire, sank and loosed a gusher of oil that would flow into the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history, the oil industry knew that — in the now famous words of the Apollo 13 astronauts — “Houston, we have a problem.”

As oil drilling in the new millennium moved increasingly into deep waters off the North American and European coasts, oilfield workers recognized they were operating with less and less of a safety net. Shear ram technology needed to make blowout preventers into failsafe devices capable of preventing catastrophic blowouts was, they knew, lagging behind the rest of oilfield technology.

A U.S. Minerals Management Service study had demonstrated as much in 2002. A more thorough study in 2004 had only served to underline the weaknesses. By 2005, Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp., then a force in offshore drilling, had begun working with Houston-based Cameron, the major producer of blowout preventers, to develop new and better shear and seal technology for wells.

Full Story: Craig Medred: Gulf Oil Spill: The Technology Oil Executives Don’t Want to Talk About.

More Revelations Point to Criminality of BP, Transocean

New revelations continue to emerge demonstrating the criminal negligence of BP and rig owner and operator Transocean in the lead-up to the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.

Douglas Harold Brown, the top mechanic and acting engineer on the Deepwater Horizon, told the House Judiciary Committee this week that downsizing by Transocean had contributed to a breakdown of basic safety measures. “Because of the cuts in the number of engine room personnel, we were often days, weeks and even months behind in completing the necessary preventative maintenance requirements,” Brown said in prepared testimony.

Brown confirmed accounts from other survivors that in the immediate aftermath of the explosion workers were not allowed to contact their families, but were instead interrogated. “I was then immediately taken to a room and interrogated by two lawyers from Transocean in front of a court reporter,” said Brown, who was suffering from leg injuries at the time.

Stephen Stone, a general laborer on the rig, said that Transocean officials forced him to take a drug test and asked him to sign a waiver forfeiting his right to sue in exchange for $5,000. “I never would have expected for my company to treat me like a criminal after I had survived such a disaster by making me submit to a drug test, and they try to tempt or trick me into giving up my legal rights by signing forms without a lawyer present,” Stone said.

Full Story: More Revelations Point to Criminality of BP, Transocean — Signs of the Times News.

Nun excommunicated for helping gravely ill mother get abortion

Last November, a 27-year-old woman was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. She was 11 weeks pregnant with her fifth child, and she was gravely ill. According to a hospital document, she had “right heart failure,” and her doctors told her that if she continued with the pregnancy, her risk of mortality was “close to 100 percent.”

The patient, who was too ill to be moved to the operating room much less another hospital, agreed to an abortion. But there was a complication: She was at a Catholic hospital.

“They were in quite a dilemma,” says Lisa Sowle Cahill, who teaches Catholic theology at Boston College. “There was no good way out of it. The official church position would mandate that the correct solution would be to let both the mother and the child die. I think in the practical situation that would be a very hard choice to make.”

Full Story: Nun Excommunicated For Allowing Abortion : NPR.

United States of Ecocide: Spilling and Consuming Way to Oblivion

Dr. Glen Barry:

A great, free nation remains immobilized in the face of ecological collapse

The United States of America is an epic experiment, as despite great accomplishments and numerous imperfections, we share a long history of constantly striving to improve our union. As Americans settle in for Memorial Day to remember veterans of all stripes – from great wars of world defense to more recent military adventurism – it is appropriate to consider what the current Gulf Oil Spill says about the American way of life. Plainly, our addiction to oil and consumption in general threatens to destroy regional and global ecosystems – the water, air, land and oceans –upon which Americans, humanity and all species depend upon for habitat and life.

America is truly exceptional. Yet it is not because of our materially excessive lifestyles, as best demonstrated by our wide girths and ample posteriors. There is more to America than consumption. Our greatness is primarily due to our wavering, imperfect yet unique commitment to freedom and liberty. Over two hundred years ago a just revolution was fought asserting individual liberties from monarchial authoritarianism. The principles of freedom and liberty were a gift to the world. This is what truly has set us apart. And despite two decades of consistent roll-backs in civil and human rights, Americans remain for now free peoples to prosper or expire.

