Archive for September, 2010
11 OF AMERICA’S MOST CROOKED CANDIDATES MOVING ON TO THE GENERAL ELECTION | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
D.C. – 11 of the most rotten candidates in America have survived primary season, and will be moving on to the general election. Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released an updated list of Most Crooked Candidates adding Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell. The latest edition to the national wall of shame has been called everything from “a fraud” by her former campaign manager, to a “perennial candidate who can’t get elected dog catcher” by the state Republican Party chair.
“Ms. O’Donnell has had no discernable job for several years, and instead has lived the life of a professional candidate, using the generosity of her campaign donors for her support,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW Executive Director. “That may just be freeloading to most people, but it’s embezzlement for a federal candidate.”
Poll: 77 percent of young voters say they will turn out for midterms
A new poll released by Rock the Vote on Wednesday showed that in spite of growing cynicism among young voters, 77 percent are planning to go to the polls in November.
Pollsters attribute this enthusiasm from the group’s overwhelming confidence (83 percent) that their generation can successfully reform the country, even though 59 percent say they are more cynical about politics than they were in 2008.
Looking toward the midterms, a majority of voters are paying close attention to the races. In spite of some growth in the GOP’s overall favorability, President Obama has maintained his appeal among young voters, with half saying that his endorsement would make them more likely to support a candidate. Only 26 percent said the same about former Alaska Gov. and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R).
Full Story: Poll: 77 percent of young voters say they will turn out for midterms – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.
Elections Are a Waste of Time — If…
By Norman Solomon
A pithy idea — now going around in some progressive circles — is that elections are a waste of time.
The idea can be catchy. It all depends on some tacit assumptions.
For instance: elections are a waste of time if you figure the U.S. government is so far gone that it can’t get much worse.
Elections are a waste of time if you’ve given up on grassroots organizing to sway voters before they cast ballots.
Elections are a waste of time if you think there’s not much difference on the Supreme Court between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, or Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel Alito.
Elections are a waste of time if you’re so disgusted with Speaker Pelosi that you wouldn’t lift a finger to prevent Speaker Boehner.
Elections are a waste of time if you don’t see much value in reducing — even slightly — the extent of injustice and deprivation imposed on vulnerable people.
Or, if you see the organizing of protests, community groups, unions and the like as “either/or” in relation to working for the election of better candidates.
Full Story: Elections Are a Waste of Time — If… | War Is A Crime .org.
Say Goodbye to Sunspots?
Scientists studying sunspots for the past 2 decades have concluded that the magnetic field that triggers their formation has been steadily declining. If the current trend continues, by 2016 the sun’s face may become spotless and remain that way for decades—a phenomenon that in the 17th century coincided with a prolonged period of cooling on Earth.
Sunspots appear when upwellings of the sun’s magnetic field trap ionized plasma—or electrically charged, superheated gas—on the surface. Normally, the gas would release its heat and sink back below the surface, but the magnetic field inhibits this process. From Earth, the relatively cool surface gas looks like a dark blemish on the sun.
Astronomers have been observing and counting sunspots since Galileo began the practice in the early 17th century. From those studies, scientists have long known that the sun goes through an 11-year cycle, in which the number of sunspots spikes during a period called the solar maximum and drops—sometimes to zero—during a time of inactivity called the solar minimum.
Full Story: Say Goodbye to Sunspots? – ScienceNOW.
America’s Decoupling from Reality
By Robert Parry:
As Election Day 2010 approaches – as the United States wallows in the swamps of war, recession and environmental degradation – the consequences of the nation’s three-decade-old decoupling from reality are becoming painfully obvious.
Yet, despite the danger, the nation can’t seem to move in a positive direction, as if the suctioning effect of endless spin, half-truths and lies holds the populace in place, a force that grows ever more powerful like quicksand sucking the country deeper into the muck – to waist deep, then neck deep.
Trapped in the mud, millions of Americans are complaining about their loss of economic status, their sense of powerlessness, their nation’s decline. But instead of examining how the country stumbled into this morass, many still choose not to face reality.
Instead of seeking paths to the firmer ground of a reality-based world, people from different parts of the political spectrum have decided to embrace unreality even more, either cynically as a way to delegitimize a political opponent or because they’ve simply become addicted to the crazy.
Full Story: Consortiumnews.com.
Papantonio: Tea Party Wins if Progressives Don’t Act
The Republican Tea Party is celebrating their victories in yesterday’s primaries, but Progressives should be celebrating as well. This Tea Party is pushing the GOP even further to the right, which could mean that moderates and RINOs are left with only one place to go – The Democratic Party. Mike Papantonio appears on The Ed Show to talk about why the Republican Tea Party is a good thing for progressives.
Drug use higher than in nearly a decade, report says
The rate of illegal drug use rose last year to the highest level in nearly a decade, fueled by a sharp increase in marijuana use and a surge in ecstasy and methamphetamine abuse, the government reported Wednesday.
Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, called the 9 percent increase in drug use disappointing but said he was not surprised given “eroding attitudes” about the perception of harm from illegal drugs and the growing number of states approving medicinal marijuana.
“I think all of the attention and the focus of calling marijuana medicine has sent the absolute wrong message to our young people,” Kerlikowske said in an interview.
Full Story: Drug use higher than in nearly a decade, report says – Health – Addictions – msnbc.com.
World Bank invests record sums in coal
Last year, $3.4bn was invested in the dirtiest fossil fuel despite international commitments to cut emissions
Record sums were invested last year in coal power – the most carbon intensive form of energy on the planet – by the World Bank, despite international commitments to slash the carbon emissions blamed for climate change.
The World Bank said this week that a total of US$3.4bn (£2.2bn) – or a quarter of all funding for energy projects – was spent in the year to June 2010 helping to build new coal-fired power stations, including the controversial Medupi plant in South Africa. Over the same period the bank also spent $1bn (£640m) on looking and drilling for oil and gas.
However, the Bank Information Centre, which examined the spending, disagreed and said the figure invested in coal was $4.4bn in the fiscal year 2009-10.
Full Story: World Bank invests record sums in coal | Environment | guardian.co.uk.
Home Prices Could Drop For The Next Three Years: Report
Thinking about buying a home? You might want to proceed cautiously. The housing market may continue to decline, potentially for at least three more years, Bloomberg reports today.
There is some evidence that a double-dip in housing may be looming. According to data released by CoreLogic today home prices remained flat in July compared to the same period last year, the first time in five months without a year-over-year increase. Compared to June of this year, prices in July declined 0.6 percent.
But the housing market’s biggest concern is an excess of housing inventory, which continues to grow as mortgage-holders default and more homes hit the anemic market Bloomberg estimates that 12 million homes will flood the market over the next three years, as lenders put the “shadow inventory,” or homes with delinquent loans, up for sale.
Full Story: Home Prices Could Drop For The Next Three Years: Report.
White House Taps Warren To Set Up Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The White House has tapped Elizabeth Warren as a special adviser to help set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, affirming its support for a tough new agency charged with protecting consumers from abusive lenders.
The move allows her to act as an interim head of the CFPB and will enable her to begin setting up the agency immediately and prevent the GOP from filibustering her nomination. Warren could serve until President Barack Obama nominates a permanent director to serve the five-year term — a nomination he’s not required to make for some time. Obama also could nominate her as the permanent director in the near future, a prospect that has been discussed among top aides, according to a person familiar with White House deliberations. Warren formally will be named as a special adviser reporting directly to Obama, and serving in a similar capacity to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, later this week.
Full Story: White House Taps Warren To Set Up Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Poll Suggests Opportunities for Both Parties in Midterms
Republicans are heading into the general election phase of the midterm campaign backed by two powerful currents: the highest proportion of voters in two decades say it is time for their own member of Congress to be replaced, and Americans are expressing widespread dissatisfaction with President Obama’s leadership.
But the latest New York Times/CBS News poll also finds that while voters rate the performance of Democrats negatively, they view Republicans as even worse, providing a potential opening for Democrats to make a last-ditch case for keeping their hold on power.
The poll represents a snapshot of the country’s political mood as the campaign pivots from primary contests that have revealed deep divisions among Republicans into the general election, where the parties deliver their competing arguments to a wider audience.
Full Story: Poll Suggests Opportunities for Both Parties in Midterms – NYTimes.com.
West Beach Pass, Gulf Shores- BP Oil is underwater.
Robert Craft, mayor of Gulf Shores, opens West Beach Pass. This is a gateway to the most pristine estuary in Alabama; the only oil free area in left in the state. The mayor stated, “There’s no indication of any contaminates coming in from the mouth of the Pass”. We went to see for ourselves, you decide.
McConnell Proposes Paying For Massive $4 Trillion Tax Cut With $300 Billion Spending Freeze
This week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been trying to make it abundantly clear that he has no interest in extending the Bush tax cuts for only the middle- and lower-class. In fact, McConnell has drawn up the Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2010 to show how serious about this he really is.
Not only would the bill permanently extend the entire package of Bush income tax cuts, but it adopts a cut in the estate tax that would gift $91 billion to the richest 0.25 percent of households (which also has the support of some Democrats, including Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO)). McConnell has yet to receive a cost estimate for his package, but the Congressional Budget Office has already scored a similar package, which was astronomically expensive:
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently forecast that a similar, slightly more expensive package that includes a full repeal of the estate tax would force the nation to borrow an additional $3.9 trillion over the next decade and increase interest payments on the national debt by $950 billion. That’s more than four times the projected deficit impact of President Obama’s health-care overhaul and stimulus package combined.
Full Story: Think Progress » McConnell Proposes Paying For Massive $4 Trillion Tax Cut With $300 Billion Spending Freeze.
OPS: Senile or just insane. You be the judge
O’Donnell On Creationism: ‘Too Many People Are Blindly Accepting Evolution As Fact’
The Tea Party’s victorious upstart Christine O’Donnell has paraded some “biblical” viewpoints in her pursuit of public office, equating a lack of school prayer with weekly school shootings and masturbation with adultery. Her extreme stances, along with her bizarre and unfounded attacks against the GOP’s mainstream candidate Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), have alienated traditional GOP operatives and conservative activists and pundits alike.
