Archive for July, 2010

Rep. Rangel’s Ethics Wrangle: Get the Rundown

The House Ethics Committee has finally come out from behind its veil of secrecy and announced that after a two-year investigation, it has found Rep. Charlie Rangel, D.-N.Y., likely violated ethics rules.

As we reported in March, the ethics committee “admonished” Rangel for violating ethics rules against accepting gifts when he attended conferences in the Carribbean in 2007 and 2008, but the investigation into Rangel’s other alleged violations continued.What were those other violations? The committee didn’t disclose the details of what they found, but we’ve kept a full rundown of Rangel’s ethics record.

The House Ethics Committee also announced the creation of a subcommittee to hear the case against Rangel and make a final judgment. It’ll be the first time such a hearing has happened since 2002, pointed out The New York Times. In that 2002 case, former Rep. James Traficant Jr., ended up being expelled from Congress for bribery and served seven years in prison.

Full Story: On The Hill: Rep. Rangel’s Ethics Wrangle: Get the Rundown.

We’re In A One-and-a-half Dip Recession

Robert Reich:

We’re not in a double-dip recession yet. We’re in a one and a half dip recession.

Consumer confidence is down. Retail sales are down. Home sales are down. Permits for single-family starts are down. The average work week is down. The only things not down are inventories – unsold stuff is piling up in warehouses and inventories of unsold homes are rising – and defaults on loans.

The 1.5 dip recession should be causing alarm bells to ring all over official Washington. It should cause deficit hawks to stop squawking about future debt, blue-dog Democrats to stop acting like Republicans, and mainstream Democrats to get some backbone.

The 1.5 dip recession should cause the President to demand a large-scale national jobs program including a new WPA that gets millions of Americans back to work even if government has to pay their wages directly. Included would be zero-interest loans to strapped states and locales, so they didn’t have to cut vital services and raise taxes. They could repay when the economy picked up and revenues came in. The national jobs program would also include a one-year payroll tax holiday on the first $20,000 of income.

Full Story: Robert Reich (We’re In A One-and-a-half Dip Recession).

Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Broken!! Risk of Global Climate Change By BP Oil Spill!

Factual satellite images in the past several weeks are showing that the Gulf Loop Current is broken and may cease to function entirely! This will result in massive climate change and possibly an ice age for Europe! Major trouble brewing?? More freakish weather on its way??

Abstract: BP Oil Spill may cause an irreparable damage to the Gulf Stream global climate thermoregulation activity.

The Gulf Stream importance in the global climate thermoregulation processes is well assessed. The latest real time satellite … data maps of May-June 2010 processed by CCAR (Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research), checked at Frascati Laboratories by the means of the SHT congruent calculus and compared with past years data, show for the first time a direct evidence of the rapid breaking of the Loop Current, a warm ocean current, crucial part of the Gulf Stream. As displayed both by the sea surface velocity maps and the sea surface height maps, the Loop Current broke down for the first time around May 18th generated a clock wise eddy, which is still active (see Fig. 1).

Full Story: Gulf of Mexico Loop Current Broken!! Risk of Global Climate Change By BP Oil Spill! — Signs of the Times News.

The Case for Elizabeth Warren

Sen. Sanders took part in a Capitol Hill press conference on to call for the appointment of Prof. Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer financial protection bureau.

Thom goes after Tea Party activist for destroying the middle class

Thom Hartmann Show

Chet Traylor, David Vitter Challenger, Challenged On Affairs

Conservative Challenging David Vitter Is Sleeping With Stepson’s Wife

When we last left the Louisiana Senate race, incumbent Senator David Vitter (R-Louis.) was waging a two-front battle for survival. On one side was Democratic challenger, Representative Charlie Melancon (D-Louis.), who recently unleashed a series of devastating ads hitting Vitter for keeping Brent Furer in his employ long after he knew that Furer had assaulted a female acquaintance.

On the other side came Chet Traylor. At the last minute, the former Louisiana Supreme Court Justice jumped into the primary race as a Republican challenger. Here, at last, was a conservative opponent who would strike a clear contrast with the scandal-plagued Vitter. Right?

Feh, maybe not. Here’s the News Star:

State Rep. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro, said that Traylor was “significantly involved” in the cause of his divorce from Peggy McDowell, who later married Chet Traylor and became Peggy McDowell Traylor.

Full Story: Chet Traylor, David Vitter Challenger, Challenged On Affairs.

Big Banks Punish You For Having GOOD Credit

As credit card holders play it safe, issuers increase non-penalty service fees

After the recession forced credit card companies to purge their rosters of the riskiest loans, the industry is facing a new problem: customers who are too good.

Card issuers have long found their bread and butter in penalty fees and high interest rates paid by consumers who carry a balance. But that business model has been upended by the legions of consumers who were overwhelmed by debt when the recession hit, forcing the industry to write off billions of dollars in loans. In addition, new federal laws limit how much card companies can charge risky customers.

Now, frugal-minded consumers are charging less on their credit cards, paying down their balances and steering clear of penalty fees — steps that are financially responsible but have the industry scrambling to find new ways to make money.

Full Story: As credit card holders play it safe, issuers increase non-penalty service fees.

OPS: Another reason to: Move Your Money

Stonehenge Discovery: Wooden Structure Found Near Famous Monument

Scientists scouring the area around Stonehenge said Thursday they have uncovered a circular structure only a few hundred meters (yards) from the world famous monument.

There’s some debate about what exactly has been found. The survey team which uncovered the structure said it could be the foundation for a circle of freestanding pieces of timber, a wooden version of Stonehenge.

But Tim Darvill, a professor of archaeology at Bournemouth University in southern England, expressed skepticism, saying he believed it was more likely a barrow, or prehistoric tomb.

Darvill did say that the circle was one of an expanding number of discoveries being made around Stonehenge which “really shows how much there is still to learn and how extensive the site really was.”

Full Story: Stonehenge Discovery: Wooden Structure Found Near Famous Monument.

Right Wing Economist Laffer Bashes Greenspan For Calling For End Of Bush Tax Cuts

Last week, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan called for allowing the Bush tax cuts he championed in 2001 to fully expire, as scheduled, at the end of the year. His reversal dealt a blow to Republicans who are calling for an unpaid-for permanent extension of the cuts for the rich, even falsely claiming that they increase government revenues.

Unsurprisingly, Greenspan’s comments have irked some right-wing pundits. The strongly discredited economist and former member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board Arthur Laffer criticized Greenspan on the Fox Business network, questioning his patriotism and accusing him of practicing “bad economics.” Media Matters has the transcript:

HOST: Hey, Alan Greenspan says let [all the Bush tax cuts] expire. The former Fed Chairman. Let ‘em all expire.

LAFFER: Good for him. I mean there he goes. Well, I guess he’s out of power. He’s a little old. I don’t think he has any kids. Heck, what does he care? You know, I have six kids. I have eleven grandchildren. You know, I really care about the future of this country and I really don’t want to be taxed into poverty. I really don’t think it’s smart in this day and age, with this type of unemployment, to tax people who work more and to pay people who don’t work more. That just is silly. It’s bad economics.

Watch it

Full Story: Think Progress » Right Wing Economist Laffer Bashes Greenspan For Calling For End Of Bush Tax Cuts.

Nelson cites deficit to vote against unemployment benefits but backs budget-busting tax cuts for rich.

Earlier this week, the Senate finally voted 60-40 to extend unemployment insurance for the millions of Americans who are unable to find work due to the poor economy. One senator who voted against extending these benefits was Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), who cited the deficit as his reason for opposing an extension. He gave the following statement to the press:

“I support extending unemployment benefits for Nebraskans and Americans who remain out of work. However, I opposed the Senate’s unemployment bill today because it should have, and it could have, been paid for.

“I oppose another $33 billion in deficit spending and increasing the debt. The six-month extension of unemployment benefits is a priority that can and should be funded. Some of the $70 billion in offsets included in earlier proposals could have been used to offset the $33 billion in new spending in this bill.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Nelson cites deficit to vote against unemployment benefits but backs budget-busting tax cuts for rich..

Corporate Media Discover Private Spies. In Other News, No WMD in Iraq

Jeremy Scahill:

Stop the presses and call the government spokespeople back from Martha’s Vineyard.

The corporate media have discovered that the United States is radically outsourcing national security and sensitive intelligence operations. Cable news channels breathlessly report on the “groundbreaking,” “exclusive” Washington Post series, Top Secret America, a two-year investigation by Dana Priest and William Arkin. No doubt there is some important stuff in this series. Both Arkin and Priest have done outstanding work for many years on sensitive, life-or-death subjects. And that is one of the main reasons why this series has, thus far, been incredibly disappointing. Its greatest accomplishment is forcing a discussion onto corporate TV years after it would have had an actual impact.

The misplaced hype surrounding the Post series speaks volumes to the ahistorical nature of US media culture. Next week, if the New York Times published a story on how there were no WMDs in Iraq, there would no doubt be cable news shows that would act like it was an earth-moving revelation delivered by Moses on the stone tablet of exclusive, groundbreaking journalism.

The Post does a fine job of exploring the scope of the privatization and providing some new or updated statistics. It also produces a few zingers from senior officials like Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “This is a terrible confession,” Gates said in Tuesday’s installment. “I can’t get a number on how many contractors work for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.” It was also hilarious to read CIA director Leon Panetta—who just gave Blackwater a brand new $100 million global CIA contract—act like he is anything other than a contractor addict. “For too long, we’ve depended on contractors to do the operational work that ought to be done” by CIA employees, Panetta told the Post. But replacing them “doesn’t happen overnight. When you’ve been dependent on contractors for so long, you have to build that expertise over time.” Panetta told the Post he was concerned about contracting with corporations, whose responsibility “is to their shareholders, and that does present an inherent conflict.” I wonder if the Blackwater guys working for Panetta can contain their laughter reading those statements. I imagine them taping a post-it note that says “Kick me” on Panetta’s back and then chuckling about it with the Lockheed contractors.

Full Story: Corporate Media Discover Private Spies. In Other News, No WMD in Iraq | The Nation.

Why Does Fox News Have More Power Than Any Progressive in the Country?

Cenk Uygur:

As we can all see now, when Fox says jump, the Obama administration asks how high? (Then jumps one inch less and considers it a progressive victory). Is there anyone Obama won’t fire or throw under the bus if Fox asks him to? What if they ask Obama to fire himself? Would he do it? Or would he just fire Biden and say he met them halfway?

If the firing of Shirley Sherrod was the first time they had done this, then all of the criticism they have received might be a bit much. But as we have learned from this incident (which the rest of us already knew, with the apparent exception of Fox News and Andrew Breitbart), context matters. We’ve seen the rest of the tape on the Obama administration and it isn’t pretty.

