Archive for May, 2010

Can the Euro be Saved?

Joseph E. Stiglitz :

The Greek financial crisis has put the very survival of the euro at stake. At the euro’s creation, many worried about its long-run viability. When everything went well, these worries were forgotten. But the question of how adjustments would be made if part of the eurozone were hit by a strong adverse shock lingered. Fixing the exchange rate and delegating monetary policy to the European Central Bank eliminated two primary means by which national governments stimulate their economies to avoid recession. What could replace them?

The Nobel Laureate Robert Mundell laid out the conditions under which a single currency could work. Europe didn’t meet those conditions at the time; it still doesn’t. The removal of legal barriers to the movement of workers created a single labor market, but linguistic and cultural differences make American-style labor mobility unachievable.

Moreover, Europe has no way of helping those countries facing severe problems. Consider Spain, which has an unemployment rate of 20% – and more than 40% among young people. It had a fiscal surplus before the crisis; after the crisis, its deficit increased to more than 11% of GDP. But, under European Union rules, Spain must now cut its spending, which will likely exacerbate unemployment. As its economy slows, the improvement in its fiscal position may be minimal.

Full Story: Can the Euro be Saved? – Project Syndicate.

Debt crisis: Panic on Wall Street, stonewalling in Europe

• Weak ECB statement on debt crisis undermines euro
• Report of $16bn US trading error adds to market chaos

Wall Street was gripped by a fresh panic tonight as fears spread that the Greek debt crisis will trigger a new catastrophe for the fragile global banking system.

The chaos was compounded as one major bank was said to have made a big trading “error” by trying to sell a huge number of shares by mistake.

The blue-chip Dow Jones index briefly fell almost 1,000 points, or 9%, dipping below 10,000 points for the first time since early February, before halving its losses in the next 30 minutes. It closed 348 points, or 3.2%, lower at 10514.

Full Story: Debt crisis: Panic on Wall Street, stonewalling in Europe | Business | The Guardian.

Iceland Volcano Emits ‘Massive’ New Ash Cloud, Airports Closed

Iceland’s volcano has produced a 1,000-mile-wide (1,600 kilometer-wide) ash cloud off the west coast of Ireland that will force western Irish airports to shut down again Friday, the Irish Aviation Authority announced.

The authority said shifting winds, currently coming from the north, had bundled recent days’ erupted ash into a massive cloud that is growing both in width and height by the hour.

Eurocontrol, which determines the air routes that airliners can use in and around Europe, says the ash accumulation is posing a new navigational obstacle – because the cloud is gradually climbing to 35,000 feet (10,500 meters) and into the typical cruising altitude of trans-Atlantic aircraft. Until recent days, the ash had remained below 20,000 feet (6,000 meters).

Full Story: Iceland Volcano Emits ‘Massive’ New Ash Cloud, Airports Closed.

Rosalynn Carter: Solving the Mental Health Crisis for Our Children

When I was a child in Plains, everyone knew everyone else in town. Church and school were the center of our community and were strong and positive influences on my life and those of my siblings and friends. So much has changed since then. The social fabric I took for granted no longer exists. On May 6–National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day–we need to acknowledge the fact that too many children in our nation are left to struggle with a whole host of stressful circumstances–violence, divorce, poverty, substance abuse and war, to mention just a few, without effective supports.

Children in foster care are especially vulnerable; they have already been exposed to trauma by virtue of being brought into the protective services system in the first place. Approximately 800,000 children are reported in the foster care system nationwide at any one time. Anywhere from 40 to 85 percent of kids in foster care have mental health problems–a staggering number. At a recent symposium at The Carter Center, a poised young woman in medical school described her early life as a foster child. “When I left my mom to live in a foster home,” Angela told us, “I was very, very upset because nobody told me why I left. They could not tell me anything. I was 6, so if they had said anything, I would not have understood it. I have been in different foster homes and group homes. I have been in mental institutions …

“It was really hard growing up, having to fight in different group homes and foster homes. One of the things that used to bother me the most was one of the girls always got to go home on holidays, and I wished I had a family that I could go home to. That used to eat me up inside so much.”

Full Story: Rosalynn Carter: Solving the Mental Health Crisis for Our Children.

Republican Rebranding Effort ‘Suspended’

You wouldn’t know it to look at the homepage for the Republican rebranding effort National Council for a New America, spearheaded by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), but CQ reports that the GOP’s 2009 effort to stave off minority-party status has been “suspended” indefinitely.

Intended to be a series of traveling town halls by prominent Republicans including Cantor, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, the much-ballyhooed effort to reach beyond the party’s base never really made it out of the Beltway. Cantor’s office told CQ the “relentless attacks from the left” were to blame, but most high-profile criticisms of the effort to make Republicans seem more moderate came from figures within the party itself — Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele and Mike Huckabee, among others — and the Republican base.

Instead of inclusion, HuffPost’s Tom Edsall wrote last fall, Republicans doubled down on “intolerance.” A year later, with Democrats expecting to suffer heavy losses in the midterm elections, the GOP doesn’t seem likely to pursue a strategy of moderation or inclusiveness in the near future. They may, however, head back to Arlington for more pizza.

Full Story: Republican Rebranding Effort ‘Suspended’.

Chicago CBS 2 Wont Cover CBS Reporter Tells GOP Candidate: We’ll Stop Covering Your Campaign If You Don’t Focus On Substance

The Illinois Senate race is shaping up to be a high-profile and influential campaign that will have national implications. Not only because Illinois is the most polulace state in the mid-west, but also because the seat up for grabs is President Obamas former seat. If Republican candidate Rep. Mark Kirk, were to win the seat it would be seen as an enormous PR loss for the White House.

The Democratic nominee, Alexi Giannoulias has been under fire because of the failiure of Broadway Bank and his direct connection to it. Believe it or not, there are suspicions of corruption, incompetence and graft with regard to a Democrat in Chicago. Go figure!

Obviously, this is such a damaging story for Giannoulias that Rep. Kirk has been able to gain some serious traction in the race by continuing to focus on the issue. Thats what a politician does when engaged in a tough campaign (Sen. John McCains Presidential campaign notwithstanding).

Now we have the spectacle of one of the major local stations in Chicago threatening not to cover the campaign if the Republican continues to discuss the most damaging aspect of his opponents record. Is this the role of an FCC licensed station, entrusted with the role of serving the public interest in relation to a free-flow of information for the citizenry? Maybe in Chicago it is.

REPORTER: Channel 2s made a decision. Were really not going to cover the Senate race, if its consistently only in your terms, is about Broadway Bank. The banks been taken over by the government, Alexis been pilloried. Tell me, what is your campaign going forward? What are the issues you are going to tell the voters why they should vote for you?

Hear the entire segment from Chicagos WLS-AM 890 Don Wade and Roma Show.

Seadrill, Other Controversial Gulf Rig, Gets Passing Grade From Obama Administration

The Department of Interior issued a report on Wednesday determining that a potentially unsafe oil rig operating in the Gulf of Mexico had in fact passed recent safety inspections.

In what was a delayed response to a request for information, the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) released findings showing that Seadrill Limited — the company behind a damaging oil spill off the coast of Australia last fall — had environmental violations with their operations in the Gulf but nothing else.

“The things that were found here, none were related to safety,” Walter Cruickshank, Deputy Director of the Minerals Management Service, told the Huffington Post. “The major issues were related to pollution, some drilling mud spilling. But the basic safety equipment all passed the inspections.”

Full Story: Seadrill, Other Controversial Gulf Rig, Gets Passing Grade From Obama Administration.

Credit Card Reform Makes It Easier To Pay Down Your Balance: Center For Responsible Lending

The credit card reform that took effect this year can save big money for cardholders who pay more than their minimum account balance — as much as $2 for every $1 paid above the minimum, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

That’s all there is to it: Pay more than the minimum balance and potentially, you could save big because your payment will be applied to the debt with the highest interest rate instead of to the debt with the lowest interest rate. The new payment allocation order, along with an end to arbitrary rate hikes and an opt-in requirement for overdraft charges, was one of the central components of the Credit CARD Act, which Obama signed into law in 2009 and which took effect this year.

“The way payments are allocated now you can benefit — but only if you pay more than minimum balance,” said CRL researcher Joshua Frank. “If you pay the minimum payment, you don’t get any benefit from the payment allocation now.”

Paying more than the monthly minimum has been a good idea since forever, of course. But now it’s an even better idea.

Full Story: Credit Card Reform Makes It Easier To Pay Down Your Balance: Center For Responsible Lending.

Romaine Lettuce Recall Details: E. Coli Linked To 23 States’ Romaine Supply

An E. coli outbreak possibly linked to tainted lettuce has sickened at least 19 people in Ohio, New York and Michigan, including students on at least two college campuses, prompting a recall throughout much of the country.

Freshway Foods of Sidney, Ohio, said it was recalling romaine lettuce sold in 23 states and the District of Columbia because of a possible link to E. coli.

Twelve of those sickened were hospitalized and three reported life-threatening symptoms, the Food and Drug Administration said. The federal Centers for Disease Control said it was looking at 10 other cases probably linked to the outbreak.

Full Story: Romaine Lettuce Recall Details: E. Coli Linked To 23 States’ Romaine Supply.

Republican Voter Enthusiasm Advantage Halved In Past Month: Gallup

Republican registered voters’ enthusiasm about voting in midterm elections this fall has dropped precipitously during the past month, cutting their enthusiasm advantage over Democrats almost in half, according to new Gallup polling data.

As Gallup’s Jeffrey Jones notes, registered voter party preferences remain in a statistical dead heat, so voter enthusiasm is a key measurement of likely election results — and Republicans historically have higher turnout. But the GOP’s current 10-point enthusiasm advantage is at its lowest ebb since Gallup began polling “2010 election attitudes” in March.

A month ago, shortly after the passage of health care reform and not long before taxes were due, some 54 percent of registered Republican voters told Gallup they were “very enthusiastic” about voting. Now that number is back down to 43 percent, about the same as it was before health reform passed.

Full Story: Republican Voter Enthusiasm Advantage Halved In Past Month: Gallup.

British Election 2010: Exit Polls Predict Hung Parliament

David Cameron’s rejuvenated Conservatives captured far more seats than Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s battered Labour Party but failed to win an absolute majority Thursday in Britain’s national election, according to television projections.

The exit polls did not bode well for Brown, Britain’s prime minister since 2007, and triggered uncertainty over who will form the next government. The country’s top three parties – the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – immediately began jockeying to form alliances.

An analysis by Britain’s main television stations suggested the Conservatives will win 305 of the 650 House of Commons seats, short of the 326 seats needed for a majority. Labour was seen winning 255 seats and the Liberal Democrats 61, far less than had been expected after their support surged during the campaign.

Full Story: British Election 2010: Exit Polls Predict Hung Parliament.

Oil From BP Spill Hits Louisiana Coast And Marshes (VIDEO)

Oil is washing up on the shores of New Harbor Island off the coast of Louisiana.