Today, New York Magazine dug up another of O’Donnell’s right-wing positions. Back on March 30, 1996 in her role as spokeswoman for the conservative Christian policy organization Concerned Women of America, O’Donnell “squared off” on CNN against a University professor to advocate for teaching creationism in the classroom. In trying to debunk “every legitimate scientist in the world,” O’Donnell insisted “hard evidence” proves evolution is “merely a theory” and God’s creation of the world in “six 24-hour periods” is fact:
Full Story: Think Progress » O’Donnell On Creationism: ‘Too Many People Are Blindly Accepting Evolution As Fact’.
Glenn Beck To Fat People: ‘I Say Let Them Die’
Since First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled her Let’s Move! program to fight obesity, conservatives have portrayed the effort as a government assault on personal freedoms and liberties. After the administration released a report on obesity in May, Matt Drudge ran a headline saying, “White House seeks controls on food marketing” and on his Fox News show, Sean Hannity asked: “Does every American family need a dietitian appointed by the government to tell them that this food is going to make you fat and this food is not?” Yesterday, Glenn Beck joined the act, criticizing Michelle Obama for encouraging restaurants to “offer healthier versions of the foods that we all love.” He also joked that fat people should die:
BECK: When I heard this I thought, get your damn hands off my fries, lady. If I want to be a fat fat fatty and shovel French Fries all day long, that is my choice. But oh oh, not so fast anymore. Because now we have the new fact, whether you like it or not, we have government health care now. … You know those fat people sitting on their couches? And I mean really fat. I don’t mean not like me. I mean the people who’s skin grows into the couch. … I say let them die. I say punish the person who’s been bringing them the milk shakes that allowed them to eat and not get up off the couch. Am I too harsh?
Watch it:
Full Story: Think Progress » Glenn Beck To Fat People: ‘I Say Let Them Die’.
Former Florida GOP Chair: ‘Many Within The GOP Have Racist Views’
Last year, former Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer — who has been ostracized by the GOP after he was charged with defrauding the party — accused President Obama of using his annual back to school message to preach “socialist ideology” to children. But in a statement Monday — perhaps feeling freer to express his true views after breaking with the party — Greer apologized for his 2009 charge, saying he felt the need to “placate the extremists.” He also said he has “found that many within the GOP have racist views:”
“In the year since I issued a prepared statement regarding President Obama speaking to the nation’s school children, I have learned a great deal about the party I so deeply loved and served,” Greer’s Monday statement said. “Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the President for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our Party today. My children and I look forward to the President’s speech.”
Full Story: Think Progress » Former Florida GOP Chair: ‘Many Within The GOP Have Racist Views’.
French Senate passes ban on burqas
The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil on public streets and other places, a measure that affects less than 2,000 women but that has been widely seen as a symbolic defense of French values.
The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favor of the bill in a final step toward making the ban a law – though it now must pass muster with France’s constitutional watchdog. The bill was overwhelmingly passed in July in the lower house, the National Assembly.
Full Story: French Senate passes ban on burqas – World – NZ Herald News.
National Security Used As Pretext to Confiscate Samples and Notes On Dispersant, Homeland Security Works For BP? :
FLATOW, HOST: Yeah, let me to go the phones, Darren(ph) in College Station, Texas. Hi, Darren.
DARREN (Caller): Hello, Ira.
FLATOW: Hi, there.
DARREN: I’m an adjunct professor here at A&M, and we were also in the Gulf, but got thrown out. We were testing a theory that the chemical composition of the dispersant they were using was causing the oil to sink. And we’d been there for approximately three days, and federal agents flat told us to get out. And it wasn’t Fish and Wildlife officers. These were Homeland Security officers, and we were told that it was in the interest of national security.
CARY NELSON, president, American Association of University Professors,: I mean, I could see restricting access so that 500 people shouldn’t be able to ride their dune buggies along the beach, but reputable scientists should have access.
FLATOW: Darren, did take your samples away or anything – take anything away from you?
Full Story: National Security Used As Pretext to Confiscate Samples and Notes On Dispersant, Homeland Security Works For BP? :.
California Data Shows Federal Poverty Guidelines Leaving Elderly Destitute
The Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index), a tool that measures the actual costs of basic necessities for older adults, is quickly replacing federal poverty level (FPL) guidelines as a new standard for evaluating and meeting the needs of seniors across the nation’s largest state, according to new research from UCLA.
“This year, the federal government officially acknowledged it’s time to improve the outdated federal poverty guidelines by announcing that it will release a ‘supplemental poverty measure’ in the fall of 2011 — a baby step in the right direction,” says Golden State Assemblyman Jim Beall Jr. (D–San Jose). “California has the largest senior population in the country, so we simply can’t afford to take baby steps. That’s why we are embracing the Elder Index, from City Hall to the state Capitol.”
Full Story: On The Hill: California Data Shows Federal Poverty Guidelines Leaving Elderly Destitute.
Activist Post: Corn syrup producers to change name to ‘corn sugar’ as awareness over health concerns grow
Bad press over health concerns has affected sales for the corn syrup industry and as a result the Associated Press reported today that corn syrup producers want to “sweeten up its image with a new name: corn sugar.” The article explained:
The bid to rename the sweetener by the Corn Refiners Association comes as Americans’ concerns about health and obesity have sent consumption of high fructose corn syrup, used in soft drinks but also in bread, cereal and other foods, to a 20-year low.
The group plans to apply Tuesday to the Food and Drug Administration to get “corn sugar” approved as an alternative name for food labels.
The article goes out of its way to include statements of the safety of high fructose corn syrup, claiming the only known negative health effect is obesity.
Full Story: Activist Post: Corn syrup producers to change name to ‘corn sugar’ as awareness over health concerns grow.
Melting sea ice forces walruses ashore in Alaska – Yahoo! News
Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted.
Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States. But it has happened at least twice before, in 2007 and 2009. In those years Arctic sea ice also was at or near record low levels.
The population of walruses stretches “for one mile or more. This is just packed shoulder-to-shoulder,” U.S. Geological Survey biologist Anthony Fischbach said in a telephone interview from Alaska. He estimated their number at tens of thousands.
Full Story: Melting sea ice forces walruses ashore in Alaska – Yahoo! News.
Reid to schedule ‘Don’t Ask’ vote next week
The Washington Blade has learned that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) intends to schedule a vote next week on major defense budget legislation that contains “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language, regardless of any objection from members of the U.S. Senate.
A senior Democratic leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Reid met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday to inform the Republican leader that the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill will come to the Senate floor the week of Sept. 20.
The aide said Senate leadership is anticipating the Senate won’t have unanimous consent to bring the legislation to the floor, so 60 votes will be necessary to end a filibuster and move forward with debate on the bill.
“We are going to take it the floor next week to see where the votes are,” the aide said.
Full Story: Reid to schedule ‘Don’t Ask’ vote next week : Washington Blade – LGBTQ News.
The Good Food Evolution
“Every year 76 million cases of foodborne illnesses occur, leading to about 300,000 hospitalizations and 5000 deaths.” (New York Times, Sept. 4, 2010)
That’s because most Americans still believe we have no alternative to the food produced by agribusinesses who care as little about our health as they do about the health of the chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs, so tightly packed in pens and cages on factory farms that the floor is scarcely visible, and where visible, is covered with excrement.
Fortunately, another healthier agriculture has been emerging in the last few decades.
This good food evolution has usually been started by grassroots individuals who grew up in rural communities and now live in cities.
Full Story: The Good Food Evolution | CommonDreams.org.
Iraq, Afghan Veterans Call For Respect For Muslims: ‘America, You Gotta Have Our Back’ (EXCLUSIVE)
The push by some in the media against rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States gained valuable voices of support over the weekend — and now joining that chorus are veterans who fought alongside U.S. servicemembers of Islamic faith in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A small but growing group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have signed onto an open letter, provided exclusively to the Huffington Post, which calls on the American public to respect “the values we risked our lives to protect” and to avoid endangering the mission — and safety — of U.S. forces in the Mideast. Like Gen. David Petraeus, the veterans warn that U.S. troops will face blowback from demonstrated intolerance for Muslims at home.
“America, you gotta have our back,” reads the letter, composed by signatories Roy Scranton, Philip Klay and Perry O’Brien. “Those who would vilify and target Muslims on grounds of their religious belief not only show a deep disrespect for American values, but put American lives at risk. It’s easy to burn a Koran when you won’t feel the heat.”
Full Story: Iraq, Afghan Veterans Call For Respect For Muslims: ‘America, You Gotta Have Our Back’ (EXCLUSIVE).
The Automotive X PRIZE Finalists (PHOTOS)7 Cars That Could Transform The Automotive Industry
In the latest edition of the HuffPost Innovators series (check out previous editions here, here and here), we’ve compiled some of the most promising eco-friendly cars in the world. And, yes, they are fast. Very fast.
The seven vehicles below are all finalists in the $10 million Progressive Automotive Insurance X PRIZE. The X PRIZE Foundation is a Playa Vista, Calif.-based non-profit that organizes prizes and competitions to drive “radical breakthroughs” in technology and innovation. (The foundation recently challenged innovators to help solve the Gulf oil spill.)
The requirements? Each car must exceed a 100 mile-per-gallon fuel efficiency standard and can be fueled by any energy type, including gasoline, hydrogen or grid electricity The competition was held in several stages, including a lab-based series of tests and on-track stage. Judges evaluated each car on aspects like cost, fuel efficiency and design.
After eliminating all but seven of the 111 entrants, on September 16 in Washington, D.C. the X PRIZE Foundation will anoint one winner in the “mainstream class,” which will receive $5 million, and the remaining funds will be split between the two winners of the alternative class of vehicles.
Which car is the most innovative? Check them out and vote for your favorite below.
Full Story: HuffPost Innovators Series: The Automotive X PRIZE Finalists (PHOTOS).
Lascaux Cave Paintings (PHOTOS): Rare And Never-Seen Photos From LIFE.com
On a warm afternoon in 1940 in southwestern France, two rabbit-hunting schoolboys made a startling, historic discovery.
As their dog chased a hare down a hole beside a downed tree, the boys quickly followed suit. Once underground, they stepped into the “Versailles of Prehistory,” a series of caves known today as Lascaux, where stunning and remarkably-preserved paintings, some believed to be up to 18,000 years old, line the walls.
The following photographs are a small sample of a series shot by LIFE’s Ralph Morse. In 1947, Morse journeyed to Lascaux and became the first photographer to document the astonishingly detailed, colorful Cro-Magnon paintings on film. Some of these photos have not been seen until now.