Van Jones, ACORN, Dawn Johnsen, Shirley Sherrod. First sign of trouble, throw someone overboard. When they fired Van Jones, I said they were only encouraging Fox. But that wasn’t some genius prediction; it was only the most obvious thing in the world. Do you think the bully won’t take your lunch money tomorrow if you give it to him today?

Full Story: Cenk Uygur: Why Does Fox News Have More Power Than Any Progressive in the Country?.

Keith Olbermann Special Comment On Shirley Sherrod Controversy

Keith Olbermann Special Comment On Shirley Sherrod Controversy (Part 1) – 07/21/10

Part 2

Now reopen Breitbart’s ACORN fraud — and get the story right

- Joe Conason – Salon.com: :

Sherrod’s case parallels deceptions used in that other big smear — and offers a chance to restore lost standards

ormer USDA official Shirley Sherrod, a dedicated public servant innocent of the prejudice and misconduct falsely imputed to her, deserves justice. As soon as the White House and Tom Vilsack restore her job, with an appropriate apology, they will begin to remove a stain of cowardice from their administration. But while that may be all the government can do, it isn’t sufficient to close this case.

Real justice, as I suspect Sherrod would agree, also requires due process for Andrew Breitbart, the Internet impresario who framed her on his Big Government website. In these circumstances, that means a fair, thorough and tough examination of the media fraud that launched his operation last year: the ACORN tapes, whose misuse by Breitbart closely parallels his behavior in the Sherrod affair.

Full Story: Now reopen Breitbart’s ACORN fraud — and get the story right – Joe Conason – Salon.com.

Republicans Turn Their Backs on Small Businesses

Senate Democrats’ Plan to Aid Small Businesses Hits G.O.P. Resistance

Perhaps the last best hope of Democrats to pass legislation aimed at creating jobs before the November elections seemed to be crumbling in the Senate on Wednesday as Republicans signaled that they would block a bill to expand government lending programs and grant an array of tax breaks to small businesses.

Wrangling over the small-business measure began in earnest after Senate Democrats, breaking a two-month partisan logjam, finally succeeded in winning an extension of unemployment insurance. The vote was 59 to 39, with two Republicans joining Democrats in support of the extended benefits, which are retroactive to June 1. One Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted against it.

Shortly after the vote, the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, turned to the small-business bill, one of the few items left on the Senate’s dwindling agenda before the August recess. Indeed, it had been on the floor intermittently over the last several weeks, only to be pulled to make way for other legislation including the extension of unemployment insurance.

Full Story: Senate Democrats’ Plan to Aid Small Businesses Hits G.O.P. Resistance – NYTimes.com.

MRFF vs. Sectarian Supremacism and Anti-Government Conspiracists in the U.S. Chaplain Corp

A compilation of past articles, video, and documentation on sectarian Christian supremacism and anti-government conspiracy theorists in the U.S. Military Chaplain Corp.

Given the current revival of anti-government rhetoric, the following list of articles might mean more to readers now than when they were originally published. MRFF has repeatedly warned about the aggressive proselytizing conducted by the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC), headed by Ret. Col. Jim Ammerman. In addition, Ammerman and some of his chaplains, while flaunting their military credentials, have promoted “New World Order” conspiracy ideology, in which they claim that the U.S. will imminently lose sovereignty, betrayed by government leaders who are part of a demonic cabal of “Illuminati,” described as international banking families. (The list is Jewish except for the Rockefellers – explanation to follow below).

An article about the history and activism of Mikey Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation is currently cross-posted at Alternet and TruthOut. Below the following list of links is further information on Ammerman and a selection of quotes from his book After the Storm in which he describes the first Gulf War as a massive religious revival.

Full Story: Talk To Action | MRFF vs. Sectarian Supremacism and Anti-Government Conspiracists in the U.S. Chaplain Corp.

O’Reilly Responds to Maddow’s Race-Baiting Charge Against Fox News: But We Get Bigger Ratings

On her MSNBC show on July 20, Rachel Maddow lambasted Fox News over its race baiting campaigns, including its current attack on USDA staffer, Shirley Sherrod, who was fired, in part, because Fox aired video that had been deceptively edited to appear to depict Sherrod admitting she discriminated against white people. (See Maddow’s detailed indictment against Fox’s racist coverage in the video above and transcript below — and note that we had published a similar charge against Fox earlier that day, even before the truth about the Sherrod video had come out.)

Last night Bill O’Reilly offered a tepid apology to Sherrod, admitting that he should have listened to her entire speech before judging her to be a racist — he couldn’t resist adding a caveat, of course. “If a white public servant referenced ‘his own kind’ or ‘one of his own’ when speaking about an African American,” O’Reilly claimed, “that white person would be fired on the spot.”

O’Reilly went on to answer Maddow’s attack on his network’s racist editorial policies — first he played a segment of her show in which she said: “Just like the fake ACORN controversy, Fox News knows it has a role in this dance. That’s not new. That’s not even interesting about this scandal. Fox does what Fox does.”

Full Story: Pensito Review » O’Reilly Responds to Maddow’s Race-Baiting Charge Against Fox News: But We Get Bigger Ratings.

Woolsey to introduce ‘robust public option’ bill

What, did you think the fight for health care reform was over?

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), co-chair of the progressive caucus, is making good on her promise to continue pushing for a public health insurance option after the enactment of sweeping reform legislation.

On Thursday afternoon, the Northern California congresswoman will announce the introduction of a bill offering consumers a choice between private plans and a “robust” public plan in the health insurance exchanges set up by the law.

“The robust public option offers lower-cost competition to private insurance companies,” Woolsey told Raw Story. “This will make insurance more affordable for those who do not have it and keep insurance affordable for those who do. We are introducing the public option now so is will be available as a ready-made off set or deficit reducer in this or the next Congress.”

Full Story: Woolsey to introduce ‘robust public option’ bill | Raw Story.

Pelosi rejects extending Bush tax cuts for wealthy

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday rejected extending tax cuts for the wealthiest tax bracket that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Pelosi took off the table a short-term extension of those cuts floated by some lawmakers in her own party.

“No,” the speaker said at her weekly press conference when asked if the cuts for the highest bracket should be extended. “Our position has been that we support middle-class tax cuts.”

Full Story: Pelosi rejects extending Bush tax cuts for wealthy – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

House panel charges Rangel with ethics misdeeds

A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, dealing a serious blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and complicating Democrats’ election-year outlook.

The panel did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, who has served in the House for some 40 years and is fourth in seniority. The charges by a four-member panel of the House ethics committee sends the case to a House trial, where a separate eight-member panel of Republicans and Democrats will decide whether the violations can be proved by clear and convincing evidence.

The timing of the announcement ensures that a public airing of Rangel’s ethical woes will stretch into the fall campaign, and Republicans are certain to make it an issue as they try to capture majority control of the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had once promised to “drain the swamp” of ethical misdeeds by lawmakers in arguing that Democrats should be in charge.

Full Story: House panel charges Rangel with ethics misdeeds – Yahoo! News.

Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Safety Concerns

“I’m petrified of dropping anything from heights not because I’m afraid of hurting anyone (the area is barriered off), but because I’m afraid of getting fired,” one worker wrote.

“The company is always using fear tactics,” another worker said. “All these games and your mind gets tired.”

Investigators also said “nearly everyone” among the workers they interviewed believed that Transocean’s system for tracking health and safety issues on the rig was “counter productive.”

Many workers entered fake data to try to circumvent the system, known as See, Think, Act, Reinforce, Track — or Start. As a result, the company’s perception of safety on the rig was distorted, the report concluded

Full Story: Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Safety Concerns – NYTimes.com.

Bernanke To Congress: The Economy Needs You To Keep Spending

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated Wednesday his belief that Congress should continue to prop up the sputtering economy, casting aside concerns that the federal budget deficit should trump the economy’s need for additional stimulus.

In other words, Congress should spend now and worry about deficits later.

“At the current moment the large deficits, as unattractive as they are, are important for supporting economic activity,” the nation’s central banker told a Senate panel, citing “weak” private spending and a “great deal of excess capacity.”

Bernanke added that he’d be “reluctant to withdraw that support too precipitously in the near term.” His comments strongly echoed remarks he made in June.

The debate over budget deficits versus stimulus spending has gripped the nation’s capital as the economy, though technically in recovery, continues to exhibit negative trends. For one, the national unemployment rate is essentially unchanged from June 2009. At 9.5 percent, it’s fluctuated in the intervening year, rising to 10.1 percent in October before dropping back down last month. About half of the nation’s unemployed workers have been jobless for at least six months.

Full Story: Bernanke To Congress: The Economy Needs You To Keep Spending.

California city plans mass production of medical marijuana

California city Oakland has approved draft legislation moving it a step closer to legalizing the large-scale production of medical marijuana, a city council clerk said on Wednesday.

“The proposition passed the first reading at the city council by five yes, two nos and one abstention,” said Crystal Bing, legislator recorder for the city clerk’s office.

“Now it has to go for a second reading which will happen on July 27th,” she told AFP.

Full Story: California city plans mass production of medical marijuana | Raw Story.

Official: ‘Severe threat’ as China oil spill grows

China’s largest reported oil spill more than doubled in size to 165 sq. miles (430 sq. kilometers) by Wednesday, forcing nearby beaches to close and prompting one official to warn of a “severe threat” to sea life and water quality.

The oil slick started spreading five days ago when a pipeline at a busy northeastern port exploded, sparking a massive fire that took more than 15 hours to contain. Hundreds of boats have been deployed to help with the cleanup.

At least one person has been killed in those efforts, a 25-year-old firefighter, Zhang Liang, who drowned Tuesday after a wave threw him from a vessel and pushed him out to sea, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Another man who also fell in was rescued.

Beaches near Dalian, once named China’s most livable city, were closing as oil started reaching their shores, Xinhua reported.

Full Story: Official: ‘Severe threat’ as China oil spill grows | Raw Story.

Ben Stein: The Unemployed Are People With ‘Unpleasant Personalities…Who Do Not Know How To Do A Day’s Work’

Today, the Senate extended unemployment benefits for millions of jobless Americans. Despite the terrible shape of the economy, conservatives resisted extending unemployment insurance for weeks for Americans who can’t find work, launching a filibuster to prevent a vote on the benefits.