An Associated Press reporter saw a pinkish oily substance washing up Thursday on the sands and into the marshland at this part of the Chandeleur barrier islands chain.

It was at least the second time the AP has confirmed oil coming ashore. Oil was seen washing up at the mouth of the Mississippi last week.

Full Story: Oil From BP Spill Hits Louisiana Coast And Marshes (VIDEO).

New Riots Erupt In Greece (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Greek police fired tear gas to repel stone-throwing protesters after lawmakers approved drastic austerity cuts Thursday needed to secure international rescue loans worth euro110 billion ($140 billion).

In New York, Dow Jones industrials plunged almost 1,000 points before recovering to a loss of 505 as investors succumbed to fears that Greece’s debt problems would halt the global economic recovery. Traders watched protests in the streets of Athens on TV.

The new clashes came a day after violent protests left three people dead after a bank was firebombed.

Greek lawmakers voted 172-121 to approve the austerity measures — worth about euro30 billion ($38.18 billion) through 2012 — that will slash pensions and civil servants’ pay and further hike consumer taxes.

Full Story: New Riots Erupt In Greece (PHOTOS, VIDEO).

U.S. exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

The Interior Department exempted BP’s calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP’s lease at Deepwater Horizon a “categorical exclusion” from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 — and BP’s lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions — show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

Rethinking the rules

Now, environmentalists and some key senators are calling for a reassessment of safety requirements for offshore drilling.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who has supported offshore oil drilling in the past, said, “I suspect you’re going to see an entirely different regime once people have a chance to sit back and take a look at how do we anticipate and clean up these potential environmental consequences” from drilling.

Full Story: U.S. exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study.

Japan’s Brainwave Initiative: Mind-Reading Bots by 2020

On April 22nd 2010, the U.S. press was fussing over the Tea Party, illegal aliens (not the outer space kind), and Earth Day. But in Japan, a short cryptic statement in the Nikkei, Japan’s largest business newspaper, made a startling announcement about a somewhat different vision of the future — a goal to make available commercial mind-reading devices and personal assistant bots within the next 10 years.

It’s not surprising that the Japanese government and private sector would collaborate on a new initiative to develop bots with AI capable of detecting when you’re hungry, cold, or in need of assistance, and electronics that can be controlled by thought alone. BMI (Brain-Machine Interface) technology typically involves an EEG sensor connected to a computer that can be controlled purely by thought (or, more accurately, brainwaves). Research and early prototypes include full helmets, headbands, and direct brain implants to capture and interpret brainwaves.

While the U.S. Army actively pursues “thought helmets” that might someday lead to secure mind-to-mind communication between soldiers, the Japanese are going after the consumer market. The aim is to produce BMI technology to change TV channels or to use mobile phones to send text messages composed by thought alone. Several years ago, Hitachi, a major Japanese TV manufacturer, announced the goal of a commercial BMI by 2011 — and they are actively pursuing thought-controlled TV. If you’ve experienced the new immersive 3D TV technology, it’s not hard to imagine a near out-of-body-experience with a thought-controlled game controller as you navigate through 3D virtual space and visit your Second Life and World of Warcraft (WoW) friends at remote locations.

Full Story: Japan’s Brainwave Initiative: Mind-Reading Bots by 2020 | h+ Magazine.

FCC will seek to regulate Internet providers

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to seek clear-cut powers to regulate Internet service providers, redefining the government’s role over at least parts of the fast-growing industry.

The proposal, to be announced Thursday, is expected to be opposed by broadband network operators such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, whose Internet access businesses are becoming their main source of revenue as consumers rely on the Web as a primary communication tool.

Internet companies such as Google and Skype and public interest groups are applauding the move because it would allow the FCC to carry out policies to expand broadband access nationwide. The groups also support the commission’s efforts to create a regulation that would force broadband service providers to treat all applications equally over high-speed Internet networks, a concept known as net neutrality.

Full Story: FCC will seek to regulate Internet providers.

Obama: GOP amendment would ‘gut consumer protections’

President Barack Obama delivered a stern warning on Thursday that he would not allow Republicans to “gut” and “weaken” consumer protection safeguards as Congress debates financial regulatory reform.

Obama did not specifically threaten to veto the bill, the subject of fierce debate in the Senate, but aides made clear Obama would not accept changes to the bill which he believes are designed to water it down.

“Today, the Senate is considering a Republican amendment that will gut consumer protections and is worse than the status quo,” Obama said in a written statement.

Full Story: Obama: GOP amendment would ‘gut consumer protections’ | Raw Story.

Sheen of oil confirmed ashore on Louisiana island

Oil sheen from a massive crude spill in the Gulf of Mexico has started washing ashore on an island off Louisiana, officials said Thursday, confirming a land impact for the first time.

“Teams have confirmed oil on Freemason Island,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Connie Terrell told AFP. “It is at the south end of the Chandeleur Islands. It is largely sheen with no evidence of medium or heavy oil.”

BP spokesman John Curry said three emergency response teams had been sent to the island, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) offshore, and were deploying inflatable booms to try to protect the prime marsh and wildlife area.

Full Story: Sheen of oil confirmed ashore on Louisiana island | Raw Story.

Plan to audit Federal Reserve appears poised to clear Senate

Following last-minute adjustments, a proposal to audit the Federal Reserve that the Obama administration once opposed was on the verge of passing the Senate as it attracted broad support from conservatives and liberals alike.

The administration withdrew its objections to the proposal Thursday, saying it was satisfied that the audit would not interfere with the Fed’s authority to set monetary policy.

The one-time audit would focus on the Fed’s emergency lending to financial institutions in the months leading up to and after the 2008 financial crisis. At its peak, at the end of 2008, the Fed’s lending totaled $1.16 trillion.

Full Story: Plan to audit Federal Reserve appears poised to clear Senate | Raw Story.

Exposed: Christian leader caught with male escort says he needed help with his luggage

Update: Escort tells paper Rekers is homosexual

The newspaper that busted a Christian leader with a male escort ran a follow-up story Thursday afternoon:

The male escort hired by anti-gay activist George Alan Rekers has told Miami New Times the Baptist minister is a homosexual who paid him to provide body rubs once a day in the nude, during their ten-day vacation in Europe.

Rekers allegedly named his favorite maneuver the “long stroke” — a complicated caress “across his penis, thigh… and his anus over the butt cheeks,” as the escort puts it. “Rekers liked to be rubbed down there,” he says.

Full Story: Exposed: Christian leader caught with male escort says he needed help with his luggage | Raw Story.

In wake of massive oil spill, support for offshore drilling has ‘fallen dramatically.’

At the end of March, after the Obama administration announced that it would “approve new oil and gas drilling off U.S. coasts for the first time in decade,” a poll by Rasmussen Reports found that 72 percent of U.S. voters believed that offshore oil drilling should be allowed — the highest level of support for drilling that Rasmussen had found in nearly three years of surveying. But now, in the wake of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Rasmussen has found that support for offshore drilling has “fallen dramatically”:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58% of voters believe offshore oil drilling should be allowed. But that’s down 14 points from 72% just after President Obama’s announcement at the end of March that he was lifting the ban on offshore drilling for the first time in years.

Twenty-three percent (23%) now oppose offshore drilling. Nineteen percent (19%) remain unsure whether it’s a good idea or not.

However, while most support drilling, 69% are at least somewhat concerned that offshore drilling may cause environmental problems. That’s up from 49% in March.

Full Story: Think Progress » In wake of massive oil spill, support for offshore drilling has ‘fallen dramatically.’.

EXCLUSIVE: BP Worked With FreedomWorks And The Chamber To Build ‘Grassroots’ Support For More Drilling

BP has long touted itself as a “green” company interested not only in oil and other fossil fuels, but in renewable energy like wind and solar. But as Rebecca Lefton reported on ThinkProgress last week, BP barely invests anything in clean energy — most of its green campaign is actually just a massive advertising gimmick to conceal the truth about the company.

While BP has spent hundreds of millions building its brand, it has offshored the dirty work of promoting expanded drilling to right-wing front groups and trade associations. In a 2007 PowerPoint presentation obtained by ThinkProgress, BP appears to have been interested in fighting to open up protected waters to new offshore drilling. The presentation, organized by the BP-funded front group “Consumer Energy Alliance,” was delivered at the American Gas Association’s marketing meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The presentation calls for a five-year plan to build grassroots support to open wide swaths of both the East and West coasts to new drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf:

Full Story: Think Progress » EXCLUSIVE: BP Worked With FreedomWorks And The Chamber To Build ‘Grassroots’ Support For More Drilling.

Muslim Who Helped Foil Times Square Bombing: If I See A Terrorist, ‘I’m Going To Catch Him Before He Run Away’

As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, one of the key people who alerted police to the failed Times Square car bomb was Senagalese Muslim immigrant Aliou Niasse, who works as a street vendor there.

Yesterday, Democracy Now’s Anjali Kamat went to Times Square and interviewed Niasse about his experience alerting the police to the car bomb and his thoughts on Muslims who commit terrorism in the name of their faith. Niasse told Kamat that “Islam is not terrorist” and that if he sees any Muslim who tries to committ terrorism, he “is going to catch him before he runs away.” He also lamented the case of one “bad” Muslim being used to paint all Muslims with a broad brush:

Full Story: Think Progress » Muslim Who Helped Foil Times Square Bombing: If I See A Terrorist, ‘I’m Going To Catch Him Before He Run Away’.

McCain Caught Fundraising With Business Group That Killed McCain-Feingold, Shouts ‘I Love The Chamber!’

Today, while the Senate continued to debate Wall Street reform, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) ventured south of the Capitol to a fundraiser hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Years ago, when McCain still considered himself a “maverick,” McCain and the Chamber clashed bitterly as McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts and pushed for campaign finance reform to rein in corporate power over elections.

ThinkProgress approached McCain as he walked to the fundraiser from his car. Asked if he supports new campaign finance reforms, McCain said no, and said that Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) bill does not include disclosure requirements for unions. In fact, the DISCLOSE Act would force ads funded by unions to reveal the same information as ads funded by corporations. Asked why he was attending a fundraiser hosted by the organization that helped kill his own campaign finance reforms, McCain flashed ThinkProgress a thumbs up and yelled that he “love[s] the Chamber of Commerce”:

Full Story: Think Progress » McCain Caught Fundraising With Business Group That Killed McCain-Feingold, Shouts ‘I Love The Chamber!’.

New Report To President Obama Could Be Catalyst For ‘Sweeping Reform’ On Cancer Policy

Environmental contaminants are leading to much more cancer cases than previously acknowledged, and should lead to a new, stronger federal approach to regulate such toxins, according to a new report to President Obama prepared by a panel of cancer experts.

“A growing body of research documents myriad established and suspected environmental factors linked to genetic, immune, and endocrine dysfunction that can lead to cancer and other diseases,” the report, released Thursday, says.