Full Story: Lascaux Cave Paintings (PHOTOS): Rare And Never-Seen Photos From LIFE.com.
Judge G. Thomas Porteous Faces Impeachment Trial In Congress
A federal judge from Louisiana is corrupt and unfit to serve on the bench, House members said Monday as they began a rare congressional impeachment trial by laying out their case against the jurist.
Playing the role of prosecutors, Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., used their opening statements to a Senate impeachment panel to outline what they called a decades-long pattern of unethical behavior by New Orleans-area U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous. They said that included taking cash, expensive meals and other gifts from lawyers and a bail bondsman, lying to Congress and filing for bankruptcy under a false name.
“It is the unanimous view of the House of Representatives that his conduct is not only wrong but so violative of the public trust that he cannot be allowed to remain on the bench without making a mockery of the court system,” Schiff said.
Full Story: Judge G. Thomas Porteous Faces Impeachment Trial In Congress.
New Republic editor defends as ‘fact’ his claim that ‘Muslim life is cheap’
Under fire from prominent journalists, the top editor of the influential magazine New Republic on Monday apologized for suggesting that Muslim Americans be denied First Amendment rights, but stood by his broad claim that members of the Islamic faith don’t much value human life.
“[My] other sentence is: ‘Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims.’ This is a statement of fact, not value. In his column, [the New York Times’ Nick] Kristof made this seem like a statement of bigotry,” wrote Marty Peretz, TNR’s editor-in-chief, in a blog post titled: “An Apology.”
“The idea that in remarking upon the cheapening of Muslim lives I was calling for the cheapening of Muslim lives, as some have suggested, is preposterous,” Peretz defended. “There is no hatred in my heart; there is deep anxiety about the dangers of Islamism.”
Full Story: New Republic editor defends as ‘fact’ his claim that ‘Muslim life is cheap’ | Raw Story.
Drug-resistant super bacteria found in three US states and Canada
An infectious-disease nightmare is unfolding: Bacteria that have been made resistant to nearly all antibiotics by an alarming new gene have sickened people in three states and are popping up all over the world, health officials reported Monday.
The U.S. cases and two others in Canada all involve people who had recently received medical care in India, where the problem is widespread. A British medical journal revealed the risk last month in an article describing dozens of cases in Britain in people who had gone to India for medical procedures.
How many deaths the gene may have caused is unknown; there is no central tracking of such cases. So far, the gene has mostly been found in bacteria that cause gut or urinary infections.
Scientists have long feared this — a very adaptable gene that hitches onto many types of common germs and confers broad drug resistance, creating dangerous “superbugs.”
Full Story: Drug-resistant super bacteria found in three US states and Canada | Raw Story.
GOP Candidate Teresa Collett On Shutting Down Govt: ‘If The Stakes Are High Enough, We’re Going To Have To’
On Saturday, ThinkProgress spoke to Teresa Collett, a Republican running against Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), at the Mayflower Hotel during lobbyist Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. During the interview, Collett expressed outrage at the health reform bill passed by Congress this year and supported by her opponent.
Collett argued that tactically, even if Republicans take over the House, repealing health reform would be difficult because President Obama could easily veto any repeal effort. However, Collett reasoned that a Republican House of Representatives could defund programs to expand coverage made possible by health reform. She also said that “if the stakes are high enough,” she would support a move to shut down the entire federal government to force a showdown over health reform:
TP: I spoke to several of the delegates here, and some of the speakers, who said — including Newt Gingrich — who said it might come down to a budget battle where the federal government might need to be stopped temporarily to force President Obama to the table. What do you think about that?
OPS: Cause that worked so well for ya the last time , when Newt tried it?
REPORT: Grand Old Deniers — Nearly All GOP Senate Candidates Deny Global Warming
A comprehensive Wonk Room survey of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate finds that nearly all dispute the scientific consensus that the United States must act to fight global warming pollution. Remarkably, of the dozens of Republicans vying for the 37 Senate seats in the 2010 election, only one — Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware — supports strong climate action. Even former climate advocates Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) now toe the science-doubting party line. If Castle loses his primary on Tuesday to Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell, the GOP slate will be unanimous in opposition to a green economy.
Many of the Senate candidates are signatories of the Koch Industries’ Americans For Prosperity No Climate Tax pledge and the FreedomWorks Contract From America. The second plank of the Contract From America is to “Reject Cap & Trade: Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures.” In reality, a carbon cap-and-trade market — by rewarding work instead of pollution — would increase jobs, lower electricity bills, restore American competitiveness, and forestall a climate catastrophe.
Overwhelmingly, the Republican candidates not only oppose action to limit global warming pollution, they question the validity of climate science. Here are a few quotes drawn from the Wonk Room report:
Full Story: Think Progress » REPORT: Grand Old Deniers — Nearly All GOP Senate Candidates Deny Global Warming.
Study: ‘People Who Matter’ To Sunday Talk Shows Are ‘White, Male, Senior, and Republican’
NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, CNN’s State of the Union, and ABC’s This Week are the five major Sunday talk shows that aim to bring “a diverse group of voices” that “reflect the cultural, economic, and political landscape” of the U.S. However, according to a new study published by George Mason University School of Law this month, the Congressional guests featured in 2009 were anything but diverse, failing not only to represent the demographics of the American population but also the diversity of Congress. In fact, according to the study, the congressional voice was disproportionately represented by one type of guest in 2009: “white, male, senior, and Republican”:
“In 2009 the talk shows told us (by their selection of Congressional guests) that the people who matter are disproportionately white, male, senior and Republican — disproportionate not just when compared to the American population overall, but also when compared to the population of Congress itself,” concluded a study published this month in The Green Bag, a quarterly journal supported by the George Mason University School of Law.
Full Story: Think Progress » Study: ‘People Who Matter’ To Sunday Talk Shows Are ‘White, Male, Senior, and Republican’.
Rubio Flips: ‘I’m Not’ Open To Social Security Privatization, ‘I Don’t Think That’s The Solution’
In recent months, a number of Republican leaders have endorsed various schemes to once again attempt what President Bush failed to do — privatize all or part of Social Security. Former House Speaker and likely presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently endorsed Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to privatize Social Security and Medicare; Reps. Dan Lungren (R-CA), Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have all touted personal accounts; and, Alaska GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller has suggested that the social safety net programs are unconstitutional.
But in an interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto today, Florida GOP Senate nominee Marco Rubio made a stark break with those in his party who want privatize the social safety net, saying explicitly that he is not even “open” to the idea, before explaining why privatization wouldn’t work:
Full Story: Think Progress » Rubio Flips: ‘I’m Not’ Open To Social Security Privatization, ‘I Don’t Think That’s The Solution’.
Former Police Chief: Legalize Pot, Now
As San Jose’s retired chief of police and a cop with 35 years experience on the front lines in the war on marijuana, I’m voting yes on Prop. 19.
California voters have a chance on this November’s ballot to bring common sense to law enforcement by legalizing marijuana for adults. As San Jose’s retired chief of police and a cop with 35 years experience on the front lines in the war on marijuana, I’m voting yes.
I’ve seen the prohibition’s terrible impact at close range.
Like an increasing number of law enforcers, I have learned that most bad things about marijuana — especially the violence made inevitable by an obscenely profitable black market — are caused by the prohibition, not by the plant. Legal marijuana is long overdue, but leading up to November, wrongheaded opponents will implore Californians with the same old mistaken arguments to stay the course. Prohibition advocates will promote fear, and they will ignore the vast bulk of law enforcement and medical experience on marijuana. People should not be fooled by cannabis opponents’ appeal to prejudices and emotions when they argue:
Full Story: Former Police Chief: Legalize Pot, Now | Drugs | AlterNet.
Republican Nightmare: Putting Elizabeth Warren to Work Now
What can Obama do that would mobilize his political base and put his opponents on the defensive? There is an easy answer: Appoint Elizabeth Warren.
President Obama is finally looking for bold, creative and clever ways to change the way the US economy operates — preferably with measures that will take effect by the November midterms and change the tone of the broader political debate. His tax proposals this week have some symbolic value, but in the broader sense all of these fiscal suggestions are tinkering at the margins.
What could he possibly do that would grab people’s attention, mobilize his political base and put his opponents on the defensive? There is an easy answer: Appoint Elizabeth Warren to start running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) immediately.
And the brilliant part of this idea — as explained by Shahien Nasiripour at the Huffington Post (see also David Dayen’s Thursday coverage) — is that the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation allows the person charged with setting up this new agency to be an outright appointment, rather than a nomination subject to Senate confirmation.
Full Story: Republican Nightmare: Putting Elizabeth Warren to Work Now | Economy | AlterNet.
How the Chamber of Commerce Allegedly Laundered Millions in Charity Dollars to Beat Back Financial Reform and Re-Elect Dubya
A complaint filed last week could bring an end to the National Chamber Foundation.
According to a complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (CoC), the corporate right’s massive lobbying arm, laundered millions of dollars in charitable contributions to finance its political assault on the American working class.
The New York Times notes that the Chamber has “a war chest rivaling that of the Republican Party itself” and represents “the Obama administration’s most-well-financed rival on signature policy debates like health care and financial regulation.” According to the Washington Post, the $44.3 million the group has paid to lobbyists so far this year, along with the $50 million it plans on spending to elect business-friendly politicians this fall, will make it the top lobbyist in Washington once again. (The group is nevertheless unlikely to top the $144 million it spent buying political influence in 2009.)
Those expenditures represent the day-to-day business of the Chamber. But according to the complaint filed last week by U.S. Chamber Watch, a watch-dog group, the CoC violated U.S. tax laws by funneling $18 million in loans and grants that the Starr Foundation gave to the Chamber’s charitable, non-profit arm, the National Chamber Foundation into the CoC’s lobbying efforts. The Starr Foundation was created by AIG’s founder, Cornelius Vander Starr, and is led by former CEO Maurice Greenberg. According to Chamber Watch’s complaint, none of the group’s $12
GAO: Iraq’s Government, Requesting Billions, Has Billions in Surplus
Back in 2003 as the invasion of Iraq was getting underway, Paul Wolfowitz famously told Congress that “We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.”