Writing at the American Spectator yesterday, former Nixon speechwriter and TV personality Ben Stein downplayed the suffering unemployed Americans are experiencing by writing that the people who are unemployed right now are “generally people with poor work habits and poor personalities.” He claims the unemployed are Americans with “unpleasant personalities…who do not know how to do a day’s work“:

The people who have been laid off and cannot find work are generally people with poor work habits and poor personalities. I say “generally” because there are exceptions. But in general, as I survey the ranks of those who are unemployed, I see people who have overbearing and unpleasant personalities and/or who do not know how to do a day’s work. They are people who create either little utility or negative utility on the job. Again, there are powerful exceptions and I know some, but when employers are looking to lay off, they lay off the least productive or the most negative. To assure that a worker is not one of them, he should learn how to work and how to get along — not always easy.

Full Story: Think Progress » Ben Stein: The Unemployed Are People With ‘Unpleasant Personalities…Who Do Not Know How To Do A Day’s Work’.

Louisiana Bishops Rebuff New State Gun Law: ‘We Don’t Think It’s Appropriate To Have Guns In Churches’

Earlier this month, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed a bill into law that allows people to bring concealed weapons into places of worship. Anyone who passes a background check and completes “eight hours of tactical training each year” can be designated “as part of a security force” for “churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship” that allow carriers of concealed weapons. USA Today reported this week that Catholic churches in Louisiana will still not permit congregants to bring guns to their services:

Concealed handguns won’t be allowed in Roman Catholic churches, despite a new state law allowing them.

“We don’t think it is appropriate to have guns in churches,” Danny Loar, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops — the church’s public policy arm in Louisiana, said Monday. …

Bishops discussed the issue when reviewing bills, Loar said.

“The bishops decided that, if the bill became law, the bishops would let their pastors know that this would not be permissible in Catholic churches,” Loar said.

Full Story: Think Progress » Louisiana Bishops Rebuff New State Gun Law: ‘We Don’t Think It’s Appropriate To Have Guns In Churches’.

Weighing Safety of Weed Killer in Drinking Water, EPA Relies Heavily on Industry-Backed Studies

Companies with a financial interest in a weed-killer sometimes found in drinking water paid for thousands of studies federal regulators are using to assess the herbicide’s health risks, records of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show. Many of these industry-funded studies, which largely support atrazine’s safety, have never been published or subjected to an independent scientific peer review.

Meanwhile, some independent studies documenting potentially harmful effects on animals and humans are not included in the body of research the EPA deems relevant to its safety review, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found. These studies include many that have been published in respected scientific journals.

Even so, the EPA says that it would be “very difficult for someone to put a thumb on the scale” to slant the outcome.

Atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S. An estimated 76 million pounds of the chemical are sprayed on corn and other fields in the U.S. each year, sometimes ending up in rivers, streams, and drinking water supplies. It has been the focus of intense scientific debate over its potential to cause cancer, birth defects, and hormonal and reproductive problems. As the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reported in a series of articles last fall, the EPA failed to warn the public that the weed-killer had been found at levels above federal safety limits in drinking water in at least four states. Some water utilities are suing Syngenta to have it pay their costs of filtering the chemical.

Full Story: Weighing Safety of Weed Killer in Drinking Water, EPA Relies Heavily on Industry-Backed Studies | The Huffington Post Investigative Fund.

Why the US Is So Badly Equipped to Deal with Unemployment

By Dean Baker

15 million are unemployed, but unfortunately none of the people responsible for the recession are in that category.

It has been two-and-a-half years since the recession officially began in the United States. While the economy has been growing for more than a year, unemployment remains near the 10.1 percent peak of October 2009. Few economists predict a rapid decline from its June level of 9.5 percent and, with stimulus being phased down over the next year, it is very plausible that the rate will edge higher in coming months.

The US, unlike most western European countries, is not set up to sustain long periods of high unemployment. Its system of social welfare is very much centered on work. This is most evident with health care. The vast majority of non-elderly people get their health care through employer provided health insurance. Individual policies tend to be very expensive, especially for people with any history of medical problems. When people lose their jobs, they generally lose their health care coverage as well. While there is a public program for low-income families, it doesn’t cover most of the unemployed, and the quality is often quite poor.

The same is true of other forms of public support. The US was never very generous to people who are not working, and it has become less so in the last three decades. That is why the prospect of a prolonged period of high unemployment in the US is likely to mean serious hardship for large numbers of people.

Full Story: Why the US Is So Badly Equipped to Deal with Unemployment | Economy | AlterNet.

The Non-Remembrance of Things Past

It’s pitch-dark. Your eyes have opened, but you cannot see.

Piece by piece, you begin to establish your location: Bed. Yes. Home. Middle of the night. Wednesday. No, Thursday, now. Early. Chilly. Fall.

Even as, half-asleep, you’re reassembling yourself, part of you wakes up to the fact that you’ve just come from a dream: your body—abuzz, refreshed—is still in the feeling-state the dream created. Where you are, though, matters less than where you’ve been. Your body, still half-slumbering, is eager to return to the exotic land you’ve just left, but your mind can’t make out where to go or how . . . . Wait, there’s something. A boat. Your father, rowing . . . . No, not your father; some other male. You were coming from . . . a movie theater?!? Someone was there with you—to your right? Behind you? You can feel the absence of her presence. You turn back to the boat, but the guy is no longer there. Did he disappear in the dream, or did he disappear because you can’t remember the dream? And was that a boat he was in or a pickup truck?

You keep searching, as if inching your way through some unexplored cave—arms, hands, fingers, fingertips outstretched—and whenever you feel you’ve almost got a handle on something—a picture, a notion—damn, it slips away, escaping deeper into the blackness. It was right there, just a minute ago. You were living it; asleep, yes, but your body is still feeling it, yet you can’t connect the feeling to anything in particular, and you’re losing your grip on the few pieces you’ve managed to grab. They’re going. And now—wait . .

Full Story: The Non-Remembrance of Things Past.

Unless You’re a Shill for Banks and Big Business, The Washington Elites Will Call You Controversial

Tim Geithner and Chris Dodd’s opposition to Elizabeth Warren stems from the fact that she wasn’t a puppet for big banks.

Over the last few days, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have made the case that Harvard professor and Congressional Oversight Panel chairwoman Elizabeth Warren is too controversial a figure to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This, then, raises the revealing question of how Washington defines “controversial”?

Recall that the charge of “too controversial” was not made by Senate Democrats (or at least not at the volume they are being made against Warren) against Gary Gensler, the former Goldman Sachs executive appointed by President Obama to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It was not made by most Senate Democrats against Larry Summers, a hedge fund executive subsequently appointed to a top economic position in the administration. It was not made against Citigroup executive Jack Lew when last week he was appointed to head the Office of Management and Budget. And it wasn’t made against Tim Geithner, who orchestrated massive taxpayer giveaways to major banks during his time at the New York Fed.

Full Story: Unless You’re a Shill for Banks and Big Business, The Washington Elites Will Call You Controversial | Economy | AlterNet.

Treasurer accuses GOP chairman of hiding debt

The Republican National Committee’s treasurer has accused chairman Michael Steele of hiding more than $7 million in debt to inflate the party’s finances and mislead donors.

Two lawyers working for the committee insisted the RNC never had that kind of debt and has been honest in reporting its finances.

The accusations, made in a memo to RNC budget committee members on Tuesday, were the latest challenge to the embattled Steele and his stewardship of the committee. RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen amended Federal Election Commission reports to show some $3.3 million in debt for April and $3.8 million for May. The RNC, which had crowed about having zero debt, had more than $2 million in debt at the end of June, according to FEC reports filed Tuesday.

Full Story: Treasurer accuses GOP chairman of hiding debt.

Brazil donates $14 million for Gaza reconstruction

Ramallah – Ma’an – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decision granting $14 million for Gaza reconstruction efforts, Palestinian officials announced.

During a visit to Brazil, a Fatah delegation headed by Central Committee member Nabil Sha’ath met with da Silva, who applauded President da Silva’s positions toward Palestine.

“The question of Palestine runs in the blood vessels of every Brazilian. I will continue to fight for a just peace leading to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the president was quoted as saying.

Sha’ath said in a statement that da Silva would be willing to join international efforts to support the Palestinian stance, and would willingly participate in the peace process.

Full Story: Maan News Agency: Brazil donates $14 million for Gaza reconstruction.

New ‘walking’ Fishes Discovered In Gulf Oil-spill Zone

Pancake batfishes may be getting oiled before they get named

Two new fish species — with pancake-flat bodies, wiggling lures on their faces, and elbowed fins for “walking” on the seafloor — have been discovered in the path of spewing Gulf of Mexico oil.

One of these pancake batfishes lives in the northern Gulf where oil is already spreading from the Deepwater Horizon blowout, says ichthyologist Prosanta Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University’s Museum of Natural Sciences in Baton Rouge, a codiscoverer of the species.

Chakrabarty calls this narrowly distributed species the Louisiana pancake batfish. Its full scientific name, in the genus Halieutichthys, hasn’t even been published yet. The oil’s impact on the soon-to-be new species isn’t clear. ”All we can say is that its habitat is threatened,” Chakrabarty says.

Full Story: New ‘walking’ Fishes Discovered In Gulf Oil-spill Zone – Science News.

The Scariest Unemployment Graph I’ve Seen Yet

The median duration of unemployment is higher today than any time in the last 50 years. That’s an understatement. It is more than twice as high today than any time in the last 50 years.

OK, you’re saying, but what does this mean? Does it mean we must increase the duration of unemployment benefits to protect this new class of unemployed, or does it mean we need to stop subsidizing joblessness? Does it mean we need to expand federal retraining programs, or does it mean federal retraining programs aren’t working? Does it mean we need more stimulus, more state aid, more infrastructure projects, more public works … or does it mean it’s time to stop everything, stand back and let business be business?

You’re going to find smart people make a case for all six of the above public policy directions. (I tend to side with the first of each coupling.) It’s hard to know for sure how to design public policy for historically unique crises precisely because they are historical orphans, without precedent to show us the right way from the wrong.

Full Story: The Scariest Unemployment Graph I’ve Seen Yet – Business – The Atlantic.

Censored Gulf news: Scientists call on Obama to stop chem-spray

Over 100 scientists and academic institution, research laboratory, conservation organization leaders plus human rights defenders from as far away as Norway and Greece signed the Scientists Consensus Statement on the Use of Chemical Dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico calling for the Obama Administration to immediately halt chemical aerial spraying in the Gulf region. A public petition to end dispersant use is also gaining momentum.

Non-consensual human experiementation

Scientists expressing grave concern about the unprecedented aerial spraying of chemical dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico region believe a large-scale, uncontrolled non-consensual human and environmental experiment is being conducted in the Gulf region according to reports sent to the writer including one from the “Ocean Doctor” David E. Guggenheim, Ph.D.