America has and continues to face many challenges – repudiating slavery, enfranchising most, world wars – and most recently the inevitable slowdown of economic growth as speculative, industrial capitalism runs its course. America has enjoyed for awhile super-sized living and grown to be what it is based upon liquidating ecosystems. We have progressed to the point where regional ecosystems are collapsing – most obviously in the Gulf Coast, but throughout the vast country as ecosystems are dying. America now faces our most difficult and profound test ever, coming to terms with our deeply ecologically unsustainable lifestyles, and committing to national and global ecological sustainability.

Full Story: Earth Blog: EARTH MEANDERS: United States of Ecocide: Spilling and Consuming Way to Oblivion.

China-India Water Shortage Means Coca-Cola Joins Intel in Fight

A fight breaks out as student Vikas Dagar jostles with dozens of men, women and children to fill buckets from a truck that brings water twice a week to the village of Jharoda Kalan on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Three thousand kilometers (1,900 miles) away, near Xi’an in central China, power-plant worker Zhou Jie stands on the mostly dry bed of the Wei River, remembering when he used to fish there before pollution made the catch inedible.

Dagar and Zhou show the daily struggle with tainted or inadequate water in India and China, a growing shortage that the World Bank says will hamper growth in the world’s fastest- growing major economies. It also is pitting water-intensive businesses such as Intel Corp.’s China unit and bottling plants of Coca-Cola Co. against growing urban use and the 1.6 billion people in China and India who rely on farming for a living.

Full Story: China-India Water Shortage Means Coca-Cola Joins Intel in Fight – Bloomberg.com.

BP announces ‘top kill’ has failed to stop Gulf oil leak

BP has abandoned its most recent “top kill” effort to contain its runaway oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, a company official announced Saturday evening.

“After three full days, we have been unable to overcome the flow,” said the company’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles at a news conference in Robert, La. “. . . This scares everybody, the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, or the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far.”

“So engineers and experts have explored a variety of alternatives to stop the leak now,” President Barack Obama said in a statement Saturday evening. “They had hoped that the top kill approach attempted this week would halt the flow of oil and gas currently escaping from the seafloor. But while we initially received optimistic reports about the procedure, it is now clear that it has not worked.”

Full Story: BP announces ‘top kill’ has failed to stop Gulf oil leak | McClatchy.

Coalition rocked as Laws quits over cash for partner

The 18-day-old coalition looked fragile last night as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, resigned over expenses claims paid to his partner.

The 18-day-old coalition looked fragile last night as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, resigned over expenses claims paid to his partner.

Mr Laws, who friends said was “terrified” of being outed as gay, quit after it was revealed he claimed £40,000 in public money for rent paid to his long-term partner in apparent breach of House of Commons rules.

Full Story: Coalition rocked as Laws quits over cash for partner – UK Politics, UK – The Independent.

Cheney’s Chernobyl

Much has been said about the need to simply get the gulf oil geyser capped, and not to worry right now about whose fault it is, or was. I notice most of this seemingly noble sentiment is coming from those whose fault it might be, including the Obama Administration.

But there is one person at whose feet can be laid the entire disaster, and probably to the surprise of no one paying any attention at all since the year G.W. Bush was appointed, that person would be Dick Cheney.

…between January and March of 2001, incoming Vice President Dick Cheney conducted secret meetings with over 100 oil industry officials allowing them to draft a wish list of industry demands to be implemented by the oil friendly administration. Cheney also used that time to re-staff the Minerals Management Service with oil industry toadies including a cabal of his Wyoming carbon cronies. In 2003, newly reconstituted Minerals Management Service genuflected to the oil cartel by recommending the removal of the proposed requirement for acoustic switches. The Minerals Management Service’s 2003 study concluded that “acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly.”