Last month, nearly eight years after Wolfowitz’s flawed prediction, as tens of thousands of troops left Iraq, a House subcommittee stamped its approval on President Barack Obama’s controversial request for $2 billion in 2011 to arm and train Iraq’s military. It is unclear if the Senate will follow suit, but they have approved some funding. On top of the $2 billion, the proposed State Department budget allocates an additional $2.5 billion to step up its operations in Iraq.
All that money is being sent to Iraq based on a simple presumption, that Iraq’s government, run by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is bankrupt and running a massive deficit. The Iraqi government, a caretaker regime now, was created according to a constitution and timetable drawn up under US occupation and is now considered both fragile and corrupt.
Full Story: GAO: Iraq’s Government, Requesting Billions, Has Billions in Surplus | The Nation.
Researchers Discover Thick Layers Of Oil On Ocean Floor
University of Georgia professor Dr. Samantha Joye, who is conducting research on the ocean vessel Oceanus to determine impacts of the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill, wrote in her blog recently that she and her colleagues have encountered thick layers of oil on the seabed between the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the Louisiana coast.
Federal reports on the fate of oil leaked from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead have asserted that the majority of the leaked oil has dissipated naturally. There is evidence in Dr. Joye’s research that shows the reports could be inaccurate, but the researcher declined to report that the oil found can be directly attributed to the BP spill until further testing has been conducted.
There is a consensus among researchers that oil does seep from the ocean floor naturally, but Joye describes that the composition of the oil on top of the soil is from a different source.
Full Story: Researchers Discover Thick Layers Of Oil On Ocean Floor – Top News – Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media.
OFFSHORING AMERICA’S LEGAL JOBS
Jim Hightower:
Maybe you’re one of the thousands of young lawyers in America working in some low-skill, part-time job because law firms have cut so many of the starting positions you were educated to take. If so, I have good news: Jobs for young lawyers are now mushrooming in companies that provide legal services to U.S. corporations.
Unfortunately, you’ll have to move to India to get one. And the pay will be – how shall I put this? – “disappointing.”
Lawyering has become the latest category of good jobs disappearing from our Land of the Free as corporate chieftains continue to offshore the American workplace. Wall Street banks, insurance corporations, mining giants, and others are shipping more and more of their law business to Pangea3, CPA Global, UnitedLex, and other rapidly expanding legal outsourcing outfits in India.
Full Story: Jim Hightower | OFFSHORING AMERICA’S LEGAL JOBS.
American Friends Service Committee: Email – Now is the moment to cut the military budget
In our work for peace, there are pivotal moments we cannot let pass us by. For the first time in years, we have a real chance to make some significant cuts in the United States’ enormous military budget. Let’s seize the moment and reach out to Congress today.
Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001—nine years ago this week—U.S. spending on the military has increased dramatically. Money we’ve desperately needed here at home has been poured into weapons and warmaking, creating huge deficits that have crippled job creation and drained needed funds for housing, education, and healthcare.
Today, with our country awash in foreclosures, our school systems bankrupt, our infrastructure crumbling, and with at least 14.9 million Americans unemployed, policymakers in Washington know that something must be done to cut spending and address our rising deficit. But when it comes to targeting military spending, almost 56 percent of the entire discretionary federal budget, they are still hesitating. Funds for weapons and warfare continue to enjoy a privileged status in this country, protected from significant cuts even in the worst economic crisis in decades.
Full Story: American Friends Service Committee: Email – Now is the moment to cut the military budget.
The Flat Earth Temptation Beckons Still: First Annual Catholic Conference On Geocentrism
Stupidity Alert!
Galileo Was Wrong, The Church Was Right – that’s the sensationalistic heading for the 1st Annual Catholic Conference on Geocentrism.
Geocentrism is the claim that the Sun revolves around the Earth, not vice-versa. From the cast of speakers at this event, I don’t get the sense that the geocentric movement is growing, but with young evangelical Christian auteurs making short films about God beaming product-safety alerts directly into the heads of Christian housewives, who knows?
Full Story: Talk To Action | The Flat Earth Temptation Beckons Still: First Annual Catholic Conference On Geocentrism.
Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish
Plaquemines Parish officials have asked state wildlife officials to investigate what they said is a massive fish kill at Bayou Chaland on the west side of the Mississippi River late Friday.
Photographs the parish distributed of the area shows an enormous amount of dead fish floating atop the water.
The fish kill was reported to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries and the cause has not yet been determined, the parish said. The fish were found in an area that has been impacted by the oil from the BP oil spill, the parish said.
The dead fish include pogies, redfish, drum, crabs, shrimp and freshwater eel, the parish said.
Full Story: Huge fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish | NOLA.com.
Iceland Parliament Committee Seeks to Indict Ex-Premier for Role in Crisis
Iceland’s parliament must decide whether to charge leading members of the country’s 2008 cabinet with negligence that contributed to the island’s banking collapse after a committee recommended they be indicted.
The parliamentary committee will ask the Reykjavik-based legislature to indict former Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde, former Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, former Finance Minister Arni M. Mathiesen and former Business Minister Bjorgvin G. Sigurdsson, according to a written motion delivered to lawmakers yesterday. Should parliament vote in favor of indictment, it will be the first time a special court created in 1905 to oversee such cases will be convened.
The 2008 banking collapse forced the island, the world’s fifth-richest per capita a year earlier, to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help and sent the krona plunging as much as 80 percent against the euro in the offshore market. The government of Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, in office since January last year, is struggling to rebuild the crippled economy as Icelanders come to terms with spiralling debt burdens and incomes reduced by a fifth last year.
Full Story: Iceland Parliament Committee Seeks to Indict Ex-Premier for Role in Crisis – Bloomberg.
US Poverty Rate Expected to Post a Record Increase
Overall number could reach 15%, demographers say
The number of people in the United States who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
Census figures for 2009 – the recession-ravaged first year of the Democrat’s presidency – are to be released this week, and demographers expect grim findings.
It’s unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before midterm elections in which control of Congress is at stake. The anticipated poverty rate increase – from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent – would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power.
Full Story: US Poverty Rate Expected to Post a Record Increase | CommonDreams.org.
Quran Burning and US Inconsistency
Why does the US government think burning Qurans is less civilized than drone attacks on civilian populations?
Barack Obama, the US president, has warned that threats to burn the Quran are a sure and effective way to swell the ranks of al-Qaeda. This may be true, but largely because such symbolic acts of ‘Islamophobia’ are widely viewed as verifying the perception that the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, along with its backing of Israel, are motivated by its hostility towards Muslims.
The previously unheard of pastor of a small Florida church may have scrapped his plan to publicly burn hundreds of Qurans on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but the threat alone has done untold damage to the already troubled relationship between the Muslim world and the West.
Full Story: Quran Burning and US Inconsistency | CommonDreams.org.
A G.O.P. Leader Tightly Bound to Lobbyists
House Democrats were preparing late last year for the first floor vote on the financial regulatory overhaul when Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio and other Republican leaders summoned more than 100 industry lobbyists and conservative political activists to Capitol Hill for a private strategy session.
The bill’s passage in the House already seemed inevitable. But Mr. Boehner and his deputies told the Wall Street lobbyists and trade association leaders that by teaming up, they could still perhaps block its final passage or at least water it down.
“We need you to get out there and speak up against this,” Mr. Boehner said that December afternoon, according to three people familiar with his remarks, while also warning against cutting side deals with Democrats.
Full Story: A G.O.P. Leader Tightly Bound to Lobbyists – NYTimes.com.
‘Record increase’ in number of Americans in poverty
The number of people in the US who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
Census figures for 2009 — the recession-ravaged first year of the Democrat’s presidency — are to be released in the coming week, and demographers expect grim findings.
It’s unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before important elections when control of Congress is at stake. The anticipated poverty rate increase — from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent — would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power.
Full Story: ‘Record increase’ in number of Americans in poverty | Raw Story.
Scientists make artificial skin that can sense touch
The lab-tested material responds to almost the same pressures as human skin and with the same speed, they reported in the British journal Nature Materials.
Important hurdles remain but the exploit is an advance towards replacing today’s clumsy robots and artificial arms with smarter, touch-sensitive upgrades, they believe.
Full Story: Scientists make artificial skin that can sense touch | Raw Story.
UK lawmakers threatened over probe into Murdoch-owned paper
Fox News owner may face grilling in front of British parliament
British members of parliament investigating the phone-hacking scandal at a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch pulled back from the investigation after being threatened with investigations of their private lives by the newspaper, a former parliamentarian says.
According to the UK’s Guardian, Adam Price, a former lawmaker from the Welsh national party Plaid Cymru, said that a Conservative Party member warned lawmakers that the News of the World, a tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, would “go after us” if they forced the tabloid’s chief executive to testify in front of parliament.
Full Story: UK lawmakers threatened over probe into Murdoch-owned paper | Raw Story.
2010 election victors will get to redraw US political map
President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies and Republican foes are battling over a once-in-a-decade prize in November mid-term elections: power to literally redraw the US political map.
Each US state gets two senators, but the 435 full members of the House of Representatives are divided among the 50 states depending on their population, meaning some will gain or lose seats based on the results of the 2010 US census.
The November 2 elections will decide which party controls key state legislatures and governorships that typically carry out the task of redrawing a state’s congressional districts, a job that can be bent for a partisan edge.
Full Story: 2010 election victors will get to redraw US political map | Raw Story.
Homeowners Who Did Everything Right Sue Bailed-Out Bank That Refused Mortgage Deal
Anthony and April Soper’s financial troubles were only starting last October when they applied for a mortgage adjustment through the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program.
Bank of America, their mortgage servicer, put them on a HAMP trial payment plan in December that cut their monthly payment by more than half from almost $4,000 to about $1,826.
They say they made their reduced monthly payments early and did everything else that was asked of them. But they didn’t get a permanent modification, and they say they don’t know why.
Full Story: Home mortgage modification snags spark lawsuits – USATODAY.com.
Bankers Agree To New Global Rules Designed To Prevent Future Financial Crisis
Banks will have to significantly increase their capital reserves under rules endorsed Sunday by the world’s major central banks, which are trying to prevent another financial collapse without impeding the fragile economic recovery.
The new banking rules are designed to strengthen bank finances and rein in excessive risk-taking, but some banks have protested that they may dampen the recovery by forcing them to reduce the lending that fuels economic growth.