The report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now, notes that about 41 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, and roughly 21 percent will die from the disease.

Full Story: On The Hill: New Report To President Obama Could Be Catalyst For ‘Sweeping Reform’ On Cancer Policy.

Citizens United and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Team Up to Convince Congress That Corporations are People, Too

Today the House Administration Committee heard testimony on the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections, or DISCLOSE Act (HR. 5175).

As the legislation was written in response to the changes made to campaign finance as a result of the Supreme Court ruling on the Citizens United case, it shouldn’t surprise you that witnesses included the president of Citizens United, a lawyer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several organizations concerned about the opening of floodgates of corporate funding in the wake of the controversial decision.

The DISCLOSE Act would force corporations and groups participating in political campaign speech to disclose their donors, among other provisions designed to lessen the effect of corporate dollars and lobbyists on elections. (For a better idea of what things would be like if the bill were law, scroll down to the bottom of this page.)

Full Story: Citizens United and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Team Up to Convince Congress That Corporations are People, Too | BuzzFlash.org.

Northern Arizona University to Monitor Students with Chipped ID cards « Wake-up Call

The larger issue being overlooked is the growing use of tracking devices in the U.S., and how willing most people are to be tagged and set loose in the “wild” where their movements and spending habits are monitored, recorded and filed away for someone’s future use.

Ann Bibby Care2.com May 5, 2010

Northern Arizona State will soon track class attendance via an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip in student ID cards. The system, which is similar to one used at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, will use sensors to detect students as they enter classrooms. The data collected will be recorded and shared with professors.

Predictably, students are unhappy and, with equal predictability, have taken their discontent to Facebook via the protest group although some of the more energetic have started petitions against the proposed practice.

University officials say their aim is only to increase student attendance and improve performance though, with enough sensors, they could easily track students’ whereabouts on campus at all times. Students counter, correctly, that they are adults and whether they attend class regularly, on time or pass at all is not the university’s business.

Full Story: Northern Arizona University to Monitor Students with Chipped ID cards « Wake-up Call.

Police Across Arizona See Dangers of New Law

It’s not every day in Arizona that the police are so eager not to do their job. Yet the state’s latest anti-immigrant crack down has evoked protests from cops across the state, who fear that a new measure to criminalize undocumented immigrants will only make it harder to deal with local crime.

Broad opposition to the law, SB 1070, has produced some of the immigration debate’s strangest bedfellows: civil rights advocates have aligned with police chiefs to warn of the consequences of entangling local police in federal immigration policy. And law enforcement officials nationwide have warned that the growing trend of localizing immigration enforcement undermines years of progress in establishing “community policing” techniques that are believed effective in preventing crime.

Shortly before Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill, the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police warned in a statement that the policy “will negatively affect the ability of law enforcement agencies across the state to fulfill their many responsibilities in a timely manner.” Concerned about new liabilities created by the legislation (one provision enables local citizens to sue if they believe police are not enforcing immigration law strictly enough), the organization called on Congress “to begin the process of comprehensively addressin

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Police Across Arizona See Dangers of New Law.

SCOLDING WALL STREET WON’T STOP THE GREED

Jim Hightower  :

Bankers hire scads of lawyers and lobbyists so they can easily slip out of regulations, but restructuring actually limits the harm they can do to us

President Obama marched boldly up to Wall Street and scolded those narcissistic banksters who crashed our economy and looted our public treasury. And what did the banksters do? They applauded!

Were they acknowledging their naughtiness and promising to play nice? Of course not! Theirs was the applause of relief, for the President of the United States – who really could punish these thieves and rein them in – had merely chastised them. Can you imagine how Wall Street bankers respond to being scolded? Right, they shrug and go right back to their profiteering.

Obama declared that his proposed financial reforms are “in the best interest of the financial sector.” Honchos of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and the other giants broke out in big grins at this, because they knew it meant that Obama was merely going to “regulate” excess, not restructure the financial oligopolies that inevitably produce the excesses. Bankers hire scads of lawyers and lobbyists so they can easily slip out of regulations, but restructuring actually limits the harm they can do to us.

Full Story: Jim Hightower | SCOLDING WALL STREET WON’T STOP THE GREED.

Bush-Cheney ‘Regulators’ Let BP Avoid Filing Blowout Containment Plan for Gulf Oil Rig

Feds let BP avoid filing blowout plan for Gulf rig

Petrochemical giant BP didn’t file a plan to specifically handle a major oil spill from an uncontrolled blowout at its Deepwater Horizon project because the federal agency that regulates offshore rigs changed its rules two years ago to exempt certain projects in the central Gulf region, according to an Associated Press review of official records.

The Minerals Management Service, an arm of the Interior Department known for its cozy relationship with major oil companies, says it issued the rule relief because some of the industrywide mandates weren’t practical for all of the exploratory and production projects operating in the Gulf region.

The blowout rule, the fact that it was lifted in April 2008 for rigs that didn’t fit at least one of five conditions, and confusion about whether the BP Deepwater Horizon project was covered by the regulation, caught the attention of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Full Story: The Associated Press: Feds let BP avoid filing blowout plan for Gulf rig.

Weeds 1, Monsanto 0, Farmers -1

This should come as no surprise, but The New York Times breathlessly informed us yesterday that US farmers are starting to have a hard time coping with Roundup-resistant weeds. That’s right. Straight from the heart of the country where people don’t want to see evolution taught, farmers are getting a real-life lesson in evolutionary theory. I bet no one, absolutely no one, saw this one coming.

Here’s how The Times presents it:

Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds.

To fight them, Mr. Anderson and farmers throughout the East, Midwest and South are being forced to spray fields with more toxic herbicides, pull weeds by hand and return to more labor-intensive methods like regular plowing.

Full Story: Scholars and Rogues » Weeds 1, Monsanto 0, Farmers -1.

U3-X Personal Mobility Prototype

With U3-X Honda rethinks the concept of personal mobility, providing the rider with freedom of movement in any direction forward, backward, sideways and diagonally by simply leaning slightly in the desired direction. The lightweight and compact one-wheeled device also features a foldable seat and retractable footrests. A lithium-ion battery pack provides power for up to one-hour of use and can be recharged by plugging in to a conventional household or office 120-volt power outlet.

Weighing roughly 22 pounds, U3-X uses an advanced Honda proprietary balance-control system which derives from its research into human walking dynamics for the development of the ASIMO bi-pedal humanoid robot. To realize full freedom of movement in all directions, the U3-X also employs the worlds first omni-directional driving wheel system (Honda Omni Traction Drive System) which utilizes a series of concentrically mounted wheels a larger, forward and backward moving inner wheel and a series of smaller sideways moving outer wheels. Diagonal motion is achieved when both forward and sideways moving wheels operate in tandem.

In addition, the compact size and one-wheel-drive design of U3-X was intended to provide user-friendly and pedestrian-friendly operation with low-mounted foot pedals that make it easy for the rider to reach the ground, and a seat height that places the rider at approximately the same eye-level as other people.

Category:

Full Story: YouTube – U3-X Personal Mobility Prototype.

Despite plan, not a single fire boom on hand on Gulf Coast at time of oil spill | al.com

If U.S. officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land.

The problem: The federal government did not have a single fire boom on hand

The “In-Situ Burn” plan produced by federal agencies in 1994 calls for responding to a major oil spill in the Gulf with the immediate use of fire booms.

But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.

Full Story: Despite plan, not a single fire boom on hand on Gulf Coast at time of oil spill | al.com.

Garrison Keiler: Christian’s

“Going to church no more makes you a Christian
than sleeping in your garage makes you a car.”

~~ Garrison Keiler

The Greek Crisis

“Did Your Momma Tell You That?”

By DEAN BAKER

Keynes quipped in the General Theory that the world is ruled by the ideas of long dead economists. I was reminded of this comment when I heard a member of Germany’s parliament scornfully dismiss the suggestion that the European Central Bank should target a somewhat higher rate of inflation. This suggestion had been put forward by Oliver Blanchard, one of the world’s leading macroeconomists. Furthermore, he had proposed a higher inflation target in his role as the chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with an economist, no matter how prominent they are or where they work. But what was striking was the nature of the dismissal. The parliamentarian just asserted that: “inflation never solved anything.”

That’s a strong statement. Did he get that information from his parents? Or, as we used to say growing up in Chicago, “Did your momma tell you that?”

Blanchard and others arguing for a higher inflation target actually have very good reasons as to why higher inflation might be very helpful in solving the world economic crisis. First, a higher inflation rate will erode the real value of debt. This will benefit all debtors, households, businesses and countries.

Full Story: CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

Import Certificates Could Be Consistent With WTO Rules

Taking a page out of billionaire Warren Buffett’s playbook, Howard Richman of the Ideal Taxes Association says that Import Certificates would go a long way toward reducing the nation’s trade deficit while complying with current WTO commitments.

It is entirely possible for America to achieve balanced trade and still live up to its commitments under the World Trade Organization and other regimes, according to Howard Richman of the Ideal Taxes Association.

Taking a page out of billionaire Warren Buffett’s playbook, Richman says that Import Certificates would go a long way toward reducing the nation’s trade deficit.

Buffett proposed such a plan back in 2003. Under his proposal, import certificates would be given to exporters in exchange for each dollar worth of goods produced domestically and sold abroad. Those import certificates could then be used to import goods or sold to foreign exporters wishing to sell goods in the U.S. or other domestic companies trying to import goods.

Full Story: Import Certificates Could Be Consistent With WTO Rules | Economy In Crisis.

Donald Sutherland: Get Rid of Morning Joe

Are the programmers at MSNBC nuts? They give us refreshing afternoons with Chris and Ed, put us to bed with the clarifying sensibilities of Rachel and Keith and then, idiotically, wake us up with Mr. Small Mouth.

Who is this idiot? Why is he there? He can’t even listen. He doesn’t conduct a decent conversation. He runs over everyone else’s words with a landslide of diarrhea. I saw him on Friday, stomping around the stage like a posturing rooster, calling Paul Krugman a political hack. Paul Krugman’s a political hack? Surely they put make-up on Mr. Small Mouth. Doesn’t he look in the mirror? That’s where he’d see what a political hack looks like.

For god’s sake, MSNBC, get rid of him, he’s beneath you. This guy makes Pat Buchanan look embarrassed. Go out and get the television equivalent of David Brooks to chair your program. He’d be worth listening to. He’d give conservative opinion a rational voice. That person would be calmly articulate, and that’d make for worthwhile conversation. Reminiscent of William Safire or, better still, William F. Buckley. That’d be fair and balanced broadcasting!

Full Story: Donald Sutherland: Get Rid of Morning Joe.

A Presidency in Peril: Warnings from Robert Kuttner

Dean Baker:

Like most progressives, Robert Kuttner had great hopes following President Obama’s election in 2008. However, Kuttner also has been around long enough to realize the risk that President Obama might not live up to his potential in bringing about progressive change. His new book, A Presidency in Peril, documents how the Obama administration has been falling short.