Full Story: Shan Wells: Cheney’s Chernobyl.

Report: US weighs military option in Pakistan

Planning for a retaliatory attack was spurred by ties between alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and elements of the Pakistani Taliban, the Post said in an article posted on its website Friday night, quoting unidentified senior military officials.

The military would focus on air and missile strikes but also could use small teams of U.S. Special Operations troops currently along the border with Afghanistan, the Post said.

Airstrikes could damage the militants’ ability to launch new attacks but also might damage U.S.-Pakistani relations.

Full Story: Report: US weighs military option in Pakistan – Yahoo! News.

OPS: well, if he’s forced to pull out troops from Iran (not the mercenaries, just the US Troops) we can’t expect him to just bring them home…when they’re already over there….

House votes to extend jobless benefits, tax breaks

Lawmakers approve tax hike on investment managers’s; carried interest

- The House of Representatives voted Friday, 215 to 204, to extend unemployment insurance benefits through November as part of a wide-ranging bill that includes a tax hike on hedge-fund managers plus the renewal of a slew of expired middle-class tax perks.

The Senate won’t take up the bill until after its Memorial Day recess — that means approval, if it happens at all, won’t happen until Monday, June 7 at the earliest, though if a jobless-benefit extension is approved it would likely be retroactive.

More than 1 million unemployed Americans could be cut off from unemployment insurance in June as Congress comes down to the wire on debate over the far-reaching jobs and tax bill that would extend some federally-funded benefits.

A separate provision to continue subsidies to jobless workers to help them pay for their Cobra health-care payments has been stripped out of the same bill, though lawmakers could opt to address that provision separately.

Full Story: House votes to extend jobless benefits, tax breaks – MarketWatch.

Little Headway Made as BP Struggles to Halt Oil Leak

BP engineers struggled Friday to plug a gushing oil well a mile under the sea, but as of late in the day they had made little headway in stemming the flow.

Amid mixed messages about problems and progress, the effort — called a “top kill” — continued for a third day, with engineers describing a painstaking process of trying to plug the hole, using different weights of mud and sizes of debris like golf balls and tires, and then watching and waiting. They cannot use brute force because they risk making the leak worse if they damage the pipes leading down to the well.

Despite an apparent lack of progress, officials said they would continue with the process for another 48 hours, into Sunday, before giving up and considering other options, including another containment dome to try to capture the oil.

President Obama, who visited the Gulf Coast on Friday, spoke broadly about the government’s response to the environmental disaster, saying that “not every judgment we make will be right the first time out.”

Full Story: Little Headway Made as BP Struggles to Halt Oil Leak – NYTimes.com.

Clinton: Rich aren’t paying their fair share

Hillary Clinton struck a strong populist chord while wading into territory secretary of states rarely go Thursday: Domestic policy.

During a conference at the Brookings Institution on national security, the nation’s top diplomat bluntly aired her own views on the nation’s tax policies, saying she feels “the rich are not paying their fair share.”

“The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues [like the U.S.] – whether it’s individual, corporate or whatever the taxation forms are,” Clinton said after clearly stipulating that these were her opinions, no those of the Obama administration.

Full Story: CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Hillary Clinton « – Blogs from CNN.com.

GDP Growth Revised Lower

Despite optimism from economists and government officials, gross domestic product grew at a less than expected rate in the first three months of the year, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Commerce Department.

According to the report, gross domestic product grew at a revised annual rate of 3.0 percent in the first quarter of the year. That is lower than the 3.2 percent the Commerce Department had predicted last month and worse than the 3.4 percent GDP growth economists had forecast.

The first quarter economic growth is anemic compared with the final quarter of last year when the economy grew at a rate of 5.6 percent.

The lower-than-expected GDP growth can be at least partially attributed to higher imports and lower consumer spending.

Full Story: GDP Growth Revised Lower | Economy In Crisis.