Forcing banks to keep more capital on hand will restrict the amount of loans they can make, but it will make them better able to withstand the blow if many of those loans go sour. The rules also are intended to boost confidence that the banking system won’t repeat past mistakes.
Full Story: Bankers Agree To New Global Rules Designed To Prevent Future Financial Crisis.
Read all about it: The secret dossier of lawbreaking that spells trouble for Rupert Murdoch…and David Cameron – UK Politics, UK – The Independent
Rebekah Brooks was among journalists who used a private detective who was later convicted
The News of the World paid a private detective to provide hundreds of pieces of confidential information, often using illegal means, a confidential document obtained by The Independent on Sunday has revealed.
The “Blue Book”, a ledger of work carried out by Steve Whittamore for News International titles, including the NoW and The Sunday Times, details a series of transactions including obtaining ex-directory phone numbers, telephone accounts, criminal records checks and withheld mobile numbers. It reveals the itemised details of checks on public figures, including Peter Mandelson, ordered and paid for – at up to £750 a time – by reporters working for the redtop. Staff from a number of other national newspapers made similar requests, and their details are contained in further dossiers held by the Information Commissioner, the privacy watchdog.
Obama wins the right to invoke “State Secrets” to protect Bush crimes – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com
In a 6-5 ruling issued this afternoon, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Obama administration a major victory in its efforts to shield Bush crimes from judicial review, when the court upheld the Obama DOJ’s argument that Bush’s rendition program, used to send victims to be tortured, are “state secrets” and its legality thus cannot be adjudicated by courts. The Obama DOJ had appealed to the full 9th Circuit from last year’s ruling by a 3-judge panel which rejected the “state secrets” argument and held that it cannot be used as a weapon to shield the Executive Branch from allegations in this case that it broke the law. I’ve written multiple times about this case, brought by torture/rendition victim Binyam Mohamed and several others against the Boeing subsidiary which, at the behest of the Bush administration, rendered them to be tortured.
Flu permitting, I’ll have much more to say about this decision tomorrow, but for the moment, I wanted to highlight the first paragraph from The New York Times article on this ruling, written by Charlie Savage. Just marvel, in particular, at the last sentence (click on image to enlarge):
Full Story: Obama wins the right to invoke “State Secrets” to protect Bush crimes – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
Tax Fraud: US Chamber of Commerce Busted!!
We all know that SCOTUS, denying the Constitution by letting corporations trump people and money trump speech, made it possible for the US Chamber of Commerce to buy politicians in ways they had never hoped until now. But even with all that leeway, it seems that in their zeal to empower Republicans, they forgot to keep it legal.
With a war chest rivaling that of the Republican Party itself, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has emerged in the last year as perhaps the Obama administration’s most-well-financed rival on signature policy debates like health care and financial regulation.
Critics on the left have long complained about the chamber’s outsize influence. But now they are taking on the business association directly, charging in a complaint filed Friday with the Internal Revenue Service that it violated tax codes by laundering millions of dollars meant for charitable work from a group with ties to the insurance giant A.I.G.
Tax Fraud: US Chamber of Commerce Busted!! » Politics Plus.
A World Ruled by Fear and Self-Interest Offers Little Hope
The front page of the Kent Ravenna (Ohio) Record-Courier 8/30/10 carried a photo of a big black tank – an M113 armored personnel vehicle. The news story began “Thirteen tons of rolling steel makes up the newest defense the Brimfield Police Department has to keep police officers and the public safe in the event of a serious criminal incident or natural disaster” and continued “The cost to Brimfield taxpayers? Not one cent.”
I found something rather poignant about Brimfield acquiring this fearsome-looking but basically toothless old tank. (It has no weapons) But, as the article pointed out, many people are still haunted by the 2005 case in which a terrorist killed three people with an AR-15 assault rifle before he could be apprehended, and see this tank as a means to prevent a recurrence.
And who knows? – it might work, or at least help. But it makes me uneasy: as news, saving taxpayers’ money is right up there on our public screens with saving human lives.
Full Story: A World Ruled by Fear and Self-Interest Offers Little Hope | CommonDreams.org.
Food & Water Watch Asks Federal Court to Order BP to Shut Down One of World’s Largest Oil and Gas Platforms
The national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch today filed its long awaited lawsuit against BP in federal court for violating a number of federal laws in the operation of the BP Atlantis oil and gas platform, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
“We have evidence that Atlantis is unsafe and is in danger of creating an even worse spill than the one caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “Tony Hayward’s failure to be forthcoming when Congress questioned him about Atlantis and BP’s inconsistent statements over the last year are an indication that they are hiding the dangerous truth about Atlantis.”
In the suit, Food & Water Watch and former-company-contractor-turned-whistleblower Kenneth Abbott allege that BP began producing oil and gas at its Atlantis facility without having, and then maintaining, a large percentage of critical engineering documents that are needed for the facility to operate safely. The company’s document deficiencies violate its lease agreements as well as a number of government regulations mandating that the company have, and in some cases submit, such documents to get federal government approval and third-party safety verification of the facility, and for it to start and continue production under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Pentagon Plan – Buying Books to Keep Secrets
Defense Department officials are negotiating to buy and destroy all 10,000 copies of the first printing of an Afghan war memoir they say contains intelligence secrets, according to two people familiar with the dispute.
The publication of “Operation Dark Heart,” by Anthony A. Shaffer, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, has divided military security reviewers and highlighted the uncertainty about what information poses a genuine threat to security.
Disputes between the government and former intelligence officials over whether their books reveal too much have become commonplace. But veterans of the publishing industry and intelligence agencies could not recall another case in which an agency sought to dispose of a book that had already been printed.
Army reviewers suggested various changes and redactions and signed off on the edited book in January, saying they had “no objection on legal or operational security grounds,” and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, planned for an Aug. 31 release.
Full Story: Pentagon Plan – Buying Books to Keep Secrets – NYTimes.com.
Pentagon seeks to suppress book by 9/11 whistleblower
The US Department of Defense is negotiating with a major US publisher, St. Martin’s Press, to buy and destroy all 10,000 copies of a book written by a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer about his experiences in Afghanistan.
The author, Anthony A. Shaffer, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, reportedly repeats his declaration, first made in 2005, that US intelligence agencies had identified the leader of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Mohammed Atta, and three other suicide hijackers well in advance of September 11, 2001.
The extraordinary effort to suppress Shaffer’s book, Operation Dark Heart, comes despite initial clearance given to the manuscript by the US Army in January, when Shaffer agreed to unspecified changes and redactions and obtained a statement that the Army had “no objection on legal or operational security grounds.”
Full Story: Pentagon seeks to suppress book by 9/11 whistleblower.
More Citigroup Execs Knew of Subprime Exposure, but SEC Says Its Settlement Is ‘Adequate’
The Securities and Exchange Commission is defending ($) a $75 million settlement agreement it struck with Citigroup for hiding from investors the extent of its subprime exposure. In a court filing, regulators maintained that the settlement, which was rejected last month by a federal judge, was “fair, reasonable, adequate, in the public interest and should be approved.”
Citigroup is accused of hiding exposure to more than $40 billion in subprime CDOs while telling investors in 2007 that it had reduced its subprime exposure to $13 billion. Two Citi execs—former CFO Gary Crittenden and Arthur Tildesley, formerly the head of investor relations—were charged with making misstatements. (The two agreed to pay SEC fines but deny they did anything wrong.)
But when U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle rejected the settlement last month, she asked regulators to consider why more executives weren’t also charged. (As we’ve noted, judges have increasingly challenged regulators’ settlements with big banks and objected to the lenience of the penalties.) The SEC’s original suit repeatedly referenced “senior management” who knew about Citi’s subprime exposure. The judge told the SEC to name names. The SEC, in an appendix to its latest filing, named former CEO Chuck Prince and former Chairman Robert Rubin — among others — as the executives who were aware of the exposures that were not disclosed to investors.
Full Story: On The Hill: More Citigroup Execs Knew of Subprime Exposure, but SEC Says Its Settlement Is ‘Adequate’.
Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back
Frank Rich:
NO, he can’t. President Obama can’t reverse the unemployment numbers by Election Day. He can’t get even a modest new stimulus bill past the Party of No, and even if he could, there would be few jobs to show for it until (maybe) 2011. Nor can he rewrite the history of his administration. Its signal accomplishments to date are an initial stimulus package that was overrun by the calamity at hand and a marathon health care battle as yet better known for its unseemly orgy of backroom wrangling than its concrete results. While that brawl raged, the White House seemed indifferent to the mounting number of Americans being tossed onto the Great Recession scrapheap.
And so the odds that Obama’s party will survive the midterms seem less than Indiana Jones’s in the Temple of Doom — as we are reminded hourly by the Beltway herd flogging the latest polls. The Democrats are facing a “historic” rout, an earthquake, a tidal wave — well, you know the drill. End of story.
Unless it’s not. On Labor Day, the fighting Obama abruptly re-emerged, a far cry from the man whose Oval Office address on Iraq days earlier was about as persuasive as a hostage video. Speaking to workers in Milwaukee, the president finally started giving voice to the anger of America’s battered middle class. And he even let loose with a little anger of his own. The unspecified “powerful interests” aligned against him, he said, “talk about me like a dog.”
Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Time for This Big Dog to Bite Back – NYTimes.com.
Steele Attacks Today What He Supported Last Week, Claiming Small Businesses ‘Don’t Need’ Credit Lines
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele appeared on Fox News today to bash President Obama’s recent proposal to help small businesses and jump start the economy. Dubbing it “TARP III,” Steele said Obama’s plan wouldn’t work because it focuses on extending credit lines to small business, which Steele claimed “they don’t need”:
STEELE: What we have right now is more of the same, you have the president proposing a small business bill, which is nothing more than TARP III or mini-TARP, in which basically, you’re going to put money into financial institutions on the assumption that small businesses are going to go and take out credit loans, or credit lines — they don’t need that.
Watch it:
The Real ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Was on the 17th Floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower
The New York Times has a story up about what it calls a Muslim “prayer center” in the World Trade Center. Muslims who worked in the Twin Towers met there for their daily prayers — there was even a wash room nearby set up for the pre-prayer ritual cleansing.