Full Story: Censored Gulf news: Scientists call on Obama to stop chem-spray.

Tax Cuts For Rich Don’t Work

See the facts on Tax Cuts Here: http://tinyurl.com/2az2fs7

The Senators Who Gave Us 15 Million Unemployed Want to Deny Them Benefits

Dean Baker:

It is amazing how people in Washington are so forgiving — of each other. We have close to 15 million people unemployed and more than 8 million people under-employed because the folks managing our economy were incompetent.

In spite of the efforts of economists and policy types to portray the cause of the economic collapse as being complicated, it wasn’t. It was really really simple. Prior to the downturn the economy was being driven by an $8 trillion housing bubble. This led to a boom in residential construction. (A separate bubble in commercial real estate led to a boom in non-residential construction.) The equity generated by the housing bubble also led to a surge in consumption, with the saving rate falling to almost zero at the peak of the bubble.

It was inevitable that the bubble burst. Bubbles do that. They lead to an over-supply and eventually we run out of suckers willing or able to pay bubble-inflated prices for houses. The collapse caused the economy to lose $1.2 trillion in annual demand from the private sector. Annual construction spending fell back by close to $600 billion and consumption fell by roughly the same amount as a result of the loss of housing wealth.

Full Story: Dean Baker: The Senators Who Gave Us 15 Million Unemployed Want to Deny Them Benefits.

The Business Case Against Overseas Tax Havens

Kate’s Café and AAA Appliance probably pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than profitable Fortune 500 companies.

In the U.S., thanks in part to overseas tax havens, we have one tax system for multinational companies and wealthy individuals –and another for small businesses and ordinary taxpayers.

Tax havens enable the rich and U.S. multinationals to move income and assets between global subsidiaries and dodge taxes. Responsible businesses and individual taxpayers are left to pay for U.S. infrastructure, defense, education and all the public investments that contribute to a healthy business climate and economy.

How does this work? A U.S. company creates a subsidiary in a secretive low tax haven such as the Luxemburg, Bermuda or the Republic of Mauritius. In the Grand Cayman Islands, one building called Ugland House, houses over 19,000 of these corporate subsidiaries.

Full Story: The Business Case Against Overseas Tax Havens | CommonDreams.org.

Pre-Recession Unemployment Rates May Not be Reached for a Decade

As recent calls for additional stimulus and the extension of unemployment benefits meet with stiff opposition, Congress appears to have underestimated the profound effect of the current recession on the labor market. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that with a job growth path comparable to the last recovery, the economy will not recover all of the jobs lost in the recession until March 2014. Assuming the trend rate of growth in the labor force, the unemployment rate will not fall back to the pre-recession level until April 2021.

“The economy desperately needs action on job creation,” says John Schmitt, a senior economist at CEPR and a co-author of the report. “At current and projected job creation rates, we will still be suffering from the effects of the downturn well into the next presidential term.”

The study, “The Urgent Need for Job Creation,” compares various job growth scenarios with the job loss seen in the recession and projects when the lost jobs will be regained and when the unemployment rate will return to pre-recession levels in each case.

Full Story: Pre-Recession Unemployment Rates May Not be Reached for a Decade | Press Releases.

‘Racism’ Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Was Materially Altered

The Obama administration is standing by its quick decision to oust a black Agriculture Department employee over racially tinged remarks at an NAACP banquet in Georgia, despite evidence that her remarks were misconstrued and growing calls for USDA to reconsider.

Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture Department’s director of rural development in Georgia, says the administration caved to political pressure by pushing her to resign for saying that she didn’t give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago when she worked for a nonprofit group.

Sherrod says her remarks, delivered in March at a local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were part of a story about racial reconciliation, not racism. The white farming family that was the subject of the story stood by Sherrod and said she should keep her job.

Full Story: ‘Racism’ Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Was Materially Altered.

Elizabeth Warren Could Head CFPB Without Senate Confirmation

Elizabeth Warren could lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without ever having to face a Senate confirmation hearing.

The Harvard Law professor and bailout watchdog, beloved by the left and reviled by big banks, is one of three candidates the White House identified Friday as potential picks to lead the new consumer agency. Created as part of the financial reform bill President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law on Wednesday, the agency is supposed to protect borrowers from predatory lenders and centralize the federal government’s role when it comes to extending credit to consumers. Warren conceived of the agency in 2007 and since last year has served as the public face of the campaign to enact it into law.

But some have speculated Warren may face an uphill battle to become its inaugural chief. Lenders fear her — particularly given her strong advocacy on behalf of the debt-strapped middle class — and are furiously fighting her potential nomination as she’s viewed as the most consumer-friendly of the candidates. Their friends in the Senate may take up their cause.

Full Story: Elizabeth Warren Could Head CFPB Without Senate Confirmation.

BP’s Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception

The latest curio in the ongoing exhibition of BP obfuscation comes via John Aravosis at AmericaBlog, who examined an image from BP’s website and determined it to be a fake. The image depicts BP’s “Command Center” in Houston, where ever-vigilant BP employees sit in a dark room, monitoring screens. BP’s website has been running a photo in which three men appear to be watching a ten-screen display of oil-spill footage. Here’s the thing: it’s a Photoshop job. And not just a poor one — a seemingly unnecessary one.

Here’s the one BP was running:

Full Story: BP’s Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception.

NY Times columnist: Fox News ‘exploited’ New Black Panther Party case

Fox News has gone too far in hyping 2008 case of alleged voter intimidation, according to one New York Times columnist.

The conservative news network has recently produced a flurry of reports about a case where a member of the New Black Panther Party is accused of wielding a billy club outside of a polling place in Philadelphia. Appearing on MSNBC Monday, The New York Times’ Charles Blow called out the network for exploiting the case.

“I think that the media, depending on what you call the media, some parts of the media, I think have exploited this to a degree that the president of the New Black Panther Party is on Fox on a regular basis now, it seems,” Blow told MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.

Full Story: NY Times columnist: Fox News ‘exploited’ New Black Panther Party case | Raw Story.

Senate advances unemployment extension bill – On Politics: Covering the US Congress, Governors, and the 2010 Election

Millions of out-of-work Americans would continue to receive unemployment benefits through November under legislation that cleared a major procedural hurdle in the Senate today after months of debate.

Democrats captured the 60 votes required to overcome GOP opposition only after swearing in a new Democratic senator from West Virginia, Carte Goodwin, who will temporarily fill the seat left vacant by the June 28 death of Robert Byrd.

The legislation, which was supported by President Obama, will extend benefits for those who have already used their standard 26 weeks of unemployment. The measure now faces a final vote in the Senate and must also clear the House of Representatives.

Full Story: Senate advances unemployment extension bill – On Politics: Covering the US Congress, Governors, and the 2010 Election – USATODAY.com.

Exclusive: Religious group calls out Glenn Beck’s ‘warped gospel’, launches ad campaign

When Glenn Beck attacks Christianity, some just see red. Others — they spy opportunity.

Dan Nejfelt, a communications associate with advocacy group Faith in Public Life, has been high on Beck’s smear-list ever since his group began running Christian radio ads quoting scripture as a way of encouraging believers to stop paying attention to the right-wing Fox News personality.

The group, which says their ads are sponsored by over 100,000 members nation-wide, has gone so far as to target their ads for every city Beck is visiting this summer.

Their efforts have been getting Beck’s goat in a big way. In recent days he’s even played their ad on his radio program and increased the ferocity of his rhetoric against Christians who see poverty, war, climate change and economic tyranny as core social ills.

Full Story: Exclusive: Religious group calls out Glenn Beck’s ‘warped gospel’, launches ad campaign | Raw Story.

Paper: CIA now pretending contractors are CIA officers

The Washington Post’s Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Dana Priest drove another stake into the heart of the US military industrial complex in today’s Post:

In June, a stone carver from Manassas chiseled another perfect star into a marble wall at CIA headquarters, one of 22 for agency workers killed in the global war initiated by the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The intent of the memorial is to publicly honor the courage of those who died in the line of duty, but it also conceals a deeper story about government in the post-9/11 era: Eight of the 22 were not CIA officers at all. They were private contractors.

Priest’s full story (and the Post’s entire excellent series) is available here.

The Associated Press’ writeup of the Post story follows.

Full Story: Paper: CIA now pretending contractors are CIA officers | Raw Story.

Oliver Stone: US should nationalize oil resources

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows that the United States should follow the example of South American socialists in nationalizing its energy industry, filmmaker Oliver Stone said Tuesday.

The Academy Award-winning director of “Born on the Fourth of July” and “JFK” said that America’s country’s natural wealth was too important to be left in private hands, telling journalists in central London that oil and other natural resources “belong to the people.”

“This BP oil spill is typical” of what happens when private industry is allowed to draw revenue on what should be a public good, Stone said.

“We shouldn’t make this kind of profit on oil or on health or on war or on prisons. All these industries should be public industries.”

Full Story: Oliver Stone: US should nationalize oil resources – Yahoo! News.

Gulf oil disaster could destroy over 100,000 jobs

The impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was thrown into sharp relief Tuesday, as US data showed rising unemployment in Louisiana and experts warned the disaster could cost up to 100,000 jobs.

The US Department of Labor said Louisiana — among the US states worst hit by the spill — was one of only five states across the country to see a rise in unemployment last month, with the jobless rate up 0.2 points to seven percent.

While the bayou state’s unemployment rate remains well below the national average of 9.5 percent, the data comes amid warnings that a worst-case scenario would see 100,000 jobs lost across the Gulf Coast.

Full Story: Gulf oil disaster could destroy over 100,000 jobs | Raw Story.

Racist New Hampshire State House Candidate Advises Tea Party To Be More Open With Its Racism

While the tea party movement is desperately trying to fight off charges of “racist elements” from the NAACP, Ryan J. Murdough, a Republican candidate for New Hampshire State House, has no qualms about expressing his views on race. “It is time for white people in New Hampshire and across the country to take a stand,” Murdough wrote in a letter to the Concord Monitor titled “We must preserve our racial identity”:

For far too long white Americans have been told that diversity is something beneficial to their existence. Statistics prove that the opposite is true. New Hampshire residents must seek to preserve their racial identity if we want future generations to have to possibility to live in such a great state. Affirmative action, illegal and legal non-white immigration, anti-white public school systems, and an anti-white media have done much damage to the United States of America and especially New Hampshire. It is time for white people in New Hampshire and across the country to take a stand. We are only 8 percent of the world’s population and we need our own homeland, just like any other non-white group of people deserve their own homeland.