The basic story is both straightforward and depressing. President Obama surrounded himself with advisers that were close to Wall Street and business in general. This undoubtedly reflected his disposition; he had always been a political moderate. However, it was also partly determined by his political backers. Wall Street’s generosity with campaign contributions was an essential part of his rise to the top of the Democratic field in the presidential primaries. This guaranteed that Obama would pursue a cautious business-friendly path.

Much of the book focuses on the response to the economic crisis, in particular the bank bailouts and the stimulus. In both cases Obama took a centrist path that that largely protected the interests of the wealthy. This is most clear in the case of the bank bailout. In the closing weeks of the presidential campaign Obama took time out to push for the TARP, a huge wad of money for the banks that came largely without strings. After TARP, the bailouts continued, with Citigroup and Bank of America nursed back to life thanks to the generosity of the taxpayers.

Full Story: A Presidency in Peril: Warnings from Robert Kuttner | TPMCafe.

Break Up the Banks: By the Numbers

Robert Weissman :

Any time in the next couple days, the Senate may consider a measure, sponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ted Kaufman, D-Delaware, to break up the biggest banks. It’s a vital step to strengthening the economy and rescuing our democracy.

It’s past time to break up the big banks. They take on too much risk and endanger the financial system. They benefit from unfair subsidies and the assurance that the government will bail them out in times of trouble. They have far too much political influence and threaten our democracy.

Evidence:

1. 45.23, 16.56, 65.61, 36.42

Industry concentration has soared over the last quarter century. From 1993 to 2009, according to data compiled by Iren Levina, Gerald Epstein and James Crotty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst the top five commercial banks went from having 16.56 of total bank assets to 45.23 — a jump of almost three times. The top five investment banks in 2007 had 65.61 percent of overall investment banking revenue, up from 36.43 in 1993.

Thanks to a series of shotgun mergers amidst the worst of the financial crisis, the top banks actually have a much greater share of banking assets than they did before the crash.

Full Story: Break Up the Banks: By the Numbers | CommonDreams.org.

Dispersant ‘may make Deepwater Horizon oil spill more toxic’

Scientists fear chemicals used in oil clean-up can cause genetic mutations and cancer, and threaten sea turtles and tuna

Chemicals used to break up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill before it reaches shore could do lasting damage to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, environmental scientists say.

By BP‘s own account, it has mobilised a third of the world’s supply of dispersant, so far pouring about 140,000 gallons (637,000 litres) of the cocktail into the Gulf as of today. Some of the dispersant has been injected directly into the source of the spill on the ocean floor, a technique never deployed before, deepening concerns about further damage to the environment.

The dispersants are designed to break down crude into tiny drops, which can be eaten up by naturally occurring bacteria, to lessen the impact of a giant sea of crude washing on to oyster beds and birds’ nests on shore. But environmental scientists say the dispersants, which can cause genetic mutations and cancer, add to the toxicity of the spill. That exposes sea turtles and bluefin tuna to an even greater risk than crude alone. Dolphins and whales have already been spotted in the spill.The dangers are even greater for dispersants poured into the source of the spill, where they are picked up by the current and wash through the Gulf.

Full Story: Dispersant ‘may make Deepwater Horizon oil spill more toxic’ | Environment | The Guardian.

BP Oil Spill: 7 Secrets BP Doesn’t Want You To Know (PHOTOS)

BP made its name synonymous with “Beyond Petroleum” in 2000, rebranding itself as a company that sees a future past dependence on fossil fuels. But ten years later, the oil company is as committed to furthering their oil expansion as ever. And as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill emphasizes only too well, there are serious environmental and human concerns when it comes to drilling for oil. The Gulf spill, which left 11 workers dead and 17 injured, is about the size of Rhode Island, running across the northern Gulf of Mexico between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Florida. It runs wide, threatening the coastlines, and deep, traveling beneath about 5,000 feet of water and 13,000 feet under the seabed. The Deepwater Horizon well is leaking 5,000 barrels per day, shutting down fishing across the affected areas, damaging fragile habitats and putting animals in peril.

This may be BP's largest disaster, with many claiming it will be larger than Exxon Valdez's spill, but it is certainly not the first. We're taking a look at BP's most questionable actions both past and present– which do you think is most inexcusable?

Full Story: BP Oil Spill: 7 Secrets BP Doesn’t Want You To Know (PHOTOS).

Financial Crisis Commission Hearing UPDATES: Bear Stearns, SEC Officials Grilled

We’ve compiled breaking updates of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s hearing today on “the shadow banking system.” Today’s testimony includes former top Bear Stearns executives Jimmy Cayne and Alan Schwartz; former SEC chairmen William Donaldson and Christopher Cox; and David Kotz, the SEC’s inspector general. (You can watch the hearings live on CSPAN here.)

Check back here for regular updates.

Full Story: Financial Crisis Commission Hearing UPDATES: Bear Stearns, SEC Officials Grilled.

The Language God Talks: The Back Story

Henrik Ibsen once wrote of the “life-lie” of authors, the resolve to create some day an enduring masterwork, the Big One that never gets written. For decades I harbored a title, A Child’s Garden of God, for a book telling of my religious faith in a frame of modern science, not necessarily a Big One, but a work I felt born to give the world. Not being a scientist at all, I was a fool to dream of accomplishing this, but novelists are fools whose dreams every now and then take form, see the light, and last.

My notes on A Child’s Garden of God go back to the 1960s. As they piled up I would comfort myself by recalling what Einstein said when asked how he worked: “How do I work? I grope.” If that was really true, I thought, there might yet be a shred of hope for an aging storyteller getting nowhere, year by accelerating year, with his dream of writing A Child’s Garden of God. At last I decided either to do something about it, or give it up as my life-lie. I first intruded on Professor I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard, who taught the History of Science for 60 years, and told him, in an ad lib farrago lasting perhaps 20 minutes, what I had in mind. “Wow, big,” he commented. “I don’t agree, of course, I think it’s all stochastic, but I’d like to see how you do it.” Years later, still haunted by Garden, I intruded on the famed theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson at Princeton, and harangued him about the project. He heard me out and soberly nodded, saying, “It can work.”

More years passed, more notes piled up. At last I met the man who got me to start writing the book — do or die — Maarten Schmidt of Caltech, who discovered the quasars. At a lunch with him and another Caltech astronomer I knew well, Jewish and utterly secular, I poured out the still-unwritten Garden. My Jewish friend appeared indulgently amused by the idea. Maarten Schmidt listened with an intense far-off look. When I fell silent he said, “It can be done, but it is very, very hard.”

Full Story: Herman Wouk: The Language God Talks: The Back Story.

Fed Transparency: Dorgan, Grassley Push Amendment To Disclose Spending

A bipartisan pair of senators opened a second front in the fight to bring transparency to the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, introducing an amendment to the Wall Street reform bill that would require the central bank to comply with two federal court orders requiring it to disclose how trillions in taxpayer dollars have been used.

The Fed has appealed both rulings.

The amendment, cosponsored by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), is the second assault on the Fed. The first was launched by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is pushing an amendment that reflects audit language passed by the House.

With the White House strongly opposed to an audit of the Fed, three economists, including two who had previously worked on oversight of the Fed, pressed the administration to drop its “apocalyptic opposition” to the amendment. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the administration “would fight to stop it at all costs.

Full Story: Fed Transparency: Dorgan, Grassley Push Amendment To Disclose Spending.

Discussing Oversight Failures, Federal Financial Regulators Do Little To Inspire Confidence

Former top officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission did little Wednesday to affect the overall perception that the agency failed in its mission to supervise large investment banks.

For starters, Christopher Cox, the agency’s much-maligned former chairman during the George W. Bush administration, referred to the SEC’s Consolidated Supervised Entities program, with supervisory powers over large firms like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, as a “review” program Wednesday during testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

The CSE program was reliant on firms to provide data and documents, Cox said, which CSE examiners reviewed.

Full Story: Discussing Oversight Failures, Federal Financial Regulators Do Little To Inspire Confidence.

FCC to Restore Authority Over Net Neutrality, Broadband Service: Netroots Backlash Cited

In response to widespread netroots backlash, the chairman of the FCC has decided to choose a path toward a broadband policy framework that will protect Net Neutrality and promote universal access.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Chairman plans to restore the status quo as it existed prior to the court decision in order to fulfill the agency’s goals to bring broadband to all Americans and preserve a free and open Internet. The recent court decision determined that changed made by the Bush-era FCC had stripped the agency from authority to regulate Internet broadband providers like Comcast and ATT.

Assuming that the Chairman’s proposal is reasonable, it is a clear signal that the FCC is backing away from the cliff, and charting a path toward a sensible broadband policy framework that will protect consumers and promote universal access.

Full Story: Josh Silver: FCC to Restore Authority Over Net Neutrality, Broadband Service: Netroots Backlash Cited.

Why Jamie Dimon is Afraid of Debating Elizbeth Warren on CFPA

There are a lot of reasons to like the idea of a consumer financial protection agency. My colleagues Barbara Kiviat and Michael Grunwald have made the more substantive ones here, here and here. But I think I have stumbled across possibly the most telling data point yet on why the CFPA is likely a good idea: Jamie Dimon is scared of debating Elizabeth Warren on the topic. It’s not because Dimon is not passionate about the topic. Privately, Dimon and other JP Morgan exeuctives have been strongly making their case in Washington against starting a new agency, even one housed at the Fed, to monitor consumer protection in the banking business.

But when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel called a top J.P. Morgan executive to ask for the bank’s support in creating a new consumer-protection agency, the executive—former Commerce Secretary William Daley—said no, according to people familiar with the conversation. His boss believed that sufficient consumer safeguards were already on the books.

Nonetheless, I have put some phone calls in and Dimon is unwilling to take Warren on in person and debate the topic. Dimon is a smart guy. So the fact that he is scared to debate Warren on the topic means that he knows he can’t win. Here’s why:

Full Story: Why Jamie Dimon is Afraid of Debating Elizbeth Warren on CFPA – The Curious Capitalist – TIME.com.

Freddie Mac Asks For $10.6 BILLION In Aid After 1Q Loss

Freddie Mac is asking for $10.6 billion in additional federal aid after posting a big loss in the first three months of the year. It’s another sign that the taxpayer bill for stabilizing the housing market will keep mounting.

The McLean, Va.-based mortgage finance company has been effectively owned by the government after nearly collapsing in September 2008. The new request will bring the total tab for rescuing Freddie Mac to $61.3 billion.

But the company’s CEO Charles Haldeman said, “We are seeing some signs of stabilization in the housing market, including house prices and sales in some key geographic areas.”

Full Story: Freddie Mac Asks For $10.6 BILLION In Aid After 1Q Loss.

Gulf Oil Spill: Palin Camp Says You Can’t Trust Foreign Oil Companies [UPDATE]

cAs much as I try to hew to what I call Weigel's First Constant — which asserts that a diminished value should be placed on the social network statements that emerge from somewhere in the camp of sometime-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin — this is just too bizarre not to mention.