By any measure, the “prayer center” in the trade center is much closer to the definition of a mosque than Park 51, the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” — a 12-story non-sectarian community center with a culinary school and sports facilities.
The fact that there was a mosque in the south tower — compounded by the fact that it is as likely as not there were Muslims praying in the mosque on the 17th floor when terrorists jet-bombed the building — should make it harder for Republicans to argue that construction of Park 51 somehow defiles the memory of those who died in the 9/11 attacks.
Full Story: Pensito Review » The Real ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Was on the 17th Floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower.
Gainesville pastor Terry Jones previously led evangelicals in Germany
Terry Jones, the pastor with the handlebar mustache whose plan to burn Korans on Sept. 11 caused international outrage, has left a colorful trail that spans the Atlantic Ocean, culminating in a surreal gathering in front of his church in Gainesville, Fla.
On the sprawling front lawn of the Dove World Outreach Center, Jones’s 50-member church, 30 reporters ran Friday morning from one scene to another: Two evangelical ministers on their knees praying. A large man in an Army uniform screaming about Islam while holding a flag. Activity at the large warehouse that houses the church.
It wasn’t clear what was going on inside — the glass doors were covered with dark fabric. Members, including Jones’s son Luke, occasionally stepped outside to give interviews. Church member Stephanie Sapp came out wearing shiny black heels, tight jeans, purple polish on her toes and a gun in a holster on her hip.
Full Story: Gainesville pastor Terry Jones previously led evangelicals in Germany.
Stem Cell Research: What Progress Has Been Made, What Is Its Potential?
The use of stem cells for research and their possible application in the treatment of disease are hotly debated topics. In a special issue of the scholarly journal, Translational Research, published this month an international group of medical experts presents an in-depth and balanced view of the rapidly evolving field of stem cell research and considers the potential of harnessing stem cells for therapy of human diseases including cardiovascular diseases, renal failure, neurologic disorders, gastrointestinal diseases, pulmonary diseases, neoplastic diseases, and type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Research based on stem cells has been a controversial area of medical science for more than a decade. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Friday it was resuming funding stem cell research after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction imposed earlier by a federal judge to bar such funding. Many conservatives object to stem cell research, saying it is tantamount to abortion.
Personalized cell therapies for treating and curing human diseases are the ultimate goal of most stem cell-based research. But apart from the scientific and technical challenges, there are serious ethical concerns, including issues of privacy, consent and withdrawal of consent for the use of unfertilized eggs and embryos.
Full Story: On The Hill: Stem Cell Research: What Progress Has Been Made, What Is Its Potential?.
GOP Now Running Against Wall Street Bailout They Voted for – Here’s a List of GOP Reps and Senators Who Voted ‘Aye’
On MSNBC last night, Rachel Maddow looked at the political rationale behind the White House decision to make House Speaker Wanna-Be John Boehner, R-Ohio, the face of the “Party of No” in the midterm elections.
Boehner was chosen, in part, because he is a boozey, overly tanned cartoonish character, but mainly because he was the GOP leader in 2008, back when it was the Bush rubberstamp party. In late September 2008, when the United States financial system was in freefall, Boehner took to the well of the House and tearfully begged the Republican caucus to support the Bush bank bailout of Wall Street and the “too big to fail” banks, officially known as the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008″:
REP. JOHN BOEHNER, MINORITY LEADER: Think about what happens if we don’t pass this bill, think about what happens to your friends, your neighbors, your constituents. So, I ask all of you, both sides of the aisle: what’s in the best interest of our country? Not what’s in the best interest of our party, not what’s in the best interest of our own re- election– what’s in the best interest of our country? Vote yes.
Watchdogs: Gov’t Spent $196 Keeping Secrets For Every $1 Spent Declassifying Documents
The federal government has significantly reduced the backlog of Freedom of Information requests in the last year, but has been slow to act in other areas related to government secrecy, according to a new secrecy report card by OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of more than 70 watchdog groups.
“The country elected a president who has promised the most open, transparent and accountable federal Executive Branch in history,” the report said. “The record to date is mixed, but some indicators are trending in the right direction.”
Perhaps among the more promising trends the group highlighted: Freedom of Information request backlogs were reduced by 40 percent across the federal government.
The new report, released Tuesday, covers the last three months of the Bush administration and the first nine months of the Obama administration. OpenTheGovernment.org’s director, Patrice McDermott, noted other “encouraging” trends, such as a decline in the creation of new national security secrets.
Full Story: On The Hill: Watchdogs: Gov’t Spent $196 Keeping Secrets For Every $1 Spent Declassifying Documents.
The Sooner Rahm Leaves, the Better for Obama
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s announcement that he will not seek a seventh term has prompted widespread speculation that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will run as Daley’s successor. “I’d be shocked if he doesn’t run,” a senior administration official told the Washington Post.
The sooner Rahm leaves Washington, the better for Barack Obama. His White House is desperately in need of a serious shakeup, especially with Democrats facing a tidal wave of losses in the midterms. Replacing Rahm is the best place to start.
I’ll never quite understand why a transformational candidate who ran under the banner of a new style of politics chose the ultimate old-school inside operator to control his administration. Rahm isn’t solely to blame for diluting Obama’s unique outsider brand, but he’s a major reason why. After all, in the Clinton White House and in Congress, Rahm was often at odds with the very grassroots activists who powered Obama’s presidential campaign. As head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in ‘06, he famously clashed with party chair Howard Dean and recruited conservative Blue Dog candidates at the expense of legitimate progressive challengers. Rahm brought his corporate centrism to the White House, pushing for a smaller-than-needed stimulus bill, urging Obama not to pursue healthcare reform, watering down the bill when he did and calling progressive activists who wanted to pressure obstructionist Democrats “fucking retarded.” He later apologized to Sarah Palin but not to the Democratic activists he insulted.
Rahm’s alleged biggest asset—his ties to Capitol Hill and intricate knowledge of Beltway politics—paid few dividends for Obama. The president’s legislative agenda has hit a brick wall in the Senate and the dysfunction of the Democratic Congress, which Emanuel has done little to tame, helps explain why voters are set to punish the party in power this November. “If picking the leading practitioner of the dark arts of the capital was a Faustian bargain for Obama in the name of getting things done, why haven’t things got done?” asked Peter Baker of the New York Times in a profile titled “The Limits of Rahmism.” In other words, if you sell your soul, you better get something good for it in return. Instead, Obama is facing the prospect of a Republican Congress and an uphill re-election bid. No wonder Rahm is so eager to get out of town.
Full Story: The Sooner Rahm Leaves, the Better for Obama | The Nation.
It’s the Mortgages, Stupid
Robert Scheer
This week’s proposals by the Obama administration to deal with the persistent economic crisis will be, as with previous plans that involved trillions of taxpayer dollars, little more than salt in the wounds. Once again the strategy is to stimulate the economy by funding projects and tax cuts while ignoring the root cause of the problem: a housing foreclosure meltdown that has chilled the spending of a majority of American consumers.
With 11 million homeowners underwater on their mortgages and 3 million more already foreclosed, we have to assume, given the average household size, that some 40 million Americans are feeling mighty strapped. The numbers grow to an overwhelming majority when you take into account the distress of all homeowners, who have watched the value of the family nest egg dwindle even if they substantially paid down or paid off their mortgage debt. And this very widespread feeling of being suddenly much poorer is a nationwide scourge that has dramatically cut the appetite for consumption that drives the economy.
That fact is recognized even by the very business people who are supposed to be inspired to new investment and hiring by Barack Obama’s proposal on Wednesday of an accelerated tax break on business investments. As William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, told The Wall Street Journal, “If you give a small business guy $20,000 he’ll say, ‘I could buy a delivery truck but I have nobody to deliver to.’ ” Although Dunkelberg’s members would be happy with a tax cut, he said the most important help would be to “finally address the most important person in the economy—the consumer.”
Full Story: Robert Scheer: It’s the Mortgages, Stupid – Robert Scheer’s Columns – Truthdig.
GOP Claims $50 Billion For Infrastructure Is Too Pricey, While Pushing $800 Billion Tax Cut For The Rich
This week, President Obama rolled out a plan to invest $50 billion in infrastructure as a way of boosting job creation, which will be (at least partially) paid for by cutting subsidies to oil and gas companies. Republicans immediately criticized the proposal, with even Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who typically jumps at the chance to approve infrastructure spending, saying he wouldn’t vote for it.
But many Republicans, at the same time that they are claiming that a $50 billion investment in America’s infrastructure is a budget-buster, are pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans. At $830 billion, the price tag for extending that sliver of the Bush cuts is more than 16 times the cost of Obama’s infrastructure proposal:
Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI): Miller “said the Obama administration’s proposal amounts to a second, costly stimulus plan…Instead, she said, the president should quickly support an extension of the George W. Bush tax cuts for all income groups.”
Quran Burning Pastor Was Expelled From German Church He Founded After His Radicalism Alienated Congregation
Before Rev. Terry Jones was being condemned by the White House and military commanders in Afghanistan for his planned “International Burn a Quran Day,” he was a pastor at an evangelical church he founded in the 1980s in Cologne, Germany. Jones grew the congregation of the Christian Community of Cologne to as many as 1,000 members, but his radical, hate-filled preachings eventually got him expelled from the church. According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, Jones ruled the church like a tyrant, even as his sermons became increasingly Islamaphobic and hateful, prompting his congregation to kick Jones and his wife out of the church last year:
Various witnesses gave SPIEGEL ONLINE consistent accounts of the Jones’ behavior. The pastor and his wife apparently regarded themselves as having been appointed by God, meaning opposition was a crime against the Lord. Terry and Sylvia Jones allegedly used these methods to ask for money in an increasingly insistent manner, as well as making members of the congregation carry out work. [...]
Jones became increasingly radical as the years went by, former associates say. At one point he wanted to help a homosexual member to “pray away his sins.” Later he began to increasingly target Islam in his sermons. A congregation member reported that some members were afraid to attend services because they expected to be attacked by Muslims. “Terry Jones has a talent for finding topical social issues and seizing on them for his own cause,” says Schäfer.