Murdough is running as a Republican because it’s easier to get on the ballot, but the party immediately “disowned him as a candidate on their ticket,” calling him a “despicable racist” and a “fraud.” But Murdough has no love lost for the GOP, complaining, “they’ve sold white people out.

Full Story: Think Progress » Racist New Hampshire State House Candidate Advises Tea Party To Be More Open With Its Racism.

Sen. Barrasso Calls For Repealing Middle Class Tax Cuts To Finance Tax Cuts For The Rich

In the last week or so, a dizzying array of Republicans have made it their official stance that $33 billion to extend unemployment benefits must be fully paid for, but financing a $678 billion extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy with deficit spending is just fine. “I think we need to be paying for all the spending that’s going on,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). “But when people can keep more of their own money that shouldn’t be considered a cost.”

Today, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) tackled this topic and started to go down the same road as the likes of Bachmann and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who was the first to set foot in this fiscal fantasy land. But he then pivoted to suggest that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should be funded with unspent stimulus funds:

Q: Are you for extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, yes or no? [...] Are you paying for them? Or are you for adding to the deficit to continue those tax cuts?

Barrasso: There is so much unspent stimulus money that we ought to use that in a responsible way, which is to help keep taxes low.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Sen. Barrasso Calls For Repealing Middle Class Tax Cuts To Finance Tax Cuts For The Rich.

Koch Industries Takes Credit For The ‘Spontaneous’ Tea Parties: We’re Glad We ‘Helped Stimulate’ Them

As ThinkProgress has documented, the lobbyist-run Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has been instrumental in orchestrating the Tea Party movement. The group coordinated “grassroots” protests around the country and provided organizations and communications support to the Tea Parties. AFP staffers are also regular presence at Tea Party rallies. The man behind AFP is David Koch, who is one of the richest men in the world thanks to his oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries. In 2009, AFP President Tim Phillips said he “launched our organization.”

Koch Industries and AFP have largely tried to keep their distance from the Tea Parties. From a May 2010 interview with the Frum Forum’s Tim Mak:

Most incredibly striking is Koch’s efforts to distance itself from the Tea Party movement. “We’ve been labeled tea party founders or funders – in fact, masterminds – but that’s not consistent with the facts,” said Fink. “To my knowledge, we have not been approached for support by any of the newer ‘tea party’ or other grassroots groups that have sprung up around the country in the past year or so.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Koch Industries Takes Credit For The ‘Spontaneous’ Tea Parties: We’re Glad We ‘Helped Stimulate’ Them.

Rubio’s campaign ‘couldn’t give an answer’ on how he would pay for his proposed tax cuts.

This week, GOP U.S. Senate candidate in Florida, Marco Rubio, said he would not support extending unemployment benefits to nearly 3 million Americans unless spending cuts were identified to offset the $33 billion cost. “At some point, someone has to draw a line in the sand and say we are serious about not growing debt,” Rubio said. At the same time, Rubio wants to make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent — at a cost of nearly $700 billion over the next ten years — with no offset. While Rubio recently claimed they would pay for themselves (they won’t), a local Florida CBS reporter followed up with his campaign:

However, historically speaking, no party has ever opposed extending the benefits when the unemployment rate was higher than 7 percent until the current election cycle. [...]

Full Story: Think Progress » Rubio’s campaign ‘couldn’t give an answer’ on how he would pay for his proposed tax cuts..

Halliburton Continues to Flood Lawmakers With Contributions After Oil Spill

Halliburton, the company once headed by former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, contributed $15,500 to federal candidates during June, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of their political action committee’s most recent campaign finance filing.

That amount represents the third largest month of donations by the PAC this election cycle.

The giving comes at a time when the Texas-based company is weathering a political storm for its involvement on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded on April 20 and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a massive amount oil to spill into the surrounding waters. Investigations are currently underway to determine how and why the spill occurred — and who should be held responsible — by Congress and the Department of Justice.

Full Story: Halliburton Continues to Flood Lawmakers With Contributions After Oil Spill – OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets.

‘We Must Start Building Things in America Again’

Lawmakers on Monday approved legislation designed to reinvigorate the nation’s shriveling manufacturing base.

Remarkably, at a time of such sharp partisanship in a contentious election year in which House control appears up for grabs, House members passed the Strengthening Employment Clusters To Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act unanimously on a voice vote.

Called part of Democrats’ national manufacturing strategy, the bill would support industry partnerships to develop and implement plans to train workers and help them advance in high-demand and emerging industries. A summary of the bill can be found here.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) says that he has co-authored a Senate version of the SECTORS Act with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Full Story: On The Hill: ‘We Must Start Building Things in America Again’.

“Top Secret America”: A hidden world, growing beyond control

A Washington Post Investigation: :

“Top Secret America” is a project nearly two years in the making that describes the huge national security buildup in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks

National Security Inc.

The intent of the memorial is to publicly honor the courage of those who died in the line of duty, but it also conceals a deeper story about government in the post-9/11 era: Eight of the 22 were not CIA officers at all. They were private contractors.

To ensure that the country’s most sensitive duties are carried out only by people loyal above all to the nation’s interest, federal rules say contractors may not perform what are called “inherently government functions.” But they do, all the time and in every intelligence and counterterrorism agency, according to a two-year investigation by The Washington Post.

What started as a temporary fix in response to the terrorist attacks has turned into a dependency that calls into question whether the federal workforce includes too many people obligated to shareholders rather than the public interest — and whether the government is still in control of its most sensitive activities. In interviews last week, both Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta said they agreed with such concerns.

Full Story: National Security Inc. | washingtonpost.com.

After long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military begins to treat mental injuries as combat wounds

The 300-pound bomb blasted Marine Staff Sgt. James Ownbey’s mine-resistant truck so high that it snapped power lines before it slammed to the dusty ground in western Iraq.

Ownbey, knocked briefly unconscious by the blast, awoke to suffocating black smoke and a swirling cloud of dirt. He felt for the vehicle’s door, then stumbled into the sunlight where he was joined by the rest of his woozy, three-man crew. Their bodies were sore, but they looked fine.

A Marine general visiting from Washington heard about the blast and came to see the survivors. As Gen. James F. Amos laid a hand on Ownbey’s neck, his aide snapped a picture, proof of the new vehicle’s efficacy against insurgent bombs.

Full Story: After long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military begins to treat mental injuries as combat wounds — washingtonpost.com.

Democratic Party Chairman Pounces On ‘Frightening’ Televised GOP Comments

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee seized on televised comments made over the weekend by two top Republican lawmakers which appear to advocate a return to policies from George W. Bush.

“The men in charge of Republican campaigns made it crystal clear what Republican candidates plan to do if elected — take us backward,” says DNC Chairman Tim Kaine.

The chairmen of the Republicans’ congressional campaign committees each appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press program, where Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) is quoted as saying, “We need to go back to the exact same agenda that is empowering the free enterprise system rather than diminishing it.

Full Story: On The Hill: Democratic Party Chairman Pounces On ‘Frightening’ Televised GOP Comments.

Another Senate Charade

Matt Taibbi:

This note comes courtesy of my friend David Sirota out in Colorado. This is a classic example of how the Senate works. If the public understood better how rigged this game is, and how few issues are actually left to an honest vote in the legislature, I’m pretty sure the pitchfork factor would be twice even what it is now.

The short version of this story: Bernie Sanders had put forth a proposal in the Senate to put a 15 percent cap on credit-card interest. Who isn’t in favor of this kind of legislation? The only difference between credit card companies and loan sharks at this point is that you can choose to not patronize a loan shark. As an adult professional in this country one has to have a credit card – it’s impossible to rent a car, buy a hotel room, shop online or do countless other things without one.

But all the credit card companies use the same insane formulae based on FICO scores to charge exorbitant interest rates for anyone who slips up – and they don’t exactly make it easy to not slip up. (I’m doing research on this subject so anyone who has a particularly egregious story about being ripped off by credit card companies, please write in). Almost everyone has horror stories about consumer credit and my guess is that if put to a national referendum, something like the Sanders 15% cap would pass pretty easily.

Full Story: Another Senate Charade — RollingStone.com.

Official: Seep found near BP’s blown out oil well

A federal official says scientists are concerned about a seep and possible methane near BP’s busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico

Both could be signs there are leaks in the well that’s been capped off for three days.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement about the next steps had not been made yet.

The official is familiar with the spill oversight but would not clarify what is seeping near the well. The official says BP is not complying with the government’s demand for more monitoring.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Full Story: The Associated Press: Official: Seep found near BP’s blown out oil well.

Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Collapses – Nobody Knows Why

The thermosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads.

An upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads, NASA announced Thursday.

The layer of gas – called the thermosphere – is now rebounding again. This type of collapse is not rare, but its magnitude shocked scientists.

“This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years,” said John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “It’s a Space Age record.”

The collapse occurred during a period of relative solar inactivity – called a solar minimum from 2008 to 2009. These minimums are known to cool and contract the thermosphere, however, the recent collapse was two to three times greater than low solar activity could explain.

Full Story: t r u t h o u t | Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Collapses – Nobody Knows Why.

Obey: White House Suggested Cutting Food Stamps to Pay for Education Program

This entire interview with Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.), the head of the House Appropriations Committee and a powerful veteran member of Congress, who is retiring this year, is worth a read. But one passage is particularly striking. Obey is discussing his proposal to divert funds from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top education program to save teachers’ jobs. Due to the states’ fiscal crises, as many as 200,000 local government employees, many of them teachers, might lose their jobs in the coming year.

The proposal made it in to the House war-funding bill, which needs a Senate vote. The White House has threatened to veto the war-funding bill if it contains Obey’s change. Here is the quote, from an interview with The Fiscal Times:

Full Story: Obey: White House Suggested Cutting Food Stamps to Pay for Education Program « The Washington Independent.

Wealth And Inequality In America

15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America…..

The gap between the top 0.01% and everyone else hasn’t been this bad since the Roaring Twenties

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Cliché, sure, but it’s also more true than at any time since the Gilded Age.

While politicians gloat about our “recovery,” our poor are getting poorer, our average wages are still falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low.

But, yes, if you’re in that top 1%, life in America is grand.

Full Story: Wealth And Inequality In America.

Jobless “Recovery” Requires Us to Rebuild America

Jim Hightower:  :

The good news is that America’s economy continues to grow. The bad news is that most people’s personal economies continue to shrivel.

The June report on jobs glows with the happy news that America’s unemployment rate has fallen to 9.5 percent — the best we’ve had in a year! “We are headed in the right direction,” trumpeted President Obama.