See, as everyone knows, Palin is pretty much defined as the ultimate in “Drill, Baby, Drill”. And she has so many thoughts on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and What It Means. Mostly, her thoughts evolves slowly, as she learns from other people what she is supposed to think about any given issue. But today, Sarah Inc. took to its Twitter account to offer some lessons about What The Gulf Oil Spill Teaches Us. Her bottom line: don't trust the foreign oils!

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: Palin Camp Says You Can’t Trust Foreign Oil Companies [UPDATE].

Bloomberg ‘Terror Gap’ Argument Shot Down By Pro-Gun GOP Senators

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s appeal to what he called “common sense” at a congressional hearing Wednesday morning failed to sway two Republican senators who said that giving the government the ability to block the purchase of guns by suspected terrorists would undermine the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.

“Shouldn’t FBI agents have the authority to block sales of guns and explosives to those on the terror watchlists — and deemed too dangerous to fly? I actually believe that they should,” Bloomberg told senators. Federal law currently only allows the government to block guns sales for a very limited number of reasons, and being on that list is not one of them. (For more background, see Tuesday’s article on the subject.)

“This common-sense legislation is not anti-gun — it’s anti-terrorist,” chimed in Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), the sponsor of a bill that would close what Bloomberg has called a “terror gap.”

But GOP Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina wouldn’t go along.

Full Story: Bloomberg ‘Terror Gap’ Argument Shot Down By Pro-Gun GOP Senators.

U.S. exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

The Interior Department exempted BP’s calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP’s lease at Deepwater Horizon a “categorical exclusion” from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 — and BP’s lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions — show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

Rethinking the rules

Now, environmentalists and some key senators are calling for a reassessment of safety requirements for offshore drilling.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who has supported offshore oil drilling in the past, said, “I suspect you’re going to see an entirely different regime once people have a chance to sit back and take a look at how do we anticipate and clean up these potential environmental consequences” from drilling.

Full Story: U.S. exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study.

Retired general: GOP is undermining national security to score partisan points

In the wake of the arrest of alleged terrorist Faisal Shahzad, a number of Republican politicians have expressed outrage that the naturalized American citizen is being afforded the constitutional rights of citizenship.

Major General (ret.) Paul Eaton told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Tuesday, “I am a little surprised that we’re here to defend our Constitution against a Republican senator and a Republican representative’s attack on it.”

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representative Peter King (R-NY) have both suggested that it was an error to read Shahzad his Miranda rights and to keep him in the civilian justice system rather than immediately handing him over to the military.

Full Story: Retired general: GOP is undermining national security to score partisan points | Raw Story.

Media Ignore The Fact That Man Who Alerted Police To Failed Times Square Bombing Is A Muslim Immigrant

The chief suspect in the case of the failed Times Square car bombing is Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad, who has confessed to the plot. Much of the media has latched onto Shahzad’s Muslim faith and his Pakistani identity, making inflammatory remarks and suggestions about Muslims and Pakistanis:

– CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson complained that the words “muslim” and “Islam” are “not mentioned” enough in stories about Shahzad. He wrote, “It really is pathetic that you’re more likely to see the words “racist” and “Republican” together in the newspaper these days than “terrorism” and “Islam.” [5/4/2010]

– Hate radio host Neal Boortz tweeted, “OMG! The Times Square Bomber is a Muslim! Shocker! Who would have believed it?” [5/4/2010]

Full Story: Think Progress » Media Ignore The Fact That Man Who Alerted Police To Failed Times Square Bombing Is A Muslim Immigrant.

Saudi-Funded Fox News Rejects Ad Arguing Against Middle East Oil Dependence

Last week, progressive veterans organization VoteVets.org released an ad arguing that “a clean energy climate plan would cut our dependence on foreign oil in half and cut oil profits for hostile nations.” The ad asserts that “every day, Iran gets $100 million richer selling oil around the world and peddling hate.”

While CNN and MSNBC have aired the ad, Fox News is refusing to do so. Politico reports Fox apparently found the ad “too confusing.” Watch the “confusing” ad:

There is nothing confusing about the ad. VoteVets’ assertion that hostile nations profit off our oil dependence is based on a Wonk Room analysis that finds, under the a strong carbon cap regime which restrains U.S. appetite for oil, Iran would lose $1.8 trillion worth of oil revenues over the next forty years — or, over $100 million a day. “If the world moves away from oil dependence, Iran’s regime will no longer be able to rely on petrodollars to stay afloat,” Brad Johnson writes in pretty simple terms.

Full Story: Think Progress » Saudi-Funded Fox News Rejects Ad Arguing Against Middle East Oil Dependence.

Cantor says Americans are ‘better than’ everyone else.

Yesterday at the Heritage Foundation, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) delivered a fiery, hyperbolic speech attacking the Obama administration’s national security policies. “America is at risk of slipping into the type of false sense of security which prevailed before that September morning,” he said, claiming that the President is “apolog[izing] on behalf of America” and being “naïve.” Last night on Fox News, Cantor continued his attacks. “We’ve done nothing wrong,” he said, adding that the U.S. doesn’t have to apologize for anything because Americans are “better than” the rest of the world:

CANTOR: What the President said in that speech [in Cairo] was that he hoped to return to the days when we had a partnership with the Muslim world. That America 20, 30 years ago enjoyed some type of good relationship that now has gone awry. I don’t see it that way. I don’t see that somehow we need apologize for anything that America has done. Are we a perfect nation? By no means. Are we better than any[one] else because of the exceptional nature of who we are? Yes.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Cantor says Americans are ‘better than’ everyone else..

Sens. Kyl And Roberts Pretend Republicans Never Embraced The Slogan ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’

In the wake of the massive BP oil spill, Senate Republicans are disowning the catchphrase “Drill, Baby, Drill,” claiming that Republicans never endorsed it. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) attempted to distance themselves and their party from the phrase yesterday, pretending not to know who popularized it, and dismissing the slogan as something from “two, three years ago”:

“That was not a Senate Republican phrase,” Kyl said. “I think there was a candidate that used that. I think our phrase was ‘drill here, drill now,’ meaning here in the United States and as quickly as oil and gas leases are going.”

Roberts said Republicans were always uneasy with the catchphrase.

“I don’t know about the slogan. The slogan was what, two, three years ago and basically we had a lot of opposition to it anyway.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Sens. Kyl And Roberts Pretend Republicans Never Embraced The Slogan ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’.

Murdoch forced to defend why Fox continues to ‘subsidize’ Beck’s show.

Rupert Murdoch Color of Change and Stop Beck have been waging an aggressive campaign to convince Fox News advertisers to boycott Glenn Beck’s show. So far, 123 companies have dropped him, and his broadcast in the UK has been running without ads for nearly three months. Yesterday on a conference call about its third quarter earnings, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had to defend the fact that Fox News is keeping Beck on:

Murdoch was asked on the company’s third quarter analyst call about the departure of advertisers, many of whom have left the show in an organized protest that began last year when Beck said President Obama had a “deep-seated hatred of white people.” One wanted to know how long Fox News would “subsidize” the show, which is “filled with house ads.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Murdoch forced to defend why Fox continues to ‘subsidize’ Beck’s show..

Shahzad Questioned Extensively Before Being Read Miranda Rights And Continued Cooperating Afterwards

As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, after alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad was arrested late Monday at JFK International Airport, conservatives began following the political playbook they used to criticize the Obama administration’s handling of the attempted Christmas day bombing: complaining that authorities might read him his Miranda rights. “Don’t give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it’s all about,” said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

McCain’s close ally, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), even suggested that Congress should create a process to strip “American citizens who choose to become affiliated with foreign terrorists” of their citizenship and, therefore, their Miranda rights. Lieberman explained to reporters that he believes “that any time we arrest somebody we suspect to be a terrorist the first thing that ought to happen with them is they ought to be interviewed without Miranda Rights being given to them”:

Full Story: Think Progress » Shahzad Questioned Extensively Before Being Read Miranda Rights And Continued Cooperating Afterwards.

BP’s Oily Political Connections: From the Bush to Obama Era

Judging from the oily history of the last ten years, reining in BP could prove politically daunting. A company with incredible economic might, BP has enjoyed privileged access to the inner rungs of Washington power. Only by ridding the political system of insider money can we hope to avert future oil disasters like the devastating spill which hit the Gulf of Mexico last week.

The perversion of U.S. democracy to serve oil interests like BP went into high gear under former Vice President Dick Cheney. Dallas-based Halliburton, where Cheney worked prior to the 2000 election, made equipment and chemicals used in oil drilling, and sold to producers including BP.

Later during the 2000 election, BP exerted significant influence over politics through its campaign contributions. That is not too surprising when you consider that in the late 1990s BP had acquired Amoco and Atlantic Richfield, two companies which had been players on the U.S. electoral scene and which had made political contributions. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, BP ranked fourth amongst oil and gas company contributors in the 2000 elections, with donations totaling $1.1 million. Two thirds of that amount went to the GOP.

Full Story: BP’s Oily Political Connections: From the Bush to Obama Era | BuzzFlash.org.

WHO issues warning about corruption of pharmaceutical industry

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued a fact sheet warning about the corruption and unethical practices that are endemic to every step of the pharmaceuticals business.

“Corruption in the pharmaceutical sector occurs throughout all stages of the medicine chain, from research and development to dispensing and promotion,” the fact sheet reads.

The medicine chain refers to each step involved in getting drugs into the hands of patients, including drug creation, regulation, management and consumption. According to WHO data, unethical practices such as bribery, falsification of evidence, and mismanagement of conflicts of interest are “common throughout the medicine chain.”

Full Story: WHO issues warning about corruption of pharmaceutical industry.

BP Oil spill trajectory 2010.05.04

Projected movement of BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Movement shows spill moving East to threaten Florida's Panhandle, moving south to potentially get caught up in Loop Current and move onto South Florida/Keys and then up the East Coast to Georgia, SC and NC.

Journalists file lawsuit in GOP convention arrests

Amy Goodman, host of the syndicated “Democracy Now!” news program, and two of her producers filed suit against the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and other defendants Wednesday over their arrests while covering the 2008 Republican National Convention.

The three were among an estimated 40 to 50 journalists who were arrested covering street protests at the convention in downtown St. Paul, along with about 800 demonstrators and bystanders.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Minnesota, alleges that authorities violated the First Amendment freedoms of Goodman, her producers and other journalists by interfering with their right to gather news.

Full Story: AT&T.

ATM Card Skimming Five Times Higher This Year

ATM skimming is approaching a billion-dollar issue. ATM skimming is happening coast to coast and there seems to be no end in sight. Skimming devices have been found recently at ATMs at a Bank of America in Daytona Beach and one weekend last month people came and went from the automated teller machine outside a Chase Bank in Escondido, California. They slipped in their cards, took their money and left.