Obama Talks Left But Walks Right on Financial Reform

Obama  talks Left to move right as Wall Street Criminals  are given a FREE PASS and reforms are watered down

Is The President The Kind of Leader Chairman Mao Warned Us About?

By Danny Schechter

We now know that it was the Obama Administration led by the President himself who used techniques well understood and denounced decades earlier by none other than Mao TseTung.

Mao had no use for those who talked left to move right.

In several high profile speeches, Obama lashed out at Wall Street for its greed and mendacity, proposing financial reforms that appeared to be hard hitting if only because of the way the lobbyists for the financial services industry squealed about them.

But even as he was feinting left, he and his main economic operative, Tim Geithner, were moving right to kill off amendments that the bankers hated like Senator Bernie Sanders’s proposal for a deep audit of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Brown-Kaufman Amendment that would have broken up the six biggest banks in America.”

As John Heilman explained in New York Magazine, “Geithner’s team spent much of its time during the debate over the Senate bill helping Senate Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd kill off or modify amendments being offered by more-progressive Democrats.”

Full Story: OpEdNews – Article: OBAMA TALKS LEFT BUT WALKS RIGHT ON FINANCIAL REFORM.

Social Security Will Fall To Obama Before The Taliban Does

Paul Craig Roberts:

We constantly hear from Wall Street gangsters and from Republicans and an occasional Democrat that Social Security and Medicare are a form of welfare that we can’t afford, an “unfunded liability.” This is a lie. People pay for Social Security and Medicare all their working lives.

Hank Paulson, the Gold Sachs bankster/U.S. Treasury Secretary, who deregulated the financial system, caused a world crisis that wrecked the prospects of foreign banks and governments, caused millions of Americans to lose retirement savings, homes, and jobs, and left taxpayers burdened with multi-trillions of dollars of new U.S.debt, is still not in jail. He is writing in the New York Times urging that the mess he caused be fixed by taking away from working Americans the Social Security and Medicare for which they have paid in earmarked taxes all their working lives.

Wall Street’s approach to the poor has always been to drive them deeper into the ground.

As there is no money to be made from the poor, Wall Street fleeces them by yanking away their entitlements. It has always been thus. During the Reagan administration, Wall Street decided to boost the values of its bond and stock portfolios by using Social Security revenues to lower budget deficits. Wall Street figured that lower deficits would mean lower interest rates and higher bond and stock prices.

Full Story: Social Security Will Fall To Obama Before The Taliban Does | Economy In Crisis.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The US has painted itself into a corner. We are helpless to protest communist China’s pegging of the Yuan to the dollar as we are beholden to them for trillions of dollars of goods each year.

We have no ability to force the Japanese to stop manipulating US currency prices to the detriment of our exporters because they are our single largest creditor nation and hold 1/3 of our government debt. We have no ability to enforce human rights standards in China and other parts of Asia. We have no hope of stopping European subsidizing their industrial core. We have no effective method for forcing the oil cartels to increase supply.

We are hamstrung simply because of our reliance on foreigners for capital and credit, for basic goods and services, for employment, and defense supplies. As illustrated above, these trends and the slowing interest in foreign direct investment in the US are heralding the beginning of a major change for the American super power as we have come to recognize it.

From problem to solution, protecting fledgling or recovering industries is clearly not the same as protecting established fully competitive industries. Many examples in our history have shown the merits of using protectionism to allow new or recovering industries the time to build up their technological base and their capital infrastructure to compete with established global industries. US industries such as steel, chemicals, semiconductors, glass, textiles, automobiles, and agriculture were all forged out of opportunities afforded by protectionism. Furthermore, there is little risk that companies formed in this way will run rampant over domestic buyers given the size and competitive nature of the US market and the anti-trust system that is at work domestically.

Full Story: Between a Rock and a Hard Place | Economy In Crisis.

Consumer Economy Fueled By Giant Corporations

In today’s economy the burden of fewer sales is not dispersed over hundreds of stores, it is dispersed primarily over just two (Wal-Mart and Target). When the giants have a bad fiscal quarter their stocks fall, and the entire country is adversely affected by its over-reliance on them.