Great … if true. However, the ballyhooed jobs statistic is a mirage. It looks good only because 650,000 more Americans became so frustrated with their fruitless search for work last month that they quit looking. In StatWorld, such “discouraged” seekers are — abracadabra! — no longer considered unemployed, even though they are. There are now 1.2 million Americans in this statistical purgatory.

Full Story: Jobless “Recovery” Requires Us to Rebuild America | Economy In Crisis.

Stop the Madness! People Should be SHOCKED

Ernest F. Hollings:

Our only hope is for President Obama to enforce our trade laws to protect the economy and make it profitable for Corporate America to produce in the United States in the trade war.

People are shocked to learn:

1. That almost a year before the recession, in February 2007, the Princeton economist, Alan Blinder, estimated that in ten years we would be losing 30 to 40 million jobs to offshoring. That’s about 300,000 jobs a month lost to offshoring.

2. President Obama has stimulated to save or create jobs lost from the recession, but totally ignores the 300,000 jobs lost to offshoring.

3. President Bush and the Federal Reserve stimulated the economy $7.5 trillion during his eight year term, and household debt during the same time stimulated the economy another $7 trillion for a total of a $14.5 trillion stimulation. President Obama stimulated the economy his first year over $1 trillion, and we have already stimulated the economy this year $1.142 trillion (6/9/10) with four months to go. So we have borrowed and stimulated the economy over the past nine and a half years $16.6 trillion, and the private sector is only creating 41,000 new jobs a month.

Full Story: Stop the Madness! People Should be SHOCKED | Economy In Crisis.

China’s Threat to National Security; What Will Congress Do?

In October 2008, Chinese officials threatened to liquidate their vast holdings of foreign reserves- $1.33 trillion- to counteract congressional pressure to revalue their currency.

Foreign governments with interests adverse to the U.S. are stockpiling vast sums of money and buying out our country for strategic purposes that threaten national security.

This alarming reality has prompted a congressional hearing today about the threats posed by China’s $200 billion government controlled sovereign wealth fund.

From Businessweek:

Several congressional Democrats and academics on Thursday will warn that investment by China’s government-run funds carries national security risks.

….

“What we’re seeing is not merely private foreign investment — it is foreign government investment in our infrastructure and banking system”- Senator James Webb, D-Va

Using investments against American interests isn’t new; in fact China threatened America recently with similar action: In October 2008, Chinese officials threatened to liquidate their vast holdings of foreign reserves- $1.33 trillion- to counteract congressional pressure to revalue their currency.

Full Story: China’s Threat to National Security; What Will Congress Do? | Economy In Crisis.

Austerity drive will hand billions to private sector

Outsourcing firms are preparing for bonanza of contracts to provide everything from binmen to back office bureaucrats

A government efficiency drive aimed at slashing spending in town halls and boosting productivity in the health service is likely to deliver billions of pounds of new business for private companies, the Guardian has learned.

Outsourcing firms are preparing for a bonanza of local authority contracts to provide everything from bin men to back office bureaucrats and have reported a doubling in the number of deals on offer this year. Private health companies are also expecting to earn billions of pounds from the planned overhaul of the NHS in which GPs would take over responsibility for spending £70bn.

Executives at Capita, the UK’s largest outsourcing firm, said the number of opportunities for local authority contracts has already doubled this year and they see the healthcare market as “vast and potentially lucrative”.

Full Story: Austerity drive will hand billions to private sector | Politics | The Guardian.

Greenspan backs end to Bush tax cuts

Congress should let all of former president George W. Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire to cut the long-term budget deficit, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has said.

Mr Greenspan’s support helped persuade Congress to pass the tax cuts in 2001 and his comments thrust him into a heated political battle over whether to extend them beyond the end of 2010. “They should follow the law and let them lapse,” Mr Greenspan said in an interview.

“The problem is, unless we start to come to grips with this long-term [budget] outlook, we are going to have major problems. I think we misunderstand the momentum of this deficit going forward.”

The Bush cuts lowered income tax rates; created a new 10 per cent tax bracket; raised tax credits for children; and lowered taxes on dividends and capital gains. A “sunset” provision means that all the cuts will expire at the end of this year unless Congress extends them.

Full Story: FT.com / US / Economy & Fed – Greenspan backs end to Bush tax cuts.

Sen. Franken’s Speech On The Economy, Unemployment, And The Budget

On Wednesday night, Sen. Franken delivered a sweeping floor speech on the state of our economy, the importance of unemployment insurance, and the problem of the deficit.

The Day The Controversy Over The New Black Panther Case Fell Apart.

So, a number of things have happened in the past few hours that should really discredit the entire conservative conspiracy theory behind the New Black Panther Party case.

Earlier today, I reported that J. Christian Adams, in his testimony to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, said that there was no indication of pressure from outside the Civil Rights Division to dismiss the civil complaint against the other two plaintiffs named in the original complaint–meaning that even Adams admits there’s no evidence Barack Obama or Eric Holder had anything to do with deciding to narrow the case.

Ben Smith reported this evening that Abigail Thernstrom, a conservative voting rights expert and one of George W. Bush’s appointees to the commission, says that the conservative bloc explicitly discussed a “wild notion they could bring Eric Holder down and really damage the president.” This was clear from the beginning, but it’s the first time anyone on the commission has said with first hand knowledge that the conservatives on the commission had deliberately decided to do this to damage the administration.

Full Story: Adam Serwer Archive | The American Prospect.

Top 5 Suspected Everyday Carcinogens in American Cancer Society’s Scary New Report

Some carcinogens you already know and fear: cigarettes, asbestos, smoked meat.

But what about the ones you’ve never even heard of? That’s the crux of a new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS), which rounds up 20 “suspected carcinogens” the organization would like to see studied more extensively.

Of course, that research, if it happens, will come after the chemicals, ingredients — and even lifestyle choices — are already embedded into the bedrock of our 24/7 economy.

“The objectives of this report are to identify research gaps and needs for 20 agents prioritized for review based on evidence of widespread human exposures and potential carcinogenicity in animals or humans,” Elizabeth Ward, the co-author of the report, said.

So just what are these potential cancer causers lurking in our everyday environs? Surge Desk runs down five (not so awesome) favorites.

Full Story: Top 5 Suspected Everyday Carcinogens in American Cancer Society’s Scary New Report.

Iranian Scientist Would Not Play Curveball

Ray McGovern:

Useful insights often must be seen through a glass darkly. But some can be pulled through the smoke and mirrors shrouding the wanderings of Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who is now back home in Iran after 14 months in the U.S. as guest of the CIA.

The confusing/amusing spin applied by both countries to L’ Affaire Amiri can detract from the real issues. The facts beneath the competing narratives permit a key conclusion; namely, that U.S. intelligence has learned nothing to change its assessment that Iran halted work on the nuclear-weapons related part of its nuclear development program in the fall of 2003 and has not restarted that work.

That twin judgment leaped out of a formal National Intelligence Estimate, “Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities,” approved unanimously by all 16 U.S intelligence agencies in November 2007.

Full Story: Iranian Scientist Would Not Play Curveball | CommonDreams.org.

Newsweek — We’re Not Winning. It’s Not Worth It.

Time to Get Out of Afghanistan —-

Here’s how to draw down in Afghanistan.

Full Story: Haass: Time to Get Out of Afghanistan – Newsweek.

Insurers Push Plans That Limit Health Choices

As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.

The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely to appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.

But large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.

The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.

Full Story: Insurers Push Plans That Limit Health Choices – NYTimes.com.

Dengue epidemic threatens Caribbean, kills dozens

Mosquito-borne dengue fever is reaching epidemic stages across the Caribbean, with dozens of deaths reported and health authorities concerned it could get much worse as the rainy season advances.

The increase in cases is being blamed on warm weather and an unusually early rainy season, which has produced an explosion of mosquitoes. Health officials say the flood of cases is straining the region’s hospitals.

In the Dominican Republic, where at least 27 deaths have been reported, hundreds of health workers and soldiers went door-to-door Saturday to warn about the virus and destroy mosquito breeding areas.

Full Story: Dengue epidemic threatens Caribbean, kills dozens | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Germans contemplate cuts to social welfare system

As Germany plans severe austerity measures, the country’s generous welfare system is expected to take a deep hit. Critics say it places an unfair burden on the poor at a time of economic instability.

Unemployed mom Fee Linker lives on welfare benefits in a centrally located five-room flat that costs about $1,500 a month. The garden terrace looks out onto a lush wooded area where birds chirp in the trees.

“I wouldn’t get along without this government money, not with this apartment,” says Linker, who sends her 6-year-old daughter and two sons, 7 and 10, to a private school. “It’s my opinion that as a mother of three, I deserve a comfortable life.”

Full Story: Germans contemplate cuts to social welfare system – latimes.com.

Shocker: Conservatives have no taste for conservation, study finds

A pair of University of California, Los Angeles professors tracking subtle socioeconomic responses to detailed consumer information about power consumption have effectively pinpointed something oft’ joked of by so-called “liberals” but never genuinely proven until now: conservatives, by and large, have no taste for conservation.

By studying average household electricity consumption after what they called a “nudge” (more specifically, giving the residents a detailed chart of that home’s drain on the electric grid), UCLA professors Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn pinpointed distinctly different response patterns along political fault lines. Using voter registration information and data about charitable contributions, they picked out homes that bought renewable energy, voted for Democrats or contributed to environmental causes, and compared consumption to addresses given by registered Republicans.

People who fell under the prescribed labels of liberal and conservative, as it turned out, seemed to show behaviors quite the opposite. Liberal-leaning households tended to reduce power consumption 3-6 percent after seeing a detailed usage outlay, but on average so-called “conservatives” used 1 percent more.

Full Story: Shocker: Conservatives have no taste for conservation, study finds | Raw Story.

Group Run By Anti-Stimulus Crusaders Rove And Gillespie Airs Ad Attacking Reid For Lack Of Stimulus Money In NV

Group Run By Anti-Stimulus Crusaders Rove And Gillespie Airs Ad Attacking Reid For Lack Of Stimulus Money In NV

GOP operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie recently founded a network of right-wing attack groups to rival what they view as inept and ineffective Republican National Committee. One of those groups, American Crossroads, is a 527 committee, formed to spend tens of millions of dollars on House and Senate races this year.