In Boston, police uncovered an international ATM skimming ring responsible for stealing money from hundreds of local accounts. Izaylo Hristov, 28, of Ontario, Canada, a Bulgarian citizen, was arrested at an ATM in the Boston area along with Viadiclav Vladevo and Anton Venkov. Venkov had $99,100 in $20 bills in his car when he was arrested. One of them had Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards and American Express cards with post-it notes that had “PIN’’ and various numbers written on them. These cards were used to write the stolen data on, and then used to make withdrawals. Apparently a few more than a few people in the Boston area didn’t watch this on Fox Boston, or this on NBC Boston or read this in the Boston Globe.

A spate of recent news reports highlight growing ATM fraud. Law enforcement in New York City reported a gang had stolen $500,000 from bank accounts via ATM skimming. They installed cameras and skimming devices on the machines, and recorded the magnetic strips and the PIN numbers.

Full Story: Identity Theft Expert Speaker Protection Prevention Resource Blog » Secret Service: ATM Card Skimming Five Times Higher This Year.

What Has Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Six key general policy failures have contributed:

1. One-way free trade (NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, GATT)

Our “free trade” policies have allowed other countries to use unfair tactics to put our industries out of business. Theoretically these nations are committed to opening their markets to our goods – but they are not foolish enough to allow that to happen in an uncontrolled way.

2. Failure to Shield Our Key Industries from Foreign Takeovers

Virtually all our industry is available for sale to the highest bidder, even if that bidder resides in a country like China with a long history of cheating us in commercial competition. We have made almost no effort to restrain other countries from purchasing or bankrupting our industries.

Full Story: What Has Caused Our Economic Crisis? | Economy In Crisis.

School Districts Plan on Cutting Jobs

Squeezed by budget shortfalls at the state and local level and facing an end to federal stimulus funding, school districts across the country are planning to shed jobs, according to a new survey by the American Association of School Administrators.

“Faced with continued budgetary constraints, school leaders across the nation are forced to consider an unprecedented level of layoffs that would negatively impact economic recovery and deal a devastating blow to public education,” AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech said in a press release.

The survey found that 82 percent of school districts plan on cutting jobs. Another 53 percent of school districts say that they will be forced to implement hiring freezes in the coming school year due to budget concerns.

Full Story: School Districts Plan on Cutting Jobs | Economy In Crisis.

Some Manufacturers Overlook forms of Cheap Labor

“If we were at war with the Chinese and we were buying our ammunition from the Chinese, I don’t think that would work very well,” Robert J. Smith, president and CEO of Highway Machine Company, told the Courier-Press.

n the nation’s most manufacturing intensive state, some Indiana companies are bucking trends – and profit margins – and choosing to keep production facilities in the U.S. rather than outsource to cheaper labor markets such as China, India and Mexico, according to The Evansville Courier-Press.

Some choose to keep their manufacturing production in the U.S. out of a sense of patriotic duty, some do it for logistical reason, others do because of the type of product they produce or because of a government incentive they receive.

Robert J. Smith III, president and CEO of Highway Machine Company, told The Evansville Courier-Press that he chose not to outsource because manufacturing is the lifeblood of the nation’s economy and a key part of the nation’s defense and infrastructure.

Full Story: Some Manufacturers Overlook forms of Cheap Labor | Economy In Crisis.

Mike Malloy: Anger Management Gone Wrong

Mike confesses his inability to focus and control his anger in light of the recent oil spill disaster.

Dr. Riki Ott – Is this a Gulf coast disaster – can we recover?

The Thom Hartmann Program can be heard daily M-F 12-3pm ET. Visit www.thomhartmann.com to listen live, join the community or purchase a podcast.

Deepwater Horizon oil spill sparks calls for $10bn levy on BP and drilling ban

Arnold Schwarzenegger ends support for California oil expansion as political backlash against oil industry takes hold

The catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico set off a backlash against the oil industry yesterday, with a demand for a ban on future offshore drilling. The anger came as BP executives admitted in a private briefing for members of Congress that the gusher on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico could reach 40,000 barrels a day – eight times higher than the current estimate – if they cannot cap the flow.

It also carries the risk of a financial sting, with the White House yesterday backing a proposal by senators that would put oil companies on the hook for up to to $10bn (£6.5bn) for the cost of a spill.

The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the administration supported a proposal to make liability retroactive. The cap would be 133 times greater than the $75m bill that BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig, faces under existing US laws following its explosion on 20 April. “It’s time to believe our eyes and accept the obvious risks of drilling,” Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, told a press conference. “This is about making Big Oil responsible for its excesses.”

Full Story: Deepwater Horizon oil spill sparks calls for $10bn levy on BP and drilling ban | Environment | The Guardian.

Coal Ash Regulation Proposals Announced By EPA

Coal ash slurry left behind in a containment pond near the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant.

After months of deliberation, US Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson announced today the first-ever national rule to regulate toxic coal ash.

Coal ash, which is a byproduct of the burning of coal in power plants, can pose serious threats to public health and the environment if it is improperly managed. Until now, there has been no nationwide standard for the regulation of the material.

Jackson outlined two different proposals to regulate coal ash described under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Under the first proposal, coal ash would be regulated as a “special waste,” meaning the wet storage of the material at impoundments would be entirely phased out in favor of landfills. Under the second, more lenient proposal, impoundments would be required to use a composite liner for coal ash storage, which would prevent toxic materials from leaking into the groundwater.

Full Story: Coal Ash Regulation Proposals Announced By EPA.

Chase Sued AGAIN Over Mortgage Modifications Gone Wrong

Three frustrated homeowners in New York City are suing JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s failure to permanently modify their mortgages under the Obama administration’s plan to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

The complaint, filed in federal court in New York, says the plaintiffs, who are represented by attorneys with the nonprofit Urban Justice Center, relied on promises by Chase that they could have their loans modified if they made reduced payments per the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Despite making payments on time, they’ve received foreclosure threats but no modifications.

One of the plaintiffs, Alex Lam, a 35-year-old restaurant manager, alleges Chase told him to actually stop making payments in order to be eligible for help. In early 2009, Lam contacted Washington Mutual (since absorbed by Chase) about a modification after his adjustable-rate mortgage blew up in his face. He was told he didn’t qualify for help because he was current on his payments.

Full Story: Chase Sued AGAIN Over Mortgage Modifications Gone Wrong.

Barney Frank To Hank Paulson ‘F**k You! F**K You!’

The leaked portions of Newsweek scribe Jonathan Alter’s “The Promise,” which details President Obama’s first year in office and is due out in May 18, continue to surface. And Alter’s got more profanity-laced details of tense backroom meetings.

At the Washington Independent Aaron Weiner highlights another F-bomb festival, this time from a September 2008 meeting that included House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D – Mass.), Obama, John McCain, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and President Bush.

Frank was apparently incensed at Paulson’s attempt to stop Democrats from criticizing the huge plan to bailout the financial sector — in fact, it was Republicans who balked, Weiner observes. Here’s Frank’s blowup at Paulson:

Full Story: Jonathan Alter’s ‘The Promise’: Barney Frank To Hank Paulson ‘F**k You! F**K You!’.

Concern About Intimidation By Massey Prompts Mine Safety Investigators To Solicit Anonymous Tips

Alarmed by reports that Massey Energy officials are intimidating miners and their families, the Department of Labor announced today that it is launching a “supplemental” investigation into last month’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster — in which witnesses can remain anonymous.

The department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration said in a statement that “Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis called for this additional investigation group to provide a safe, confidential venue for the general public, family members of the victims and miners to speak freely to MSHA investigators about the mine explosion without fear of retaliation or the need to reveal their identity.”

“We are clearly concerned about fear and intimidation by the company,” an administration official told HuffPost.

Full Story: Upper Big Branch Disaster: Concern About Intimidation By Massey Prompts Mine Safety Investigators To Solicit Anonymous Tips.

Greek Protesters Storm The Acropolis As Anger Grows

A general strike Wednesday in Greece was halting flights, trains and ferries and paralyzing public services, as unions rally against major new spending cuts aimed at saving the country from bankruptcy.

All flights into and out of Greece stopped at midnight Tuesday. Schools, hospitals, tax offices and the Acropolis along with other ancient sites will be closed. There will be no news broadcasts, and shop owners have been called on to close their shutters during rallies.

More than 1,500 police will be on duty for Wednesday’s two protest marches in central Athens – the first major demonstrations since the new measures were announced Sunday.

Full Story: Greek Protesters Storm The Acropolis As Anger Grows.

China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months, Faber Says

Investor Marc Faber said China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as declines in stock and commodity prices signal the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.

The Shanghai Composite Index has failed to regain its 2009 high while industrial commodities and shares of Australian resource exporters are acting “heavy,” Faber said. The opening of the World Expo in Shanghai last week is “not a particularly good omen,” he said, citing a property bust and depression that followed the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna.

“The market is telling you that something is not quite right,” Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. “The Chinese economy is going to slow down regardless. It is more likely that we will even have a crash sometime in the next nine to 12 months.”

Full Story: China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months, Faber Says (Update3) – BusinessWeek.

CBS News and CNN Are Back in Partnership Negotiations

CBS News and CNN are in advanced negotiations about signing a news-gathering partnership, according to executives familiar with the discussions. The talks revolve around how the two news divisions can combine operations in a bid to cut costs and expand audiences on both sides. While such conversations have occurred over the last decade, the current news-business climate — plummeting CNN ratings, ever-shrinking evening-news audiences, major layoffs at ABC — make a deal more logical than ever before. The talks are still fluid, which means that executives would speak only on condition of anonymity, but CNN and CBS began negotiations some time ago. “It’s been going on for a couple of months,” one person with knowledge of the matter said. “They’re in deep talks.”

The discussions resume years of on-and-off flirtation between CBS News and CNN. In the past, talks have broken down over issues like how marquee talent at each network would be shared across the combined entity or which channel would retain control of editorial decisions. “There were huge structural issues, like who would be on the air,” one executive explained. CBS and Time Warner remain on friendly terms, and the talks are happening soon after CBS Sports and Time Warner signed a $10.8 billion deal to broadcast the NCAA basketball championship for the next fourteen years.

For CBS CEO Les Moonves, a deal with CNN makes sense at this difficult moment for network news. Late last month, ABC News completed a brutal round of layoffs that gutted its news division by 25 percent. CBS, like ABC, lacks a cable channel that could help shelter the costs of staffing a news division. Rival NBC has been increasingly steering its highly paid network talent, from Andrea Mitchell to Tom Brokaw, to its MSNBC cable outlet. Both CBS and ABC have long thought CNN might make an attractive partner. At one point several years ago, ABC News and CNN got into advanced talks that even involved Time Warner’s board of directors, one executive with knowledge of those talks said. But again, a final deal fell apart.

Full Story: CBS News and CNN Are Back in Partnership Negotiations — Daily Intel.