On Friday May 28, 2010 the Commerce Department released updated figures for consumer spending in April. According to CNNMoney.com, individual consumer spending was up just 0.1 percent – about $4 billion. This figure was far less than most analysts expected, and played a part in leading financial markets down during that day of trading.

The worst part is that in a healthy and balanced economy the news from the Commerce Department should have been well received. In April 2010 spending increased just 0.1 percent, while income increased 0.4 percent. People earned more, in a still struggling economy, and saved more for a rainy day. This sort of sound personal economics is the sort of thing upon which a strong economy is built.

It is also, unfortunately, precisely the sort of thing that American financial investors hate to see.

Full Story: Consumer Economy Fueled By Giant Corporations | Economy In Crisis.

America’s Poorest Presidents (PHOTOS)

US Presidents are, by nature, risk takers. You have to be to “lead the nation into war, annex millions of square miles of territory, or drop the atomic bomb to end a war,” news site 24/7 Wall St. aptly points out.

In some cases, the audacity of past presidents has caused some woeful financial collapses. The following list from 24/7 Wall St., America’s Poorest Presidents, shows past commanders in chief to have been bold investors, businessmen, and plantation owners who, like most risk takers, had their luck run out once or twice.

For more on the financial lives of US presidents, check out The Net Worth Of The American Presidents: Washington To Obama.

Here’s the list of America’s Poorest Presidents from 24/7 Wall St.:

Full Story: America’s Poorest Presidents (PHOTOS).

No Respite for K Street During Memorial Day Break

The business community and organized labor are fanning out over the country during the Memorial Day recess, attempting to roust grass-roots support for their favorite candidates and legislative priorities in the waning months of the 111th Congress. They are squaring off on controversial issues such as immigration and free trade.

The labor federation AFL-CIO confirmed late last week that it will be on the ground in Arkansas helping Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D) runoff opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), by today. Early voting in that state starts a week before the June 8 runoff election.

“We’re going to be having a very busy recess all across the country to keep the pressure on our issues,” AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale said in a statement.

Full Story: No Respite for K Street During Memorial Day Break – Roll Call.

No Terror Evidence Against Some Detainees

The 48 Guantánamo Bay detainees whom the Obama administration has decided to keep holding without trial include several for whom there is no evidence of involvement in any specific terrorist plot, according to a report disclosed Friday.

The report was a 32-page summary of the findings of a task force whose members were drawn from national security agencies across the executive branch. The group worked throughout 2009 to evaluate each of the 240 detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, when the Obama administration took office and to decide their fates.

The task force’s general findings have been known since its report was completed in January. But the report itself was not made public. It was obtained Friday by The Washington Post, which posted the report on its Web site.

Full Story: No Terror Evidence Against Some Detainees – NYTimes.com.

Phillippe Cousteau To Bill Maher: Even Before Oil Spill, The Oceans Couldn’t Take Any More (VIDEO)

BP’s oil spill is humanity’s latest strike against against the World’s oceans, according to Phillippe Cousteau Jr., an explorer and host for Animal Planet and Planet Green.

Cousteau, who is the grandson of French explorer and ecologist Jacques-Yves Cousteau, appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday and explained what the country’s worst in oil spill in history will mean for oceans that are already suffering from pollution and overfishing.

“I could cut my leg off, I could cut my arm off, I could gouge my eye out, I’d still probably survive, but not very well,” Cousteau said. “And that’s what we’re doing to our oceans.”

Pointing to massive annual dead zones off the U.S. coast, Cousteau explained that our oceans are past their tipping point:

Full Story: Phillippe Cousteau To Bill Maher: Even Before Oil Spill, The Oceans Couldn’t Take Any More (VIDEO).