The group recently launched an ad in Nevada attacking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D):

It’s bad enough that Nevada has the highest unemployment in the nation. And Harry Reid claims to be helping the jobs situation? Really Harry? Recent data show Nevada ranks 50th in the money received from Harry’s stimulus bill. That’s right — Senate leader Harry Reid has gotten his own state less help than every other state but one. And along with bailouts, deficits, and Obamacare, that’s what Harry Reid’s done for Nevada. Really Harry? That’s not the kinda help Nevada needs.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Group Run By Anti-Stimulus Crusaders Rove And Gillespie Airs Ad Attacking Reid For Lack Of Stimulus Money In NV.

The Gulf Region as a New “Sacrifice Zone”

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo:……………

It is possible that the day will come when vast areas of the Gulf and its coastal regions will be declared sacrifice zones.”

The Obama administration has a double BP problem: the oil giant and the other BP: Black People. “It appears that BP and the Obama administration find it easier to stanch the flow of information than they do the deepwater gusher,” which at some point may cause great stretches of the Gulf to be written off as “sacrifice zones,” like atomic testing sites in the 50s and inner cities in the 70s. The author knows something about the inner workings of the Environmental Protection Agency, having won the largest award ever against the EPA for sexual and racial discrimination.

By now, if asked to describe the BP problem facing Carol M. Browner, the Special Advisor to the President for Energy and the Environment, there is little doubt that most people could likely site some details about the April 20th explosion that killed eleven people and triggered the worst environmental disaster in US history. With tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil blasting daily into the Gulf of Mexico at pressure equivalent to a power washer—it is possible that the day will come when vast areas of the Gulf and its coastal regions will be declared sacrifice zones. That is, areas that are so contaminated that the cost and feasibility of cleaning and restoring them to there prior state will exceed their total economic worth

There are already examples of official sacrifice zones in the United States today. The Yucca salt flats in Nevada, for example—the staging area for hundreds of nuclear tests—were declared a sacrifice zone in 1997 by the US Geological Survey. Before discussing the catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, however, there is a perfect example of widespread sacrifice zones occurring in cities all across America, so obvious it needs pointing out—gentrification. City neighborhoods were abandoned by white America after World War II with the great northern migration of African Americans filling those abandoned cities. It wouldn’t be until increasing awareness of sustainable environments, increase commuting costs and the need to break oil addiction began to argue for a return by whites to the cities that banking institutions started pouring serious resources back into American inner cities. For decades these same areas had been sacrifice zones where poverty and its poor cousins despair, and hopelessness flourished. In many instances, even the sacrifice zones were sacrificed when toxic waste, brown fields, and landfills were commonly the neighbors of poor and largely communities of color.

Full Story: The Gulf Region as a New “Sacrifice Zone” | Black Agenda Report.

12 mad science projects that could shake the world

From robots that eat and shrink to invincible soldiers and smart drones, advanced science projects will alter our universe

Some science projects once only conceivable by mad scientists are now becoming more mainstream as real money is being spent on everything from shape-shifting robots to artificial intelligence-based borgs. Here we take a look at 12 projects Dr. Frankenstein would have loved.

Full Story: 12 mad science projects that could shake the world.

Safety a big target in letting unmanned aircraft in national airspace

FAA exec. testifies on unmanned aircraft safety concerns

There is a push by a variety of proponents to give unmanned aircraft more free reign in the nation’s airspace but safety is a  major hitch in that effort.

The Federal Aviation Administration said this week that data from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, which flies unmanned systems on border patrols shows a total of 5,688 flight hours from Fiscal Year 2006 to July 13, 2010. The CBP accident rate is 52.7 accidents per 100,000 flight hours. This accident rate is more than seven times the general aviation accident rate (7.11 accidents/100,000 flight hours) and 353 times the commercial aviation accident rate (0.149 accidents/100,000 flight hours).

Those kinds of numbers – while a small batch indeed – are guaranteed to keep unmanned aircraft out of the general airspace for a long time.

12 mad science projects that could shake the world

Full Story: Safety a big target in letting unmanned aircraft in national airspace | NetworkWorld.com Community.

Financial Reform Vote-Buying, Chapter 1

Matt Taibbi: -

Just a quick note on the passage of the financial reform bill, about which I have a piece coming out in the print version of Rolling Stone soon.

An analysis by a group called Maplight.org uncovered an interesting fact about the vote. The 38 Senators who opposed the bill in the cloture vote this afternoon received an average of $103,266 in campaign contributions from commercial banks. The 60 Senators who were yea votes took an average of $76,759.

Obviously this is just part of the puzzle, but it’s worth noting. The pull Wall Street exerts on a bill like this comes via several different avenues — campaign contributions are one, the potential for future employment (a big factor for staffers, and for retiring members like certain Democratic Party committee chairs) is another, the proximity of the lobbyist community (one staffer I know grumbled about the “literal intermarriage” factor, i.e. members married to lobbyists) is another. These cash-rich industries just keep hurling money and personnel at the Hill and even when they lose, like today, they do okay — the final product is much weaker than it would have been without all the lobbying and the cash.

Full Story: Financial Reform Vote-Buying, Chapter 1 — RollingStone.com.

Army suicides hit record number in June

Thirty-two soldiers took their own lives last month, the most Army suicides in a single month since the Vietnam era. Eleven of the soldiers were not on active duty. Of the 21 who were, seven were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said.

Army officials say they don’t have any answers to why more and more soldiers are resorting to suicide.

“There were no trends to any one unit, camp, post or station,” Col. Chris Philbrick, head of the Army’s suicide prevention task force, told CNN. “I have no silver bullet to answer the question why.”

Last year, a record-breaking 245 soldiers committed suicide. The Army seems on track to surpass that number this year, as 145 soldiers have taken their lives in the first half of 2010.

Full Story: Army suicides hit record number in June – Yahoo! News.

Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a world-killing event

Thank God the devastating 2010 Deepwater Horizon Spill has finally been capped. While the media focuses our attention on cleanup of 219 million gallons of crude oil [1], the real doomsday trigger was that unleashed with the oil goes largely unnoticed. A catastrophic legacy that we leave behind for future generations, with far greater long term danger to life on Earth than the leaked oil, is the impacts of the leaked methane from the failed 2010 Deepwater Horizon Spill.

Not to diminish in anyway the tragedy of the Exxon Valdez, but we learned from the Exxon Valdez that it takes about 20 years for an environment to largely recover from the oil damage, admittedly with some heartbreaking consequences [2]. Sadly, some animals did not recover and local economies based upon fishing and tourism needed to change.

The media has reported that vast amounts of methane in Gulf spill pose a threat to life in the ocean [3], but they missed the most important point, methane’s role as the doomsday trigger. Even at great ocean pressures oil cannot be compressed [4], the amount of oil that exited the pipe at the sea floor is roughly equal to the oil that pollutes the environment at sea level.   However that oil was mixed with 40% methane [5] and the situation with methane is dreadful.  As methane exited the pipe it expanded many times its volume as it moved up from the ocean depths and pressure on it was reduced.  This explains why scientists are measuring as much as one million times the normal level of methane near the ocean surface water [6].

Normally, the high pressure and cold temperature keep methane gas stable beneath the ocean floor, locked up with water in a form called methane hydrate [7], but the oil spill has released vast amounts of that trapped methane into our environment. Then the methane hydrates at the bottom of the ocean expands approximately 3,000 times its volume when they are eventually released into the atmosphere as methane [8]. And to make matters even worse, Methane is ten times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide [9].

Full Story: Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a world-killing event – by Dave Nocera – Helium.

America: hooked on war and getting poorer

With record foreclosures and child poverty at a shameful level, can we really afford to stay in Afghanistan and Iraq for 10 years?

There’s plenty of good money to be made /
Supplyin’ the army with tools of the trade
– Country Joe and the Fish

I hallucinate easily, a hangover from time spent in an acid-rock commune in London in the fevered 60s. Most evenings when I switch on the television 6.30 news with its now cliched pictures of deep sea oil spurting from BP’s pipe rupture, I see not bleeding sludge but human blood surging up into the Gulf of Mexico.

I’ve learned to trust my visions as metaphors for reality. The same news programmes, often as a dutiful throwaway item, will show a jerky fragment of Afghan combat accompanied by the usual pulse-pounding handheld shots of snipers amid roadside bomb explosions, preferably in fiery balls. My delusional mind converts this footage into a phantasmagoria where our M60 machine guns are shooting ammunition belts full of $1,000 bills.

Blood, oil, bullets … and cash.

Why is nobody talking about the Afghanistan adventure as a cause of our plunging recession? Or at least citing the 30-year-old endless war as a major contributory factor in wasting our money to “nation-build” in the Hindu Kush while our own country falls to pieces on food stamps, foreclosures and child poverty – one in five kids – that would put the world’s poorest nations to shame?

Full Story: America: hooked on war and getting poorer | Clancy Sigal | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

How Giant Food Corporations Are Giving Kickbacks to Schools to Get Their Products on Kids’ Trays

The reason why kids are served sugary cereals, Pop-Tarts, Otis Spunkmeyer muffins, and flavored milk that has nearly as much sugar as Coke or Mountain Dew.

D.C. Public Schools in the last two years have taken in more than $1 million in corporate rebates — referred to by some as “kickbacks” — paid by giant food manufacturers as an inducement to place their brands on kids’ cafeteria trays at school.

Documents I obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that Chartwells, the company hired by D.C. Schools to provide food services at 122 schools across the city, through February of this year had declared $1,076,738 in rebates it received since its contract began in the fall of 2008. That represents 5 percent of the $18.7 million in purchases Chartwells billed the school system during that period. Under federal law, Chartwells is required to credit D.C. schools for any rebates it receives.

Food manufacturers use the rebates as an incentive to entice purchasing agents to buy certain products over others for school meals. Rebates sometimes are referred to as “kickbacks” because powerful food service companies such as Chartwells expect to receive them, much the way grocers expect manufacturers to pay to have their goods displayed prominently on supermarket shelves.

Full Story: How Giant Food Corporations Are Giving Kickbacks to Schools to Get Their Products on Kids’ Trays | Food | AlterNet.

Surviving the Great Indoors: The Pros and Cons of Living in an A/C World

There’s no doubt that air-conditioning can save your life, but as heat waves increase in the future, should we all be armed with A/C?

Eddie Slautas turned down his neighbors’ repeated offers to install a window air conditioner in his Chicago apartment. Even when they said they’d help him pay the difference in his utility bill, the 74-year-old demurred. “Why should I make my electric bill higher?” he asked. “The fan is good enough.” Then came a fierce midsummer heat wave. On the night of July 30, 1999, the neighbors found Slautas dead. The fan was running, blowing hot air across his body. He was one of 103 Chicagoans killed by the heat that week.