US school for disabled forces students to wear packs that deliver massive electric shocks

Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) has filed a report and urgent appeal with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture alleging that the Judge Rotenberg Center for the disabled, located in Massachusetts, violates the UN Convention against Torture.

The rights group submitted their report this week, titled “Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center,” after an in-depth investigation revealed use of restraint boards, isolation, food deprivation and electric shocks in efforts to control the behaviors of its disabled and emotionally troubled students.

Findings in the MDRI report include the center’s practice of subjecting children to electric shocks on the legs, arms, soles of feet and torso — in many cases for years — as well as some for more than a decade. Electronic shocks are administered by remote-controlled packs attached to a child’s back called a Graduated Electronic Decelerators (GEI).

Full Story: US school for disabled forces students to wear packs that deliver massive electric shocks | Raw Story.

Exposed: Christian leader caught with male escort says he needed help with his luggage

A Christian leader and prominent neuro-psychiatrist who co-founded the Family Research Council with evangelist James Dobson took a ten-day European vacation with a callboy he met through RentBoy.com and was caught in an airport with the escort by a Miami newspaper.

The escort said he had met George Rekers, professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina, on RentBoy.com. Rekers, when confronted, didn’t deny that he’d met the callboy online, but said he had hired him to help him carry his baggage and didn’t learn he was generally hired for “private company” until mid-way through his European vacation.

“I had surgery,” Rekers told Miami’s New Times, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.” (The paper noted that it didn’t stop him from pushing a “tottering” pile of luggage through Miami International Airport.)

Full Story: Exposed: Christian leader caught with male escort says he needed help with his luggage | Raw Story.

Court rebukes government attempt to use secret evidence in torture lawsuit

A court rejected Tuesday a government attempt to use secret evidence to defend alleged conspiracy in torture, in a ruling welcomed by former Guantanamo Bay inmates.

Three Court of Appeal judges ruled that secret evidence cannot be used in civil proceedings brought by six ex-detainees of the notorious US prison camp, including high-profile former British resident Binyam Mohamed.

“We applaud the Court of Appeal’s excellent decision to keep our courts open, so that the British public may continue to see justice done in their name,” said Clive Stafford Smith, head of legal charity Reprieve.

Sapna Malik of lawyers Leigh Day and Co added that he was “delighted that the Court of Appeal has fully accepted… that the government has been seeking to introduce, via the backdoor, unconstitutional and manifestly unfair measures.”

Full Story: Court rebukes government attempt to use secret evidence in torture lawsuit | Raw Story.

As BP’s Oil Disaster Devastates Gulf Region, Landrieu And Boehner Call For Expanding Oil Drilling

As BP’s massive oil disaster in the Gulf continues to devastate the ecosystem and economy of the region, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has a novel proposal: expanding oil drilling. Roll Call reports that, yesterday, Boehner said the “tragedy should remind us that America needs…[the] Republicans’” pro-drilling energy plan:

House Republican leaders are once again sounding the drumbeat for passage of their sidelined pro-drilling energy reform package, even as state and federal officials scramble to stem a massive Gulf oil spill.

“This tragedy should remind us that America needs a real, comprehensive energy plan, like Republicans’ ‘all-of-the-above’ strategy,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Monday in a statement.

The GOP proposal, which was first rolled out in the summer of 2008 and has made multiple appearances since then, would, among other things, open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration and lift the moratoriums on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Full Story: Think Progress » As BP’s Oil Disaster Devastates Gulf Region, Landrieu And Boehner Call For Expanding Oil Drilling.

Conservatives Want To Deny U.S. Citizen Faisal Shahzad Miranda Rights, Ensuring He Won’t Be Convicted

As soon as the Obama administration announced that it had Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab in custody and was questioning him about his failed Christmas Day bombing, conservatives began complaining about the fact that authorities had read him his Miranda rights. Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL), for example, inaccurately complained that as soon as Abdulmutallab “was read his Miranda he did in fact stop cooperating with our intelligence.” In reality, officials did not mirandize Abdulmutallab until after he had already made clear that he wasn’t going to talk. Even afterward, Abdulmutallab gave authorities valuable information after the FBI gained the valuable assistance of his family members, who persuaded him to cooperate.

Nevertheless, Republicans are rushing out their same playbook in the case of Times Square bombing plot suspect Faisal Shahzad:

– “I think obviously that [mirandizing Shahzad] would be a serious mistake until we’ve — at least until we find out as much information as we have, and there are ways — legal ways — of delaying that.” — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

– “I hope that [Attorney General Eric] Holder did discuss this with the intelligence community. If they believe they got enough from him, how much more should they get? Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still.” — Rep. Peter King (R-NY)

Full Story: Think Progress » Conservatives Want To Deny U.S. Citizen Faisal Shahzad Miranda Rights, Ensuring He Won’t Be Convicted.

More Americans have a positive reaction to ‘progressive’ than ‘capitalism.’

Despite Fox News host Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theory about progressivism being a “cancer” that is secretly plotting to destroy the country, Americans have a largely positive view of the word “progressive.” Meanwhile, “capitalism” appears to not have fared so well following the Great Recession. A new Pew poll of nine political words and phrases found that a strong majority — 68 percent — of Americans have a positive reaction to the word “progressive,” while only 52 percent have the same response to “capitalism”:

Full Story: Think Progress » More Americans have a positive reaction to ‘progressive’ than ‘capitalism.’.

Gov. Riley Tells ThinkProgress He Will Reconsider ‘Drill Here, Drill Now’

Pressed by ThinkProgress, Gov. Bob Riley (R-AL) admitted he is reconsidering his support for offshore drilling off his state’s coast in the face of the growing BP oil disaster. Riley embraced Newt Gingrich’s campaign to expand offshore drilling in July, 2008, saying “we need to drill and we need to do it now.” He found it “astonishing” that Congress opposed efforts to lift the moratorium on drilling “because of fear they are so popular with the American people.”

At a press conference this afternoon in Mobile, AL, ThinkProgress asked the governor whether he would reconsider his “Drill, Baby, Drill” stance as the oil spill grows, threatening the destruction of the bayous and beaches of Mobile Bay. After a long pause, Riley answered that he “will have a completely different attitude” if the efforts to protect his state’s shores fail:

That’s a great question. After we get through this, I think all of us can make a better determination than we can now. Because with the resources that have been deployed, and if we can do what I hope we can do in Alabama to mitigate any potential environmental damage here, especially in our estuaries, then I will have a completely different attitude about whether or not it is controllable after something this dramatic happens.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Gov. Riley Tells ThinkProgress He Will Reconsider ‘Drill Here, Drill Now’.

‘Going to Church No More Makes You a Christian Than Sleeping in Your Garage Makes You a Car.’

“Going to church no more makes you a Christian than sleeping in your garage makes you a car.”~~Garrison Keiler

Do you ever wonder what Jesus would say about the sadistic cesspool that is swirling throughout the Catholic disfunctional structure at tsunami speed? Unfortunately, since the New York Times drew attention to the issue in March, the answer to that is getting buried deeper each day under fresh accusations of child molestation, counter accusations, denials and sordid attempts at justification.

It’s been an eye-opener for those attempting to struggle through the damage-control rhetoric coming from the Catholic hierarchy — priests, cardinals, bishops — all running around in such a frenzy that only a guy like Boots Randolph can keep up with them.

Just days after the March 25 Times article by Laurie Goodstein revealing the church’s handling of sex abuse charges against Father Lawrence Murphy who was accused of abusing hundreds of deaf children at Milwaukee’s St. John’s School for the Deaf — Cardinal William J. Levada, who succeeded Pope Benedict XVI as prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was on her case. The National Catholic Reporter quotes Levada as saying that Goodstein and the Times were not after the truth; their prey was Pope Benedict himself…

Full Story: ‘Going to Church No More Makes You a Christian Than Sleeping in Your Garage Makes You a Car.’ | BuzzFlash.org.

Would You Care for a Side of Agent Orange With Your Soy Burger?

You’ve probably heard about Roundup Ready crops, the Monsanto-created seeds that are resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. But did you know that “Agent Orange Ready” corn and soybeans may be on their way to a supermarket near you?

Thanks to the utter failure of Roundup Ready products to live up to their environmentally-friendly and productive promises, Monsanto competitor Dow Chemical is developing crop seeds that can tolerate the damaging defoliant used in the Vietnam War.

For those unaware of the history behind this impending disaster, here’s a quick Roundup of the “magical snake oil solution of genetically-modified crops” peddled by Big Ag:

The favorite argument for modified seeds comes from the stresses felt by third world farmers: Rising oil prices make fertilizer and other inputs more expensive. Global warming forces traditional crops to deal with increased drought, storms and salination. Monsanto and others say they have the solution for these problems.

Full Story: Would You Care for a Side of Agent Orange With Your Soy Burger? | BuzzFlash.org.

Secret Erik Prince/Blackwater Tape Exposed

Jeremy Scahill :

Erik Prince, the reclusive owner of the Blackwater empire, rarely gives public speeches and when he does he attempts to ban journalists from attending and forbids recording or videotaping of his remarks. On May 5, that is exactly what Prince is trying to do when he speaks at DeVos Fieldhouse as the keynote speaker for the “Tulip Time Festival” in his hometown of Holland, Michigan. He told the event’s organizers no news reporting could be done on his speech and they consented to the ban. Journalists and media associations in Michigan are protesting this attempt to bar reporting on his remarks.

Despite Prince’s attempts to shield his speeches from public scrutiny, The Nation magazine has obtained an audio recording of a recent, private speech delivered by Prince to a friendly audience. The speech, which Prince attempted to keep from public consumption, provides a stunning glimpse into his views and future plans and reveals details of previously undisclosed activities of Blackwater. The people of the United States have a right to media coverage of events featuring the owner of a company that generates 90% of its revenue from the United States government.

In the speech, Prince proposed that the US government deploy armed private contractors to fight “terrorists” in Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia and Saudi Arabia, specifically to target Iranian influence. He expressed disdain for the Geneva Convention and described Blackwater’s secretive operations at four Forward Operating Bases he controls in Afghanistan. He called those fighting the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan “barbarians” who “crawled out of the sewer.” Prince also revealed details of a July 2009 operation he claims Blackwater forces coordinated in Afghanistan to take down a narcotrafficking facility, saying that Blackwater “call[ed] in multiple air strikes,” blowing up the facility. Prince boasted that his forces had carried out the “largest hashish bust in counter-narcotics history.” He characterized the work of some NATO countries’ forces in Afghanistan as ineffectual, suggesting that some coalition nations “should just pack it in and go home.” Prince spoke of Blackwater working in Pakistan, which appears to contradict the official, public Blackwater and US government line that Blackwater is not in Pakistan.

Full Story: RebelReports – Secret Erik Prince/Blackwater Tape Exposed.