Is BP Oil Catastrophe ‘Unprecedented’? Hardly

Numerous politicians and oil industry officials have claimed the BP oil catastrophe growing in the Gulf of Mexico is “unprecedented.” From BP CEO Tony Hayward, who called his company’s environmental crime an “unprecedented accident,” to Admiral Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard, who called it an “unprecedented anomalous event,” officials and pundits have given the impression that the consequences of this catastrophe could not have been predicted. In a Congressional oversight hearing on the apocalyptic disaster on Thursday, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) even argued the country should respond to this “unprecedented” event by making sure “that we continue to produce oil here in the states.”

Watch a compilation prepared by ThinkProgress:

VIDEO AT LINK

Update: On Wednesday, Rachel Maddow described on her MSNBC show how the 1979 Ixtoc I blowout in the Gulf of Mexico — the largest accidental oil spill in history — was eerily similar to today’s Deepwater Horizon blowout. However, the Ixtoc’s failed cofferdam effort was called a “sombrero,” a totally different kind of headgear from BP’s failed “top hat.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Is BP Oil Catastrophe ‘Unprecedented’? Hardly.

Beck Accuses Jewish Social Justice Worker Of Advocating A New Holocaust

In a Washington Post op-ed last month, Simon Greer — the president and CEO of Jewish Funds for Justice, an organization that helps people achieve social and economic security by investing in healthy neighborhoods — bluntly rebuked Glenn Beck for his war against social justice.

“Mr. Beck, you are a con man and America is not buying it,” Greer wrote. “When churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship across this country advocate for social justice, advocate for the common good, advocate for America, they, and we, walk in God’s path.”

Yesterday on his radio station, Beck responded the only way he knows how — with hyperbolic, extreme rhetoric referencing Nazi imagery. Beck said that Greer’s advocacy for the common good and social justice “leads to death camps.” “A Jew, of all people, should know that,” Beck added. “This is exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany.” (Media Matters has the audio.)

After hearing Beck’s radical rant, Greer responded with this statement yesterday afternoon:

Full Story: Think Progress » Beck Accuses Jewish Social Justice Worker Of Advocating A New Holocaust.

The Ten Wealthiest Financiers in America Are Not Worth $900,000 an Hour

Dear Messrs, Tepper, Soros, Simons, Paulson, Cohen, Icahn, Lampert, Griffin, Arnold and Falcone,

It’s now estimated that about 150,000 teachers will lose their jobs next year because of the financial crisis touched off by your industry.

On behalf of the 3 million young people who would have been their students, I have a proposition for you: Donate 50 percent of your 2009 earnings to keep those 150,000 teachers in their classrooms. Each of you, on average, still would net over $935 million dollars for the year (you should be able to scrape by on that) — and the money you’d forgo would ensure that 3 million kids would get an education.

That the ten of you personally received $18.7 billion (not million) from your hedge fund proceeds in 2009 is quite a feat, given that it was the worst economic year since the Great Depression. You each got roughly $36 million a week — over $900,000 an hour! Meanwhile, as result of the Wall Street shenanigans you helped engineer, 29 million Americans are now without work or forced into part-time jobs.

Full Story: The Ten Wealthiest Financiers in America Are Not Worth $900,000 an Hour « SpeakEasy.

Christian ‘Pregnancy Crisis Centers’ Masquerading as Health Clinics Tell Women Abortion Causes Cancer and Infertility — And You’re Helping Pay for Them

Under the dubious free speech protection, CPCs are going to disgusting lengths to scare women out of seeking abortions — with the help of federal and state funding.

She sat in the counseling room, looking at the posters of fetal development covering the walls. In her hands she held the pamphlets urging her to forgo abortion.

Together with a partner, the young woman, Alexa Cole, had entered the crisis pregnancy center – CPC, for short – hoping to get more information about abortion and birth control options.

“[It] was in kind of like a shopping plaza area,” Cole later recalled. “It had a sign on the curb or by the sidewalk advertising Pregnancy Resource Center or something along those lines.”