On the last night of July 2006, a Commonwealth Edison power cable running beneath the city of Chicago failed, putting 3,400 customers in the dark. The next day, as temperatures reached 100 degrees on the fifth day of a blistering heat wave, 1,300 people had to be evacuated from high-rise residential buildings in the area. Their apartments had become saunas, so they took refuge in air-conditioned shelters. Resident Lutricia Somerville, who had resorted to spending much of the night in her parked truck with the air conditioner running, told a reporter, “It’s just like Hurricane Katrina.” Those trapped in the heat must indeed have felt some of the desperation that had hit New Orleans residents 11 months earlier. But the outage was short-lived, and this time no one died or suffered serious medical problems.

Full Story: Surviving the Great Indoors: The Pros and Cons of Living in an A/C World | Environment | AlterNet.

Papantonio: the Truth About BP’s Escrow Fund

BP has finally managed to successfully seal the oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Over the next few days, we’ll find out if their new cap is working or not. At the same time, the company is shopping around for buyers across the globe to help raise money to pay the thousands of claims they are facing from Gulf residents. Mike Papantonio appears on MSNBC’s The Ed Show to talk about these issues, as well as other late developments in the BP oil spill disaster.

Mike Malloy – Taxes: Debunking Republican Lies (Bill Maher Bonus)

This is a nice one. Listen to Mike talking about the real state of taxes & personal income numbers in the U.S., plus an excellent rant by Bill Maher, about the beautiful teabaggers.

White House Failure To Appoint Elizabeth Warren Would Be The Last Straw

Treasury Makes A Mistake – Claiming They Are Not Blocking Elizabeth Warren

It’s one thing to block Elizabeth Warren from heading the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

It’s quite another thing to deny in public, for the record, that any such blocking is going on (e.g., see this report; Michael Barr apparently said something quite similar today).

There is a strong groundswell of opinion on this issue from the left – see the BoldProgressives petition. But the center also feels strongly that, given everything Treasury has said and done over the past few months, it would be a complete travesty not to put the strongest possible regulator in change of protecting consumers. (See Ted Kaufman on the NYT’s DealBook, giving appropriate credit to the SEC, and apply the same points to broader customer issues going forward.)

This can now go only one of two ways.

1. Elizabeth Warren gets the job. Bridges are mended and the White House regains some political capital. Secretary Geithner is weakened slightly but he’ll recover.

2. Someone else gets the job, despite Treasury’s claims that Elizabeth Warren was not blocked. The deception in this scenario would be nauseating – and completely blatant. “Everyone was considered on their merits” and “the best candidate won” will convince who exactly?

Full Story: Treasury Makes A Mistake – Claiming They Are Not Blocking Elizabeth Warren « The Baseline Scenario.

Financial Reform: Banks Already Looking To Profit From New Rules

Big banks facing big drops in revenue are looking to Main Street to make up the difference.

Checking accounts, bank statements, even popping into your local bank branch could carry a hefty cost as the nation’s mega-banks scramble to offset expected damage from the sweeping financial overhaul. The uncertain future has overshadowed otherwise strong second-quarter earnings at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp.

All three companies beat expectations this week with profitable results. Yet their stocks tumbled, helping send the wider market sharply lower Friday.

The reason: Investors are worried about banks’ future earning power after Thursday’s passage of the most dramatic rewriting of banking rules since the Great Depression. Adding to the pessimism are falling trading profits – which all three banks mentioned in the their earnings reports – and weak U.S. loan demand.

Full Story: Financial Reform: Banks Already Looking To Profit From New Rules.

Obama SLAMS Republicans For Obstructing Economic Progress In Weekly Address (VIDEO)

President Barack Obama is taking aim at Senate Republicans, accusing them of playing politics with measures that would extend benefits to the unemployed and increase lending to small businesses.

Striking a deeply partisan tone in his weekly Saturday radio and online address, Obama said the GOP leadership has chosen to “filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress” by blocking votes on agenda items the president says would breath life into the economic recovery.

“These steps aren’t just the right thing to do for those hardest hit by the recession,” Obama said. “They’re the right thing to do for all of us.”

The address was recorded at the White House before Obama flew to Maine on Friday for a weekend family vacation.

Full Story: Obama SLAMS Republicans For Obstructing Economic Progress In Weekly Address (VIDEO).

Congress exempt from Civil Rights Act

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle took Rand Paul to task when he suggested earlier this year that Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act shouldn’t apply to private businesses.

But a new report from Congress’s Office of Compliance notes that Congress has never applied the provision to itself.

“The OOC Board of Directors has taken the position that the rights and protections afforded by Titles II and III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against discrimination with respect to places of public accommodation should be applied to the legislative branch,” OOC officials wrote in the report.

Full Story: Congress exempt from Civil Rights Act – Erika Lovley – POLITICO.com.

Comparative photos of Mount Everest ‘confirm ice loss’

Photos taken by a mountaineer on Everest from the same spot where similar pictures were taken in 1921 have revealed an “alarming” ice loss.

The Asia Society (AS) arranged for the pictures to be taken in exactly the same place where British climber George Mallory took photos in 1921.

“The photographs reveal a startling truth: the ice of the Himalaya is disappearing,” an AS statement said.

“They reveal an alarming loss in ice mass over an 89-year period.”

Full Story: BBC News – Comparative photos of Mount Everest ‘confirm ice loss’.

WikiLeaks founder: Site getting tons of ‘high caliber’ disclosures

WikiLeaks.org, the website that released secret video of a U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed a dozen civilians, is “getting an enormous quantity of whistle-blower disclosures of high caliber,” the site’s founder, Julian Assange, said Friday in a rare public appearance here.

Speaking at the TED Global conference, Assange said that “we are overwhelmed by our growth” and the site can’t keep up with the volume of the new material because it doesn’t have enough people to verify it.

He later told reporters that “there are many things which are very explosive.”

Assange said the organization gets material from whistle-blowers in a variety of ways — including via postal mail — vets it, releases it to the public and then defends itself against “the regular political or legal attack.”

Full Story: WikiLeaks founder: Site getting tons of ‘high caliber’ disclosures – CNN.com.

DC’s spy establishment in panic mode over Washington Post expose

Washington’s intelligence establishment appears to be in panic mode over an upcoming Washington Post series about runaway growth in defense and intelligence spending.

A State Department email has accused the Post of planning to make public “top secret” information about defense and intelligence contractors working for the US, despite an admission in the same email that the Post’s information came from “open sources.”

The series, by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Dana Priest, will include a TV partnership with PBS’s Frontline and is expected to consist of three articles and an online database of military and intelligence contractors and their projects.

It’s that database of contractors that seems to be worrying Washington the most. Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy reports that the State Department sent out an email Thursday warning all 14,574 Washington-area employees of the upcoming reports.

Full Story: DC’s spy establishment in panic mode over Washington Post expose | Raw Story.

AVERTING AMERICA’S “LONG DEPRESSION”

Jim Hightower:

The most moronic oxymoron I’ve ever heard is the one being cheerfully bandied about by economists as they tell us that the Great Recession of 2008-2009 is over, exulting that we’re presently experiencing a “jobless recovery.”

I don’t see how their minds can put those two words together without having their heads explode! Excuse me, Einsteins, but there’s no such thing. You can spin your data ’til the cows come home, but an economy that has nearly 20 percent of the workforce either unemployed or underemployed, that has no plan for replacing the 8 million jobs we lost in the last two years, that is now proceeding with mass layoffs of such essential workers as teachers and firefighters, and that is willing to accept poverty pay as the new American normal is not by any stretch of the imagination a recovery.

Au contraire, buckaroos, the reality we face is the darkening shadow of what economist Paul Krugman is frankly calling a “Long Depression.” As happened in a similar decline in the 1870s, those at the top will prosper and take an even larger share of the wealth we all produce, while the majority see declining income and rising poverty.

Audio and Transcript at link

Full Story: Jim Hightower | AVERTING AMERICA’S “LONG DEPRESSION”.

MSNBC July 15: Matt Simmons still says BP covering up MASSIVE HOLE miles away, cap test is “absurd”

Also mentions how they located the BOP with casing stuck through it.

You can learn more about the oil spill by visiting:

http://floridaoilspilllaw.com

Abandon ship! BP ‘accelerating’ asset sales (in anticipation of bankruptcy?)

British energy giant BP is speeding up the sale of up to 20 billion dollars (15.5 billion euros) of assets in a bid to boost funds after the Gulf oil spill, the Financial Times reported Friday.

The company is finalising details of the sales, including the disposal of American assets to Apache Corporation worth up to 12 billion dollars, said the paper, citing people close to the situation.

Announcements are expected in the next few weeks and an unnamed senior BP figure said the company could “easily” raise 20 billion dollars from the asset sales, according to the report.

This is double the amount the oil giant originally said it wanted to sell off when it announced plans to offload assets last month.

BP is seeking to build up a disaster fund of 20 billion dollars to cover the clean-up costs for the disastrous oil spill.

Full Story: Abandon ship! BP ‘accelerating’ asset sales (in anticipation of bankruptcy?) — Signs of the Times News.

OPS:  Two months ago Some of us were saying that Obama should freeze all BP assets

Imprisoned for debt in America

People are being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts in the United States, despite the fact that federal imprisonment for debt was abolished in 1933.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has documented such arrests, essentially for poverty, increasing throughout the United States. During the last four years, the use of arrest warrants against debtors in Minnesota has jumped by 60 percent, to 845 cases in 2009. The exposé showed that sometimes the unpaid bills were as low as $85.

The mechanism used to extract payment from the impoverished is the bench warrant. Workers are not actually incarcerated for debt, but for failing to respond to the legal system. However, the perpetrators of the court filings, the debt buyers and their legal representatives, are transparently using the system to intimidate, harass and frighten individuals into payments, sometimes for debts they do not even owe.

Full Story: Imprisoned for debt in America.

SPLC Sues to Protect Children in New Orleans School After First-Grader Handcuffed

Children at an elementary school in New Orleans are subjected to unlawful seizures and arrests – including handcuffing and shackling – for minor violations of school rules, according to a class action lawsuit filed today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL).

The suit was filed on behalf of a first-grade student who was brutally handcuffed and shackled to a chair by an armed security officer after he argued with another youth over a seat in the lunchroom at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School. The school is part of the Louisiana Recovery School District.

The boy, known as J.W. in the court filing, was just 6 years old when the incident occurred on May 6. He had previously been handcuffed and shackled for a similar incident. School officials told the boy’s father that the arrest and seizure was required under school rules.

Full Story: SPLC Sues to Protect Children in New Orleans School After First-Grader Handcuffed | Southern Poverty Law Center.