End Tax Breaks for the Wealthy
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders
President Obama on Wednesday opposed extending Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders agreed. “I think President Obama is right. At a time when we have a $13 trillion dollar national debt, we should not be renewing huge tax breaks for the wealthy. This would cost the treasury over $1 trillion in a 10-year period,” Sanders said. “In my view, we should use half that money for deficit reduction and half that money should be invested in rebuilding our roads, bridges and rail systems which, over a period of time, could create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.” Obama and Sanders favor extending tax cuts for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals. For the top 2 percent – those with incomes above those cutoffs – federal income tax rates in 2011 would go back to their pre-2001 levels. What do you think?
Full Story: End Tax Breaks for the Wealthy – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont).
250,000 Jobs In Danger Unless Senate Acts
More than a quarter of a million workers could lose their jobs at the end of month unless the Senate extends an emergency jobs program, according to analysts at a Washington think tank.
Some 37 states have used the TANF Emergency Fund created by last year’s economic stimulus program to help subsidize employment for 252,116 workers who otherwise would be unemployed during the ongoing economic downturn, Liz Schott and LaDonna Pavetti, of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) say in a recent blog post.
The program, which supporters note has enjoyed the support of such conservatives as Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), will end on Sept. 30 unless the Senate approves new legislation.
Full Story: On The Hill: 250,000 Jobs In Danger Unless Senate Acts.
Obama Is Against a Compromise on Bush Tax Cuts
President Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.
Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension. Democrats say only the president can rally wavering lawmakers who, amid the party’s weakened poll numbers, feel increasingly vulnerable to Republican attacks if they let the top rates lapse at the end of this year as scheduled.
It is not clear that Mr. Obama can prevail given his own diminished popularity, the tepid economic recovery and the divisions within his party. But by proposing to extend the rates for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals — and insisting that federal income tax rates in 2011 go back to their pre-2001 levels for income above those cutoffs — he intends to cast the issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or giving breaks to the wealthy.
Full Story: Obama Is Against a Compromise on Bush Tax Cuts – NYTimes.com.
NBC Poll Also Had Results That Bust Media’s Pro-GOP Election Narrative, Including 43% Split on Who Should Run Congress
If you listen to cable news and read corporate-media political sites, it’s all over for the Democrats. Why bother waiting for the vote on Nov. 2? Dems should just quietly step aside and let Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans move in, drapes and all, to their new digs at the Capitol.
The NBC poll found that 58 percent falsely believe Boehner and the Republicans have an economic plan that is different from their policies under Bush. What Democrats must show voters is that, simply put, Boehnernomics is just Bushonomics warmed over.
Case in point was, as we noted yesterday, the five days that the media flogged away at a Gallup generic congressional poll that gave the GOP a 10 point advantage — a first for either party in the history of the poll. Today, in the wake of a new edition yesterday of the same poll showing that the GOP’s 10 point lead has vanished — the parties are tied at 46 percent — discussion of the Gallup generic poll has also disappeared. Funny how that works.
At TPMDC, Evan McMorris-Santoro has a piece up on yesterday’s sudden turnaround in the Gallup generic under the headline, “Narrative-Busting New Gallup Poll Excites Dems Briefly”:
Tonight, it’s the Democrats’ turn to hit the “fwd” button, blanketing the fourth estate with links to the Gallup poll ostensibly bursting the “Democratic strategy = rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic” narrative.
How long will the euphoria last for Democrats?
Why Obama Is Proposing Whopping Corporate Tax Cuts, and Why He’s Wrong
Robert Reich :
President Obama reportedly will propose two big corporate tax cuts this week.
One would expand and make permanent the research and experimentation tax credit, at a cost of about $100 billion over the next ten years. The other would allow companies to write off 100 percent of their new investments in plant and equipment between now and the end of 2011 at a cost next year of substantially more than $100 billion (but a ten-year cost of about $30 billion since those write-offs wouldn’t be taken over the longer-term).
The economy needs two whopping corporate tax cuts right now as much as someone with a serious heart condition needs Botox.
The reason businesses aren’t investing in new plant and equipment has nothing to do with the cost of capital. It’s because they don’t need the additional capacity. There isn’t enough demand for their goods and services to justify it. Consumers aren’t buying because they’re trying to come out from under a huge debt load, including mortgage debt; they have to start saving because their nest eggs are worth substantially less; and they’ve lost or are worried about losing jobs and pay.
Full Story: Robert Reich (Why Obama Is Proposing Whopping Corporate Tax Cuts, and Why He’s Wrong).
G.O.P. Recruits Street People to Run on Green Ticket in Arizona
Mr. Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.
Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.
Full Story: G.O.P. Recruits Street People to Run on Green Ticket in Arizona – NYTimes.com.
Unions gear up to push agenda at the polls
Unions have intensified political fundraising and spending for the upcoming midterm elections, which union leaders and political analysts alike describe as the most important campaigns for the labor movement in decades.
The result this Labor Day is that unions are forging closer alliances with each other as they strategize about how to spend money, deploy staff and determine which races to target.
National AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will march in the Detroit Labor Day parade today as part of an effort to call for good-paying jobs and to boost get-out-the-vote efforts for the Nov. 2 election.
Full Story: Unions gear up to push agenda at the polls | detnews.com | The Detroit News.
From The Gulf Stream To The Bloodstream – The Video BP Doesn’t Want You to See!
Several volatile hydrocarbons found in crude oil were detected in the blood of several residents from the Orange Beach, AL area. Among the hydrocarbons tested, several were detected at abnormally high levels including ethylbenzene, xylene, hexane. These individuals were not directly involved in BP’s clean-up operations, nor had they been exposed to any industrial environment where the presence of these compounds would be of concern. Therefore, it can be assumed that residents living near the Gulf of Mexico shoreline are at risk of exposure to aerosolized VOC’s moving inland from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The blood test performed on these individuals is called the Volatile Solvents Profile (Metametrix.com). The test can be obtained and administered by any physician with the ability to perform a simple blood draw. The test will be shipped to a laboratory for analysis and returned to your doctor for interpretation and treatment.
Full Story: From The Gulf Stream To The Bloodstream – The Video BP Doesn’t Want You to See! — Signs of the Times News.
French workers strike for right to retire at 60
THOUSANDS of French workers will take to the streets and shut down railways, schools and public services throughout the nation today, in a last-ditch bid to stop President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age to 62.
The national strike is the first in a series of demonstrations planned in Europe as workers rebel against the wave of austerity measures imposed to rein in burgeoning deficits by governments spooked by Greece’s near default in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Although the French are able to retire much earlier than many of their European neighbours, the proposal – to be put to Parliament this month – has been greeted with outrage in a nation that has treasured stopping work at 60 for more than a quarter of a century.
Full Story: Workers strike for right to stop working.
French workers strike for right to retire at 60
THOUSANDS of French workers will take to the streets and shut down railways, schools and public services throughout the nation today, in a last-ditch bid to stop President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to raise the retirement age to 62.
The national strike is the first in a series of demonstrations planned in Europe as workers rebel against the wave of austerity measures imposed to rein in burgeoning deficits by governments spooked by Greece’s near default in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Although the French are able to retire much earlier than many of their European neighbours, the proposal – to be put to Parliament this month – has been greeted with outrage in a nation that has treasured stopping work at 60 for more than a quarter of a century.
Full Story: Workers strike for right to stop working.
California Falls Behind In Waste-To-Energy Race
Government officials from around the world used to come to this port city to catch a glimpse of the future: Two-story piles of trash would disappear into a furnace and eventually be transformed into electricity to power thousands of homes.
Nowadays, it’s U.S. officials going to Canada, Japan and parts of Western Europe to see the latest advances.
The Long Beach plant, for all its promise when it began operations roughly 20 years ago, still churns out megawatts. But it is a relic, a symbol of how California, one of America’s greenest states, fell behind other countries in the development of trash-to-energy technology.
Full Story: California Falls Behind In Waste-To-Energy Race.
West Virginia Couple’s Tap Water Lights On Fire, House Smells Like Natural Gas Ever Since Well Drilled (VIDEO)
In this video from CNN, WDTV visits a West Virginia couple who have been experiencing some disastrous problems with their running water.
Ever since Mark and Linda Wilfong drilled their new water well, they’ve had nothing but trouble. Their tap water now lights on fire and their house reeks of natural gas.
“I’ve gone to the doctor with ear aches. I mean, the fumes are so bad,” Mark Wilfong tells WDTV.
The couple has to use bottled water to cook or shower with, and the Wilfongs say they have made countless calls to address the issue but with no results.
“You would think there would be state or government agencies out there to regulate this stuff. But, nobody is stepping up to do anything. They’re putting responsibility back on us and it’s not our fault,” says Wilfong.
WATCH:
Lindsey Graham Gets It Wrong On The Stimulus: Blames Legislation For U.S. Job Losses
A top issue on the Sunday morning talk shows was the Obama administration’s record on jobs, with Republicans hitting the stimulus and calling for an extension of the Bush tax cuts. To make, his case, however, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) completely distorted the effects of the stimulus, calling it a “disaster” and trying to tie it to millions of U.S. jobs lost.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Graham called for extending the Bush tax cuts, saying the U.S. taxes and spends too much. To make his claim, he said that the country has lost 2.5 million jobs since the stimulus passed.
GREGORY: Republicans are so concerned about the deficit and overall spending picture in Washington, as Republican leaders say they are. When you talk about extending the Bush tax cuts, yes, it’s existing tax policy, but is there a responsibility for Republicans to say if you want to extend all of the cuts that somehow you have to pay for what the impact will be going forward beyond the expiration date on the Treasury?
Full Story: Lindsey Graham Gets It Wrong On The Stimulus: Blames Legislation For U.S. Job Losses.
OPS: There is a world of difference between just ‘getting it wrong’ and flat out lying.
Scientists find evidence discrediting theory Amazon was virtually unlivable
To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial – from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines.
Archaeologists, many of them Americans, say the opposite is true: This patch of forest, and many others across the Amazon, was instead home to an advanced, even spectacular civilization that managed the forest and enriched infertile soil to feed thousands.
The findings are discrediting a once-bedrock theory of archaeology that long held that the Amazon, unlike much of the Americas, was a historical black hole, its environment too hostile and its earth too poor to have ever sustained big, sedentary societies. Only small and primitive hunter-gatherer tribes, the assumption went, could ever have eked out a living in an unforgiving environment.
Full Story: Scientists find evidence discrediting theory Amazon was virtually unlivable.