Inside, the office was decorated like a campus health clinic. On the reception desk sat a jar with plastic fetuses for visitors to take home. After check-in, the receptionist ushered Cole and her friend inside the counseling room, then left them there for 10 minutes under the unflinching gaze of the unborn.

Cole had heard about all this before: the health clinic décor, the anti-abortion pamphlets, the rooms decorated with fetus photos. She had heard of video presentations where women lament their decision to terminate their pregnancies. She had even heard of one woman, while waiting for her own appointment, being asked to hold a live infant while the mother excused herself to the restroom.

Full Story: Christian ‘Pregnancy Crisis Centers’ Masquerading as Health Clinics Tell Women Abortion Causes Cancer and Infertility — And You’re Helping Pay for Them | Reproductive Justice | AlterNet.

The Infuriating Cell Phone Racket

If you’re not angry with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint — America’s four national wireless providers that reportedly control 90 percent of the market — then here’s some ridiculous news to raise your righteous ire.

Perhaps you’d be interested to know about one of the most outrageous cell phone scams? It’s simple: Charge customers for being forced to listen to 15 seconds of unnecessary voicemail instructions reminding them how to leave a message after the beep. According to New York Times technology writer David Pogue, if Verizon customers leave voicemails or check their messages twice a day, the mammoth New Jersey-based telco takes in around $620 million. In return, you lose wasted hours of your life and have to pay for it.

Speaking of Verizon, have you heard about the representative who refused to shut down a dead man’s service, even though his daughter produced a death certificate and needed the account closed so settlement of his estate could proceed? Or the rep who tried to collect an overdue $308 bill from customer Al Burrows by threatening to, and I quote, “blow your muthafucking house up”? Do we need to even talk about AT&T’s various controversies, from censoring Pearl Jam to allegedly helping the National Security Agency unlawfully monitor the American people’s communications?

Full Story: The Infuriating Cell Phone Racket | Media and Culture | AlterNet.

The Michael Jordan of Bailouts

David Sirota:

Based on John Kerry’s 2004 declaration that “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” you could credibly argue that the Massachusetts Democrat is the founder of modern political flip-flopping — the James Naismith of the political world's most dazzling sport. By that metric, though, you would also have to acknowledge that Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell is the game's Michael Jordan.

As the upper chamber’s GOP leader, McConnell backed the Wall Street bailout in 2008, calling it “one of the finest moments in the history of the Senate.” A year and a half later, he was telling reporters that he vehemently opposes bailouts of big business.

Now, just weeks after that textbook “for-it-before-against-it” feat, McConnell and his Republican cohorts are leaping past the Kerry-inspired fundamentals. Determined to pull off an all-star caliber act of “for-it-against-it-for-it” acrobatics, the GOP is pushing a bailout for yet another big business: the Oil Industry.

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | David Sirota | The Michael Jordan of Bailouts.

FPL smart meters: FPL installing digital ‘smart meter’ devices to empower consumers

Devices wirelessly send information about electricity use to the Web, where it can be accessed by customers to drive conservation efforts

In the past year, Kevin Linn has cut more than $100 from his monthly electric bill simply by raising his thermostat to 79 or 80 degrees when he’s not home, turning off his pool pump six hours a day and running his water heater for only a few hours in the morning and evening instead of all day.

The Coral Springs resident credits a new “smart meter” installed last year in his home by Florida Power & Light with prompting him to make the changes by allowing him to track – and trim – his electricity use.

Linn is one of 550,000 FPL customers in South Florida – including 325,000 in Broward County and 225,000 in Miami Dade – with smart meters. But he’s about to get a lot more company. FPL, the state’s largest utility, plans to replace nearly all of its 4.5 million customers’ meters by 2014 and make other improvements to make the region’s power grid more reliable. FPL will start installing smart meters in Palm Beach County as early as this year and will have 670,000 there by 2012.

Full Story: FPL smart meters: FPL installing digital ‘smart meter’ devices to empower consumers – South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.