The Rebirth of Regulation

Robert Reich :

What do oil giant BP, the mining company Massey Energy, and Goldman Sachs have in common? They’re all big firms involved in massive plunder. BP’s oil spill is already one of the biggest and most damaging in American history. Massey’s mine disaster, claiming the lives of 29 miners, is one of the worst in recent history. Goldman’s alleged fraud is but a part of the largest financial meltdown in 75 years.

All three of these companies are also publicly-held, which means that much of the financial costs of these failures will be passed on to their shareholders, many of whom are already watching their stock prices plummet. Prominently among those shareholders are pension funds and mutual funds held by people like you and me.

That may seem fair. After all, shareholders benefitted when BP made big profits extracting oil without paying attention to a possible blowout, when Massey Energy got fat earnings from its careless coal mining operations, and when Goldman Sachs did wonderously well for its own stock holders by allegedly defrauding others. In fact, it was pressure from their shareholders seeking the highest possible returns — and their executives, whose pay is linked to the firms’ share performance — that led all three companies to cut whatever corners they could cut in pursuit of profits.

Full Story: Robert Reich (The Rebirth of Regulation).

Ed Schultz & Papantonio Go After BP

Things are heating up on the Gulf Coast as oil from the Deep Horizon rig explosion is now washing up on shore. Over the weekend, BP attempted to get Gulf Coast citizens to sign away their right to sue the company for a mere $5,000, but they’ve since been reprimanded for doing so. Mike Papantonio appears on Ed Schultz’s radio program to talk about the latest developments in the case.

Obama’s FCC to Abandon Net Neutrality?

Is the Obama FCC siding with the largest cable and phone companies, and against Net Neutrality and universal Internet access?

The Obama administration has long vowed to protect Net Neutrality and bridge the digital divide, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski picked up this baton when he took up his post last year. But now Genachowski appears to be wavering.

According to an article in the Washington Post, Genachowski may sit on his hands rather than “reclassify” broadband to make sure the FCC can protect Internet users. The decision not to reclassify would be a grave mistake – one that would threaten the Internet as we know it.

Full Story: Obama’s FCC to Abandon Net Neutrality? | CommonDreams.org.

Simon Johnson: ‘Most Observers’ Do Not Agree With Larry Summers On Banking

What is the basis for major policy decisions in the United States? Is it years of careful study, using the concentration of knowledge and expertise for which this country is known and respected around the world? Or is it some unfounded assertions, backed by no data at all?

At least in terms of the White House policy towards megabanks, it is currently “no discussion of data or facts, please”.

Speaking on the Lehrer NewsHour last week, Larry Summers said, with regard to the Brown-Kaufman SAFE banking act – which would restrict the size of our largest banks (putting them back to where they were a decade or so ago):

Full Story: Simon Johnson: ‘Most Observers’ Do Not Agree With Larry Summers On Banking.

New Oklahoma Abortion Restrictions Temporarily Blocked

Oklahoma’s attorney general agreed Monday to temporarily block enforcement of a controversial new state law that requires pregnant women to get an ultrasound and hear a detailed description of the fetus before they get an abortion.

The Center for Reproductive Rights was set to argue for a temporary restraining order Monday, but attorneys for both sides agreed to accept the order before the court hearing, Oklahoma County District Judge Noma Gurich said. She signed the order Monday afternoon.

“We’re sorry to see implementation of the law delayed,” said Tony Lauinger, state chairman of Oklahomans for Life and vice president of the National Right to Life Committee. “This has been a long process and apparently it will be a little longer.”

Full Story: New Oklahoma Abortion Restrictions Temporarily Blocked.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is playing a major role in blocking a House bill that has a record number of co-sponsors.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), is one of the more straightforward bills in Congress. It would add three words to the Navy Department’s name, changing it from the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.

Full Story: What’s in a name? Just ask former Navy pilot hero McCain – TheHill.com.

Too Big To Jail? Executives Unscathed As Regulators Let Banks Report Criminal Fraud

The financial crisis has spawned hundreds of criminal prosecutions for alleged fraud. Yet so far, defendants have been mostly minor players such as real-estate agents, mortgage brokers, borrowers and a few low-level bank employees. No senior executives at large financial institutions face criminal charges.

That’s in stark contrast to prosecutions during the savings and loan scandal two decades ago, when the government’s strategy targeted and snagged some of banking’s most powerful players. The approach back then succeeded in sending scores of S&L executives to prison, as well as junk-bond king Michael Milken and business tycoon Charles Keating Jr.

One explanation for the difference may be that key bank regulators — who did the detective work during the S&L crisis and sent more than 1,000 criminal referrals to prosecutors — have this time left reporting fraud up to the banks themselves.

Spokesmen for two chief regulators, the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision, say that they have not sent prosecutors a single case for criminal prosecution.

Full Story: Too Big To Jail? Executives Unscathed As Regulators Let Banks Report Criminal Fraud.

Fishing ban imposed in oil-affected Gulf of Mexico

Louisiana’s 2.4-billion-dollar a year commercial and recreational fishing industry was dealt its first major blow from the oil spill Sunday, as the US government banned activities for 10 days due to health concerns.

“NOAA is restricting fishing for a minimum of ten days in federal waters most affected by the BP oil spill, largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River to waters off Florida’s Pensacola Bay. The closure is effective immediately,” said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Louisiana accounts for an estimated one-third of the country’s total oyster output, and the Gulf of Mexico are prime spawning waters for fish, shrimp and crabs, as well as a major stop for migratory birds.

Full Story: Fishing ban imposed in oil-affected Gulf of Mexico | Raw Story.

Radical tax on debt put to parties

Households should pay a new tax on every pound of debt they owe, according to one of Britain’;s leading economists.

Martin Weale, director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, said the winner of the election should consider the plan in an effort to wean Britain off its reliance on debt. He said that a small annual levy of 1pc on all household debt, including mortgages and credit cards, could help raise £15bn a year – more than would be raised from a 3p increase in the basic rate of income tax.

Although the suggestion will raise eyebrows, Mr Weale runs one of the country’s most respected independent institutions, so may spark speculation that it could be examined by the next government. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have both pledged to overhaul the tax system to remove the favourable treatment of debt, although neither has suggested a direct levy on household borrowing.

Full Story: Radical tax on debt put to parties – Telegraph.

Wal-Mart to pay $27.6M in California dumping case

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $27.6 million to settle allegations that it improperly handled and dumped hazardous waste at stores across California in a case that led to changes in the retailer’s practices nationwide, prosecutors said Monday.

The settlement ends a five-year investigation involving more than 20 prosecutors and 32 environmental groups. They alleged that each of the company’s 236 stores and distribution centers across California, including Sam’s Club warehouse stores, were in violation of environmental laws and regulations, said San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

Wal-Mart was accused of improperly disposing of pesticide, fertilizer, paint, aerosols and other chemicals. In one case, Dumanis said a Solano County boy was found playing in a mound of fertilizer near a Walmart garden section. The yellow-tinted powder contained ammonium sulfate, a chemical compound that causes irritation to people’s skin, eyes and respiratory tract

Full Story: Wal-Mart to pay $27.6M in California dumping case.

Brain shuts off in response to healer’s prayer

WHEN we fall under the spell of a charismatic figure, areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less active. That’s the finding of a study which looked at people’s response to prayers spoken by someone purportedly possessing divine healing powers.

To identify the brain processes underlying the influence of charismatic individuals, Uffe Schjødt of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues turned to Pentecostal Christians, who believe that some people have divinely inspired powers of healing, wisdom and prophecy.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Schjødt and his colleagues scanned the brains of 20 Pentecostalists and 20 non-believers while playing them recorded prayers. The volunteers were told that six of the prayers were read by a non-Christian, six by an ordinary Christian and six by a healer. In fact, all were read by ordinary Christians.

Full Story: Brain shuts off in response to healer’s prayer – life – 27 April 2010 – New Scientist.

Pelosi: Bush Admin Barred Officials From Briefing Congress On Impending Financial Crisis in Fall 2008

Nearly two years after the Wall Street meltdown drove the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse, and forced the U.S. government to prop up major financial institutions with hundreds of billions of dollars, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now claims that the Bush Administration prohibited its own top officials who were handling the emerging crisis from briefing Congress until a complete financial collapse was only hours away.

In little-noticed statements to reporters over the last few weeks, Pelosi has alleged that the Bush administration knew well in advance of its intervention that the financial crisis would hit, and that Congress would need to authorize a historic and unpopular bailout – but that top officials, including then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, told her that they had been barred from briefing Congress about true extent of the crisis.

If accurate, the allegation could constitute a major indictment of the Bush administration, which may have worsened the crisis and resulting economic fallout by delaying the call for congressional action. Pelosi says the admissions from Bush administration officials that they had kept Congress in the dark came in private conversations between her and those officials in person and by phone. None of the other parties to those conversations would comment for this story. Nor is it clear if the Administration's alleged decision not to brief Congress earlier was a calculated strategy to avoid spooking the already shaky financial markets thus hastening the crisis or, as Pelosi suggests, a political calculation in advance of the 2008 presidential elections, or a combination of the two.

Full Story: Pelosi: Bush Admin Barred Officials From Briefing Congress On Impending Financial Crisis in Fall 2008 | TPMDC.

Rahm Working With Fed To Beat Back Audit

The White House, Federal Reserve and Wall Street lobbyists are kicking up their opposition to an amendment to audit the Fed as a Senate vote approaches, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lead sponsor of the measure, said on Monday.

Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who is shepherding the bill through the Senate, told Sanders Monday afternoon that “there’s a shot we’ll be up tomorrow,” Sanders told HuffPost.

In the spring of 2009, Sanders brought a similar amendment to the Senate floor and won 59 votes. Eight senators who voted against it then are now cosponsors of his current measure.

“I think momentum is with us. But I’ve gotta tell you, that on this amendment, you’re taking on all of Wall Street, you’re taking on the Fed, obviously, and unfortunately you seem to be taking on the White House, as well. And that’s a tough group to beat,” said Sanders.

Full Story: Rahm Working With Fed To Beat Back Audit.

MSNBC boss Phil Griffin compares his channel to Fox

Phil Griffin says he learned a valuable lesson from Roger Ailes, creator of Fox News Channel: Viewers will stand behind a news outlet that stands for something

MSNBC boss Phil Griffin looks at what Roger Ailes created at Fox News Channel with no small amount of awe.

“He’s changed media. Everybody does news differently because Roger’s changed the world,” Griffin said over coffee on a visit to Chicago the other day. He was taking a break from making a case for his own cable network to ad buyers here to make the case for changes in the media landscape to a reporter. “Roger early on figured it out and was brilliant.”

With so much news coming from so many places, so often in much the same way, a leader distinguishes itself by anticipating what its audience wants and needs beyond the immediate headlines. In doing so, the most successful — and in cable, that’s Ailes’ FNC — will establish its own identity.

The critical lesson Griffin took from Ailes was that a news outlet that stands for something is one that consumers can stand behind and rally around.

Full Story: MSNBC: MSNBC boss Phil Griffin compares his channel to Fox – chicagotribune.com.