HTC: iPhone’s ‘Quiet’ Challenger
East Asia is the world’s electronics factory, yet unless they are Japanese, producers are largely anonymous. Now HTC Corp., a Taiwanese maker of smart phones, is moving out of the shadows and trying to establish its own brand name as it competes with Apple’s iPhone.
HTC supplies U.S. carriers Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile but says a year ago only one in 10 Americans knew its name. With the help of marketing by cellular carriers and HTC’s own television ads during the baseball World Series, HTC says that number is up to 40 percent.
“We want to be one of the leaders,” said John Wang, the 13-year-old company’s chief marketing officer.
Full Story: HTC: iPhone’s ‘Quiet’ Challenger.
Department Of Labor Launches New Website To Help Unemployed Americans
For most Americans, Labor Day is a welcome holiday off work. Yet for others, it is just another day without work, following months without a steady source of income.
Almost 10 percent of Americans are facing unemployment, unable to support themselves and their families.
In response to the ongoing unemployment crisis, the U.S. Department of Labor is commemorating Labor Day 2010 by launching a new website to help out-of-work Americans find new opportunities.
Full Story: Department Of Labor Launches New Website To Help Unemployed Americans.
What America Has Lost – It’s clear we overreacted to 9/11
Fareed Zakaria:
Why America Overreacted to 9/11
Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat? Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to launch a single major attack on high-value targets in the United States and Europe. While it has inspired a few much smaller attacks by local jihadis, it has been unable to execute a single one itself. Today, Al Qaeda’s best hope is to find a troubled young man who has been radicalized over the Internet, and teach him to stuff his underwear with explosives.
I do not minimize Al Qaeda’s intentions, which are barbaric. I question its capabilities. In every recent conflict, the United States has been right about the evil intentions of its adversaries but massively exaggerated their strength. In the 1980s, we thought the Soviet Union was expanding its power and influence when it was on the verge of economic and political bankruptcy. In the 1990s, we were certain that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear arsenal. In fact, his factories could barely make soap.
Full Story: Zakaria: Why America Overreacted to 9/11 – Newsweek.
Democrats run away from health care
A handful of House Democrats are making health care reform an election year issue — by running against it.
At least five of the 34 House Democrats who voted against their party’s health care reform bill are highlighting their “no” votes in ads back home. By contrast, party officials in Washington can’t identify a single House member who’s running an ad boasting of a “yes” vote — despite the fact that 219 House Democrats voted in favor of final passage in March.
Full Story: Democrats run away from health care – Jennifer Haberkorn – POLITICO.com.
OPS: They’re not Democrats, they are republicans pretending, and cowards
Obama unveils huge jobs and infrastructure plan
US President Barack Obama unveiled plans Monday to spend at least 50 billion dollars to expand and renew US roads, railways and airports, in a fresh bid to fire up sluggish economic growth.
Obama, under intense pressure over November’s mid-term congressional elections, in which his Democrats fear heavy losses, was set to formally make the announcement in a speech in Wisconsin, an official said.
The event, marking Labor Day, the traditional kick-off for US election campaigns, heralds a week in which Obama also travels to another struggling state, Ohio, and holds a press conference in a bid to ease his political woes.
Full Story: Obama unveils huge jobs and infrastructure plan – Yahoo! News.
OPS: Infrastructure work is needed, no question. But let’s not kid ourselves – it doesn’t put that many people to work, There are very few “mom & pop” Mainstreet-type businesses involved. These are jobs run by large corporations.
US expects to subsidize Afghan training through 2015: Billions
US expects to spend billions on Afghanistan training long after draw-down of its forces
The United States expects to spend about $6 billion a year training and supporting Afghan troops and police after it begins pulling out its own combat troops in 2011, The Associated Press has learned.
The previously undisclosed estimates of U.S. spending through 2015, detailed in a NATO training mission document, are an acknowledgment that Afghanistan will remain largely dependent on the United States for its security.
Full Story: US expects to subsidize Afghan training for years | Raw Story.
US mulls approval of GM salmon
US authorities have begun to consider approval for the first time the sale of genetically engineered salmon, a move that some say could open the door to more transgenic animals on American dinner tables.
A US Food and Drug Administration panel has set a hearing for September 19-20 to consider a proposal by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies for production and sale of a new Atlantic salmon with a growth hormone gene from the Chinook salmon that allows it to grow faster.
The company said the genetic change allows the fish to grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon but that in all other respects, its AquAdvantage salmon “are identical to other Atlantic salmon.”
Full Story: US mulls approval of GM salmon – Yahoo! News.
Wall St. firm behind slow solar on federal lands?
Not a light bulb’s worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it. Not one project to build glimmering solar farms has even broken ground.
Instead, five years after federal land managers opened up stretches of the Southwest to developers, vast tracts still sit idle.
An Associated Press examination of U.S. Bureau of Land Management records and interviews with agency officials shows that the BLM operated a first-come, first-served leasing system that quickly overwhelmed its small staff and enabled companies, regardless of solar industry experience, to squat on land without any real plans to develop it.
Full Story: Wall St. firm behind slow solar on federal lands? – U.S. news – Environment – msnbc.com.
Enviro groups question oyster safety off Louisiana
Sampling by environmental groups has found oysters contaminated with oil along the Louisiana coast befouled by the BP PLC oil spill, a finding that casts doubt on statements by state and federal officials that all seafood tested here is safe to eat.
Batches of oysters were sampled on Aug. 2 and 3 near the mouths of the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers and laboratory tests revealed the animals were tainted by oil, according to Wilma Subra, a well-known Louisiana chemist working for environmental groups. The oysters were obtained from a reef and an old crab trap, she said.
She said oil was found in the animals even though there was no obvious sign of oil on them. She said the oil – which she believes comes from the BP oil spill – at the levels found in lab tests is very unusual.
Full Story: Enviro groups question oyster safety off Louisiana – BusinessWeek.
Home truths for complacent economists
Dean Baker:
Tax credits disguised the fundamental weakness of the US housing market. The reality reveals bleak prospects for growth
The howls of surprised economists were everywhere last week as the government reported on Tuesday that July had sharpest single-month plunge in existing home sales on record. The next day the commerce department reported that new home sales hit a post-war low in July.
All the economists who had told us that the housing market had stabilised and that prices would soon rebound looked really foolish, yet again. To understand how lost these professional error-makers really are, it is only necessary to know that the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) puts out data on mortgage applications every week. The MBA index plummeted beginning in May, immediately after the last day (30 April) for signing a house sale contract that qualified for the homebuyers’ tax credit.
It typically takes 6-8 weeks between when a contract is signed and a house sale closes. The plunge in applications in May meant that homebuyers were not signing contracts to buy homes. This meant that sales would plummet in July. Economists with a clue were not surprised by the July plunge in home sales.
Full Story: Home truths for complacent economists | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.
For many idled workers, jobs aren’t coming back
The U.S. unemployment rate will remain elevated for years, experts say, a grim prospect for Americans who have exhausted their benefits.
The U.S. economy will eventually rebound from the Great Recession. Millions of American workers will not.
What some economists now project — and policymakers are loath to admit — is that the U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 9.6% in August, could remain elevated for years to come.
The nation’s job deficit is so deep that even a powerful recovery would leave large numbers of Americans out of work for years, experts say. And with growth now weakening, analysts are doubtful that companies will boost payrolls significantly any time soon. Unemployment, long considered a temporary, transitional condition in the United States, appears to be settling in for a lengthy run.
Full Story: For many idled workers, jobs aren’t coming back – latimes.com.
The Christian Right Needs ‘Enemies’
Especially among American Christian fundamentalists, that paradox continues to this day – with the bumper-sticker question, “what would Jesus do?” combined with a determination to destroy perceived “enemies,” as the Rev. Howard Bess notes in this guest essay:
At the heart of American Christian Fundamentalism is a basic religious dualism that is obsessed with a never-ending struggle between Good and Evil. These Christian fundamentalists must always have an “enemy” with whom to fight.
Without doubt, there are biblical precedents for this view, especially in the Old Testament recounting Israel’s ancient history of bloody battles with its neighbors. Even the New Testament ends with Revelation, depicting a final battle between Good and Evil with a triumphant Jesus Christ the winner over every opposing force.
However, there also were voices of dissent against this dualism throughout the Old and the New Testaments. Indeed, the final witness is Jesus, the rabbi from Nazareth who advocated that evil was to be overcome not with a fight but with the doing of good.
Full Story: Consortiumnews.com.
OPS: As Hartmann has been explaining, for years now: You can’t be a Super-Hero unless you have a Super-Villain. Even if you have to create one
Beyond GDP: How Do We Measure Real Wealth and Happiness?
When I was 21, I told my father that I didn’t want to work with him any longer at the ice cream company he co-founded, Baskin-Robbins, and I didn’t want to depend on his financial achievements. I did not want to have a trust fund or any other access to or dependence on his money. I wanted to discover and live my own values, and I knew that I wasn’t strong enough to do that if I remained tethered, even a little, to my father’s fortune.
I left Baskin-Robbins and the money my father had made selling ice cream because I didn’t want to live a life of affluence based on a product that could harm people’s health. I also recoiled at the idea of inheriting a life of privilege while so many others had to struggle for their basic livelihood.
I didn’t take the steps I did because I thought money is bad. On the contrary, I believe money is good and important. Without it, it’s impossible to thrive in the modern world and difficult even to survive. But money isn’t a god. It’s something to use. Not something to crave or to worship, and certainly not something that should rule our lives.
Full Story: Beyond GDP: How Do We Measure Real Wealth and Happiness? :: Excerpt from The New Good Life by John Robbins.
Glenn Beck and the Yearning for Fascism
Matthew Rothschild:
Glenn Beck’s got me worried again about fascism in America.
His so-called restoring honor rally last weekend assumed that somehow America has been dishonored, and that is a classic trope of fascists.
Nor was I comforted by all talk from Beck about “America today begins to turn back to God.”
Nor was I comforted by the full-throated and repeated chants of “USA, USA.”
Nor by Sarah Palin having the gall to claim “we feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King,” this just 10 days after she told Dr. Laura to “reload,” after the talk show host said the N word 11 times in five minutes.
Full Story: Glenn Beck and the Yearning for Fascism | The Progressive.
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
